K Tempest Tumbles

The bottom line on this issue is simple: If you think that a piece of media such as a movie, TV show, book, or song is merely entertainment and ingest said media without giving any thought to how it influences or shapes you or the culture you exist in, You Are A Sheep.  

What!? You cry. Again:  

You. Are. A. Sheep.

sourcedumal:

From the link

My name is Jonathan Wall, and I am a 21 year old black male from Raleigh, NC. I was born and raised here, and just a few weeks ago I graduated from Morehouse College in Atlanta, GA. This fall I’ll be headed to grad school at Harvard to get a Master’s degree in Education Policy and Management. I’m in Raleigh for the summer before heading off to grad school.

As the story begins, on last Saturday night around 12:30am, I and 2 other friends went to Downtown Sports Bar and Grill off of Glennwood Avenue. The night got interesting as soon as we got to the door, and the bouncer told us “you need a membership to come in tonight, I’ve never seen you here before.” My friend Chris and I looked at each other in curiosity, knowing that the establishment was a bar and not a club, and that people in line before us walked right in after showing their ID. The only difference between those people and my friends and I was our race. Still, we stood at the door in bewilderment asking “What?” as he further tried to explain that we weren’t going to be able to come in because of our “non-member” status. However, as he was explaining this, a police officer walked up to where he was standing to tell him something unrelated. As soon as he caught sight of the officer beside him, he said “Never mind, y’all go ahead.” This was the first interesting ordeal of the night, but not the last.

We were downstairs for all of ten minutes, when my two friends dispersed. My friend Chris went to the bathroom, and my friend Kristin went upstairs to get some fresh air. Only a few seconds after they left, what appeared to be a bartender came from behind the bar to clean drinks off of one of the tall bar tables that was near me. After he cleaned the table, it looked as if he was headed back behind the bar when he came up to me and said “Either buy a drink or leave right now.” Again shocked, I replied “I’m just waiting for my friend to come back from the bathroom.” He responded, “I don’t care, get a drink or leave right now.” I said “Okay” and began texting. He walked away from me, then went and sat with his back to the bar as he stared me down. Being non-confrontational, I looked towards the bathroom, waiting to see my friend come out so that we could leave. I also took notice of how many of the people surrounding the bar and the club area didn’t have drinks in their hands. I felt as if I was singled out. The common denominator, again, was that I was the only black person around. After staring me down for about 30 seconds, he walked back over and said “Are you going to buy a drink, or are you going to leave?” I replied, “As soon as my friend comes from the bathroom.” Before I cold utter another word, he grabbed my right wrist and my left arm and threw them behind my head in an effort to constrain me, although I was speaking to him a calm and non-aggressive tone and didn’t once even gesture. He then used excessive force to push me through the crown and out of the club while I was still in this “headlock” of sorts, before pushing me out of the front door. As soon as he grabbed me, I let my body go limp because with the degree of force he was already using, I didn’t want him to think I was trying to fight back. I accepted that he was on an ego-trip, and let him guide me through the club in this position before pushing me out. I was completely shocked and more saddened that this was happening than angry.

As he was walking me out, my friend Chris came out of the bathroom and ran up to where he we were, asking him what I did wrong. He didn’t reply. I had done nothing but suggest that I would wait for my friend to come from the bathroom and leave instead of purchasing a drink. After making sure I was all right, my friend and I went to the bouncer at the front door to try to tell him what had just happened and get an explanation. He waved us off and told us to just get away.

Racist bitch. He assaulted this innocent black man. Folks in North Carolina, avoid that bar like the fucking PLAGUE. They don’t deserve your money!

(via alexandraerin)

ennui-enjoyment:

theangryblack:

whyyesitiskate:

ktempest:

These ideas about Lincoln and the Civil War are what I like to call White Guilt Fantasies. The kinds of stories white Americans tell themselves about the history of our country to make themselves feel better — or, at least, not have to grapple with the realities of the things their forefathers thought or did.

And this White Guilt Fantasy pervades Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. So much so, it inserts several plot points, incidents, and characterizations into the movie that are so unbelievable, the part where vampires actually exist comes off as far more plausible than the rest.

Everybody get your popcorn, the comments are going to be epic in their awfulness.

(*book spoilers*)

So, I read the book (and I’ll admit I enjoyed it) largely because GDT laid the groundwork for Vampire Overlords taking over all of humanity (in the Strain trilogy) and because slavery was terrible and then made so much worse by a scene where Abe sees a Plantation Owner sell his older and injured slaves to vampires for food.  Sadly, this review makes me want to not see the movie now.  I was really looking forward to seeing a complicated thing with added complications on the big screen.  That doesn’t seem to be what happens. 

I did hear that the book took a more nuanced approach. I guess it’s too much to expect such things from movies.

By the way, ‘ware comments. It’s getting even more fantastically full of white tears than I imagined.

Or, it’s a really good and successful book that was turned into a really good and potentially successful book. White Guilt makes Thor the same, being that the white people live in luxury and the blue people live in ice. And Avatar has white people taking over aliens and oppressing them to assuage guilt of the treatment of Native Americans. Come off your moral high horse and enjoy some fiction. FICTION. 

I love the “It’s Just Fiction” argument because few things so perfectly reveal a person as being a stupid sheep as this. 

Anyone who only ingests the crap media companies throw our way every day without taking 5 minutes to think about it and to consider the effect on people on an individual level as well as a societal one is allowing media properties to tell them how to think and be without any kind of struggle. It’s no wonder people have a kindergarten understanding of the world.