A Catch All

Link Lineup

Stitch

I haven’t shared a lists of links in a while, huh?

Well here’s some of what I’ve been reading, speaking on, and watching across the internet!

Roundtable of Legends of Korean Hip-Hop: The Quiett, Swings & Paloalto | THE VETERAN EP. 1

I’m doing this like intense and incredible speed-run through Korean hip hop across my project because I want to know and listen to everyone and out of nowhere (for me, a person who does not follow HipHopLE on social media and does not read Korean well enough that that’d make any difference anyway), here comes a casual conversation between three of the “greats” in Korean hip hop. Out of the three men here, I’m more familiar with The Quiett’s work but I’ve listened to them all and seen them in things.

One thing that stood out for me was how this understated “three dudes talk hip hop history and memories” was one of the things that felt really close to the things I grew up with in terms of Black rappers siting down and talking about their own histories. So it’s interesting and they touch on a lot of incredible memories and moments in their lives as rappers, producers, and dudes who ran (run?) their own labels or crews.

Stitch @ Three Patch Podcast

Episode 107: History Has Its Eyes on You

In which the consulting fans talk about race and racism in the media we love and communities we create. We dig into the Blind Banker, discuss Imperialism in ACD, celebrate Hamilton and Avatar: The Last Air ender, read Sally Donovan fic Time After Time, and host a roundtable on Challenging Racism in Fandom.

Episode 107A: Challenging Fandom Racism–Extended cut

In this extended cut of the Challenging Fandom Racism roundtable, fan studies scholars Dr. Rukmini Pande, Stitch, joan miller, and Dr. Samantha Close join finnagain to discuss transformative fandom’s cyclical struggle to recognise racism, the skepticism and harassment faced by fans and acafans who speaking out against racism, why the AO3 and the OTW need to change, and ways fans can practice anti-racism in our fannish lives and online communities. 

I think that if you listen to anything about race and racism in fandom, it should be these installments of the Three Patch Podcast. I’m not just saying that because I’m one of the aca-fans tapped to talk on the roundtable, but because a lot of people really do not understand what we go through as critical fans (and in the case of Joan, Rukmini, and myself, as critical fans of color) who aren’t willing to ignore the really obvious racism baked into transformative fandom from the top down.

We all got a bit personal here, I think. We talked about experiences we had – with Rukmini and myself expressly touching against the backlash that we got for wanting the OTW/AO3 to be better about racism and antiblackness specifically, backlash that Sam made clear didn’t come even after hosting and posting an open letter about racism on the AO3/in the OTW.

Please listen to this episode and well… think about the fact that this shit is hard and hurtful and all we want is for fandom to be welcoming to fans of color… instead of being visibly more welcoming to racists.

The Old Guard

I finally watched The Old Guard and I loved it enough to watch it three times in one day. That’s all I’ve got. This is really good and I want to read the second volume but it’s not been collected yet. If you have Netflix, you need to watch it!!!

Yerongss @ Twitter’s Comic About Blackface

Once again, Korean comic artist @yerongss (whose comic about George Floyd’s murder went viral and was used as a teaching tool in multiple communities of color around the world) came through with an empathetic explainer of the antiblackness of blackface that will hopefully shed light to Koreans suddenly stunned by the anger towards those high school kids’ blackface school photos.

Go give her comic a like and a retweet and if you’ve got someone still somehow struggling to understand that blackface is bad no matter the intent… send this to them!

The Hate-Mongers: Characterizing Racism in Comics

It might be comforting to tell ourselves that Trump is the root cause of our current troubles. He will, eventually, leave office. But our racial problems won’t just exit with him. The Hate-Mongers’ repeated (and perhaps repetitive) returns teach us at least this much. As protestors take to the streets today, asserting the basic truth that Black Lives Matter and demanding, for instance, that we “defund” the police (by reinvesting some of that money into social service programs), they are in fact demanding that we not only have a real conversation about the system but that we then act to change its inequities. 

This is from the authors of All New, All Different? A History of Race and the American Superhero (a book I really want so feel free to send me $35 plus shipping if that’s your thing). I think this brief article is really a quick and interesting read that primes you to read the book they wrote on the subject and put it into the context of our world and what it’s like.

How K-pop is responding to its longstanding appropriation problem

“As K-pop gets so much more popular (entertainment companies) will realise the consumers, their fans, are of different cultures than just East Asian cultures, and they’re going to realise they have to appeal to that market” – Alex Reid, musician and ex-BP Rania member

This article, written by Ashlee Mitchell, is a really solid look at antiblackness in Korean pop culture and the way that fans (especially Black and brown fans) have started being even more vocal when it comes to demanding respect. It’s something that I’ve lightly touched upon across my time writing about these artists, but that Mitchell does an excellent job digging into.

There aren’t supposed to be caveats. When an idol group says that they love their fans (within the confines of the parasocial relationship), there’s no asterisk at the end of that leading to fine print that says “except for Black/brown people”.

I know that it may feel like it with the artists’ lack of engagement with said fans – like again, the almost uniform view of a non-Korean idol group fan is… a white teenage girl or young woman – and the fact that some fans will tell us outright that we don’t belong in these spaces…

But there’s no asterisk, no caveat, no single explicit “GTFO” aimed our way and so we get to demand that we are treated and respected by our artist faves. That more companies and artists are listening? Is a really good sign.

‘Racism at My Job Literally Gave Me PTSD’

The day of my annual performance review, I sat in my office unable to focus on anything but how much my hands were shaking. Although I knew that I had done strong work as an in-house attorney managing legal and business affairs, I was convinced that my boss — an older white guy — was going to blindside me with an issue that I’d never heard about or a complaint that no one had bothered to share with me.

Erika Stallings’ article about the pressures of working at a place rife with racism is so familiar to me. The place where I’m at right now is pretty good about race – or at least, we literally do not talk about it and that is perfect for me – but I’ve been at jobs where that wasn’t possible and I know that there’s always this looming spectre of “why is she so political” looming overhead even though I am actually nowhere near as political as I should be??

Anyway, if you think racism doesn’t affect us to the point of PTSD… think again.

Hip-Hop’s Arrested Social Development: It’s Time For The Rap Game To Grow Up

Black women are exhausted and disheartened in general, and we’re finally being open about the ways in which we’ve both tolerated and been complicit in the continued mygonynoir and violence ourselves. The #MeToo movement largely skipped over hip-hop and urban music in general because so many of us in the industry were conditioned to accept that the game is the game, and that when there were issues to be addressed, they were to be handled quietly. Of course, as with all systems of abuse, silence just allows behavior to continue. Now, Black women are speaking out.

I love this article. Author Naima Cochrane calls out the misogynoir from and hypocrisy of Black men in and out of the hip hop community (as in fans, but also artists) and is explicit about the harm that the attitudes towards Black women and the double standards we’re hit with… actually shape our lives. Please give it a read!

And while you’re at it… While I’m not quite at “WAP is a feminist anthem” (because I don’t… do that), it’s still a really good song that you could be listening to right freaking now!

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