The Streets of São Paulo, Bá + Moon, RIGHT NOW:
There are riots and protests happening right now, and Fábio + Gabriel are writing and drawing about it.
Nichelle Nichols (Uhura on the original series):”Whoopi Goldberg, she’s just marvellous. I had no way of knowing that she was a Star Trek fan. When I finally met her it was her first year on the Next Generation.
She loved the show so much and she told her agent she wants a role on Star Trek. Well agents go ‘Big screen, little screen, no, you can’t do that’. Well you can’t tell Whoopi ‘You can’t do that’.
And so they finally asked, and they had the same reaction at Star Trek office, specifically Gene. And she said, ‘I want to meet him and I want him to tell me to my face. If he tells me he doesn’t want me and why, I’ll be fine.’
Knowing Gene he had to take that challenge, and so he met with her. She said, ‘I just wanted you to tell me why you don’t want me in Star Trek.’
Gene said, ‘Well, I’ll just ask you one question and I’ll make my decision on that. You’re a big screen star, why do you want to be on a little screen, why do you want to be in Star Trek?’
And she looked at him and she said, ‘Well, it’s all Nichelle Nichols’ fault.’
That threw him, he said, ‘What do you mean?’
She said, ‘Well when I was nine years old Star Trek came on,’ and she said, ‘I looked at it and I went screaming through the house, “Come here, mum, everybody, come quick, come quick, there’s a black lady on television and she ain’t no maid!”’ And she said, ‘I knew right then and there I could be anything I wanted to be, and I want to be on Star Trek.’
And he said, ‘I’ll write you a role.’
I know I’ve reblogged this before, and I will undoubtedly do it again.
It matters. And no amount of saying that we’re post-racial or that racism isn’t a thing or that “they just chose the best actor for the role” or otherwise trying to cover up for it will make it okay to keep relegating actors of color to secondary roles, villain roles, stereotyped roles, or no roles at all, and it sure as hell won’t make it okay to keep whitewashing CHARACTERS of color out of the story by casting white actors to play then.
Remember how Martin Luther King Jr. convinced Nichelle Nichols to stay on the show?
I said “Dr. King, thank you so much. I really am going to miss my co-stars.” He said, dead serious, “What are you talking about?” I said, “I’m leaving Star Trek,” He said, “You cannot. You cannot!”
I was taken aback. He said, “Don’t you understand what this man has achieved? For the first time on television we will be seen as we should be seen every day – as intelligent, quality, beautiful people who can sing, dance, but who can also go into space, who can be lawyers, who can be teachers, who can be professors, and yet you don’t see it on television – until now….”
I could say nothing, I just stood there realizing every word that he was saying was the truth. He said, “Gene Roddenberry has opened a door for the world to see us. If you leave, that door can be closed because, you see, your role is not a Black role, and it’s not a female role, he can fill it with anything, including an alien.”
At that moment, the world tilted for me. I knew then that I was something else and that the world was not the same. That’s all I could think of, everything that Dr. King had said: The world sees us for the first time as we should be seen.
It matters, man. It honestly does. It mattered then and it still matters.
It. Matters.
This.
And this, among many other great reasons is why I will always forever love the Star Trek shows.
(via anddesecration)
Posting on Tumblr is like talking to your cat. You don’t know if they are listening, and you don’t know if they care, but for some reason, it still helps.
This might be the most accurate thing I’ve read ever
(via transmetropolistin)
Apostrophes
It’s a little thing, but I love seeing people posting about getting married and seeing “the brides’ _____”, “the grooms’ _____”.
Lucille Ball (via always-have-a-dream)
File under: things I wish it didn’t take me all the way into adulthood to figure out. Thank goodness for the internet, etc.
(via mydrunkkitchen)
Toby Ng - The World of 100
Have you ever asked yourself, what would the World look like as a small community of 100 people? Probably not. However, it is something to think about, as the reality would be startling - as much as you’d think so, the village would only have 7 computers, and only 1 person in the World Village would be educated at University level.
These facts are something that designer Toby Ng has thought about very carefully, and turned the results of his findings into a series of twenty infographics depicting ‘The World of 100’. Although aesthetically beautiful, with sharp lines and bold, vibrant colours, these infographics are often horrifying.
The posters look as though they have come straight out of a children’s book; is this to mirror the naivety of those that are most likely to be looking at them on their computers?
“Look, this is the World we are living in.”
- Toby Ng
(via burlyburr)
Good Parenting: Exhibit 1 (overheard at work today)
- 6-year old: Mommy, why is that man dressed like a lady?
- Mother: That is a lady. She was just born with the wrong body.
- 6-year old: How did that happen?
- Mother: Nobody really knows. But she's working to fix it, and that's what's important.
- 6-year old: Okay! *runs up to obviously self-conscious woman*
- 6-year old: Hey! Miss!
- Lady: ...yes?
- 6-year old: You look really pretty in your skirt!
- Lady: Thank you!
- *Kid skips back to her mom, and literally everyone in the vicinity smiles*
- I'd just like to point out that it wasn't hard to explain this to a child at all...... Next excuse please?
You should have heard by now from the news and at twitter about what happened in my country…
Just a note: That Bridge Picture is from last year’s marathon. Spread the story, And the correction. Disinformation breeds.
