A day of anti-colonialism

[sabotabby]

Your humble narrator was quite busy today.

I had the ambition to go to the Justice For Tina Fontaine rally today. At first, it seemed like events were conspiring against me going; the subway was down and I was already running late. In the crowd, I spotted a man looking just as lost and confused as I was, also wearing a keffiyeh, and holding a placard with Tina's picture on it, so I figured we were headed to the same place. We had about an hour and a half of transit adventures and a really lovely talk, and eventually made it to the rally.


Photo by Megan Lewis, stolen from Facebook.

It was a truly beautiful, powerful event. Perhaps the most impressive thing was that this spectacular turnout, with its compelling speeches, ceremonies, and round dances, was all organized by a 16-year-old indigenous girl. The grief of the deaths of Tina and Colten Boushie and so many other indigenous young people is overwhelming, but so is the hope that comes with seeing a young woman organizing all of these communities to come together and fight back. I felt truly privileged to have been there.

Then I went to go see Black Panther, finally. Naturally I loved it and want to go again. I won't post spoilers or anything but if you want to discuss it, I desperately want to hear all of your opinions. (Also I may need to make an icon of M'Baku saying, "Just kidding, we're vegetarians" for when I make cooking posts.)

Comments

[ironed_orchid]

That sounds like a good day.

I am here for your vegetarian icon.

[sabotabby]

I can't decide between Shuri or Nakia as a favourite character but M'Baku absolutely got my favourite line.

[ironed_orchid]

Shuri and Nakia are both great, but during scenes with Nakia I was busy being dazzled by Lupita Nyong'o's beauty, so I definitely need to see it again to appreciate Nakia more fully as a character.

[sabotabby]

Yeah, that was some truly distracting casting. Basically Lupita Nyong'o as an anti-colonialist spy is quite a number of things that area really attractive to me.

ANYWAY I paid money for a font just to do this.

[ironed_orchid]

That is a good font. I approve of your life choices (as far as this font is concerned).

[sabotabby]

If you or anyone else needs the font.

[kore]

THAT WAS WELL SPENT.

[sabotabby]

I'm going to use it for everything, even things that have nothing to do with Black Panther.

[kore]

I APPROVE. Mmmmmmmmm'baku!

Also OMG, did you see this https://twitter.com/Winston_Duke/status/968742811175718912

[sabotabby]

I don't know how to Twitter properly and I couldn't figure out what the challenge is?

[ironed_orchid]

Also I need to bring your attention to this tweet:
https://twitter.com/soulphoodie/status/970139802237571072?s=19

[sabotabby]

I WOULD LEGIT THROW ALL THE MONEY AT A COOKING WITH M'BAKU SPINOFF

[kore]

There was one scene where she and T'Challa were saying beautiful important things and it was a two-shot closeup of them and all I could think was those faces are absolutely flawless.

[sabotabby]

I almost don't believe that Lupita Nyong'o is a real human being born of woman on this earth because no one can possibly be that attractive.

[minoanmiss]

I'm with you 110%

[xturtle]

Perfect icon is perfect. I love that movie so fucking much.

[sabotabby]

I want to go again! (I mean, I will, but I want to do so now.)

[xturtle]

Right? I tried to just move into the theater after our showing, but apparently that's frowned upon.

[kore]

Aw, that sounds lovely. Also in a fic you and that guy would have met-cute.

BLACK PANTHER IS THE BEST MOVIE EVER
IT SHOULD WIN BEST PICTURE
I AM NOT EVEN FUCKING JOKING

I mean come on if they're nominating shit nobody has ever seen like Darkest Hour and Phantom Thread?!?

Or at least it should deservedly sweep up costumes, f/x, editing, music (this should shut up all the "MCU has no good music" assholes), design, everything everything. But really, enough mainstream pieces of shit have won (FORREST GUMP) why not an actually great superhero movie?

[minoanmiss]

*cheers in agreement*

[sabotabby]

Also in a fic you and that guy would have met-cute.

Haha, well, he is turning 60 this year, and thus old enough to be my dad. But I am sort of having a bakery AU that I can't blog about for security reason (I've always wanted to say that but in this case it is actually true).

So if I understand the rules, it's eligible for next year's, and that's why it wasn't nominated for this year's? I don't get how time works.

If it doesn't at least win costuming and f/x, there is no justice, but given that a genre film is likely to sweep this year's Oscars (eeeeeh I enjoyed it but Get Out was far better) and all sorts of shitty things have won, I agree. But it's got racist voters and bias against genre working against it.

[kore]

I thiiiink that's right re the nominations, yeah.

A real-life bakery AU? That IS fanfic.

[sabotabby]

One day I'll write it down. When the security reasons don't apply.

[minoanmiss]

Ugh, the "take kids into state custody, neglect them and then shrug when people harm and kill them" method of dealing with minority populations. It's like a fucking playbook. I am so glad and impressed and delightedly unsurprised that you went out to stand up for Tina Fontaine, and I am hoping. so hard for Madyson Arscott -- she will continue leveling up in amazingness, if the horrors of society don't swallow her up.

[sabotabby]

I guess I can believe that it's happening, because this is literally how Canada has always treated FNMI, but for fuck's sake, whyever would anyone think that taking indigenous kids from their families and paying white families to keep them is in any way a good idea now that everyone knows about the fucking mass graves.

A few of the speakers were parents who'd had their kids taken away and I was bawling. Like, there is generational trauma and substance abuse and actual abuse and I get wanting to protect children, but taking kids out of their communities is not the answer.

Madyson is a truly incredible, inspiring young woman, and I have all the hope in the world that she'll keep up the good fight. She also has a lot of good people standing behind her.

[frenzy]

this movie had some p obvious mlk v malcolm x moments. Erik was right p much 100% of the time.

[minoanmiss]

Erik had a very good point, but Nakia was right. (I intend to write myself an Essay about this, but not right here and now)

[sabotabby]

^ This.

[mistersmearcase]

I can't believe I haven't seen Black Panther. I thought about going on Saturday when WB was on a hike, but it was rainy and instead I sat around doing nothing, mostly. There's also a tendency around the time of the Academy Awards to not see any movies while I see what I can downgrade from "not interested in seeing" to "not interested in seeing and actually not seeing because now nobody is even going to talk about it anymore." Not that this effects Black Panther directly but my movies priorities are more sorted now, e.g. I may see Shape of Water even though I have heard a cat meets a bad end which these days is almost enough to make me decide not to see a movie. Dumb, but I have friends who won't watch movies where kids are in peril so we've all got our thing...

[sabotabby]

It was a total ordeal to see Black Panther between my own busy schedule and my desire to see it with friends, and having a number of friends in particular that I'd like to see it with, and coordinating everyone's schedule. Worth it, though.

The cat does meet a bad end in The Shape of Water, which actually really affected my enjoyment. It's a good movie but not a great one and I felt that the cat death was gratuitous, if not its biggest flaw. I did like the movie overall, though.

Completely irrelevant spoiler but not only do no cats die in Black Panther, some dead people turn into cats in the afterlife, which a few people I saw it with quite liked, myself included. The 10-year-old objected to the cats looking too CGI, because she is very worldly and also correct. Regardless this made for a better movie imo.

[mistersmearcase]

A show I won’t Name in case it’s a spoiler (I wish my phone would stop capitalizing random shit) but that I had mixed feelings about anyway pissed me off a lot with a gratuitous cat death. Just...like I’m not super fragile and I didn’t have to be sedated or anything f but I do not need Cat death from my entertainment. Life is gross enough.

[sabotabby]

I can think of two.

A Shiny New Friend who has missed extended periods of telly wants to watch with me. I said I’d watch it again but only with my eyes covered in that scene.

[dancingdragon3]

I have no words for the Tina Fontaine tragedy. Thank you for the link. I like to think that Canada treats it's minority population better than we do, but dammit, is no one on this continent doing the right thing?!

Taking kids away from their homes and throwing them into group homes where we can barely protect them from the other kids, or sending them to foster homes where the parents send them right back because they aren't adequately prepared to deal with their emotional issues is what made me leave the system. Hell, down here, these are poor white kids half the time!

But glad you saw Black Panther. It was life altering for me. I hope the hope it inspires sticks around a long while.

[sabotabby]

Canada kind of wrote the playbook on how to genocide without getting caught, even voting against UN resolutions that would explicitly define the residential school system as a crime against humanity (which it was; I don't know what else you call 6000+ dead kids).

I was thrilled at every second of Black Panther. I didn't even notice that it was of epic length, and I'm hoping they release the 4-hour long cut soon.