briaamonroe:

OMG !!!!

great cosplay is great.

(via paperdroids)

yagazieemezi:

BET: The Imafidons are Britain’s smartest family and have become international models of academic acheivement.

Dr. Chris Imafidon and Ann Imafidon came from Edo State, Nigeria, to London over 30 years ago and made no excuses in educating their five children, who have broken national records in education. All of the children have made a list of achievements that continue to grow.

“If you really want a child to learn anything, find out the best way that child learns,” says Imafidon in a story on Black America Web. “Every human being has a unique way of learning.”

Anne-Marie, 23, the eldest child, is multi-lingual. She speaks six languages and graduated from college at age 10. At 13, she was the youngest person to pass the U.K.’s A-level computing exam. She went on to attend John Hopkins University in Baltimore and got her masters degree from Oxford University, all before she turned 20 years old.

Anne-Marie’s younger siblings Christina, 19, Samantha, 15, and twins Peter and Paula, 12, have followed in her footsteps.

BlackAmericaWeb reports:

Peter and Paula are Great Britain’s current highest achievers. At 9-years-old they made history as the youngest children in British history to attend high school. They are now in their third year. The children became the youngest to ever pass the University of Cambridge’s advanced mathematics exam after participating in the Excellence in Education program. They set world records when they passed the A/AS-level math papers. Peter Imafidon, who is also a 100m and 400m relay champ in London, has said that he would like to serve as Prime Minister one day and his sister Paula, a county champion in rugby, would like to teach math. Both students are musicians….

Christina is now working as an intern with the Citigroup Corporation as well as conducting research on mathematics with Oxford University. Fifteen-year-old Samantha Imafidon had passed two high school-level mathematics and statistics exams at age 6. She became the youngest girl in the U.K. to attend secondary school at the age of 9…

Read full story here. 

(via afroboheme)

Opinion: The problem with “Devious Maids” goes far beyond Hollywood

people always want to talk shit about us when we complain about f—-d up representation…but these are the conversations happening in board rooms….

(via alienswithankhs)

(via racebending)

neil-gaiman:

fefeferi:

fighting-for-fitness-with-tea:

healthisnotafad:

sexyfitduh:

awesometriathlon:

anewstartabetterme:

fullyactivated:

This is pretty cool and eye-opening. I wish someone would do this sort of thing with male 6-pack ab models. 

They even Photoshopped the woman behind Selena’s arm, because apparently not only do celebrities have to be thin, but they must also only associate with other thin people…

Enrico Francis has been caught

This pisses me off so incredibly much!

This is ridiculous. And disgusting. beautiful people being photoshopped to fit impossible standards AND most of the non-caucasian women are being white washed so they look more “appealing” 

this. 

makes.

me.

SO ANGRY. I can’t find the words to say just exactly what I feel about this…gahhhhhh just no. 

AND THEY FUCKING PHOTOSHOPPED OUT “ELTON JOHN AIDS FOUNDATION” FOR THIS ENRICO FRANCIS DUDE HOLY FUCK

It is always good to remember that you can be lied to in pictures…

(Source: bright-happy-healthy, via n-kita)

sad-queer:

things “body positivity” movements should address besides weight/fat:

• (dis)ability
• features associated with non-whiteness
• hair type
• lots of body hair / no body hair / little body hair / hair in all places / losing hair
• acne
• skin conditions
• scars
• stretch marks
• skin…

n-kita:

Kim recommended “Over My Head” to me on Goodreads because I didn’t know it was out and she knows how much I loved the first book. I just want to acknowledge that Penguin put a Hispanic girl on the cover instead of doing that cop-out publishers do with POC by making their race ambiguous. Full-faced non-white person.

fatpinkcast:

Critics’ Reactions to the Final Season 3 Scene in Game of Thrones

Surfed Google News looking for what reviewers thought about the White Lady Jesus scene.

“It’s kind of weird that the show decides to rely on the slightly racist, definitely cliche stereotype of hordes of adoring brown slaves worshipping their white liberator.” - Kate Walsh, Indiewire

“…the messianic tint to Danaerys’ brief appearance takes on a weirdly racist and pro-colonial overtone (look at those poor, dark savages and how much they love their blond savior!)” - Todd Brown, Twitchfilm

“…her being surrounded by a worshipful mass of people she’s saved who are decidedly, er, browner than her is really frakking weird. I’m not saying there’s malicious, racist intent or anything, and some of the slaves are probably just tanned white people. But as an image, I found it really offputting.” - Rebecca Pahle, The Mary Sue

“I think we’re supposed to feel tense and apprehensive awaiting their response to her setting them free, but I’m just kind of bored. No surprise – they accept her, calling her “mother.” She crowd surfs while her dragons fly above the crowd. Also, she’s very white and all the slaves definitely aren’t and so maybe this is racist? I’d call for discussion but this is the internet so better not.” - Dr. Improbable, The OutHousers

“During Game of Thrones‘ first season, the show faced criticism that it was racially… not super sensitive when it came to portraying the Dothraki, who were largely treated as Klingons noble savages…Now, Dany has become a straight-up conqueror—an outsider who swoops in with her dragons and eunuchs to show other societies how they’re doing things wrong. Which is where things start to feel a little dodgy: The final shots of this season were supposed to be rousing, but they felt weird.

There was Dany, seriously the Whitest Woman Ever, crowd-surfing on a bunch of heretofore unseen and uncharacterized brown people, all of whom had been enslaved and helpless before she showed up? And they’re lovingly calling her “Mother”?” - Erik Henriksen, Wired.com

“Yes, this is problematic. The optics on this scene are really bad, which I can see you have noticed, because you have eyes. Problem one is that there aren’t very many people of color people on this show to begin with, and problem two is that when there are, they tend to be acting out “tribal” stereotypes and/or cast in the role of slaves. And this final scene featured largest crowd of brown faces we’ve ever seen, lifting the world’s blondest woman up as their messiah and praising her for saving them from bondage. It’s like George W. Bush’s secret fantasy of how he thought the invasion of Iraq would go for him.

“If you’ve never heard of the White Savior phenomenon in media, wherein a fictional white outsider appears to heroically save fictional people of color from problems they can’t solve on their own, there’s more information here. Or you can just take a screenshot at any point in the last minute of the show, since it’s pretty much textbook. And that’s another problem, while we’re counting problems: I feel like I’ve seen this trope so many times before that it feels emotionally flat and boring, especially in comparison to her astonishingly badass siege of Astapor.” - Laura Hudson, Wired.com

“Also, I can’t even express how uncomfortable her last scene (the last scene of the season) made me feel. This show has always had issues with race and unfortunately, by having hundreds of faceless brown people lifting up a young, white blonde woman and calling her “mother,” showrunners are far from correcting them. It was Greyworm (and friends) who liberated the city. Can’t he get some love?”- Madeleine Davies, Jezebel.com

The Khaleesi of previous seasons, and even previous season three episodes, seemed to care little for titles that others were so eager to attach to her. But it’s that blissful smile, that obvious Christ pose while being hoisted above the crowd, her blonde hair and pearly whiteness shining upon a sea of trodden-upon brown people that lead one to wonder if all this savior stuff is finally going to her head. - Gabriel Ruzin, Screen Invasion

“The final image is still that of a white woman being embraced by the poor slaves she set free, and on a show that has been validly criticized for its lack of diversity in its main cast, ending a season with that scene was a questionable choice. We understand why the writers thought it was a good direction to go — viewers needed some real hope after the Red Wedding — but there were probably ways to direct it that would have taken the sting out of the visual.” - Rebecca Martin, Wetpaint

“So, um, did anyone else think it was a little weird to have a bunch of dusky brown people reaching out to the blonde white lady and proclaiming her their savior? Dany’s crusade to free slaves and whatnot is admirable, sure, but that scene seemed to say “Hooray! The nice white lady saved us!” Kinda got a weird vibe. Was anyone else made ever so slightly uncomfortable?”  - Joe Streckert, Portland Mercury

It’s an image that many commentators found troubling, given Game of Thrones‘ overwhelming whiteness, and the presentation of many non-white people as barbarians, deceptive slavers, or mindless slaves.  - Alyssa Rosenberg, Think Progress

“And not to end on a sour note — because I did think “Mhysa” was a tight, elegant episode — but did anyone else watch the final scene outside Yunkai and think, ‘Hmmm, am I really looking at a pretty white lady being worshiped by thousands upon thousands of adoring brown people?’” - Nina Shen Rastogi, New York Magazine

“The show’s previously been careful to maintain a heterogeneous look for most of the cultures Daenerys encounters in her travels through the eastern continent of Essos, so the uniformly brown skin tone of the freed slaves worshipping the blondest possible savior figure was surprising and disconcerting – doubly so since, in the books, much is made of just how many different kinds of people had been forced into slavery by Yunkai and then freed by Dany when she took the city. This uncomfortable contrast kneecapped what could otherwise have been the most purely uplifting and cathartic moment in the series so far. Plus it gave the episode its title and was, you know, the final shot of the season – a rough one to go out on. “ Sean T. Collins, Rolling Stone

(via racebending)

caribbeancivilisation:

Bat-List-Crazy: 8 Books That Prove The English Caribbean Is More Than Pirates And Mermaids

(Source: bitcheswithbooks, via 808snheartaches)

scholasticreadingclubs:

abramsbooks:

Yoda says: “Pass on what you have learned.” What are you reading this weekend? #StarWarsReads (at Abrams Books)

These posters are AWESOME! #want

(Source: abramsbooks.com, via scholasticreadingclub)

sourcedumal:

rigelandsirius:

closet-racists like to claim that they’d be totally fine and dandy with traditionally white characters being portrayed by actors of color whilst they’re casually dismissing the prevalence of white-washing in hollywood. hate to break it to you, but that is NOT the typical response that actors of color receive, and if you can’t acknowledge that, then you’re only adding to the problem.

remember that time hunger games fans flipped their shit because rue, who IS actually black in the books, was rightfully cast as black in the film? apparently their rose-colored white-is-default glasses made their eyes gloss over that tidbit of info. (let’s not even get wholeheartedly into the fact that katniss was described as having olive skin and jet black hair but her casting call specifically asked for only white actresses…because non-whites could never be expected to have dark hair and tan skin amirite?!)

remember that time people actually boycotted thor because idris elba was in it? http://www.comicsalliance.com/2010/12/16/racists-thor-idris-ebla-racism/

remember that time donald glover got hoards of letters calling him the n-word because there were rumors about him possibly being the new spiderman?  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lgko-xReFSs

or that time the film adaptation of avatar: the last airbender (a show with OBVIOUS asian inspiration) was almost an entirely caucasian cast except for the “bad guy”, who, in the cartoon is actually light-skinned?                                      http://io9.com/5111680/avatar-casting-makes-fans-see-white

or remember that time all those fans said it was wrong to have angel coulby play the role of gwen in merlin because it wasn’t era-appropriate. because, ya know, being era-appropriate in a made-up story about magic is srs bsns.

so that’s why i don’t give a shit if you think i’m “overreacting” about jj abrams having a white actor play khan noonien singh. i’m not that surprised by it, since actors of color are routinely dismissed, but i still reserve the right to be pissed.

Remember that time when executives said that they wouldn’t fund a movie because it didn’t have enough white people in it?

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5i_e3UYOiNEhW03rcVTpcB2e15IMg

Remember the time when executives said that they wouldn’t allow a show with a majority POC cast because “Black people don’t see themselves in the future?” despite Geordi, Uhura, Sisko, Tuvok, Tyr, Zoe and so many other BLACK sci fi characters existing as past precedent?

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/07/12/black-people-dont-see-themselves-in-the-future/

Remember when it took 20 years to get a movie about Black people out because distributors BLATANTLY REFUSED TO PUT IN THE WORK TO PROPERLY ADVERTISE A BLACK MOVIE?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/10/george-lucas-hollywood-di_n_1197227.html

Remember when writers had  Batman choose a French/African representative in a comic book and people FLIPPED THEIR SHIT because how dare he choose a Black Muslim to represent FRANCE!!!!

http://www.racialicious.com/2010/12/27/bats-in-their-belfry-dc-comics-new-muslim-hero-angers-islamophobes/

But we’re overreacting when we say we’re tired of the bullshit that is systemically entrenched in damn near every form of media…..

Oh, ok…. 

(via racebending)