I'm always thinking about serial killers functioning in Chicago because there sure as hell are more than enough - and seemingly are targeting folks in minority communities. Heard about a slew of them surrounding black sex-workers who just get tossed in the trash, or done up in abandoned buildings. People have been making whispers about this on the regular. Back when I lived there, and even seen some stuff online after I didn't. Hell my one sis, who isn't even from this damn country, straight up called that shit out.

Media makes the stereotypes, which is why representation is so important. Folks want to fight it, but those who do either a) dislike change/corporate pandering (although isn't it all that?) b) haven't been negatively affected by it (or cannot see it). I love me madly most Friedkin's Cruising, which is an incredibly polarizing movie which has enraged both sides. Queers for not wanting to be misrepresented and straights because...of queers? When I look at it though, I see this beautiful slew of men who more than likely are no longer with us due to the AIDS pandemic and were out there trying their best and showing their stuff. While it's a movie, it still captured a space in time that I appreciate. I also love that Al Pacino (who is called out in the article) could allow himself to get so vulnerable to shoot such a film. When most straight men would do just about anything not to be seen as "gay." So it's like...this double-edged sword. Because media representation is powerful, but in another sense ANY representation in a way feels better than none. Because you can at least capture some essence of time to display humans of all types in some kind of space and time. Which is why I can appreciate certain films like Green Pastures and Flower Drum Song even if they're a hot mess of tossed together white imagination. Hell, even growing up I was so thirsty to see ANYONE who looked like me on the screen. Cause it just meant (to some degree) - that I existed and could in some form just be a socially acceptable human being even without being a WASP.

But of course, just like the article (and book) says - media informed stereotypes can be outright deadly. I have known people who have gone through a majority of their lives never being around any poc. I'm not talking about some, I am talking about none until they were into adulthood. So their ideas of people came explicitly from what they saw on tv. But likewise I think that media - when you don't see anyone like you or you see only x-y-z being desirable, powerful, and fortunate can fiddle up some awful idealisms that cause internal/external and communal xenophobia and limit people.

I cannot tell you how many things I have heard over my lifetime were "white" so hence "white-only." We had long since been past Jim Crow bullshit, but the reigns were still there. And they were informed through a variety of things, but a strong one was the media. I also personally think that rap is a form of control, but that's just me. You know. I know where it came from, but I also know what it became. The game is a form of control, and it did a freakin' solid job of destroying multiple generations of individuals. There's so many levels to this, but I would like to take a moment and say this is why I get pissed at people saying stupid shit all the time like "Americans are so obsessed with race!" I am glad you have had the fortune of living within a space where you are either a straight up Uncle Tom or part of some dominant culture. The reason why people are so obsessed with race is because race (among other politics) are still a huge issue here and many are suffering (and their offspring will continue to suffer) because the game is rigged and the only way to get out is to either be entertaining and interesting enough that you can gain footing or be "white" and middle-class enough to navigate. So to those people, talk about something you know - because you don't need to be talking about something you haven't lived. Tell me about some awesome cheese or some beautiful mountains or some stuff. Not that people are too obsessed with race, cause like...legit there is a real reason.