Formerly a Purple Magazine blog article.The Power of Self Affirming Imagesin the Edutainment of Childrenlit:PurpleZoeI am currently fawning over a regal barbie doll, named Nichelle.Her skin is like darkest chocolate before any additives are infused, and you can see in this barbie doll, the image of beauty which many young girls of color have been socially engineered to struggle recognizing.Image is powerful.Yes, progress has been made, but there is still a ways to go, before the pseudo-narcissism of racist culture, and the poisons it has dropped are outshined by the “bling” of enlightenment.In attempting to wipe out or subjugate a race, the techniques of psyching out an opponent by attacking their confidence have been employed. Children however innocent, have been targeted by this treatment, and the images of their likenesses have not been set up before them as heroes.Their heroes were hidden, stolen and painted over, leaving them with unbefitting likenesses which told them that they were less, and even… criminal in nature.The power of archetype is strong.We emulate our myths. So where then are the beautiful myths of the displaced Kush/Kemetian descendant (African) in the mainstream market? Why do we not see more anime that bears an accurate likeness of Asian culture? I’m all for unity, but I’ve seen most anime created in the likeness of Europeans. How is that unity, when other cultures barely have a moment to enjoy what's beautiful about their own culture?When caring for your child, be sure to expose them to many cultures, as unity is the prime objective, but also keep in mind (especially in the case of children of color) that their image should be seen in Angelic representations, fantasy heroes, and in loving communal representations, as image has been used as a tool of psychological warfare and it’s now time to restore the empowered images for the generations here and those to come. The way to rebirth is with healing images.Casting Storm (a black woman) for X-Men as a treacherous skeezer who betrayed Rogue by swinging more than one ep with her boyfriend Gambit behind her back, as well as casting a white women in the role of Elektra who is an obvious Hispanic character, while making the only movie to date with a comic book ‘black’ heroe who is in essence a dweller of hell, in the Spawn flick, tells us everything we need to know about what our children are being told about themselves.Let’s fix that.Truth always comes out. It has to happen sometime.Let it be now.Interesting links for artistsof underrepresented culture:attisgarden.com (Brand Epps is mindblowing)http://www.myspace.com/mantatakhan (Mantatakhan's art is meta-level)ghettomanga.comscritchandscratch.com
Formerly a Purple Magazine blog article.The Power of Self Affirming Imagesin the Edutainment of Childrenlit:PurpleZoeI am currently fawning over a regal barbie doll, named Nichelle.Her skin is like darkest chocolate before any additives are infused, and you can see in this barbie doll, the image of beauty which many young girls of color have been socially engineered to struggle recognizing.Image is powerful.Yes, progress has been made, but there is still a ways to go, before the pseudo-narcissism of racist culture, and the poisons it has dropped are outshined by the “bling” of enlightenment.In attempting to wipe out or subjugate a race, the techniques of psyching out an opponent by attacking their confidence have been employed. Children however innocent, have been targeted by this treatment, and the images of their likenesses have not been set up before them as heroes.Their heroes were hidden, stolen and painted over, leaving them with unbefitting likenesses which told them that they were less, and even… criminal in nature.The power of archetype is strong.We emulate our myths. So where then are the beautiful myths of the displaced Kush/Kemetian descendant (African) in the mainstream market? Why do we not see more anime that bears an accurate likeness of Asian culture? I’m all for unity, but I’ve seen most anime created in the likeness of Europeans. How is that unity, when other cultures barely have a moment to enjoy what's beautiful about their own culture?When caring for your child, be sure to expose them to many cultures, as unity is the prime objective, but also keep in mind (especially in the case of children of color) that their image should be seen in Angelic representations, fantasy heroes, and in loving communal representations, as image has been used as a tool of psychological warfare and it’s now time to restore the empowered images for the generations here and those to come. The way to rebirth is with healing images.Casting Storm (a black woman) for X-Men as a treacherous skeezer who betrayed Rogue by swinging more than one ep with her boyfriend Gambit behind her back, as well as casting a white women in the role of Elektra who is an obvious Hispanic character, while making the only movie to date with a comic book ‘black’ heroe who is in essence a dweller of hell, in the Spawn flick, tells us everything we need to know about what our children are being told about themselves.Let’s fix that.Truth always comes out. It has to happen sometime.Let it be now.Interesting links for artistsof underrepresented culture:attisgarden.com (Brand Epps is mindblowing)http://www.myspace.com/mantatakhan (Mantatakhan's art is meta-level)ghettomanga.comscritchandscratch.com
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