CINEMATIC MILES MORALES COSPLAY
Yo! My name is Nikolas A. Draper-Ivey…This is cosplay as Cinematic Miles Morales: The Ultimate Spider Man. This suit was made by Jesse Covington ( Writer and Costume Designer) and sewn by Sasha Williams ( Fashion Major graduate). Photos were taken by Pierre BL Brevard I specifically would like to thank Marvel Comics Artist Sara Pichelli for designing this character. I’m also very excited to see Olivier Coipel’s work on Spider-Verse!
(Full shoot will be shot in New York itself just in time for NYCC)
Tag: people of colour
A Call for Solidarity with the Community of Ferguson, Missouri |
For the last few days, like many other disenfranchised communities across the country, the disability community has watched what is happening in Ferguson, Missouri. Our hearts are heavy with sorrow, anger, and fear for what is happening to individuals, families, and communities so similar to our own.
Even following the release of the name of the police officer who was ultimately responsible for Michael Brown’s death, we must still come to terms with the tragedy itself. This is a tragedy not just because of the precious loss of life or the actions of one person, but is also a tragedy that is caused by the criminalization and dehumanization of our own citizens. It is a tragedy not only for Michael Brown’s family but for the entire country.
Perhaps, it is more honest to for us to say, it is yet another tragedy that has become all too common for communities viewed as “other” to the American majority – young men of color, people with disabilities, lgbt individuals.
“They didn’t comply.” They were “bad kids.” “They were being belligerent.” “They looked suspicious.”
These statements that have no real discernable meaning often warrant a death sentence for the individuals upon which the observations are based.
- Eric Garner, 43, who had asthma, was pulled to the sidewalk onto his chest and restrained in a chokehold by an officer. The medical examiner cited that Garner’s cause of death was “compression of neck (choke hold), compression of chest and prone positioning during physical restraint by police.” (New York)
- Robert Ethan Saylor, 26, who had Down syndrome, went to see a movie and refused to leave. It was customary for Saylor to see a movie twice. Deputies put Saylor on the floor, held him down, and handcuffed him with such force that he suffered a fracture in his throat cartilage and died of asphyxiation. (Maryland)
- Keith Vidal, 18, who had schizophrenia, was tasered, then shot, and killed when his family called law enforcement for help calming their son down. Vidal’s stepfather said, “”They killed my son in cold blood. We called for help, and they killed my son.” (North Carolina)
- Gilberto Powell, 22, who has Down Syndrome, was beaten by police outside his home and was left with horrible bruises and scars on his face when law enforcement suspected he was carrying a weapon and tried to pat Powell down. Powell did not understand and ran. The suspicious bulge in his pants? It was a colostomy bag. (Florida)
- Barry Montgomery, 29, who has schizophrenia, Tourette’s syndrome, and is non-verbal ,was harassed and then beaten and tasered for 25 minutes by sheriff officers when he was confronted about the smell of marijuana in his general area, and Montgomery did not respond. Montgomery sustained massive permanent injuries. (California)
Eric Garner, Ethan Saylor, Keith Vidal, Gilberto Powell, and Barry Montgomery – these are the names of a few people with disabilities who were brutally injured and killed because of who they are. There are many who were lost before them, and there are certainly others whose names we will never know because the brutality against them was never reported.
When a system that is designed to protect and serve is fueled by fear and anger, that is not merely a surmountable problem. It is a catastrophic failure of the system, and it demands transformation. Such a failure represents a lack of leadership, a corruption of institutions, and a distressing willingness to purposely and violently silence the voices of entire communities marked as different, non-compliant, and suspicious.
Perhaps what is most disconcerting however, is that the failure to support our young men of color, who are gay who have disabilities, who are poor, is not just to be laid at the feet of an intolerant police force, self-interested politicos or even a sensational hungry media. The fault lies in our own hearts.We have not taken enough of the responsibility to manage and maintain the values that we believe are right. We have been complacent in our engagement and been comfortable enough to declare that the problems are with other people. We have allowed ourselves to be separated into tiny groups of associated individuals rather than communities participating in a collective conversation about the state, direction and makeup of our society.
We have allowed problems of marginalization, exclusion, inaccessibility, dissemination, sexism and bigotry — problems that affect us all — to instead be addressed by a few, and have been content to say that it is a disability problem, or a race problem or gender problem or sexuality problem rather than admit that it is a problem for all of us. As members of a community that supports justice and inclusion we do not have the luxury to stand by when injustice is blatantly taking place in any form, and nor should we be satisfied to wait for other communities to ask for our help.
Civil rights, respect, and justice are due to all. We will not remain silent. The disability community, like the LGBT community, and so many others around the country, stands with the family of Michael Brown and with the people of Ferguson, Missouri. We call on the national and local media to be responsible and steadfast in their coverage of this story and others like it. We call on policy makers on all levels of American government not to shrink from action, and we are deeply grateful to Attorney General Eric Holder and the Department of Justice for their immediate commitment to a thorough investigation. Let us all come together, not only to rally and mourn but also to plan for action and collaboration.
Lastly, we specifically invoke the words of Justin Dart in “a call for solidarity among all who love justice, all who love life, to create a revolution that will empower every single human being to govern his or her life, to govern the society and to be fully productive of life quality for self and for all.”
The Lead On Network
Autistic Self Advocacy Network
Ollibean
Washington Metro Disabled Students Collective
Queerability
Ramp Your Voice!
Helping Educate to Advance the Rights of the Deaf (HEARD)
If you are a disability organization and interested in signing on to this statement, please contact us at LeadOnUpdate@gmail.com. If you are an individual with a disability who cares about this issue and supports this statement please share it widely. Also, we know you have your own thoughts to express and urge you to do so in the comments. We will not remain silent! The events of the last week touch us all.
We are honored to join leadonupdate, queerability, and others in signing on to this letter of solidarity with the Community of Ferguson, MO. Not only do we face related struggles, but there are undoubtedly Autistics in Ferguson, and definitely Autistics of Color who face the issues being struggled with and protested against in Ferguson across the nation and the world.
If you are a disability org, please join us in signing on to this letter. Instructions are at the end of the text.
Autism and Race Anthology || Indiegogo
We matter. We invite you to support us in amplifying the voices of autistic people of color.Lydia Brown and Autism Women’s Network is raising money to produce an anthology on Race and Autism! Please check it out and consider donating- it should be a very valuable resource for the community, particularly for members of the community who are often over shadowed and under represented.
From Lydia’s Facebook timeline:
Submissions will be due before the end of this year — stay tuned for more detailed information on how to submit.
Submissions will be welcome from anyone who identifies as both autistic (self-identified regardless of formal diagnosis) and some kind of person of color, including indigenous and mixed-race people.
Please consider sharing with your networks!
I am not of colour, personally, but I am signal boosting it in the hopes that someone who *is* will see this and want to participate! There isn’t much out there by autistic people (compared to parental and clinical accounts) and there’s even less from non-white sources, so let’s spread the details of this around to help change that and get this published.
a comic done by christianne benedict, posted on the womanthology art forum. brilliant!
YES. Jesus, thank you.
I cannot tell you how many times I have had to point out what the audience at conventions actually LOOKS like to people in the industry. They can do signings in a booth full of every kind of person all day long, every color, every size, every orientation and more, and STILL go online and talk about how only white straight males read comics.
IT IS PROFOUNDLY UNTRUE AND INSULTINGLY IGNORANT.
Meet Jedidah Isler
She is the first black woman to earn a PhD in astronomy from Yale University.
As much as she loves astrophysics, Isler is very aware of the barriers that still remain for young women of color going into science. “It’s unfortunately an as-yet-unresolved part of the experience,” she says. She works to lower those barriers, and also to improve the atmosphere for women of color once they become scientists, noting that “they often face unique barriers as a result of their position at the intersection of race and gender, not to mention class, socioeconomic status and potentially a number of other identities.”
While Isler recounts instances of overt racial and gender discrimination that are jaw-dropping, she says more subtle things happen more often. Isler works with the American Astronomical Society’s commission on the status of minorities in astronomy.
She also believes that while things will improve as more women of color enter the sciences, institutions must lead the way toward creating positive environments for diverse student populations. That is why she is active in directly engaging young women of color: for example participating in a career exploration panel on behalf of the Women’s Commission out of the City of Syracuse Mayor’s Office, meeting with high-achieving middle-school girls. She is also on the board of trustees at the Museum of Science and Technology (MOST).
“Whether I like it or not, I’m one of only a few women of color in this position,” she says. “Addressing these larger issues of access to education and career exploration are just as important as the astrophysical work that I do.”
Learn more:
An Open Letter to Kevin Feige
Dear Mr Feige,
You don’t know me, but I know you. I know you because you are the individual whose signature determines the future of a franchise that is dear to my heart, on which I have spent much of my hard-earned money. I know you because over the years you have made me and my sisters and the brothers of my sisters promises that have yet to be fulfilled.
Mr. Feige, when you say you won’t be “swayed by the backlash”—as if it is a negative thing, for billions of people to want for you to show that they, too, can be superheroes—what reason then should we have to be swayed to see what movies you do deem worthy of your attention? What justification do you have that we have not already heard countless times before and which has not already been disproven?
When, Mr. Feige, is “the right time”? When The Hunger Games: Catching Fire grossed over $800 million the world over—nearly as much as The Avengers and more than Iron Man 3—was that not the right time? When Life of Pi made more than the first Iron Man, and Django Unchained more than The Wolverine—was that not the right time? Or was the right time not when the first Pacific Rim made more money than the first X-Men?
When will the right time be? How many years? What does it look like? Quantify it for me, please, Mr. Feige, so that I might understand. You say you want a Marvel movie every year: what year, then, will we finally begin to see ourselves in starring roles in your films?
Do you believe piracy is wrong, Mr. Feige? Do you believe theft is wrong? Then how do you justify your constant thefts from us, Mr. Feige? You steal from us when you dangle vague promises in front of our noses and refuse to deliver. You steal from us when you promise us that our stories will receive adequate attention in movies that continue to give precedence to white men. You steal our hopes, our loyalty, and our money, and you do not deliver.
How familiar are you with statistics, Mr. Feige? Are you aware that the Motion Picture Association of America determined that 51% of the movie-going audience in 2013 was not white, and that 52% was female? And that is not even taking into account the rest of the world, Mr. Feige, which is far more diverse racially than this country is. The rest of the world accounted for the majority of The Avengers’s total gross earnings.
I work in retail, Mr. Feige. I see your consumer base. When a little girl approaches me after watching The Avengers because she wants to buy Black Widow comics, do you propose to tell her she is any less deserving of seeing herself reflected on the big screen as the little boys you feature in your films, inspiring and being inspired in turn by their heroes brought to life? When my female friends approach me to talk about their newly roused interest in comics and their restraining fear of the reception they’ll receive upon walking into a comic shop: do you wish me to tell them to stay away from the comic shops, Mr. Feige?
It’s time you start treating your female fans and your fans of color with respect, Mr. Feige. It’s time you start acknowledging that the wealth your franchise has made you and your company was made by people like us: made by women and by people of color who go to see superhero movies because we love superheroes. It’s time to acknowledge that we can be superheroes too—super heroes, not super sidekicks.
We’re ready, Mr. Feige. We’ve been ready. The ball is in your court. We’re waiting.
KNITTING COMMISSIONS / DONATIONS
HELLO MY NAME IS JAMES I AM A QUEER TRANS POC AND I NEED FINANCIAL ASSISTANCEso hey i’m starting college soon!!! and also getting top surgery soon!!! WOAH so many things happening. Basically I need money for textbooks,various school fees, and to help my parents pay for my surgery.
The textbooks and software I need for the engineering school are super duper expensive (altogether i’ll be spending several hundred dollars on the technology fee, textbooks, and the software bundle that I need for my classes)
Right now im worrying the most about paying for things ill need for school since my mom keeps telling me not to worry about paying for the surgery cause she may be getting a new job soon but i dont want to pressure her so much with all these money troubles
what can you do to help? well i knit and im getting lots better at it!! i would greatly appreciate it if you commissioned me
i can knit headbands, hats, arm warmers, wrist bands, gloves, dishcloths, chokers and more
you can look through my knitting tag to see some things ive knit or send me an ask if you want a specific example
send me an ask and we can talk prices if you want to buy something and i can work with you for your budget
if you don’t want to commission anything but would like to help i would be very grateful if you could donate or signal boost by reblogging this post
there is a donate button on the sidebar of my blog
every little bit counts
thank you!!!!
As a queer person of color, I have been told all my life that I will never play the romantic lead, and that’s fucked up. When they say that, what they’re actually telling you is that your love story doesn’t exist.
Dylan Marron, SDCC 2014 (via ivory-spirals)
Because I matter.
Agents of SHIELD + female guest stars
knitting in the dark 