when i saw the headline ‘golf digest helps free man from prison’ i thought it was gonna be, like
“he’s clearly in the background of this golf photo! that proves he wasn’t at the crime scene!!”
as opposed to, like
“this guy in prison sent us his cool golf fanart but we didn’t want to promo a serial killer, so we looked into his case and thought it looked pretty flimsy and probably racially motivated”
The guy in question (Valentino Dixon) had never even played golf, he was just inspired hearing about it to draw courses that would be cool.
From the first article linked above: The first course I ever drew was for warden
James Conway. He would often stop by my cell to ask how my appeal was
going and to see my drawings. Before he retired, the warden brought me a
photograph of the 12th hole at Augusta National and asked if I could
draw it for him.
I spent 15 hours on it.
The warden loved it, and it was gratifying to know my art would hang in
his house. Something about the grass and sky was rejuvenating. I’d been
getting bored with drawing animals and people and whatever I’d get out
of National Geographic. After 19 years in Attica (N.Y.) Correctional
Facility, the look of a golf hole spoke to me. It seemed peaceful. I
imagine playing it would be a lot like fishing.
Black girls deserve to learn free from bias and stereotypes.
Most black girls experience this hatred at schools. And classmates are not the only problem, there is no support from teachers, too. That’s why they get so affected by their school experiences. Black kids deserve to be treated just like everybody else, they want to study, they want to learn something ,too. However due to prejudice they are 5 times more likely to be suspended than their white peers and it can ruin their lives forever.
National Women’s Law Center created this video to change the situation. Join the movement to help black girls feel normal and get the same opportunities everybody else has.
“Seriously, can old white dudes please stop saying shitty things about Islam? Because every time they do I’m scared all Muslims will think we’re like that which is pretty much how all Muslims feel when a terrorist kills people in the name of Allah. And for those accusing me of defending Islam, and a lot have said that this week, I’m defending common sense. There are 1.6 billion Muslims in the world right now. 1.6 billion. As someone pointed out on twitter this week, if Islam really bred terror, we’d all be dead right now. The combined forces of Islamic State, Boko Haram and Al Qaeda makes up 0.003% of the global Muslim population. Less than 2% of all terror attacks are carried out in the name of Islam. You’ve got more of a chance of being killed by a bee sting, a peanut or the NHS. And I’m sure most Australians are lovely, but until we recognize the festering puss sore that is Rupert Murdoch maybe we need to be held accountable as well ‘cause having said all that, I don’t know, maybe I’m wrong. Maybe we should be congratulating Rupert Murdoch. Because in a sorely divided world, what we need right now is unity and whether you’re a Muslim, Christian, Hindu, Buddhist or a Jew, I think we can all agree that Rupert Murdoch is a massive fuck knuckle.”
I’ve been thinking about Marvel Cinematic Universe a lot lately (‘No!’, I hear you cry, ‘We never would have guessed!’) and because my BA in English will otherwise just gather dust, I’ve decided to do a series of essays on the films. Because goodness knows I don’t write enough as it is.
The first film I will look at is Iron Man, and the representation of villainy as portrayed in the film.
Iron Man was released in 2008, by which point the USA had already been involved for several years in the second Gulf War in as many decades. Words like terrorist, weapons of mass destruction, and insurgent are now part of the American vocabulary in a way they weren’t before 2001. The Middle East has been front and centre of news reports on and off since then.
In the opening scenes of Iron Man, we are dropped into a scenario which we are expected to recognise and understand: an unnamed middle eastern country (you can tell because of the desert landscape and the random peasant with a goat by the roadside) with US military operations ongoing and armoured vehicles. And we do. This is the place where the terrorists come from, according to all the news reports, and this is where the war on terror is being fought.
knitting in the dark 