House music usually works to obscure thoughts rather than to put finer points on them, but in the hands of Kareem Ali, the genre’s incessant repetition becomes a vehicle for illustrating the continuous struggle for Black liberation. On “Night Echoes,” a line that sounds like the words, “Trying to get—” resurfaces every few seconds, projecting a sense of determination that builds over the course of five minutes. The song never puts words to what it’s “trying to get,” but you could fill in the blanks with the titles of Ali’s other recent works: “Black Freedom,” “Black Advancement,” “Black Power.” Speaking of continuous effort, these are just a few of the 28 titles Ali has released on Bandcamp since 2017. See his full catalog here.
Brands are having a crisis of character, just not in quite the right way. Last week, Pepsi announced they’d be scrapping the image of Aunt Jemima, a Mammy caricature used to sell pancake syrup; adding to the list of what the culinary historian Michael Twitty calls “stand-ins for what white people viewed as a generation of formerly enslaved Black cooks now lost to them,” Mrs. Butterworth’s is now conducting a “packaging review.” Cream of Wheat is discontinuing their mascot derogatorily named “Rastus,” and Uncle Ben’s is “evolving” its namesake. (Outside the packaged-food-sphere, Band-Aid, for the first time in its 99-year history, is beginning to sell colors other than tan.) It seems like a win for the public when brands start to worry that they’ll no longer be able to rake in the cash by romanticizing slavery. But let’s also recall that all the companies for whom racist marketing has, until just now, seemed like a good idea— they’re still here.
After Cops and Live PD were cancelled for using policing as entertainment on TV, Paw Patrol has also been getting some pushback. As Amanda Hess wrote in the Times, one of the stars of the absolute HIT kids’ show is a police dog who goes around being sweet and helpful, teaching kids to believe in the falsehood of law enforcement as an institution geared toward community health. And as soon as the show issued a “we stand with you” statement on twitter, people jabbed back: “All dogs go to heaven, except the class traitors in the Paw Patrol.”
For what it’s worth, other people who’ve worked on cop shows seem to be realizing their complicity in propping up positive law enforcement tropes. Tom Scharpling, an executive producer of “Monk,” summed it up well: “If you — as I have — worked on a TV show or movie in which police are portrayed as lovable goofballs, you have contributed to the larger acceptance that cops are implicitly the good guys.” So. Will Chase be off the case any time soon?
To close out our list of evolving characters, Dungeons & Dragons, a white-dude-heavy game that lifts its characters straight from Tolkien, has been learning about representation for the last several years, and after hiring sensitivity readers and culture consultants, the company is removing reductive tropes from its various groups and figures. Orcs and drow, formerly “characterized as monstrous and evil” and less than human, will now be “just as morally and culturally complex as other peoples.” The game is also changing their presentation of a people called the Vistani, whose current “depiction echoes some stereotypes associated with the Romani people in the real world.” While their starting position was not strong, this change feels a lot more substantive than the “We See You” instagram post dashed off by every other brand in that it actually impacts the way people experience humanity while interacting with the product. In case that’s a helpful barometer.
It’s good to see these changes, but the big ones are still ahead. You know what that means: keep making noise and keep on marching. As you do, Bombas would like to cushion your feet with some very comfy socks. For background, the company has donated $250,000 to racial justice organizations including the National Bail Fund Network and the Marsha P. Johnson institute, which works to protect Black trans lives, and for every purchase during Pride month, they’re donating a pair of socks to a LGBTQ+ person in need. Use the code LOREMIPSUM for 20% off your first purchase.
