Heterosexual: Fuck that.
Homosexual: Fuck this.
Bisexual: Fuck you and also you.
Pansexual: Fuck everything.
Demisexual: Fuck you in particular.
Asexual: Fuck no.
Chidi and Eleanor arguing, superimposed with the word “Opposites”
Chidi and Eleanor kissing with the word “Attract” superimposed over them
…Hot diggity dog.
I learned what it is to identify to the core with a character when I fell in love with Chidi/Eleanor one day and Chidi/Simone the next. With all these amazing women falling for him, is it any wonder the man has a problem with decisiveness?!
It’s not your imagination: President Trump, who regularly makes a point of personally insulting public figures who challenge or displease him in any way, taps into an especially toxic well of vitriol when aiming his attacks at black Americans.
This week alone, Trump berated CNN correspondent Abby Phillip (“What a stupid question. But I watch you a lot. You ask a lot of stupid questions.”) He said of April Ryan, a reporter and CNN contributor who has covered the White House for 21 years: “You talk about somebody that’s a loser. She doesn’t know what the hell she’s doing.“And at a post-election press conference, when Yamiche Alcindor of “PBS NewsHour” began to ask about accusations that his rhetoric may have emboldened violent white nationalist groups, Trump interrupted with, “I don’t know why you say that. That is such a racist question.”
The three women – all of them gifted, accomplished professionals – will be covering politics long after Trump has left the White House. They join a long list of athletes, entertainers, journalists and politicians who Trump routinely attacks as “dumb,” “not qualified” or some such insult.
None of this is subtle or secret; that would defeat the purpose. For Trump, loudly and publicly denigrating black figures is the whole point.
He is a classic example of a backlash politician: a leader who exploits real or perceived white anxieties by exhibiting a flamboyant hostility to the political and economic demands of black Americans. We’ve had a string of such politicians since the civil rights movement, and that is neither surprising nor coincidental: Like many social revolutions, America’s expansion of civil rights in the 1960s and ‘70s gave rise to a potent counterrevolution.
As columnist Bob Herbert later noted: “Everybody watching the 1980 campaign knew what Reagan was signaling at the fair. Whites and blacks, Democrats and Republicans — they all knew. The news media knew. The race haters and the people appalled by racial hatred knew. And Reagan knew. He was tapping out the code.”
…Trump has never renounced, or even acknowledged, the obvious racism of his birther falsehoods, and he never will. Birtherism – like talking about state’s rights in Mississippi – was a quick, convenient way to attract people ready to push back against black advancement.
“There was a shocking amount of resentment that a black family had been in the White House for two terms. I think it would be naive to overlook it — the irony that one of the legacies of Obama’s presidency was an enormous amount of resentment,” Harvard historian Henry Louis Gates said after the 2016 election. “I don’t think a Donald Trump could have emerged without a black president. Donald Trump tapped into and fueled and stoked an enormous amount of racial resentment. And Obama symbolized it.”
With Obama no longer in the public spotlight, Trump has to play backlash politics with whatever black targets of opportunity happen to be around. That is why he never misses a chance to attack Rep. Maxine Waters, Don Lemon of CNN or the black reporters in the White House press corps.
It’s a disgusting and dangerous business: April Ryan has been subjected to death threats in the wake of Trump’s verbal attacks. One can only hope the fever breaks soon, with the public signaling to political leaders that dividing and denigrating people is no way to lead a great nation.
This has happened to me before when I was in college at a frat party. This girl comes squeezing herself in between me and my friend and throws her arms around me. “Amanda, I am so glad you decided to come!” I was so confused and just figured she was drunk and mistaked me for someone else, until I saw the panic on her face. She leaned close and whispered that a guy was following her, was certain that he had put something in her drink and if I would please play along. I looked behind her and sure enough, some creep was watching her like a hawk. We invited her to hang out with us the rest of the night and even waited until her ride showed up just to make sure she was safe. Always look out for each other!
If you ever feel scared like this just come up to me like we have been friends since kindergarten, call me any name u can come up with ill play along.
🗣
👌🏾
Stay together, stay safe
Perfect advice. I’m reblogging this as a guy, because first of all, if you”re a guy : DON’T DO THAT. Don’t be that creep.
And if you’re a guy and you notice some creep is following or stalking a girl, and that she’s obviously uncomfortable or panicked, go ahead and say hi, long time no see, pretend to be her cousin, and tell her discretly you noticed there was a shady guy. Ask her if something’s wrong, if she feels unsafe, if she wants your help (very important – she may not trust you enough, no one could blame her, don’t take it personally). (and don’t you dare take advantage of the help you offered for a flirt opportunity, that would make you no better than the creep)
We can all stop “witnessing and do nothing”, and set an example.
Alternative option for a guy: if you feel safe doing so, go up to the creeper who’s following her and be like “hey WHAT’S UP bud do you like SPORTS? My favourite team is the redsox what’s YOURS my man? What you DRINKING dude that looks GOOD.” and be friendly and just loud enough to blow his cover. Draw attention to him and see what he does. He won’t feel as safe creeping if he knows people are looking at him, and maybe he’ll leave. It also means the woman won’t have to worry that you are *another* creeper she has to be wary of, and you may distract the bad dude enough to give her a chance to lose him.
Reblogging for that last comment.
One of the things I appreciate about Eleanor and Chidi is how they flip the usual gender dynamic in a male-female romance, but in a way that doesn’t ridicule either character. Eleanor is the one who pursues Chidi in every sense: She seeks him out, asks for his help, is the first to realize her feelings when they turn romantic, and is brave and vulnerable enough to admit her feelings without demanding anything of him. Even with couples like Kataang where the woman is more aggressive (link), it is still often the male character who pursues the female character romantically. It was refreshing to see the woman of the pair being in pursuit and maturely handling the pain of unrequited feelings.
It’s easy in this situation for the man who is the “girl” of the relationship, that is pursued and more passive, to be an object of ridicule. Yet that is not how the story treats Chidi at all. He is good and honorable enough to give his help in every one of the hundreds of times Eleanor asks, even when it is detrimental to his own self-interest in wanting a soulmate to spend eternity with. He stands by Eleanor and values her friendship even when he doesn’t feel the same way about her, or can’t bring himself to admit he does. He may have fallen short in life, tied down by indecision and anxiety, but you can see how he tries to live by his principles and do right by Eleanor and everyone in his life. I could understand how Eleanor had fallen in love with him, and also how he increasingly fell for her as she struggled and fought to be a better person and to save their group of friends. That’s what I fundamentally love about Chidi and Eleanor’s relationship, that they are two imperfect people working to become better and their falling in love is a product of that process.
Eleanor and Chidi are a classic case of opposites not only attracting but complementing each other beautifully. For all Eleanor’s repugnant selfishness, she always had the hustle and determination to take action (most of them bad ones). For all Chidi’s painful indecision, he always had the will to do the right and honorable thing (if only he could decide what it was!). When their strengths complemented each other’s flaws, with Eleanor’s selfishness checked by Chidi’s morals and the void of Chidi’s inaction filled by Eleanor’s decisiveness, they became unstoppable.
The show proves over and over again that their love, so human and down to earth, is also a cosmic force. No matter what time or trickery or actual demons of Hell might stand between them, Chidi will always call to Eleanor like a beacon in the dark and Eleanor will always find her way to him. They will defeat their demons, inside and out, to hold hands and stand together. Pity the forces arrayed against them, because whoever is pitted against this pair will lose.
L.J.'s Obsessions 