Author: Monique

Monique Jones blogs about race and culture in entertainment, particularly movies and television. You can read her articles at Racialicious, and her new site, COLOR . You can also listen to her new podcast, What would Monique Say.
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Witnessing a Revolution Unfold (And How I Hope it Continues)

Monique

Originally posted at Just Add Color | Featured photo by munshots on Unsplash

The past few days have been a whirlwind, to say the least.

As we have all seen or heard at this point in time, George Floyd was killed by Minneapolis police when former officer Derek Chauvin put his knee on Floyd’s neck. Chauvin has since been arrested — initially on the charge of third-three murder, but the charge has since been raised to second-degree murder. The other three former officers, Thomas Kiernan Lane, Alexander Kueng, and Tou Thao, have also been arrested on aiding and abetting Floyd’s murder.

The escalation of charges, however, didn’t come without a fight. For an entire week, people marched in Minneapolis, around the country, and around the world, for Floyd’s killer and accomplices to be brought to justice. Part of those protests included a riot that ended with Minneapolis’ third precinct police station being burned down.

Throughout the riots, protests, and general unrest, I went through a myriad of emotions, to the point where I felt unable to write for this site. I still haven’t watched the video of Floyd’s death because for me, reading about the details, including Floyd calling for his deceased mother, was enough. If I watched the video, I knew I would be haunted by it for the rest of my life. I am already haunted by the lives of so many Black people who have been needlessly killed, and their stories were already compelling me without having to see them get killed on camera. I didn’t want to see the video that would only add insult to injury — the insult being that no one would care.

Or so I thought.

Continue reading “Witnessing a Revolution Unfold (And How I Hope it Continues)”

Martial Arts, Television4 Comments

Three Reasons Why I’m Giving ‘Into the Badlands’ Another Shot

Monique

Originally posted at Just Add Color

The last time I wrote about Into the Badlands on this site, I was… distressed. Veil died in the Season 2 finale, after being tortured for basically the entire season.

I wrote a very, very long review/autopsy of the finale, which was reposted on Black Girl Nerds, and in it I go over the hows and whys Veil died and why her death was ultimately preventable. I was also able to speak at length to showrunner Al Gough about it too, which you can read about here.

After all of the writing and interviewing, I was still in a lurch as to whether I would pick up the remote and turn to AMC once Season 3 rolled around. I know a lot of black women fans might not be, still feeling the burn of Veil’s death. I’m not going to lie and act like I don’t still feel the sting of her loss.

But, after having a year to think about the show and its upcoming third season, I also don’t feel like it’d be justifiable for me to turn my back on Into the Badlands altogether. For me, it’d be like throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

Here are my reasons why I’m going to watch Into the Badlands this season.

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Movies, Sci Fi5 Comments

Power Rangers Shows Superhero Genre How Representation is Done

Monique

Originally posted at Just Add Color

If you told anyone that the movie that was going to shake up the superhero genre in the best way would be the film adaptation of Power Rangers, they would be shocked and probably, in some strange, elitist, I’m-too-old-for-Power Rangers way, appalled. But Power Rangers has come out of the blue as the film when it comes to portraying a diverse group of people in a way that is both organic and makes sense for today’s world and today’s multicultural and diverse audience.

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Martial Arts, Television6 Comments

Fans Sound Off on Into the Badlands Couple Sunny and Veil

Monique

Originally posted at Just Add Color

Into the Badlands is coming into its second season March 19, and even though we’re psyched about the level of action and and suspense, we’re also focused on the family aspect of the show, which is worrying about how Sunny’s going to get back to his family, Veil and their newborn baby.

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Comics, Television6 Comments

We Need to Talk About Chuck Clayton on Riverdale

Monique

Originally posted on Just Add Color

Chuck Clayton has gone down as the first character Riverdale’s penchant for reinvention has revamped in the worst way possible. This is not the way for the show to enter its first Black History Month.

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Movies11 Comments

Moonlight Shines a Light on Black Masculinity and Sexual Identity

Monique

Originally published at Just Add Color

The buzz right now is for a film named Moonlight. The film, the second for writer-director Barry Jenkins, tells a haunting tale of a boy named Chiron whose battle throughout life is coming to terms with his identity as a gay black man. That identity is complicated by merciless taunts at school and a home life surrounded by drugs and hard drug dealers.

The film looks like it’ll become one of the most important films of the latter half of 2016 and into 2017, and rightfully so. When popular culture thinks of black men, they often think of them as how they are presented in Moonlight; as gangbangers and drug dealers. But in Moonlight, even those characters — including the main character, who later becomes a drug dealer himself in Atlanta because that’s all he’s known and that’s probably how he feels he can best hide himself and fit in — have a tenderness and humanity that is often denied them by society and, consequently, by other forms of media.

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Fantasy, Gaming, TableTop15 Comments

The Creation of Kaya, Magic: The Gathering’s First Black Woman Planeswalker

Monique

On August 3, I was excited to unveil a project I’d been working on for nearly a year. I had been working with Magic: The Gathering to produce a brand new character; a character who is a biggie for their Planeswalkers cast of characters. Kaya, Ghost Assassin has made history as the first black woman Planeswalker, and I’m honored to have been a part of her creation.

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DC Comics, Marvel, Movies15 Comments

DC vs. Marvel: Which Movie Franchise Represents Its Audience More?

Monique

Originally posted at Just Add Color

With the culmination of the San Diego Comic-Con, we’ve been getting a lot of DC Comics movie franchise news. Some of which includes the new footage of the Justice League movie, featuring Batman (Ben Affleck), Aquaman (Jason Momoa), the Flash (Ezra Miller), Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot), Cyborg (Ray Fisher) and Superman (Henry Cavill).

With the introduction of DC’s superhero team, I started wondering — which movie franchise represents its diverse audience more?

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Anime, Movies34 Comments

Jon Tsuei is Right: A #WhitewashedOUT Ghost in the Shell Misses the Cultural Mark

Monique

There’s been so much talk about Ghost in the Shell, Dr. Strange, whitewashing, yellowface, and underrepresentation I bet some of you out there are saying, “Man, I might be at my limit!” But wait, there’s more!

When the first look image of Scarlett Johansson as The Major came out, tons of people, Ghost in the Shell fans and regular movie fans alike, were dismayed that yet another opportunity to cast talented Asian actresses passed Hollywood by. Or to put it another way, folks were upset that Hollywood didn’t take the opportunity to advance itself into something better than it has been.

Continue reading “Jon Tsuei is Right: A #WhitewashedOUT Ghost in the Shell Misses the Cultural Mark”

Movies, Star Wars10 Comments

#Stormpilot: How Finn/Poe Could Become Canon (and Why It’s a Good Thing)

Monique

Stormpilot: It’s the fandom pairing of the decade! And it just might come true.

“Girl, please,” you might be saying, but just listen to me! Not only could it happen, but if it does, it’ll change the game forever (and in a good way.) First let’s get into the timeline. Keep in mind: the timeline is intense. Let’s get into it:

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Fantasy, Movies14 Comments

How Gods of Egypt Adheres to Racist Fantasy Rules

Monique

Gods of Egypt is a mess. You can look at the myriad of reviews trashing it and see it for yourself. Heck, you can look at the trailer — or its box office receipts — to see how much of a joke it is. Have you seen such bad CGI in the modern era? But even more insidious than the CGI is that the film went out of its way to cast white actors in an ancient Egypt-set story. This is the second film within two years that showed audiences a white Egypt. You might recall how spectacularly Exodus: Gods and Kings failed.

Technically, Gods of Egypt had all of the ingredients necessary to make a fun “swords and sandals” fantasy. It’s a fantasy that’s not just set in ancient Egypt, but involves gods and goddesses interacting with their human subjects. Who wouldn’t want to see Ra and Horus get into it on the big screen? But where the film’s team went wrong is that they treated it like a “traditional” fantasy. What’s a traditional fantasy, and why was that the wrong approach? Let’s find out.

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Guest Post, Television30 Comments

Three Reasons Why #Richonne is a Black History Month Gift

Monique

Originally posted at COLOR

Hip hop hooray, Richonne (Rick and Michonne) is now officially canon in The Walking Dead! And, as luck would have it, such a development has happened in one of the most hallowed of months, Black History Month.

This didn’t go unnoticed by many on Twitter:

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DC Comics, Guest Post, Television8 Comments

Martian Manhunter Needs His Own Show

Monique

How come it seems like there’s no love for the Martian Manhunter out in these streets? The Martian Manhunter, aka J’onn J’onzz, is one of the core members of the Justice League, yet J’onn seems to be severely underrated. I’m not completely sure why, since J’onn is probably one of the most compelling DC superheroes in the pantheon. But to me, it would seem that DC Comics isn’t paying attention to a goldmine of an opportunity.

Continue reading “Martian Manhunter Needs His Own Show”