Dangling a carrot in front of somebody who is starving is exploitative. It's fucked up. It is a way to get somebody to do something that they wouldn't normally have done, because you are promising to provide something. You know that the individuals you're inviting need money, so you saying it as an incentive so that we show up is exploitative and manipulative. Don't do that.

Anti-Blackness refers to actions or behaviors that minimize, marginalize or devalue the full participation of Black people in life. The spectrum of anti-Black actions and behaviors spans from unconscious bias to motivated acts of prejudice. They include the tolerance of or indifference to the under-representation, differential success and advancement, or experience of Black people in the university.

In fact many of the people inhabiting islands within the Polynesian triangle and those who proudly call themselves People of the Pacific or Pacific Islanders first migrated from West Africa. Hell, there’s even a place called Melanesia. The White-washing of history, mass genocide and raping of local people has lead many to believe this is not true but I know y’all see the physical features the same way I do. I touched on a lot of this in my pieces Moana is Trash and The AAPI Acronym.

When I first saw Moana, I cried and I was proud. After I was able to process the film for the moldy crumbs that it is, I was then able to see how ambiguous, exploitative and unfulfilling the film is. It’s beyond heart wrenching to know this is the amount of representation we’ll receive and that no other parts of our cultures will be emphasized because of greed.