“It's not racism per se but the tyranny of normalcy - no: the tyranny of attractive normalcy. Which leads to loveable white models who are supposed to be playing ordinary, adorably flawed professionals just like you and me with their brilliant minority friends (with vastly less camera time) who are surgeons. But it's not just ethnicity. That narrow vision also extends to, say, things like women leads. Women leads have to be good-hearted and nice, with a Slutty Best Friend. The main character can't be slutty. Because that's not attractively normal etc” CharacterWhiteVisionNiceTelevisionLike YouNormalModelsRacismOrdinaryCamerasBe GoodBrilliantTyrannySupposed To BeAttractiveEtcMinoritiesFlawedHeartedSurgeonsEthnicityNormalcyMain CharactersGood Hearted Author:Sandra Tsing Loh
“We're supposed to be civilized. We're supposed to go to work every day. We're supposed to be nice to our friends and send Christmas cards to our parents.” ParentNiceCardsSupposed To BeCivilizedBeing NiceChristmas Card Author:Maurice Sendak
“The weird thing about having your birthday on a school day is that by the time you get to be ten, or eleven for sure, no one at school knows it's your birthday anymore. It's not like when you're little and your mom brings cupcakes for the whole class. But even though no one knows, you walk around like it's supposed to be a national holiday. You walk around thinking that people are supposed to be nice to you, like maybe on your birthday you're ten times more breakable than on any other day. Well, it doesn't work that way. It just doesn't.” PeopleThinkingKnowsWayWellsLittlesWholeSchoolWalksClassNiceMomTenSupposed To BeHolidayBeing NiceElevenYour MomWeird ThingsCupcakesSchool Days Book:Jack Source: Jack
“I was raised a nice Jewish boy in a Conservative household. Went to Camp Ramah. It's funny actually. I think I enacted my queerness there unconsciously. I was kind of one of the weirdos. I was on staff and definitely interested in alternatives to what that social structure was supposed to be.” ThinkingKindSocialBoysNiceStructureRaisedConservativeAlternativesSupposed To BeCampsHouseholdStaffWeirdoSocial Structure Author:Jay Michaelson