ccarthern, Author at Black Lives Matter

Burning Down the Old Narrative

June 24, 2021ccarthern

#RepresentationMatters. My entire life the vast majority of the time there was a single Black character that was barely part of the story, was never integral, and was either only there to die in service of the white characters, for comedic relief, to dance, or to just silently represent tokenism as if they were a broken and forgotten manakin that some (actually important) white character once called a “friend”, or simply managed to put up with the presence of, in a previous scene. And somehow, to this day in 2021, the presence of said useless manakin proves all the white people involved in the movie are… *not*… racists. The only… Read More

Falcon and the Winter Soldier Review

April 30, 2021ccarthern

“They would never let a Black man be Captain America. And even if they did, no self-respecting Black man would ever want to be.” America is racist. The writer of the show clearly knew this. It was obvious from the beginning that race was going to be a key subject in this series. We first see Sam giving up the shield and being told he was doing the right thing a a white man. As a Black man it was clear to see that Sam was pressured into giving the shield up as the country was not ready for a Black Captain America. It is a privilege not to have… Read More

Featured in Oscars 2021 Ad

April 12, 2021ccarthern

I’m not a huge supporter of the Oscars but I had an opportunity to be a part of an advertisement with one of my favorite movies of all-time. That movie is the Eddie Murphy classic Coming to America. Here is the advertisement that was posted to the Academy’s Twitter account. I am cosplaying Prince Akeem in this picture. Cosplay has opened so many doors for me and I’m grateful. In the ad with me are @dcblackgeeks. Pic taken at @dragoncon. There is still not a lot of representation in this ad other than my group. There is still so much work that needs to be done. Mystery Dinner Studios is here… Read More

The Dark Side of Cosplay – Otakus & Geeks Podcast

March 1, 2021ccarthern

I sat down with Otakus and Geeks Podcast to discuss the dark side of cosplay with a few other cosplayers. This is a topic I’ve been wanting to cover for a while. We discussed what really goes on behind the scenes of cosplay, from bullying and harassment to gatekeeping. We wanted to cover topics that people are afraid to speak up about. With the growing mainstream popularity of the hobby we want people to be aware of what goes on besides the pretty pictures and what can we do as a community to change things? *ANYONE CAN COSPLAY ANY CHARACTER!* Watch to hear us discuss some of the following topics:… Read More

Why Marvel Should Recast T’Challa in the MCU

January 25, 2021ccarthern

I haven’t really expressed my opinion on Marvel deciding not to replace T’Challa. It is a tough decision due to how iconic Chadwick Boseman’s portrayal of the character is. This is the problem for me as a black person. We waited 18 movies to see a black character serve as the lead in a MCU movie and now he is gone. With the loss of Chadwick our lead hero representation goes to 0. This is why representation matters so much. The loss of Chadwick Boseman is devastating and his portrayal of T’Challa and the Black Panther was iconic. I would recast T’Challa for future movies if it was me. I… Read More

Erawan National Park

December 27, 2020December 29, 2020ccarthern

So I kind of have a thing for waterfalls and Erawan National Park was a majestic waterfall park. Located in an isolated area of Kanchanaburi this national park is a true beauty. It is a seven tiered waterfall in Thailand and it is not to be missed if you are in the area. I haven’t been to any other national parks in Thailand but I can’t imagine any park being more beautiful than this one. It is quite a long hike up to the top and you can rest and stop at each waterfall along the way. We were given advice to go early in the morning and hike straight… Read More

A Few Hours in Kanchanaburi

November 11, 2020December 29, 2020ccarthern

You’re probably asking where the heck is Kanchanaburi. Kanchanaburi is a town in west Thailand located about 3 hours from Bangkok. A friend and I traveled down to the River Kwai for a weekend getaway and we decided to spend a few hours here. We made the most of our time here but Kanchanaburi is definitely worth a visit. The town is known for its Death Railway Bridge that was built during WWII. The bridge crosses the River Kwai and was built by prisoners of war. Many died building this bridge. We met some friendly Americans while there and got a tip on a few good eating spots. We decided… Read More

It’s Exhausting Being Black in America

September 29, 2020ccarthern

This post is for any black person going to work still and their employer and co-workers expect you to act like everything is normal. We are in the middle of a pandemic that is affecting black people more, we have witnessed Ahmaud Arbery’s murder, Breonna Taylor has been murdered by cops without being charged, George Floyd was lynched on video, Rayshard Brooks was gunned down and the list goes on. Now they tell us blacks are “hanging” themselves from trees. We are not required to operate as normal. Too often blacks have had to remain professional at work to spare white people from being uncomfortable. This stops now. I saw… Read More

The Power of the Black Dollar

September 16, 2020ccarthern

Recall that blacks had to sit in the back of the bus and if a white person boarded the bus and they were the only black in a seat then the law was that they had to give up their seat to the white person. We as consumers have power. Never forget why the Montgomery Bus Boycott was successful. Blacks accounted for approximately 40,000 bus riders which was 75% of the city’s bus riders. They wanted black drivers, segregation laws and a first-come, first-seat policy. They made sacrifices to sustain the boycott. They organized carpools, black taxi drivers charged the same price as bus fare and many people walked. The boycott lasted 381 days. Companies today wouldn’t last that long in a boycott. Covid-19 has shown us that. Black buying power is close to $2 trillion dollars… Read More

The Black Experience in Corporate America

September 9, 2020ccarthern

Black people make up 13.4% of the US population, but only 3.3% of all US corporate executive or senior leadership roles were held by Blacks in 2018. Data taken from the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Only FOUR, less than 1%, of the current Fortune 500 CEOs are Black and ZERO are women. Corporate American has been failing black America for centuries. This is a form of systemic racism. There are talented non-white men that can lead companies. It makes absolutely no sense that you have white men making decisions for an entire consumer population. Companies have no problems advertising using black culture but won’t put us in power positions… Read More