Modern Monkeys

Elementary l One Way To Get Off + Companions You think I...

Sat, 25 May 2013 13:30:00 -0400

Elementary l One Way To Get Off + Companions

You think I overstepped my bounds. I’m your sober companion, it’s my job to overstep polite boundaries.

My Mad Fat Diary l Touched + Doodles The world has conquered...

Fri, 24 May 2013 13:30:33 -0400

My Mad Fat Diary l Touched + Doodles

The world has conquered me.

Kara Thrace and her special destiny? Sounds more like a bad...

Thu, 23 May 2013 13:30:33 -0400

Kara Thrace and her special destiny? Sounds more like a bad cover band

Battlestar Galactica : Take A Break From All Your Worries

I can barely look Dee in the eye. Battlestar Galactica :...

Wed, 22 May 2013 13:30:24 -0400

I can barely look Dee in the eye.

Battlestar Galactica : The Eye of Jupiter

Elementary l Flight Risk + Companions You can’t expect...

Tue, 21 May 2013 13:30:00 -0400

Elementary l Flight Risk + Companions

You can’t expect Sherlock Holmes to relate to you the way others might. The moment you do he’ll migrate out of your life and you’ll be the poorer for it. You do realize that don’t you?

I once argued with a white dude about why ‘people of...

Mon, 20 May 2013 16:25:00 -0400

I once argued with a white dude about why ‘people of color’ was better than ‘colored people.’ Short answer: BECAUSE WE SAID SO.

Elementary l Lesser Evils + Companions Better lucky than good.

Mon, 20 May 2013 13:30:18 -0400

Elementary l Lesser Evils + Companions

Better lucky than good.

Chris Hardwick: As a black performer, what if someone says "oh, he's a black comic." would you go "why did you have to say that, why didn't you just call me a comic?" And other times, do you go "No, I am a black comic and I want to own that part of my heritage."

Sun, 19 May 2013 13:30:23 -0400

Chris Hardwick: As a black performer, what if someone says "oh, he's a black comic." would you go "why did you have to say that, why didn't you just call me a comic?" And other times, do you go "No, I am a black comic and I want to own that part of my heritage."

W. Kamau Bell: Anyone whose in that sort of other category in America, which is like you know, if you're black, weirdly women are sort of an other even though their most of the population, gay, could be religion, could be Jewish if you're in the wrong room, sometimes you're an other, you have to sort of reconcile what that means. And so for me, the moment I step on stage I'm a black comic. The moment I step on stage, and then it's up to me to sort of decide how do I want to play into that, or subvert that.

You said there was only one person in the world who could...

Sat, 18 May 2013 13:30:29 -0400

You said there was only one person in the world who could surprise you, turns out there’s two.

We were really excited to send Watson out on her own. Really...

Sat, 18 May 2013 12:33:25 -0400

We were really excited to send Watson out on her own. Really shows her growth as a detective.

@ElementaryStaff about Irene Adler

Fri, 17 May 2013 13:30:30 -0400

@ElementaryStaff about Irene Adler

What doesn’t kill us, makes us…WEAKER & MORE...

Thu, 16 May 2013 14:28:12 -0400

What doesn’t kill us, makes us…WEAKER & MORE VULNERABLE FOR OTHER THINGS TO KILL US.

Oh, it hurts, boy, Oh, yes. I know.

Thu, 16 May 2013 13:30:18 -0400

Oh, it hurts, boy, Oh, yes. I know.

Please just let me. Battlestar Galactica : The Passage

Wed, 15 May 2013 13:30:22 -0400

Please just let me.

Battlestar Galactica : The Passage

Ian McEwan : Saturday

Tue, 14 May 2013 13:30:34 -0400

Ian McEwan : Saturday

Forms in Nature : A Chandelier that Projects Tree Shadows

Mon, 13 May 2013 13:30:27 -0400

Forms in Nature : A Chandelier that Projects Tree Shadows

not today.

Sun, 12 May 2013 13:30:35 -0400

not today.

oh, Sam.

Sat, 11 May 2013 13:30:35 -0400

oh, Sam.

The Woman : Best of @Elementary Writes live tweet

Fri, 10 May 2013 13:30:19 -0400

The Woman : Best of @Elementary Writes live tweet

Race, Redemption and Charles Ramsey

Thu, 09 May 2013 19:47:00 -0400

Race, Redemption and Charles Ramsey:

Race has everything to do with this. Fear of black criminality continues to drive permanent punishment, based on the idea that African Americans are less capable of rehabilitation or redemption. So African American kids are given life sentences at a staggeringly disproportionate rate. So Assata Shakur finds herself on the FBI’s Most Wanted List thirty years after the crime for which she was accused based on the claim that she represents a threat to public safety. So Texas prisoner Duane Buck faces execution date after execution date in part because a state psychologist told jurors that, as a black man, his potential for “future dangerousness” was higher. I recently sat in a Memphis courtroom as a white prosecutor pointed at a black man who he hoped to send back to death row, imploring jurors not to be fooled by the “well-dressed, well-groomed” man before him. “Not quite the same as he was back then!” he cried, triumphantly, pointing at a sixteen-year-old mugshot of the defendant, confident that the dark image of him in a hoodie would look threatening enough to scare the jury. You can put a black man in a suit, in other words, but underneath it he is still a criminal.

Some criminals, like some heroes, are allowed to be complex, as we are reminded in the wake of mass shootings committed by white men who are immediately scrutinized for signs of mental illness. Confusion and debate over what Ramsey really is—criminal or hero (or jolly internet meme)—shows how little complexity we afford people like him. It may have taken an extraordinary action, the saving of three white girls, to make him worthy of people’s collective empathy—and it’s certainly likely that if his criminal record included, say, first-degree murder that this empathy would largely evaporate. But if we more broadly applied the logic of legions who have lept to his defense as a changed man, if we started thinking that more people might be worthy of a second chance, we might start to change the conversation around prisons and sentencing.

Every day behind prison walls, inmates—some elderly, some caring for them—wonder, like Christopher Knafelc, if they, too, are “good” people; if they, too might have contributed something to the world if they had been given the chance to try again. Charles Ramsey did. Can we dare to imagine that there are many others like him?