Friday, January 30, 2015

colorismo: shadeism

The cognate colourism also exists in English, but shadeism (sometimes spelled shadism) seems to be more widely used and understood.

Thanks to my student Shivon for this one.  The short documentary below about shadeism was made by students in Toronto.  The opening scene with the little girl who wants to be whiter is heart breaking. There is a short article about the making of the documentary here.

Shadeism from refuge productions on Vimeo.

Friday, January 9, 2015

Ya Basta! Enough is enough!

This translation jumped out at me in the chapter Occupy: prehistories and continuities by Samantha Shakur Bowden. Not sure where she got it, but I like it. I notice Ya basta! already has a wikipedia entry in English with this definition.

I have previously blogged about the Colombian Basta Ya! report being officially rendered as Enough already, but this version is much better for street chanting. No real difference in my mind between basta ya and ya basta. Of course there's a tiny difference in emphasis, but they seem to be used interchangeably.