Our weekly recap highlighting the best feature stories from around the internet.
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'Luke Cage' Is Everything I Wanted to Be When I Grew Up - by Mensah Demary, VICE
“For all of its flaws, and there are a few—uneven pacing, plot holes, ridiculous dialogue—Luke Cage signifies a moment in which black fans, starved and thirsty for representation, are simply ecstatic to see the fantastic come to life, adorned with melanin. Luke Cage—black American man—is Power Man: Find me another hero more transgressive, more divine in his ability to disturb the peace, to rattle the weak-kneed constitution of nerds and bros who think their white heroes translate and transcend cultures.”
In Solange’s Room – by Doreen St. Félix, MTV
“So much of this album documents, with colossal beauty, the way environments conspire to ruin or lift the moods of black people. For Mathew Knowles on “Interlude: Dad Was Mad,” the surroundings are the fallout from school integration. For Lil Wayne, clarified and vulnerable on the twinkling “Mad,” it’s general despair. Whatever the cause, Knowles makes room for the effects, the weariness, and the defiance. Knowles is unmoved by didacticism, by referential storytelling. She prefers traditions like anguish, annoyance, aggression, pride, haughtiness, and jubilance, and in that order. She maps the escalation of feeling.”
Serena’s Biggest Win – by Elena Bergeron, The Fader
“With all due respect, though, there’s never been a Serena Williams before Serena Williams. There has been no blueprint for an athlete to arrive at the intersection of gender and race and dominance and scrutiny that she has. Perhaps even more than her wins, Williams’s greatest feat has been the very act of breathing herself into existence.”
Joseph Parker: “I want to keep boxing, Mum” – by David Riley, E-Tangata
“Sala sat at the ringside during one of Joseph’s early fights and didn’t enjoy it at all. She felt like crying every time he got hit. “His nose was bleeding,” she says. “And I never wanted to see my son look like that.” She enrolled him in basketball, tennis and volleyball. She even bought a set of second-hand golf clubs for him. Anything to distract him from boxing!”
Why is Hollywood still using 'yellowface' in 2016? – Ben Child, The Guardian
“The very existence of movies such as Birth of the Dragon, Aloha and Ghost in the Shell suggests some film-makers still don’t quite understand what all the fuss is about. Deeply offensive stereotypes such as IY Yunioshi may be off limits in 2016, but we still have a long way to go before more subtle examples of prejudice have also been consigned to Hollywood history.”
Kim Kardashian West, Elena Ferrante, and the Right to Privacy - by Ann Friedman, The Cut
“Don’t listen to Ferrante’s outers or Kardashian’s haters, who say that women who shy away from publicity are inviting exposure and women court publicity are inviting attack. Listen to women themselves when they declare how much privacy they want.”