Talking Taíno: Google Gemini vs. Taino

Google Gemini vs. Taino

Before I began, I didn't like AI, however, I wanted to see what kind of information it had on the Taíno people. What sources is it pulling from about my community and is what I got. To keep it short, when I asked if the Taino people were still alive, this was the response.

"The Taíno people are not alive today as a distinct ethnic group. However, there are many people in the Caribbean who identify as Taíno, and they continue to practice many aspects of Taíno culture. These people are often referred to as "Neo-Taínos."There is no one answer to the question of how many Neo-Taínos there are in the Caribbean. Some estimates put the number at around 100,000, while others put it much higher. It is likely that the number of Neo-Taínos is growing, as more and more people are becoming interested in their Taíno heritage.The Neo-Taíno movement is a complex one, and there is no single way to define what it means to be Neo-Taíno. Some Neo-Taínos focus on reviving traditional Taíno culture, while others focus on creating a new Taíno identity that is relevant to the 21st century.There are many challenges facing the Neo-Taíno movement. One challenge is the lack of documentation about Taíno culture. The Spanish destroyed much of Taíno culture, and what remains is often incomplete. Another challenge is the fact that the Taíno were a diverse group of people, and there is no single "Taíno way" of life.Despite these challenges, the Neo-Taíno movement is a growing and vibrant one. The Neo-Taínos are working to preserve their heritage and to create a new Taíno identity that is relevant to the 21st century."When asked

"Where is the source to back the claim of Neo-taino"

The response was this: "The claim of Neo-Taíno is backed by a number of sources, including:Theories about the survival of Taíno culture: Some scholars believe that the Taíno culture survived the Spanish conquest through a process of syncretism, in which Taíno elements were blended with European elements. This syncretic culture is what is now referred to as Neo-Taíno.
The existence of Taíno communities: There are a number of Taíno communities in the Caribbean today. These communities often practice aspects of Taíno culture, such as the use of traditional medicines, the practice of traditional crafts, and the observance of traditional festivals.
The self-identification of people as Taíno: There are many people in the Caribbean who self-identify as Taíno. These people often feel a connection to Taíno culture and history, and they may choose to practice aspects of Taíno culture.

However, there is also some debate about the validity of the Neo-Taíno claim. Some scholars argue that the Neo-Taíno movement is not a legitimate continuation of Taíno culture, but rather a kind of cultural appropriation. They argue that the Neo-Taínos do not have a clear connection to the Taíno people, and that they are often more interested in creating a new identity than in preserving Taíno culture.Ultimately, the question of whether or not the Neo-Taíno claim is valid is a complex one. There is no easy answer, and there are valid arguments to be made on both sides."Of course, after reading this, I was curious where Bard got its information so I asked it this.

"Please provide links for this statement: "Some scholars argue that the Neo-Taíno movement is not a legitimate continuation of Taíno culture, but rather a kind of cultural appropriation."

and the response was as follows. "I'm not able to help with that, as I'm only a language model."

So yeah, it was as bad as you thought it was. Frankly, since this AI belongs to Google, I was actually expecting something better, links even to support its answer but I didn't even get those. I did end up giving it some feedback, but I'm not expecting much.

Talking Taíno: Did the Caribs eat the Tainos?

Did the Caribs eat the Tainos?

So someone I don’t like created a video that only mentioned the Taino people for about 10 seconds and in those ten seconds they mentioned how the Taino people were “thankful” when Christopher Columbus showed up because he saved them from the Kalinago tribe or more specifically the (Caribs) because HE reported the Kalinago and the Taino were at “war” with each other and the Kalinago people “ate” the Taino’s and also kept them as slaves.

I’m a bit too tired to clean my ears after hearing all of that bullshit, but here we go ...

There’s not enough data to support the claim the Kalinagos ate the Tainos. According to Christopher, anyone he didn’t like he labeled as the Caribs. Just like the Taino, there’s so little information we know about the Kalinago because someone, not pointing at anyone in particular, killed so many of those people and destroyed so much of their history that what information we do know about them, came from a guy who’s less smarter than a fifth grader.

The overall idea of indigenous people eating others came from one guy who didn’t see them as people but instead as savages, barely even humans.

Here’s a quick history check for you. If you’re going to mention history, more specifically Taino history, at least get the names of the tribes right so you don’t look like an idiot before you even open your mouth.

Caribs and Taino are broad terms. Why do people such as myself call myself Taino when I should be calling myself Arawak? Short answer, there’s so little information for just the Arawak people that most, if not all of it gets put under the Taino umbrella anyway. It’s much easier to find other Taino people than it is to find just the Arawak people.

Moving on, there were several tribes in the Caribbean, such as the Kalinago and the Arawak being the biggest. However, when Christopher came by and killed nearly everyone, all of our culture and history became so sparse everyone joined together under the Taino umbrella.

If you google “What are the indigenous people of the Caribbean called?” You’re probably going to get Taino. It might also mentioned that the Taino came from places such as Jamaica, and Hispaniola, which doesn’t make sense, seeing how other people think the Kalinago, (Cairbs) were the inhabitants of Jamaica and Hispaniola as well, so which one is it?

Taino people also came from Cuba, Puerto Rico, Haitai, you get the picture. We came from every part of the Caribbean but if we came from every part of the Caribbean, why were we fighting amongst ourselves?

Just like Australia, if you’re going to mention infighting with the Aboriginal people when talking about history, do some research and point out the tribes you’re talking about because the term Aboriginal is just an umbrella term used to describe all of the indigenous people in Australia, not just one tribe.

So before you even think about mentioning how the Taino people were “thankful” for Christopher for helping them with the Caribs, perhaps you should figure out the name of the tribes you’re talking about before it becomes evident the shit that comes out of your mouth is flavoured with lies and deception.

Writing Advice: Create Relationships, Not Just Ships

While shipping can certainly add an exciting layer of intrigue to a narrative, there's something profoundly meaningful about fostering and celebrating actual relationships within the world of storytelling.

(And it definitely has nothing to do with the fact my ships are never cannon)

Look, I get it. I'm a sucker for shipping stuff. I think some of them are great fun, but I need to know that the teasing the author is doing will pay off in the end, otherwise I just don't see the point besides setting the ship on fire with oil while the other one sails away.

I love relationships, I love everything that comes with them. The commitment, the over-protectiveness, the cutesy stuff, the weird things couples do but they can do them because they're in a relationship with each other. The way couples can read each other's minds. Sure you can do this stuff without your characters getting together, but it's a different feeling when they are.

Having crushes is normal, and having those crushes drag on is also normal, but waiting until the last book until they get together, while it can make for some fine storytelling. Doesn't give you any room to actually explore what they're like as an actual couple.

It's one of those, they said "I love you" and now they live happily ever after sort of thing and I want to know what their life is like now that they're together.

Some people don't stay in relationships after they move in together because the person they had a crush on, isn't the same person they live with. Show this side of relationships as well!

You created a ship, and in the very last chapter the ship sails...does it reach its destination, or does it sink? What happened on the ship? There still are plenty of questions left to answer and those are the questions I wish more authors wrote about.

Am I salty my ship wasn't cannon? Yes, but please create more relationships and not just ships.

Writing Advice: Magically Changing your POCs pt2

So, I would like to take another look into this trope because I’ve received a lot of different kinds of
comments on it from different platforms and first of all, thank you to everyone who commented on the previous article, you're making me analyse this trope a bit deeper and I hope this will answer a few of
your questions. If this is the first you’re reading this article you may find the previous one here: https://justwritingwithjesse.blogspot.com/2024/04/writing-advice-magically-changing-your.html

There are three main questions which appeared in the previous article. “Is the trope considered racist if only the main character transforms?”

“Brother Bear and The Emperor New Groove shouldn’t fall under the same category as your other examples because everyone in those stories is POC.”

“Transformation stories have been done for several years throughout different cultures.”

That’s a lot to go through but I hope this article will clarify a few things and if not, please keep leaving those comments.

Before I begin, I want to tackle part of the “Transformation stories have been done throughout the years and by several cultures.”

Nearly any story you can think of has already been told, nearly every trope has been around for years, and nothing is new if you look behind you. However, it’s still new for a lot of people living today.

I’m fully aware this trope has been done throughout history, but when I talk about it, I’m mainly gonna focus on Disney stories because one, they’re stories just as much as any other and two, they have the broadest appeal and millions of people see them across the world. In 2023 Moana was the most streamed movie on Disney+ for the United States of America and that movie came out in 2016 so don’t hit me with the “No one is watching these movies” bit.
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/us/dwayne-johnson-teases-moana-2-at-cinemacon-this-is-what-he-has-said-about-disney-film/articleshow/109235284.cms?from=mdr

In 2023 Disney earned 88 billion dollars and for the sake of this article, they’re the largest storytelling company: https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/DIS/disney/revenue#:~:text=Disney%20revenue%20for%20the%20twelve,a%2022.7%25%20increase%20from%202021.

When I talk about tropes, I try to bring in examples of movies which most of the general public has seen (which is Disney). I know they don’t have the best writing or storytelling, but they’re the standard, which means they’re a good place to look at said tropes and figure out why these tropes are still around, and how they’re being used.

So, now that we know I’m fully aware of the history, let’s stay focused on the modern age of storytelling and let’s begin with the rest of the article.

Is the trope considered racist if only the main character transforms?

Princess and the Frog, Soul, Brother Bear, The Emperor's New Groove, Coco, only had the main character transform and not the rest of the cast so is this trope considered racist? This trope has less to do with the rest of the cast transforming and more about the number of times it pops up in the first place by non-white writers.

Tangent: People of colour can tell their own story with their own culture however they want. This trope wouldn’t apply to them. It only applies to white people who write a POC story as it seems to be a common occurrence where they tend to make a person of colour transform against their will. This trope also won’t apply to a white person creating a story about another white person who transforms against their will because that wouldn't be a part of the magically changing your POC trope. Before you say, “What if a person of colour writes a story where the white person gets transformed against their will?” Again, this trope doesn’t apply. Not to mention white people can find stories about themselves where they don’t change very easily. The trope can't be “Magically Changing Your POC” when the main character is white, it’ll just be a transformation trope at that point.

Sorry about that tangent, moving on.

Disney has been telling stories for 83 years (when it comes to their animated movies) and both times when someone in the black community could see themselves for who they are, (in the animation side of things) the main character doesn’t stay as themselves and that’s the problem with this trope.

One could argue there have been two movies featuring Native Americans, Pocahontas and Brother Bear, in which only Brother Bear is a movie about transformation and while that’s true. Pocahontas is just...really...bad. Talking about everything that movie does wrong would require another post all on its own and I would rather not speak over the countless Native Americans who already complained about said movie. In fact, Brother Bear only exist because it was a response to Pocahontas as a way for Disney to say they could write a better Native American story. (Though they’ll never admit it.)

Moving on, remember when I said I felt like the reason why this trope exists is because white writers don’t know how to write a person of colour so they transform the main character to make it “easier”? Out of those two movies (using Soul and Princess and the Frog as reference), there were six writers in total; only one had a black writer, and he wasn’t even the lead writer for said movie. (I’ll let you guess which movie he was a part of.)

Coco isn’t a Hispanic story in the sense it wasn’t created by Hispanic people who knew the culture. (Don’t even try to debate this.) The people at Pixar said it themselves, they only came up with the idea of Coco after going to...Florida...and discovering a skeleton mariachi band...

[https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/coco-how-pixar-brought-day-dead-story-life-1065932/]

The original idea for the film came to Unkrich, 50, during a 2011 family vacation while visiting the Mexico pavilion at Disney’s Epcot theme park in Florida. “I was riding this boat and we passed a mariachi skeleton band, and that was my trigger moment,” he recalls. “I started to think about the potential of telling a story set against the culture of Mexico. I had never seen a full story told against Dia de los Muertos.” - December 12th 2017

Now, there are two things about this quote which stick out, first of all, Unkrick (who’s white if you haven’t guessed) came about the idea for a MEXICAN HOLIDAY STORY while in THE UNITED STATES and secondly, he did admit he came up with this idea before “Book of Life” so I’ll give him a pass on never seeing a story set in Dia de los Muertos.

Those are three stories where the main writer is white, creating a story featuring POC characters and they all transformed at some point in the story against their will. (I’m not gonna go over every single writer for every single movie I mentioned, you get the picture.)

I’ve also gotten the argument that The Little Mermaid is a transformation story and while that's true. It’s about a mermaid transforming into a human, not a human being transformed against their will. Also Aerial chose to be transformed, she signed the contract. Last I checked Tiana didn’t choose to be a frog. I’ve also seen the argument that the Beast in Beauty and the Beast is a transformation story and all I have to say is no…it’s not. The story is about Belle, yes the Beast does get transformed into a beast at the start of the movie, against his will, but it’s not his story. It’s Belle’s, it’s a love story. The Beast is also a white person, so once more, it’s not a part of the magically changing your POC trope. (Before I hear anyone say The Princess and The Frog is also a love story, the main conflict of that movie is both characters trying to not be frogs anymore. The romance is kind of a side plot.)

Going back to “Is the trope racist if only the main character does it?”

As I said before this trope has less to do with just the main character, or the rest of the cast all joining in on the fun and more so with the amount of times it has appeared. However, if we’re just sticking with the only main characters section, those are the ones we’re supposed to relate with and it’s hard to relate to someone if the majority of the movie they’re a frog, or a bear, or a literal dead guy in the case of Soul.

Side characters improve a story, but the story isn’t about them, it’s about the hero against an obstacle. (Most often times a villain). When comparing stories, talking about them and the impact they leave, unless it’s needed, no one cares about the side characters. Having gay LGBTQIA+ characters in your story is great, and the LGBTQIA+ community might enjoy them if they're done well, but the LGBTQIA+ community would still want a story where they’re the hero, not just the supporting cast. In fact, going back to the black-and-white style of television. During the Wild West days, it was a trope where the white cowboy always had a funny Hispanic sidekick and who got the girl? The white cowboy. So yeah, communities who only see themselves as supporting roles, even if they enjoy those characters will often want a story where they're the hero for a change. This is why Zoro is such a good Hispanic cowboy movie because the main character is Hispanic and not a sidekick. (Also fun fact, the voice actor for Puss in Boots is in fact, Zorro.)

Getting back on track, if every time you could see a story where the main character represents you and your culture but they never stay human, it can kind of feel dehumanising...Which it is. The main character doesn’t stay human...which is dehumanising.

Don’t forget, that people of colour have been compared to animals their entire lives. While I don’t think any of these writers who wrote those transformation stories did it because of racism. It’s such a common trope that it should at least be considered before writing your transformation story.

"Two of your examples Brother Bear and The Emperor New Groove shouldn’t fall under the same category as your other examples because everyone in those stories is POC"

The same thing could be said about Coco, however, the amount of POC in the story doesn’t change because this trope is more about the writers.

When I went to see who wrote those two movies I wasn’t expecting a list this long.

Tab Murphy, Lorne Cameron, David Hoselton Steve Bencich Ron J. Friedman, Stephen J. Anderson, Stevie Wermers, Kevin Deters, Woody Woodman, Thom Enriquez, Kevin Harkey, Broose Johnson, John Norton, John Puglisi, Tim Hodge, Tom LaBaff, Ray Shenusay, Brian Pimental, Jim Story, Don Dougherty, Don Hall, Samuel Levine, Aurian Redson, Chris Williams, Jeff Hand, Sam J. Levine, Roger Allers.

None of those are repeating names mind you and they're all for Brother Bear.

I’m not gonna be digging through each name, and discover who’s Native American because of the top five people who made Brother Bear, (CEO of Disney, Michael Eisner 2003). The two directors, Arron Blaise and Robert Walker, along with top writer I’d assume, Tab Murphy, are all white. (I at least didn’t find anything to suggest they were Native Americans.)

The Emperor's New Groove also has a lot of writers mind you, just not as bad as Brother Bear.

The trope about magically changing your POC isn’t really about the story, but who’s writing it, and even in stories where everyone is a person of colour. White people will still tend to force a transformation trope.

“Most good stories are about transformation. A character is changed or transformed by the course of events in a story. We thought it was a great metaphor to have Kenai transformed physically and then by the end of the film transformed emotionally as well.” - Chuck Williams 2021 (https://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/in-their-own-words-the-directors-of-brother-bear/)

Nothing is wrong with this kind of thinking, but if you’re Native American, and you want to watch a Disney animated movie about your culture, you can either pick Pocahontas or go with a guy who doesn’t stay as a human at the end of the story. If you’re white you can choose Snow White, Alice in Wonderland, Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, Peter Pan, Sleeping Beauty, The Black Cauldron, Atlantis, Treasure Planet, Wreck it Ralph, Tangled, Frozen. Etc.

I know I missed some but that’s the point. When it comes to representation, there’s a lot white people can choose from and please don’t get me started with “Some of these movies the main character is ___”. I know. Despite, Snow White being German, white people (mainly talking about the United States) can relate to her easier than they can with Pocahontas or Tiana. However, if you’re a person of colour, it’s gonna be harder to connect with anyone who doesn’t have your own skin tone. (I said harder, not impossible.)

This is why I and other people of colour talk about this trope. We just want to see stories where we can stay human throughout the entirety of it without changing. We know those stories are out there, but for the sake of this article, Disney is the largest storyteller in the world. Whenever it releases a new story, everyone from around the world is watching. We would like to be the hero and not an animal. We don’t want to be dehumanised.

"Transformation stories have been done throughout the years and by several cultures"

I’ve already touched on this briefly at the beginning so I won’t spend too much time on it here. I know this, you know this, everyone knows this. The problem with this line of thinking is that it's not what we’re talking about. We know this trope has been done before but in our current age, we don’t want to see it, at least not as often as it has been appearing.

Do you know how many LGBTQIA+ stories there are? Thousands, maybe even millions if you look hard enough. Do you know how many LGBTQIA+ stories that are mainstream? That almost everyone has either seen or at least knows about? Very...very...few.

Not everyone can find stories about themselves, not everyone knows where to look. Like I said before, Disney is the biggest storyteller in the world, it’s a very safe bet people have seen a Disney movie. People of colour would like more stories where they aren’t getting transformed midway through because it’s a recurring pattern if you haven’t guessed already. It seems to be a reoccurring pattern with white people who are in charge of said story if you haven’t guessed.

This wouldn’t be a problem if the number of POC stories overshadowed the number of times they get transformed but as of right now, that’s not the case. In fact, there are more stories (In the Disney lineup) where the main characters are animals instead of a POC staying as a human throughout the entire story. Don’t you think that’s a bit of a problem?

Why do you think it’s easier and more common (for white writers and directors) to write a story about talking dogs than it is to have a POC stay themselves for the entirety of the story? I could be wrong, but I’m pretty sure out of all of Disney's history, only two people of colour got to direct a Disney animated movie. They’re, Carlos López Estrada and Charise Castro Smith. Carlos helped with Raya and The Last Dragon while Charise helped with Encanto and I’m pretty sure both of them were only co-directors.

You can argue all you like that the trope isn’t racist or that I’m stretching with this article but until there are more POC stories where the main character stays human throughout the whole story, and those stories surpass the number of talking animals. Then yes, I and other people of colour will keep saying the trope where a POC gets transformed against their will, by a white writer might be doing it because of racism (subconsciously) because it’s easier to write a story about talking animals than it is for a white person to write a story about someone being a person of colour.