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They definitely do not.
Dorothy is slightly taller and noticeably less curvy in the hips than Amber (I also want to say slightly less buxom and more perky in the upper torso area as well).
Also, Walky commented on Amber being thicker when Sal first found them kissing on Garbage Roof.
Yes, they LOOK similar, as in they’re both short with bowl shaped hairstyles and glasses.
They do not have the same body type.
Click the link and see (and in case the link doesn’t work, I’m referring to when Scarface Ryan tried to attack them outside the dorm, a search with all three names can find it easily):
Yeah, it’s facial symmetry, not body type. My brother and I have something similar, actually–behead us, and shave off the hair, and you’d have trouble telling us apart other than identifying marks. But I’m a good foot taller and proportionately heavier than he is.
It’s the “bony Poindexter”, vs “Ambster the Hamster”. Dorothy does have a rounded jawline, but her lines are pointier everywhere else, and Amber has the swoopier curvier lines, where physics appreciates her posterior.
No, but it can be overcome and improved on. Linda wasn’t going to magically turn Not Racist in this one conversation, but it could well have been step one on that path.
I mean, not really? She’s had many chances to take that first step in the past, and instead learned to take the forgiveness of her children for granted. The only reason why she’s more approving of Sal here is because she’s dating an Approved White Boy who’s gonna “set her straight”.
That’s your take on it, and I will say that Danny being white is a big subconscious point in his favor in Linda’s eyes at the very least, but folks aren’t locked into their world views and prejudice. People can change, for better or for worse, and we’ll likely get a better view on where Linda stands on things as this trainwreck gets going.
Yeah. Linda’s a racist who doesn’t know she’s racist. That glimmer of hope that, not only did she refrain from doubling down on the Lucy hate, but that she might actually start listening to Sal’s opinions in a new way, that could’ve been a real first step. The first step of many, many steps — but still! So tantalizing for Sal!
–But instead, time for Walky shenanigans. Major sibling feelings here!
What an incredibly naive thing to say. Try looking up Life After Hate for a start.
This is just laziness. If people with x prejudice are unchangeable, then we have no obligation to try to help them see things differently, right? Totally wrongheaded.
Absolutely no one is obligated to hold a racist’s hand through becoming less of a racist, whether it’s a possible task or not. If you’ve got the spoons for it and choose to, good on you, you are doing a positive thing for the world. But the only obligation is on the racist to do better.
No one is asking you personally to do it. Sal seems inclined at least prod in that direction if she gets that glimmer of hope though, and she’s not obligated NOT to just because the obligation SHOULD be on the racist to do better.
Please read the comment I am directly replying to for the context of my statements. I have offered no negative judgment of Sal’s actions, express or implied.
It’s not just white allies either, any allies who aren’t directly harmed by someone’s prejudice are, in fact, responsible for taking up the mantle and doing the work of helping them dismantle it.
I kind of get what you’re saying, but I don’t agree. Allies should actively oppose racism, but that doesn’t always or even often mean “hold a racist’s hand through becoming less of a racist”.
That’s far too often a futile task and one that can easily backfire. Shielding them from any consequences in the name of trying to change them.
My theory is you need a lot of Allies to shun racists, and then like one racist-whisperer to bring them back. (And if the whisperer is a minority themselves they should get paid for the work.)
And then you get JK Rowling, who was radicalized by more vitriolic transphobes largely because trans allies were too busy shunning her and assuming someone else should do the work, so no, your theory is not correct
“Holding [someone’s] hand” doesn’t necessarily mean shielding them from consequences either, it just means remaining through the process of unpacking racism regardless of how drawn out the process is. Allyship isn’t glamorous and opposing racism isn’t the power fantasy of punching nazis in the face (or just dunking on them in their twitter replies, which is all most “allies” do anyway). It’s hard work and requires compassion and humanity, which is why it’s necessary for allies to do the work, since they aren’t the ones being dehumanized.
It never really “goes away” but we aren’t our biases. Believing that we are and they never can change is foolhardy and puts too much power in racist’s hands.
Sal: “What’s different about Lucy that you don’t like?”
Linda: *error 404 file not found*
Not quite the confrontation that I was kinda hoping for, but I do like that, when pressed on the issue, she doesn’t double down, instead going “…huh, well, okay, I guess…”
Woman needs to do a lot more self-reflection, but I’m glad that Linda isn’t some sort of cartoon villain of racism. Work to be done, but it’s work that *can* be done at least.
Yeah. I’ve seen more glimmers of hope in Linda in this storyline than in basically all of her previous appearances combined. Whether she’ll actually live up to her potential for growth, of course, is a different matter.
I don’t think Linda consciously thinks “Lucy is black therefore bad”, so much as there’s a “vibe” that she feels and doesn’t examine.
I’m a little nervous about how this topic is handled, but I do like the somewhat nuanced (by DoA standards) portrayal here. Linda’s kind of racist but not really actively malicious, and I think a lot of (white) people have a relative like that.
Linda is definitely the racist that a significant amount of white people are, the kind that they never think about while patting themselves on the back for being allies because they say all the right things.
well, at least dorothy and the parents actually met so they probably knew a bit of her personality versus just a white girl that was considerate enough to make him write them ‘thank you notes’ for care packages
Wow! Linda almost maybe had a moment were she wasn’t terrible. Now on to the pending nuclear explosion. Make sure to stare directly at it you might get superpowers.
it’s a shame lucy isn’t there to watch or step in right at the end, even if she ‘trusts’ walky it’d probably be better to be there/know exactly what happened
It’s possible she still could, if amber’s words/actions ends up leading her to thinking “A regular average black girl is better than an awful white girl”
We know he dislikes walky but hopefully not enough to screw over lucy (or even saying “Actually, *Lucy’s* too good for him” but probably not something you’d say to parents rather than a friend group)
I like to think that many of the people bringing it up each day are sock puppets for Mike. The fact that Mike is still alive in our universe explains half the Internet.
Maybe we are all in comics of some other, more real universe, and when we die we become part of the readership consciousness of that universe. Which itself is a comic in yet another, even more real universe, and so on.
At the end, we join Mary Worth. Unless we have been terrible, in which case we join 9 Chickweed Lane.
Or maybe we get our choice of comics, in which case I want to be in Mark Trail.
Does it have to be comic strips or can it be any fictional world?
Because I wouldn’t mind joining the world of Soul Eater when I die (but only after the last chapter of the story).
Everybody is assuming that Sal and Walky’s take on their parents like it’s the God-given truth. And, to be fair, I can understand why everyone thinks Linda is a racist. But, it wouldn’t surprise me if there is more to the story than Linda simply being awful. We’ll soon see.
Well no, people don’t just decide to be racist out of the blue, but the answer is pretty obvious, isn’t it? It’s a racist country from the top to the bottom, and Linda likely was raised that way. We don’t need to flash back to the one time a Black person was slightly rude to her at a K-Mart to figure that out. After a certain point, that’s as much answer as we can expect, considering the setting. It’s not like we’ll find out she was ever justified, that’s part of my point.
It’s more that racism is more complex than just “not at all racist” and “klan leader”. It’s clear that Linda isn’t in a good place on that gradient, but where exactly is quite ambiguous.
That’s the big thing, that a lot of Linda’s interactions and attitudes towards her kids have a slight veneer of “this might NOT be racist, just a different flavor of shirtiness” but when we know the context (as Sal and now Walky see it), they LOOK racist.
Like, is she JUST a social climber who didn’t like Sal hanging with Marcie because she’s (possibly) illegal and that would hurt her kid’s chances of securing a “good, high income, high society” future? Or because she doesn’t like that they’re immigrants? Basically, is she classist or racist? Or both?
What else am I gonna do with an egg? Boiling takes forever on my shitty stove, my girlfriend doesn’t like them fried, and now that’s all three possibilities covered.
Of course she opposed Sal hanging out with Marcie at first contact, before she knew anything about Marcie’s circumstances other than her looks, so if she assumed the toddler was illegal or even an immigrant, that’s still racism.
There’s also a hell of a lot more evidence for her being racist than for her being a social climber.
Honestly, until Linda’s issue with Lucy, I didn’t see any reason to think racism was more likely than internalized misogyny. I don’t really see why anyone—least of all Sal—would leap to racism to explain the obvious bias when one of them is a boy and the other is a girl. It’s practically stereotypical for mothers to favor their “baby boys” over their daughters because they’re “easier.”
I’m still kind of holding out for this explanation, even though the Lucy issue seemed to stick a fork in it, because it’s way more realistic; the internalized misogyny of “boys are easier” is horrifically prevalent, but I don’t think anyone has raised that as a contributing factor here *once.* I also think the intersectionality of it would be more interesting than “I came out blacker,” because mother-daughter relationship are unique and complicated in their own right—but DOA seems more invested in “Linda is racist” than exploring their relationship from any other lens besides that.
And you seem to be very invested in ignoring the very realistic portrayal of subtle racism in favor of ANY OTHER REASON AT ALL she might be acting the way she did. Might be something to think about if you’re uncomfortable with the angle the story is deciding to explore.
What gets me is just. This is a fictional story being written by a real person. What the fuck is the point of spending ten years building up the walkertons as racist only to randomly say “oh it’s not that actually.” From narrative perspective it makes 0 sense. Why does no one think about that for five seconds before desperately trying to defend the racism as anything but racism
My mother was a firm believer that boys were easier, and was very annoyed when my sister turned out to be one. My Grandmother thought she was out of her god-damned mind (which, to be fair, is pretty true overall), so it doesn’t seem too universal either way.
Sal identified it as racism rather than sexism, and a character’s opinion, especially the character who is the victim of said prejudice, is also evidence towards a conclusion. The comic doesn’t need to show all the thousands tidbits of backstory that made Sal think racism rather than sexism as the culprit.
Yes yes it can only be one or the other. Everyone knows that sexism and racism never cross over. In fact, it’s not like there’s a SPECIFIC WORD for misogyny toward black women
You’re not wrong in your analysis of mother-daughter relationships; there are absolutely other reasons Linda and Sal’s relationship could be strained beyond racism and you aren’t wrong for bringing that up, either. However, there’s definitely a level to which this scenario being “more realistic” paints a very clear bias towards white female experiences, though, and claiming it would be “more interesting” is definitely… problematic to say the least. Willis wrote the comic a certain way and there’s a clear takeaway that racism played into how Sal’s relationship with her mother got strained in the first place. I would encourage you to take some time to consider why you think that less “realistic” or “interesting” than sexism (especially given the specific racially-charged sexism that Black women experience) because those particular points read a bit prejudiced in a way I don’t think you intended them to.
I think there’s lots of room to talk about intersectionality and how Linda’s type of racism leans heavily on misogynoir and how that affects her relationships with the Black men and women in her life. I don’t think ‘it’s actually sexism and the racism is all in the Black woman’s head’ would be an acceptable way to do that.
Oh boy. Regretting not checking on this for a couple days now. But just to be clear:
1) I was not trying to pit misogyny against racism in my comments about the reasons for their dynamic being more “realistic”/“interesting.” I was saying that an intersectional lens would be more realistic/interesting than just, “Linda is racist.” It probably would have been more clear if I had used the term misogynoir; that definitely would have made my intention clearer, and that’s on me. I do genuinely think that a misogynoir angle (or, to use my phrasing from my original comment, “[gender as a] contributing factor” or “intersectionality”) is more interesting and realistic than straight-racism without any acknowledgement of how the twins’ gender might come into play.
2) I do see how people misunderstood the intention, because my first paragraph was admittedly pitting misogyny against racism. I was only surprised that the instinct of the characters here would be to assume it’s a racial bias when gender is so obvious—like the fact that Sal is a girl and Walky is a boy is explicitly brought up half the time they share a scene or Walky talks to someone about Sal. (Especially when Linda gets the brunt of the blame, but some of the most aggressively racist microaggressions we’ve seen toward Sal—lamentation over Sal keeping her hair natural comes to mind—came from Charles.) To address my lack of clarity: I don’t think one needs to be “picked”—I’m just surprised that, where Sal *did* single out *one* explanation, she didn’t go for misogyny.
3) Another way that I, in hindsight, muddled my message was with the references to Lucy. Obviously if I’m lamenting a clearer suggestion that misogynoir is at play, then Lucy, as a Black woman, wouldn’t disprove the interplay of misogyny, so why would I refer to her situation as killing that idea? …oh, yeah, I can see how I just flat-out said something that didn’t track with what I intended to say. The thing with Lucy is that Linda has been so nice and over-the-top enthusiastic about Walky’s white girlfriends, and she practically spit in Lucy’s face. Yes, Lucy is a Black woman, but Linda has never had a problem with white women in the same scenario. It’s so blatantly racist, you just *know* she would have behaved similarly if Sal had shown up with Jacob instead of Danny. But before that, I don’t think any of us could say for sure if Linda would have made different decisions with regard to how she treated her children if, canonically, Sal had been “generically beige” and Walky had been “Black” (to reverse Walky’s summation).
Yeah Willis definitely spent the last decade building Linda up as racist, showing examples of her being racist, her and Charles dropping microaggessions all over the place, just to pull the rug out from under us as gotcha. Yeah. That is surely what he’s doing. That definitely makes more sense than the parents just being a very average and common flavor of racist that doesn’t involve doing hate crimes and screaming slurs. Very good analysis.
I think lucy overlaps a bit with joyce, I imagine she probably does decently school wise (i don’t think she’s been shown struggling or excelling in a particular subject but def not as “ambitious/wanting to be president level” of determination for a goal [What is her major/career goal, anyways?])
Take away the trauma and autistic traits* and Joyce is also the epitome of “girl you wanna take home to mom.” They’re like the trifecta
*- not my opinion, and I am also most likely autistic and vv nervous about those traits when trying to impress Important People. Just speaking based off of shitty cultural standards
Not sure where dorothy went up to tho lucy stayed behind because she said she trusts walky and i expect is just waiting on a text to see if they’re still on for dinner
When you say somebody has blinders on, that makes your comment sound way more personal against NGPZ than you hopefully intended. Can we please take the temperature down a notch, so that we can keep it fun to comment with each other?
… it makes me think of horses with those silly things to stop them seeing stuff to restrict their fields of vision to “make it less likely they’ll see something that’ll spook them”/make it more likely they won’t be able to identify the source of noises as benign and will get spooked…
Does not having the highest moral expectations for a character because of their history really equate to seeing them as a static cartoon villain?
I mean when cast members didn’t have the highest expectations for Joe dating Joyce because of his reputation as a horndog, did they all have binders on too?
It was exciting that Linda didn’t double down on the Lucy-hate, and even more exciting that she said she’d start listening to her Black daughter. Even though Linda’s reasons for listening were weird, listening to Sal’s opinions is a good choice that Linda had never, ever made before!
It wouldn’t be like a big dramatic breakthrough, but it could’ve been a step 1 of many, many steps — which is a step 1 nonetheless — which would be just tantalizing for Sal. After all, Sal doesn’t want her mom to stay terrible and not listen to her. Sal and Walky want their mom to grow.
It’s entirely possible, in her worldview, that she might give Lucy a chance to “prove she’s one of the good ones”. (Massive eyeroll to that phrase, but you know what I mean.)
She’s prejudiced, we don’t truly know what degree of bigoted she is.
They go well with all the commenters who still think she’s not really racist at all.
In this case, I suspect part of it is that some are really opposed to Walky’s plan here and if she really was on the verge of a breakthrough, then the plan actually makes things worse rather than just failing.
Or unless sal’s quick on the uptight and can fake being ‘indignant’ about Amber joining and fake some kinda fight that doesn’t take it too far/step backwards to where Linda think she’s back to her ‘old ways’ again, and then lucy showing up for dinner again
Even if it didn’t occur to walky, hopefully Amber would be texting danny/sal what they plan to do and ask them to play along
Linda’s facial expression in panel five is amazing. So much nuance in the set of her lips. It conveys so much. You can just feel the cautious warmth and respect, not so freely given as with some more open-hearted characters.
I feel like a lot of people are misreading what’s happening here with Linda. Linda is not evolving. She didn’t almost have a breakthrough. The reason she is suddenly being kind to Sal is because she’s suddenly seeing Sal through the rose-colored glasses Danny’s whiteness gave her. And the only reason Linda gave Lucy even a second thought was because of Sal’s new proximity to this whiteness. She didn’t have a realization that actually she knows *nothing about Lucy* and that maybe she should give Lucy a chance before passing jugement. No, Linda was going to give Lucy a chance *because Sal vouched for her*, not because of who Lucy actually is.
Plus, even if Linda decides Lucy is okay, this is not a cure for her racism. “This one black person is okay because they’re *different*” is pretty basic tenant of covert racism.
The kindness and consideration we’ve been seeing Linda display this last week is not her default, true state. It’s the state she’s in exclusively when interacting with white people that fit her ideas of “successful.” And this is why “But he’s so nice” is never a valid argument in response to accusations of racism. The fact that she’s nice to Sal but only when she’s with Danny isn’t evidence of the problem resolving, it IS THE PROBLEM.
Hugely possible! I’ve definitely viewed today’s strip through hope-colored glasses, because Sal hopes so hard that her mom will become less racist, and also because a glimmer of hope gives the maximum Damn You Willises per square centimeter when the Walky shenanigans begin instead.
So she’s not not being racist she’s just taking Sal’s word that Lucy is one of the good ones, which only holds weight because Danny declaired her one of the good ones by dating her.
The thing is, look at what the effects of Linda’s racism that we’ve seen are: primarily, it’s been her devaluing her daughter and trying to control her. On this page we see her valuing Sal’s input and being convinced to not dismiss another young black woman. To be clear, it’s for the wrong reasons- it’s because she thinks Sal being with Danny means that she was right and Sal is somehow “tamed”. But the effects of her racism are being mitigated and she’s being challenged in her assumptions and ceding ground instead of digging in her heels. That’s progress, and it’s also an opening for further challenges to her worldview.
We can recognize that step the same way we recognize that Mr. Brown is moving in the right direction while still acknowledging that they both have a long way to go.
I could probably give a lot of really interesting commentary on this strip if I wanted to wade tits-deep into The Discourse™, but I’ve been inhaling a lot of fumes from various epoxies lately so it’s probably best if I stick to the jokes.
What do you call a 6-person group who can’t decide what kind of pizza to order?
If Linda just uncritically accepts that Walky has found a new girlfriend in the last twenty minutes and immediately loves Amber because she’s white regardless of all else, then Amazi-girl might as well just shoot her and stop letting her waste everyone’s time.
If Linda were one of the commenters, sure, that might be an overstep. Lucky for us all, violence threats against cartoons aren’t actionable and can’t be carried out, so it’s 100% safe.
On the other hand, if CHARLES uncritically accepts Amber because she’s white, that’s even stupider but also kind of a funny twist. I’m kind of curiou what Charles’ whole deal is here. Does he not notice his wife is racist? Does he love her despite it? Is he the one secretly feeding racist ideas in her head? That last one would make the comment section absolutely nuclear (and also probably not be a good idea!), but it would be a hell of a twist.
I feel like Linda sees Charles as her “get out of jail free card”. “I can’t be racist! I have a Black husband! I have Black children! See how woke I am!?”
Charles is also mixed-race, IIRC. Maybe Linda was his “Danny”: the price of parental approval.
Of course, Linda was previously married to the Dean. Implied that she was a college student or still quite young, married to a much older man, IIRC. Implied that her first husband may have been her teacher in some way.
Maybe Charles was her “knight in shining armor” who “rescued” her from a hasty marriage she regretted. Who knows?
Walky’s earlier statement, “I refuse to do any more math on” his mother’s and the dean’s ages, and the alt-text of a little while back, when Linda was talking about how schtupping her TA was her solution for academic advancement, imply that the Dean was significantly older than Linda and may have been her teacher.
Becoming attracted to Charles may have been part of how Linda worked her way out of a marriage she eventually decided had been a hasty decision.
Sorry, I should have clarified that I was referring to Linda’s first husband, the Dean, not to Charles.
Charles is half white so even chances he grew up in a whiter culture and just internalized everything that comes with that. Linda’s not racist, other black people just need to pull their pants up and stop listening to all that “yo yo yo” garbage. Don Lemon style
Okay, here’s what I imagine is happening: you’re marking the second half of zee’s comments (starting with “Linda’s not racist”) as the sarcasm/representation of a messed up mindset that it is. It does seem like this is necessary for some.
BUT in my mind, the two tone indicators were canceling each other out, so it was more like going “sarcastic (but not really).” And now I’m wondering if others read tone indicators the same way, where the most obvious target of a second tone indicator is the first tone indicator, or if it’s just understood they should be applied to the same thing.
You know, seeing this plan, that we all knew was terrible, somehow unfold in an even more terrible way than expected, all I can do is think back to when Boomer said that Lucy and Walky wouldn’t end up being good for each other. Walky needs someone who will push back against his bad habits and compensate for his weaknesses, and based on this, Lucy just doubles down on them with him.
This is going to go so poorly lmao. It seems likeSal could’ve gotten her to sort of accept Lucy, and now Walky’s going to show up with the girl Linda tried to get expelled.
Was honestly bypassing how Danny would feel about this.
But since his established dislike of Walky seems almost solely based on them having the same ex girlfriends, yeah, he might take issue with this.
You know what would make a fun one-time Patreon strip? An alternate reality storyline that opens with,
“Mom, this is Carla; my NEW new girlfriend”.
Let’s see where that episode would go. If nothing else, it’d lead to a helluva NSFW episode.
I was angling for Booster to be the fake significant other. Not becaause I want Linda inflicted on Booster, or because I think she’d be bigoted towards them, but it’d be… interesting… to have her navigate her words while Booster doesn’t give a shit and psychoanalizes everyone at the table.
Let’s see, who else would be fun to slot into this situation…
Ruth? Malaya? Meredith? Roz? A brand-new extra who’s literally a Dorothy clone (but pallet-swapped to Lucy’s hair color and skin tone)? The entire green roller derby team? Liz? Sarah?
Ooh! Have them tag-team and switch any time the camera’s not on them, and tell Linda the current participant was there from the beginning!
Fundamentally, she still doesn’t, and that’s what I hope Sal realizes here. Linda is behaving herself now because she’s getting what she feels owed, not because she actually values Sal, or because she’s done any work to improve as a human being or a parent. I get that Sal is trying this new state of affairs out but I really hope she won’t buy into it at all. I’ve got a mom like Linda and frankly, I never much *wanted* her approval if it’d mean adopting her values or going along with her attitude toward others. Takes all kinds, of course, and I’m interested to see how Sal handles this, I just know I’d be in visceral discomfort if I’d attempted this lunch.
Lucy, like Dorothy, is a cartoon nerd who dresses him. She’s just got Joyce’s bubbly outgoingness instead of Dorothy’s self-destructive perfectionist drive. So… really just an overall upgrade if you think about it.
Walky introduces Amber as a (potential) significant other. Linda doesn’t like Amber, and decides Lucy wasn’t so bad after all. And then everyone claps.
That plan might have worked if she was literally anybody else. Amber is too tied up in the stabby-stabby mess and kidnapping saga for Linda to ever actually like her. The only way the plan might work is if she doesn’t recognize her as Amber O’Malley.
Ooh. Cue mom and/or dad noting the same thing as the Worst. Wingman. Ever. I’m going with dad. I think he’s bro enough to be in sync with Joe on this point.
Here's an entertaining cite at the bottom of the first page
Josh Gerstein@joshgerstein.bsky.social ⋅ 1d
JUST IN: Milwaukee Judge Hannah Dugan moves to dismiss federal criminal case against her for allegedly helping immigrant hide from ICE. Her lawyers say she's protected by official acts & judicial immunity and 10th Amendment. Doc: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
Where did Hollywood go so wrong? I thought movies were supposed to be an escape from reality, a chance to put your worries aside and not have to think about any underlying ideas or concepts. Well, not anymore.
theonion.com/you-can...
It's not a new argument, of course, but Chesterton dismissed it effectively in 1908.
"You will hear everlastingly... this argument that the rich man cannot be bribed. The fact is, of course, that the rich man is bribed; he has been bribed already. That is why he is a rich man."
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com ⋅ 1d
Hawley dismisses Trump lining his pockets with his memecoin: "Listen, I think nobody believes that Donald Trump can be bought. I mean, what does Donald Trump need more money for?"
wilbur, savvy enough to know he's in a comic strip but still not a great actor, awkwardly lifts a muffin up into frame so that we, the audience, understand that he has a muffin right now, which is very important narratively, but he's not really selling it well as an organic, human action
confirming that the reason there's been no Galaxy Version female characters in Blokees until now is that they felt they needed to make Round Lady Thighs For Ladies
It's #webcomicday? We have a special day???
Well, my name is Pat McHoarney and I draw 69 Mouse-Ear Blvd, a multigenerational story about women who all have sexy legs and probably other features. There was a grandmother, but she wasn't hot and so she died off-panel.
Elizabeth Holmes is in prison for defrauding investors through her blood-testing company, Theranos. Her partner, Billy Evans, is now trying to raise money for a company that describes itself as “the future of diagnostics.” nyti.ms/3FbtZm9
Josh Gerstein @joshgerstein.bsky.social ⋅ 1d
Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com ⋅ 1d
Pavel
@spavel.bsky.social ⋅ 10d
The New York Times @nytimes.com ⋅ 5d
preternia @preternia.com ⋅ 3d
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“You didn’t seem to like the other one, so I got a trade-in deal at the Girlfriendorium”
I like to think that’s a side hustle Carla runs in the dorm. Ruth knows about it, but Carla offered her a gift card to look the other way.
Surplus girlfriends may be donated to the polycule.
You can’t just force additions to the polycule. There has to be attraction. Mainly in the form of H-bonds and Van der Waals forces.
Which is exactly why Carla is the perfect person to manage such an enterprise. She probably has equations for that shit.
Leather, lace and PVC also works…
And polished Latex, that’s always in kinky style.
Lovely.
It was actually great until Walky showed up. Of course the plan was bad but I didn’t think it was going to go that badly.
It’s a terrible plan, that Danny and Sal aren’t even in on.
This is gonna be good.
Re: Alt-Text, does that include Dina’s parents too?
Yeah, but if Dina says Becky’s an acceptable Dorothy that’s good enough for them.
Becky’s better at being Dorothy than Dorothy is.
Danny just vibin’
He’s not actually talking to Charles, he’s just smile-staring into the middle distance.
He has allowed his consciousness to leave his body – a wise decision, under the circumstances.
He’s got his arm on Sal. He’s happy. If he does nothing else, he has less chance of Dannying it up.
Walky’s got a type. Cartoon Nerds who will dress him.
or Undress him.
Amber is thicc Dorothy!
Dorothy is thicc Dorothy. Don’t her and Amber pretty much have the same build?
They definitely do not.
Dorothy is slightly taller and noticeably less curvy in the hips than Amber (I also want to say slightly less buxom and more perky in the upper torso area as well).
Also, Walky commented on Amber being thicker when Sal first found them kissing on Garbage Roof.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2011/comic/book-1/05-media-rumble/composited/
They are supposed to look similar
That was early DOA. Everyone looked a bit more…homogenized back then.
Yes, they LOOK similar, as in they’re both short with bowl shaped hairstyles and glasses.
They do not have the same body type.
Click the link and see (and in case the link doesn’t work, I’m referring to when Scarface Ryan tried to attack them outside the dorm, a search with all three names can find it easily):
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2017/comic/book-7/03-the-thing-i-was-before/directory/
Yeah, it’s facial symmetry, not body type. My brother and I have something similar, actually–behead us, and shave off the hair, and you’d have trouble telling us apart other than identifying marks. But I’m a good foot taller and proportionately heavier than he is.
Here’s the link for Walky explicitly in-comic calling her Thicc Dorothy (and Sal basically saying the same in less thirsty terms).
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2018/comic/book-8/04-of-mike-and-men/shamed/
It’s the “bony Poindexter”, vs “Ambster the Hamster”. Dorothy does have a rounded jawline, but her lines are pointier everywhere else, and Amber has the swoopier curvier lines, where physics appreciates her posterior.
~The more you knowww~
Dorothy is a lot of things. I would absolutely NOT call her Thicc. Dorothy’s like…half amber’s size.
Sticc
Thicc, Sticc. It’s all gravy!
Thicc or Sticc, Walky still licks.
Dorothy’s Sticc, Walky is Sticky.
But only after they’re through with Danny.
Glorious disaster incoming!!!
Aww, Linda and Sal almost had a moment there. Almost.
Hehehe probably not. There’s really no magical sequence of words that will make racial bias go away, unfortunately.
Completing Linda’s sentence:
“If you vouch for her then I’ll be happy to blame you when David’s relationship with Lucy ends.”
We have a winner.
No, but it can be overcome and improved on. Linda wasn’t going to magically turn Not Racist in this one conversation, but it could well have been step one on that path.
I mean, not really? She’s had many chances to take that first step in the past, and instead learned to take the forgiveness of her children for granted. The only reason why she’s more approving of Sal here is because she’s dating an Approved White Boy who’s gonna “set her straight”.
That’s your take on it, and I will say that Danny being white is a big subconscious point in his favor in Linda’s eyes at the very least, but folks aren’t locked into their world views and prejudice. People can change, for better or for worse, and we’ll likely get a better view on where Linda stands on things as this trainwreck gets going.
Just because you did not take chances to change before does not mean you will never do it. Sometimes it takes a while.
As of present, Linda hasn’t exactly given us many reasons to think she’s actually taking a first step here.
Two seconds isn’t much time to give reasons.
It’s also not much time for any indication she is changing, but some seem to take it that way.
Your new icon is so cute!
Yeah. Linda’s a racist who doesn’t know she’s racist. That glimmer of hope that, not only did she refrain from doubling down on the Lucy hate, but that she might actually start listening to Sal’s opinions in a new way, that could’ve been a real first step. The first step of many, many steps — but still! So tantalizing for Sal!
–But instead, time for Walky shenanigans. Major sibling feelings here!
What an incredibly naive thing to say. Try looking up Life After Hate for a start.
This is just laziness. If people with x prejudice are unchangeable, then we have no obligation to try to help them see things differently, right? Totally wrongheaded.
Absolutely no one is obligated to hold a racist’s hand through becoming less of a racist, whether it’s a possible task or not. If you’ve got the spoons for it and choose to, good on you, you are doing a positive thing for the world. But the only obligation is on the racist to do better.
No one is asking you personally to do it. Sal seems inclined at least prod in that direction if she gets that glimmer of hope though, and she’s not obligated NOT to just because the obligation SHOULD be on the racist to do better.
Please read the comment I am directly replying to for the context of my statements. I have offered no negative judgment of Sal’s actions, express or implied.
Yeah, no, white allies absolutely are obligated to do that exact work. That’s the core of what being an ally is.
It’s not just white allies either, any allies who aren’t directly harmed by someone’s prejudice are, in fact, responsible for taking up the mantle and doing the work of helping them dismantle it.
You mean prejudice can’t be disarmed by its victims? :O
/s
Which in this context means Sal.
I kind of get what you’re saying, but I don’t agree. Allies should actively oppose racism, but that doesn’t always or even often mean “hold a racist’s hand through becoming less of a racist”.
That’s far too often a futile task and one that can easily backfire. Shielding them from any consequences in the name of trying to change them.
My theory is you need a lot of Allies to shun racists, and then like one racist-whisperer to bring them back. (And if the whisperer is a minority themselves they should get paid for the work.)
And then you get JK Rowling, who was radicalized by more vitriolic transphobes largely because trans allies were too busy shunning her and assuming someone else should do the work, so no, your theory is not correct
“Holding [someone’s] hand” doesn’t necessarily mean shielding them from consequences either, it just means remaining through the process of unpacking racism regardless of how drawn out the process is. Allyship isn’t glamorous and opposing racism isn’t the power fantasy of punching nazis in the face (or just dunking on them in their twitter replies, which is all most “allies” do anyway). It’s hard work and requires compassion and humanity, which is why it’s necessary for allies to do the work, since they aren’t the ones being dehumanized.
Perhaps we should rather say that we have no waste time and energy if an improved situation is impossible.
OTOH if the situation is changeable, and we want that change, then it may be worth the effort.
And I will point out that Sal would benefit personally from such a change. It is probably worth a lot of effort, to her.
*sigh* No reason to waste time.
It never really “goes away” but we aren’t our biases. Believing that we are and they never can change is foolhardy and puts too much power in racist’s hands.
especially since the “growing up” is basically “wooh she landed a wonderbread, we were right all along”
The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
The Proclaimers can help with instructions for the rest.
Da da da!
There’s people in general taking first steps, and then there’s Linda not being trustworthy as she stands.
Ah, I see, “growing up” is Linda-speak for “dating a white person.”
Or “a white person who isn’t Amber,” I guess. I had sort of forgotten the whole thing about Amber looking like a brunette Dorothy clone in-universe.
Train wreck in 3… 2… 1…
Interesting.
Sal: “What’s different about Lucy that you don’t like?”
Linda: *error 404 file not found*
Not quite the confrontation that I was kinda hoping for, but I do like that, when pressed on the issue, she doesn’t double down, instead going “…huh, well, okay, I guess…”
Woman needs to do a lot more self-reflection, but I’m glad that Linda isn’t some sort of cartoon villain of racism. Work to be done, but it’s work that *can* be done at least.
Yeah. I’ve seen more glimmers of hope in Linda in this storyline than in basically all of her previous appearances combined. Whether she’ll actually live up to her potential for growth, of course, is a different matter.
I don’t think Linda consciously thinks “Lucy is black therefore bad”, so much as there’s a “vibe” that she feels and doesn’t examine.
I’m a little nervous about how this topic is handled, but I do like the somewhat nuanced (by DoA standards) portrayal here. Linda’s kind of racist but not really actively malicious, and I think a lot of (white) people have a relative like that.
Linda is definitely the racist that a significant amount of white people are, the kind that they never think about while patting themselves on the back for being allies because they say all the right things.
Dorothy was perfect for David. How could it go wrong? What part of the equation does not add up?
This tendency to look at people only in relation to how good they look as romantic partners for your kids is getting real weird Linda, Charles.
well, at least dorothy and the parents actually met so they probably knew a bit of her personality versus just a white girl that was considerate enough to make him write them ‘thank you notes’ for care packages
I was thinking more about the implication Dorothy clearly could not have anything going on in her own life besides being a perfect daughter in law.
Wow! Linda almost maybe had a moment were she wasn’t terrible. Now on to the pending nuclear explosion. Make sure to stare directly at it you might get superpowers.
Oh my, Walky is about to to self-sabotage like the finest sit-com character. And just when his mom is about to give Lucy a chance.
it’s a shame lucy isn’t there to watch or step in right at the end, even if she ‘trusts’ walky it’d probably be better to be there/know exactly what happened
Goddamnit Linda was so close to a breakthrough
It’s possible she still could, if amber’s words/actions ends up leading her to thinking “A regular average black girl is better than an awful white girl”
I wonder if the fact that DANNY used to date Dorothy will come up somehow.
Before or after dating Amazigirl, who was a developing/now wholly separate alter of Amber, comes up?
Maybe at least it’s some sort of relief for him to learn that other parents also judge their kids for no longer dating Dorothy.
Hahaha omg
We know he dislikes walky but hopefully not enough to screw over lucy (or even saying “Actually, *Lucy’s* too good for him” but probably not something you’d say to parents rather than a friend group)
Just like you’d neeever say it wouldn’t be so bad if someone’s lifelong friend never woke up from a coma, right?
That’d be absurd.
Personally, I think this is a great idea and that there is no way this can go poorly.
Wait, oh my god, did Walky not even tell Sal this was happening?
Walky didn’t even know Sal would be here. She wasn’t invited to lunch, why would he assume she’d be invited to dinner?
Ah, that’s a true point, fair. I was absolutely flabbergasted that he would do that no matter how much of a doofus he is.
Cast your eye over the last few days. This point has been discussed to death every single day since The Plan was hatched.
I like to think that many of the people bringing it up each day are sock puppets for Mike. The fact that Mike is still alive in our universe explains half the Internet.
Maybe we are all in comics of some other, more real universe, and when we die we become part of the readership consciousness of that universe. Which itself is a comic in yet another, even more real universe, and so on.
At the end, we join Mary Worth. Unless we have been terrible, in which case we join 9 Chickweed Lane.
Or maybe we get our choice of comics, in which case I want to be in Mark Trail.
Does it have to be comic strips or can it be any fictional world?
Because I wouldn’t mind joining the world of Soul Eater when I die (but only after the last chapter of the story).
No just like he didn’t tell her that her parents were coming this weekend.
Last Walky heard, Sal had other plans and wasn’t invited.
Sal, now that you’re dating an Approved White Boy, you’re ‘growing up’ and maybe can say something of value now.
God I hate Linda.
Everybody is assuming that Sal and Walky’s take on their parents like it’s the God-given truth. And, to be fair, I can understand why everyone thinks Linda is a racist. But, it wouldn’t surprise me if there is more to the story than Linda simply being awful. We’ll soon see.
How far back into their fucking childhood do we have to see for it to be clear enough?
To where it began. To the reasons. People don’t just wake up one morning and decide to become monsters.
To some people racism is weird and unnatural and they want to know how it can exist anyway. They want more reasons to suspend disbelief.
Well no, people don’t just decide to be racist out of the blue, but the answer is pretty obvious, isn’t it? It’s a racist country from the top to the bottom, and Linda likely was raised that way. We don’t need to flash back to the one time a Black person was slightly rude to her at a K-Mart to figure that out. After a certain point, that’s as much answer as we can expect, considering the setting. It’s not like we’ll find out she was ever justified, that’s part of my point.
It’s more that racism is more complex than just “not at all racist” and “klan leader”. It’s clear that Linda isn’t in a good place on that gradient, but where exactly is quite ambiguous.
Citation
You have been found having nuance on the internet. This is your first warning. Future infractions will result in a fine.
That’s the big thing, that a lot of Linda’s interactions and attitudes towards her kids have a slight veneer of “this might NOT be racist, just a different flavor of shirtiness” but when we know the context (as Sal and now Walky see it), they LOOK racist.
Like, is she JUST a social climber who didn’t like Sal hanging with Marcie because she’s (possibly) illegal and that would hurt her kid’s chances of securing a “good, high income, high society” future? Or because she doesn’t like that they’re immigrants? Basically, is she classist or racist? Or both?
In this country, classism and racism are kinda like trying to unscramble an egg.
Ya know what, fuck you. *Unscrambles your egg*
(/meme)
Oh man, you need to teach me how to do that. Scrambles are such a waste of good eggs, I’d love to be able to fix such a culinary failure.
What else am I gonna do with an egg? Boiling takes forever on my shitty stove, my girlfriend doesn’t like them fried, and now that’s all three possibilities covered.
Of course she opposed Sal hanging out with Marcie at first contact, before she knew anything about Marcie’s circumstances other than her looks, so if she assumed the toddler was illegal or even an immigrant, that’s still racism.
There’s also a hell of a lot more evidence for her being racist than for her being a social climber.
Honestly, until Linda’s issue with Lucy, I didn’t see any reason to think racism was more likely than internalized misogyny. I don’t really see why anyone—least of all Sal—would leap to racism to explain the obvious bias when one of them is a boy and the other is a girl. It’s practically stereotypical for mothers to favor their “baby boys” over their daughters because they’re “easier.”
I’m still kind of holding out for this explanation, even though the Lucy issue seemed to stick a fork in it, because it’s way more realistic; the internalized misogyny of “boys are easier” is horrifically prevalent, but I don’t think anyone has raised that as a contributing factor here *once.* I also think the intersectionality of it would be more interesting than “I came out blacker,” because mother-daughter relationship are unique and complicated in their own right—but DOA seems more invested in “Linda is racist” than exploring their relationship from any other lens besides that.
And you seem to be very invested in ignoring the very realistic portrayal of subtle racism in favor of ANY OTHER REASON AT ALL she might be acting the way she did. Might be something to think about if you’re uncomfortable with the angle the story is deciding to explore.
Oh, the fandom’s done this since the start.
What gets me is just. This is a fictional story being written by a real person. What the fuck is the point of spending ten years building up the walkertons as racist only to randomly say “oh it’s not that actually.” From narrative perspective it makes 0 sense. Why does no one think about that for five seconds before desperately trying to defend the racism as anything but racism
Huh. I thought the stereotype was that girls are easier to handle while “boys will be boys”.
My mother was a firm believer that boys were easier, and was very annoyed when my sister turned out to be one. My Grandmother thought she was out of her god-damned mind (which, to be fair, is pretty true overall), so it doesn’t seem too universal either way.
Hm, damn the lack of edits. Re-reading that, it comes out wrong. My mother was very irritated that my sister was a sister, not a boy.
And here I thought it was because she turned out to be one instead of twins or triplets.
Sal identified it as racism rather than sexism, and a character’s opinion, especially the character who is the victim of said prejudice, is also evidence towards a conclusion. The comic doesn’t need to show all the thousands tidbits of backstory that made Sal think racism rather than sexism as the culprit.
Yes yes it can only be one or the other. Everyone knows that sexism and racism never cross over. In fact, it’s not like there’s a SPECIFIC WORD for misogyny toward black women
which I learned (earlier) today! thanks for that.
You’re not wrong in your analysis of mother-daughter relationships; there are absolutely other reasons Linda and Sal’s relationship could be strained beyond racism and you aren’t wrong for bringing that up, either. However, there’s definitely a level to which this scenario being “more realistic” paints a very clear bias towards white female experiences, though, and claiming it would be “more interesting” is definitely… problematic to say the least. Willis wrote the comic a certain way and there’s a clear takeaway that racism played into how Sal’s relationship with her mother got strained in the first place. I would encourage you to take some time to consider why you think that less “realistic” or “interesting” than sexism (especially given the specific racially-charged sexism that Black women experience) because those particular points read a bit prejudiced in a way I don’t think you intended them to.
I think there’s lots of room to talk about intersectionality and how Linda’s type of racism leans heavily on misogynoir and how that affects her relationships with the Black men and women in her life. I don’t think ‘it’s actually sexism and the racism is all in the Black woman’s head’ would be an acceptable way to do that.
Misogynoir, I have never seen that word used before. I like it, thanks for introducing that to me.
Oh boy. Regretting not checking on this for a couple days now. But just to be clear:
1) I was not trying to pit misogyny against racism in my comments about the reasons for their dynamic being more “realistic”/“interesting.” I was saying that an intersectional lens would be more realistic/interesting than just, “Linda is racist.” It probably would have been more clear if I had used the term misogynoir; that definitely would have made my intention clearer, and that’s on me. I do genuinely think that a misogynoir angle (or, to use my phrasing from my original comment, “[gender as a] contributing factor” or “intersectionality”) is more interesting and realistic than straight-racism without any acknowledgement of how the twins’ gender might come into play.
2) I do see how people misunderstood the intention, because my first paragraph was admittedly pitting misogyny against racism. I was only surprised that the instinct of the characters here would be to assume it’s a racial bias when gender is so obvious—like the fact that Sal is a girl and Walky is a boy is explicitly brought up half the time they share a scene or Walky talks to someone about Sal. (Especially when Linda gets the brunt of the blame, but some of the most aggressively racist microaggressions we’ve seen toward Sal—lamentation over Sal keeping her hair natural comes to mind—came from Charles.) To address my lack of clarity: I don’t think one needs to be “picked”—I’m just surprised that, where Sal *did* single out *one* explanation, she didn’t go for misogyny.
3) Another way that I, in hindsight, muddled my message was with the references to Lucy. Obviously if I’m lamenting a clearer suggestion that misogynoir is at play, then Lucy, as a Black woman, wouldn’t disprove the interplay of misogyny, so why would I refer to her situation as killing that idea? …oh, yeah, I can see how I just flat-out said something that didn’t track with what I intended to say. The thing with Lucy is that Linda has been so nice and over-the-top enthusiastic about Walky’s white girlfriends, and she practically spit in Lucy’s face. Yes, Lucy is a Black woman, but Linda has never had a problem with white women in the same scenario. It’s so blatantly racist, you just *know* she would have behaved similarly if Sal had shown up with Jacob instead of Danny. But before that, I don’t think any of us could say for sure if Linda would have made different decisions with regard to how she treated her children if, canonically, Sal had been “generically beige” and Walky had been “Black” (to reverse Walky’s summation).
Yeah Willis definitely spent the last decade building Linda up as racist, showing examples of her being racist, her and Charles dropping microaggessions all over the place, just to pull the rug out from under us as gotcha. Yeah. That is surely what he’s doing. That definitely makes more sense than the parents just being a very average and common flavor of racist that doesn’t involve doing hate crimes and screaming slurs. Very good analysis.
Is Lucy more of a Joyce type, a Dorothy type, or just an amalgam of both?
“I’ve made Walky find a new girlfriend after we last met, astounding” “I hope they kiss later on”
I think lucy overlaps a bit with joyce, I imagine she probably does decently school wise (i don’t think she’s been shown struggling or excelling in a particular subject but def not as “ambitious/wanting to be president level” of determination for a goal [What is her major/career goal, anyways?])
I think she’s more like Joyce, but her special interest is comics instead of the Bible.
Take away the trauma and autistic traits* and Joyce is also the epitome of “girl you wanna take home to mom.” They’re like the trifecta
*- not my opinion, and I am also most likely autistic and vv nervous about those traits when trying to impress Important People. Just speaking based off of shitty cultural standards
What if Dorothy and lucy both crash the party?
Not sure where dorothy went up to tho lucy stayed behind because she said she trusts walky and i expect is just waiting on a text to see if they’re still on for dinner
Walky becomes the nucleus of a pile of ladies by the end of the arc.
Sal shoots him a “what the fuck are you doing” look the entire time.
Danny’s just happy to be there.
Linda is displeased with all of the pile-ladies because they’re not Dorothy.
Charles makes a flippant joke about how much all the extra pizza they had to order ran up the tab.
oooooooh, so close
“Mom, Dad, we’re into polyarmory.”
“You mean polyamory?”
“Yeah, that too.”
now, imagine if he had shown up with amber AND asher on both of his arms lol
In a tank.
Which also can turn into a giant robot.
WELP…
Alright, let’s make this max awkward. Danny, Amber, start making out. Make this a massive train wreck. More chaos!
OMG, Linda might have been rounding a corner and this idiotic idea takes root.
DAMN YOU, WILLIS
Why do so many commenters think Linda was on the verge of a breakthrough?
Not everyone has blinders on that only allows them to see people as static cartoon villains.
When you say somebody has blinders on, that makes your comment sound way more personal against NGPZ than you hopefully intended. Can we please take the temperature down a notch, so that we can keep it fun to comment with each other?
… it makes me think of horses with those silly things to stop them seeing stuff to restrict their fields of vision to “make it less likely they’ll see something that’ll spook them”/make it more likely they won’t be able to identify the source of noises as benign and will get spooked…
Does not having the highest moral expectations for a character because of their history really equate to seeing them as a static cartoon villain?
I mean when cast members didn’t have the highest expectations for Joe dating Joyce because of his reputation as a horndog, did they all have binders on too?
*blinders. hehe, only Malaya afaik had a binder on
It was exciting that Linda didn’t double down on the Lucy-hate, and even more exciting that she said she’d start listening to her Black daughter. Even though Linda’s reasons for listening were weird, listening to Sal’s opinions is a good choice that Linda had never, ever made before!
It wouldn’t be like a big dramatic breakthrough, but it could’ve been a step 1 of many, many steps — which is a step 1 nonetheless — which would be just tantalizing for Sal. After all, Sal doesn’t want her mom to stay terrible and not listen to her. Sal and Walky want their mom to grow.
But, instead, Walky shenanigans!
Not a breakthrough, just literally a step. Sometimes people do have them.
Well there’s *people* and then there’s Linda.
Considering Linda’s history, she hasn’t exactly given us a ton of reasons to assume good faith here.
It’s entirely possible, in her worldview, that she might give Lucy a chance to “prove she’s one of the good ones”. (Massive eyeroll to that phrase, but you know what I mean.)
She’s prejudiced, we don’t truly know what degree of bigoted she is.
They go well with all the commenters who still think she’s not really racist at all.
In this case, I suspect part of it is that some are really opposed to Walky’s plan here and if she really was on the verge of a breakthrough, then the plan actually makes things worse rather than just failing.
Or unless sal’s quick on the uptight and can fake being ‘indignant’ about Amber joining and fake some kinda fight that doesn’t take it too far/step backwards to where Linda think she’s back to her ‘old ways’ again, and then lucy showing up for dinner again
Even if it didn’t occur to walky, hopefully Amber would be texting danny/sal what they plan to do and ask them to play along
someone start playing yakety sax!
Nah, ABBA – Take A Chance On Me:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-crgQGdpZR0
Linda’s facial expression in panel five is amazing. So much nuance in the set of her lips. It conveys so much. You can just feel the cautious warmth and respect, not so freely given as with some more open-hearted characters.
Yeah, that’s really true!
I think Joyce’s dad would be ok with a Dorothy. Joyce’s mom is terrible, but her dad could figure it out.
I feel like a lot of people are misreading what’s happening here with Linda. Linda is not evolving. She didn’t almost have a breakthrough. The reason she is suddenly being kind to Sal is because she’s suddenly seeing Sal through the rose-colored glasses Danny’s whiteness gave her. And the only reason Linda gave Lucy even a second thought was because of Sal’s new proximity to this whiteness. She didn’t have a realization that actually she knows *nothing about Lucy* and that maybe she should give Lucy a chance before passing jugement. No, Linda was going to give Lucy a chance *because Sal vouched for her*, not because of who Lucy actually is.
Plus, even if Linda decides Lucy is okay, this is not a cure for her racism. “This one black person is okay because they’re *different*” is pretty basic tenant of covert racism.
The kindness and consideration we’ve been seeing Linda display this last week is not her default, true state. It’s the state she’s in exclusively when interacting with white people that fit her ideas of “successful.” And this is why “But he’s so nice” is never a valid argument in response to accusations of racism. The fact that she’s nice to Sal but only when she’s with Danny isn’t evidence of the problem resolving, it IS THE PROBLEM.
Hugely possible! I’ve definitely viewed today’s strip through hope-colored glasses, because Sal hopes so hard that her mom will become less racist, and also because a glimmer of hope gives the maximum Damn You Willises per square centimeter when the Walky shenanigans begin instead.
… yep, more than possible, you’ve got me. Alas!
So she’s not not being racist she’s just taking Sal’s word that Lucy is one of the good ones, which only holds weight because Danny declaired her one of the good ones by dating her.
The thing is, look at what the effects of Linda’s racism that we’ve seen are: primarily, it’s been her devaluing her daughter and trying to control her. On this page we see her valuing Sal’s input and being convinced to not dismiss another young black woman. To be clear, it’s for the wrong reasons- it’s because she thinks Sal being with Danny means that she was right and Sal is somehow “tamed”. But the effects of her racism are being mitigated and she’s being challenged in her assumptions and ceding ground instead of digging in her heels. That’s progress, and it’s also an opening for further challenges to her worldview.
We can recognize that step the same way we recognize that Mr. Brown is moving in the right direction while still acknowledging that they both have a long way to go.
I could probably give a lot of really interesting commentary on this strip if I wanted to wade tits-deep into The Discourse™, but I’ve been inhaling a lot of fumes from various epoxies lately so it’s probably best if I stick to the jokes.
What do you call a 6-person group who can’t decide what kind of pizza to order?
Bold of you to assume Galasso allows his customers to choose their own pizzas.
They are encouraged to choose their own pizzas.
It just has no effect on the pizza they actually get.
I think last employee who ignored the customer Pizza choice under Galasso got fired?
Well yea, she failed to show the customers who’s boss.
My family.
Taffy: wait! what’s the punchline???
I genuinely forgot.
Dining philosophers, starving again.
If Linda just uncritically accepts that Walky has found a new girlfriend in the last twenty minutes and immediately loves Amber because she’s white regardless of all else, then Amazi-girl might as well just shoot her and stop letting her waste everyone’s time.
Amazi-Girl’s iconic Colt .45, yes.
Well, shoot her in Animal Crossing, obviously. A notoriously violent game.
(Actually, I feel like I maybe overstepped by calling for violence against Linda, even in a jokey offhand way)
If Linda were one of the commenters, sure, that might be an overstep. Lucky for us all, violence threats against cartoons aren’t actionable and can’t be carried out, so it’s 100% safe.
YOU INSULTED MY WAIFU. PREPARE TO DIE!!!
Nah call all the violence on her you want. I want Sarah to hit her with a bat, old testament style.
It’s called the Amazi-Gun.
On the other hand, if CHARLES uncritically accepts Amber because she’s white, that’s even stupider but also kind of a funny twist. I’m kind of curiou what Charles’ whole deal is here. Does he not notice his wife is racist? Does he love her despite it? Is he the one secretly feeding racist ideas in her head? That last one would make the comment section absolutely nuclear (and also probably not be a good idea!), but it would be a hell of a twist.
I mean, the only opinin I remember Charles ever expressing is that Sal’s hair is prettier when it’s straight, so…
*opinion.
I feel like Linda sees Charles as her “get out of jail free card”. “I can’t be racist! I have a Black husband! I have Black children! See how woke I am!?”
Charles is also mixed-race, IIRC. Maybe Linda was his “Danny”: the price of parental approval.
Of course, Linda was previously married to the Dean. Implied that she was a college student or still quite young, married to a much older man, IIRC. Implied that her first husband may have been her teacher in some way.
Maybe Charles was her “knight in shining armor” who “rescued” her from a hasty marriage she regretted. Who knows?
Nobody has implied either of those things (that she’s significantly younger or that he’s her teacher).
Walky’s earlier statement, “I refuse to do any more math on” his mother’s and the dean’s ages, and the alt-text of a little while back, when Linda was talking about how schtupping her TA was her solution for academic advancement, imply that the Dean was significantly older than Linda and may have been her teacher.
Becoming attracted to Charles may have been part of how Linda worked her way out of a marriage she eventually decided had been a hasty decision.
Sorry, I should have clarified that I was referring to Linda’s first husband, the Dean, not to Charles.
Charles is half white so even chances he grew up in a whiter culture and just internalized everything that comes with that. Linda’s not racist, other black people just need to pull their pants up and stop listening to all that “yo yo yo” garbage. Don Lemon style
What the actual fuck “zee”?
/s
/jk
Okay, here’s what I imagine is happening: you’re marking the second half of zee’s comments (starting with “Linda’s not racist”) as the sarcasm/representation of a messed up mindset that it is. It does seem like this is necessary for some.
BUT in my mind, the two tone indicators were canceling each other out, so it was more like going “sarcastic (but not really).” And now I’m wondering if others read tone indicators the same way, where the most obvious target of a second tone indicator is the first tone indicator, or if it’s just understood they should be applied to the same thing.
You’re right, Yumi: I should have just said “/s”.
I meant “/jk” to reinforce “/s”, not to negate it.
Oh my god this is so offensive! You didn’t mention if the amazi- gun will have an A emblem or not
You know, seeing this plan, that we all knew was terrible, somehow unfold in an even more terrible way than expected, all I can do is think back to when Boomer said that Lucy and Walky wouldn’t end up being good for each other. Walky needs someone who will push back against his bad habits and compensate for his weaknesses, and based on this, Lucy just doubles down on them with him.
You mean Booster?
Boomer would be their parents. (Maybe grandparents at this point.)
Meanwhile: no parent in this series wants an Amber, including (half of) hers.
In fairness people with their brains shot out can’t want anything much.
And Dr Rosenthal’s happily stepped up as a…
I was not trying to pun.
Walky is going to get a bad rep with mommy… Oh no he can’t keep a woman… Tell me I didn’t lose another Dorothy!
Or she’ll excuse he’s actions “eh, you’re young, might as well experiment while in college as opposed to later in life”
LOL. this should be fun
“Wait, Sal, do you mean she’s a nerd from a cartoon, or she’s a nerd about cartoons?”
“Yes.”
This is going to go so poorly lmao. It seems likeSal could’ve gotten her to sort of accept Lucy, and now Walky’s going to show up with the girl Linda tried to get expelled.
I meant tolerate, not accept. I didn’t remember the word in the moment.
Yeah. No way this plan could backfire. No way.
oh god, oh god, oh god, oh god, oh god
oh god
oh god
Matty, when Marcus got voted out.
I’m just hoping this absolute train wreck doesn’t somehow fuck up Danny and Sal’s relationship.
Huh, that’s a fun avatar to get for this.
I actually can’t see Danny tolerating a double date with Walky and Amber.
Was honestly bypassing how Danny would feel about this.
But since his established dislike of Walky seems almost solely based on them having the same ex girlfriends, yeah, he might take issue with this.
You know, the sad part is, considering this was Lucy’s idea just as much as it was Walky’s, it’s going to validate his mom in her own eyes.
Everything validates his mom in her own eyes.
eeeeeeeeeee
This is going to end so SO well!!!
“What’s diff’rent ’bout Lucy that you don’t like?”
“HRN”
“HRN?”
“Hugely Racist, NGL.”
You know what would make a fun one-time Patreon strip? An alternate reality storyline that opens with,
“Mom, this is Carla; my NEW new girlfriend”.
Let’s see where that episode would go. If nothing else, it’d lead to a helluva NSFW episode.
Sounds like a job for Yotomoe!
That does sound like something I would do.
I was angling for Booster to be the fake significant other. Not becaause I want Linda inflicted on Booster, or because I think she’d be bigoted towards them, but it’d be… interesting… to have her navigate her words while Booster doesn’t give a shit and psychoanalizes everyone at the table.
Let’s see, who else would be fun to slot into this situation…
Ruth? Malaya? Meredith? Roz? A brand-new extra who’s literally a Dorothy clone (but pallet-swapped to Lucy’s hair color and skin tone)? The entire green roller derby team? Liz? Sarah?
Ooh! Have them tag-team and switch any time the camera’s not on them, and tell Linda the current participant was there from the beginning!
[pulls pin] Sarah.
The tacit admission that Linda did not, in fact, value what Sal had to say before this oof oof oof oof oof
Fundamentally, she still doesn’t, and that’s what I hope Sal realizes here. Linda is behaving herself now because she’s getting what she feels owed, not because she actually values Sal, or because she’s done any work to improve as a human being or a parent. I get that Sal is trying this new state of affairs out but I really hope she won’t buy into it at all. I’ve got a mom like Linda and frankly, I never much *wanted* her approval if it’d mean adopting her values or going along with her attitude toward others. Takes all kinds, of course, and I’m interested to see how Sal handles this, I just know I’d be in visceral discomfort if I’d attempted this lunch.
“hey trashfire! I brought you this high pressure can of natural gas, catch!”
this is going to be fun
Lucy, like Dorothy, is a cartoon nerd who dresses him. She’s just got Joyce’s bubbly outgoingness instead of Dorothy’s self-destructive perfectionist drive. So… really just an overall upgrade if you think about it.
163 comments and not one about Sal viewing Dorothy and Lucy as interchangeable cardboard standees. Sal has some growing to do, too.
I think that was more about drawing parallels between them, than literally calling them pallet swapped versions of each other.
Yeah, she’s minimizing the differences to highlight the only one that Linda could have noticed at first glance.
Question successfully dodged. Linda can safely set aside processing her cognitive biases for another day.
“It can’t be that I’m racist. I literally have a black husband!”
Says Ginni Thomas between cross burnings.
I’ve seen that look on Linda’s face before. Pinball games used to “Tilt”
Linda: What?
Danny: What?
Sal: WHAT
Charles: oh, they have arancini!
oh, right. walky’s solution is for children.
oy gevalt
ok so, im slightly confused about how the plan is supposed to work.
1. Linda immediately takes a liking to Amber despite being “worse” than Lucy in most metrics other than whiteness
2. Confront Linda about her preconceived biases armed with the proof that she prefers Amber based only on her skin tone
3. ???
4. Racism is cured
Walky introduces Amber as a (potential) significant other. Linda doesn’t like Amber, and decides Lucy wasn’t so bad after all. And then everyone claps.
That plan might have worked if she was literally anybody else. Amber is too tied up in the stabby-stabby mess and kidnapping saga for Linda to ever actually like her. The only way the plan might work is if she doesn’t recognize her as Amber O’Malley.
But that’s Bash’s version of the plan. It makes Linda prefer Lucy to Amber, but it doesn’t force her to confront her racism.
It’s a very TV sitcom plan, which is precisely why Walky chose it.
David Walkerton . . . what have we told you about broadcast TV sitcom style hijinks at the dinner table?
he’s ruining everything and i’m so sad
@alt-text: Arnold’s parents are going to be pleased then.
Ooh. Cue mom and/or dad noting the same thing as the Worst. Wingman. Ever. I’m going with dad. I think he’s bro enough to be in sync with Joe on this point.
Thinking on it, are we going to see Walky and Sal switch spots as the golden child?
I don’t trust that Linda here doesn’t have a motive
For anyone listening, Laura plays “Andie’s Air” on the hacked muzak:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKffVaPq1cQ
Posting to see if I still have a horrible gravatar….