The main merchandise pushed by Target in commercials as of lately are small figurines featuring all of the main characters of the show. Well- almost all of the characters. Any fan of the show will notice the blatant exclusion of Lucas, one of the MAIN four children the Stranger Things plot revolves around. Target retailers officially carry a figurine for everyone from Barb (who had less than two minutes of screentime) to the Demogorgan who quite litterally had no lines. This is not to say these characters do not deserve a figurine all together, but why is it that a character who was in every episode has no official figurine? Was it Lucas’ lack of character development, or the fact he wasn’t necessarily an audience favorite? Perhaps, but realistically it has more to do with corporations inability to market a black character.

Target is the suburban mecca of home goods. You don’t just go to Target to buy goods, you go to experience goods. That being said, Target is hyperaware of this and is very purposeful in what products they choose to stock and how they portray their brand image. Am I saying Target executives are racists who refuse showcase people of color? No of course not. Target has featured people of color and people from all walks of life in the past and will probably continue doing so in the future. Rather the issue is Target refuses to break their age old formula for marketing, a formula developed and frankly deeply rooted in prejeduice. The same reason for the lack of representation amongst people of color in movies and television shows, marketing to minorities is for some reason a new and “scary” concept. For Target to produce and sell a Lucas toy would mean spending thousands of dollars on something retailers consider outside of the norm. So why take a chance?

Target’s inability to feature a Lucas toy amongst their other Stranger Things figurines shows a deep and enduring flaw in corporate America. Representation in 2017 is more important than ever, but with corporations don’t lead the way in advocating change then how could we possibly hope for consumers to do the same. Change starts with the people, but is championed and implemented by institutions that hold power in this countries such as corporations. So why not take a chance, Target? Break away from the formulaic strategies rooted in prejudice that have been used for the past 100 years and try. something. new. It worked for director Jordan Peele who earned one of the highest grossing movies of 2017 with Get Out, a horror drama about with a black lead. Alas, movies and toys are different, but are they?

The movie takes place twenty years after the Beauty (Belle) and the Beast marry and become king and queen of the land. They create a prosperous new country, the United States of Auradon, and banish all villains of classic Disney channel franchises to the Isle of the Lost, a run down slum surrounded by a magical barrier imprisoning all inhabitants of the island and rendering their magic useless. Ordinarily, classic Disney fantasy franchises separate their characters into surface level groups, good and evil. The villains are bad because that’s the way they are, usually no reasoning or motivation. Descendants however, challenges this idea, through a unique plot point. The Prince Ben, announces that his first order is to give four children from the Isle of the Lost the chance to live in Auradon and attend school with the rest of the children, away from any villainous influence. Through this, we see the children of the villains who come from broken homes and live with very little resources (no wifi!) interact with very privileged children. Not only is this disparity of privilege apparent, the children have very bad reputations due to their parents heinous crimes. The viewer sees this tense dichotomy manifest itself through bullying of the villain children.

I found this film, while light hearted on the surface level, can spark a conversation about class struggle and integration within domains such as the public school system. Children learn about the racist laws our country had in the Jim Crow Era and how people of color were not allowed to attend the same school as white children, and this tension (although not nearly as extreme) is present in Decedents. Even today, where new school zoning and busing laws allow for children from under privileged neighborhoods to attend more wealthy schools in the district, there is a tension and integration can be a problem if not executed properly. Ultimately, Decendents provides a light hearted take on a serious issue, and I believe parents should use this movie as a platform to teach their children about these very real issues of class struggle and privilege.

On September 11th, 2017 American rapper and producer Russ posted an image of himself on his Instagram. While Russ has not attracted much mainstream attention in general, this post has garnered more than 5,000+ comments, 173,426 likes and propelled Russ into the one million followers club on Instagram. The photo is nothing out of the ordinary. It’s a candid looking shot of the artist at the Day N Nite Festival in California. Hundreds of similar photos were posted from the festival of Russ’s contemporaries, yet this is THE top post when one taps the Day n Nite Festival location on Instagram. All of this, not to mention multiple blog posts, memes, and even threats from fellow rappers later has made this an almost polarizing and controversial image. The reason for this can be found in what Russ is wearing, specifically what his shirt says.

Designed by Brooklyn based artist Kid Super, Russ performed in front of a sold out festival crowd wearing a shirt that read “HOW MUCH XANS AND LEAN DO YOU HAVE TO DO BEFORE YOU REALIZE YOU’RE A FUCKING LOSER”. Some argue that the statement itself is overly aggressive, but the message still remains clear. Glorifying drug culture and getting addicted to pain killers is not cool. While I personally agree with the message of the shirt, what I find intriguing is not the shirt itself but rather the reaction and stir it has caused in the Hip-Hop community as well as the internet as a whole. Ordinarily one would think that any anti-drug message would be met with simaulteanous head nods and widespread agreement, but instead Russ was met with huge backlash, mostly from fellow artists in the genre. It’s no secret that Hip-Hop does play some part in glorifying drug use and drug culture, but I did not realize how internalized and deeply rooted these sentiments were until I began analyzing the reaction. From artists telling Russ they were going to “run up on him and beat his ass” (Belly) to other artists justifying their drug use saying “Until I can stop thinking bout my dead homies and the trauma that I been thru in my life that’s when I’ll stop 😈” (Fredo) it was evident many people in the Hip-Hop community took this statement to heart. Beyond just artists, Russ received major backlash from fans and haters alike, calling him corny and a “fake activist”. Russ went on to respond to the critics the next day on Twitter, tweeting “Doing xanax and lean cuz your favorite rapper makes it sound cool is all fun and games till your impressionable ass gets addicted. Stop.” amongst other things.

In Hip-Hop, as well as any popular music genre, there is a very fine line where responsibility actually lies. The question whether artists should be a positive role models for the impressionable children that listen to their music or if parenting children is the role of a parent not the child is often times brought up in these types of conversation. Should an artist sacrifice their integrity and art form in hopes of making a difference? I would argue yes and no. While it’s obvious that things like drug use or even violence should not be glorified, many of the artists in the Hip-Hop genre are merely speaking their truth. Their songs and music are the reflection of their environment. Rap supergroup NWA has spoken about a similar topic before stating “If you sat on this porch at night and just listened real hard, you’d hear nothing but gunfire. I’ve heard it so much in my neighbourhood that I can’t hear it no more. Our songs are merely a reflection of the fucked up environment we grew up in”. While I believe that artists should use their platform to positively impact their audience, the responsibility of fixing these core structural issues of violence, drug addiction, and poverty does not lie on them. Similarly, because of these horrible living conditions many hip-hop artists turn to drugs as rapper Fredo mentioned above. Overall I’d argue Russ had the best intentions when it came to wearing this shirt and using his platform to spread a message, but in the future there may be better ways to deliver this message so his audience and contemporaries are more receptive of what he is trying to say.

Now I’ve never personally been a fan of Logic’s music, but this performance struck a cord with me and left everyone watching in awe. The reason? It’s powerful message. Making his first ever MTV VMA debut Logic decided to perform 1–800–273–8255, a song written from the perspective of an individual calling the suicide prevention hotline wanting to end their own life. While the message of suicide prevention has even expressed by other artists in the past, it was the fact that Logic used such a mainstream platform to bring attention to this issue that was impressive. Throughout the performance Logic had a beautiful musical arrangement, and towards the end of his set suicide survivors were brought on stage and put in the spotlight, all wearing shirts with “1–800–273–8255”, which is the phone number for the national suicide prevention hotline. Personally I am not an emotional type of fellow, but it was the mixture of musicality and visuals that caused this performance to almost bring me to tears.

Overall both I and my peers were thoroughly impressed with Logic’s performance at the 2017 VMA’s. For an artist to use his debut on mainstream television to share such a powerful message is nothing short of commendable and bringing out survivors of teen suicide out to share the spotlight with Logic made a deep impact on me. I plan on checking in on Logic’s endeavors in the future, he’s definitely gained new fan in me.