#& not entitled to be in conversations discussing your own racism

[dragynkeep]

there is something mentally wrong with rwby fans that consistently block evade to meatride two incredibly bigoted white men lmao

[pumpumdemsugah]

People on here love bringing up Black men whenever there's any general post about misogyny, drop the word gender and intersectionality and act like they're aren't derailing the conversion and implying it doesn't apply to Black women because we're too weird and negro to relate to misogyny

You're not intersectional, you hate any discussion of misogyny and sexism so you're hiding between Black men and other MOC

" Regular" misogyny applies to Black women. Racialised misogyny doesn't mean we never share anything in common with other women.

And it's always the same breed of mostly white people that love talking about queer this and that who do this so they can start talking about themselves. Queering the racism and misogyny away from things that impact Black people so I can talk about my own non-Black gender. No, this isn't entitlement or racism because I said gender and misused 5 concepts.

You lot think Black women and Black female academics exist as ventriloquist dummies for your hot takes. You think anti-Black racism is simple and stupid unlike you.

[bookwyrminspiration]

Are you honestly trying to state that giving characters blue eyes is racist and rooted in racism? Seriously? Blue eyes have been a characteristic for the fae/elf/etheral fo literal decades because blue eyes in mythology and lore are supposed to be able to see things other eyes cannot and in certain species and myths are supposed to be able to see 'the other side' and the 'invisible magic.'

The only reason you're throwing up that its racist is because you're correlating it to Hitler's belief on white people, but guess what? The Aryan belief is not a common concept!

What I and others are stating is that giving characters of color like Tam, Linh, Wylie, and Maruca blue eyes--a overwhelmingly predominantly white trait--and further saying that these characters are more beautiful than humans is what's racist. Blue eyes themselves are not, but this application is. Is it possible for Black people to have blue eyes? Yes. Is it possible for Asian people to have blue eyes? Yes. Is it common? No.

It is giving characters of color traits adhering to a eurocentric beauty standard to indicate that they are other/special, in this case to indicate they are elves. A similar trend can be seen with black characters being given white hair, which you can read more about here. The point is it takes characters of color's natural traits and replaces them, that is the issue we were talking about. All the Black characters in kotlc have blue eyes. All the Asian characters have blue eyes. It erases their ethnic features, that is what we're taking issue with. We're not saying blue eyes in and of themselves are racist.

Yes, blue eyes have been a characteristic in mythology. We, however, are not talking about mythology. We're talking about a middle grade book series started in the 2010s. It is much more modern with a large audience of young readers who are seeing a story about characters with their ethnic features replaced. I don't think adherence to myths and any explanation you can give about the beliefs of blue eyes is worth the impact this erasure has.

Additionally, do not put words in my mouth or try to explain my thoughts. I did not bring up Hitler or have anything to do with him in mind when making that post, nor did the Aryan concept play any part in my critique of the blue eyes given to characters of color. I explained my thoughts and the reasoning behind them; your bold, rude, and unwanted assumptions about the motive behind my thinking are uncalled for and I will not tolerate them. If you're going to continue being unsavory and act as though you are entitled to tell me what my own reasoning is, I will interact with you no further.

I have never claimed to be the single authority on anything to do with the series, and encourage diplomatic debate and discussion, especially when it comes to difficult topics. Additional information I may not have considered, differing opinions, resources and links compiled, all of those are welcome so long as they are cordial. If you'd like to have a polite and respectful conversation about sensitive topics and the mythology of blue eyes and elves, my askbox is always open. If you cannot do this, kindly refrain from interacting with me.

[xxlovelynovaxx]

Hmmm...

Something about this... at least the OP, is setting off alarm bells.

Maybe it's because I've seen goyim insert themselves into discussions on antisemitism while being wildly antisemitic and entirely ignorant to jewish history; and also into criticisms of conservative sects of Judaism that the jewish community is perfectly capable to making themselves while refusing to acknowledge the near-absolute privilege they (the goy) hold as a member of an oppressor class over a ethnoreligious minority, especially when largely they are not and have never been directly affected by said issues.

Maybe it's because OP also posted this:

It's not "silencing victims" to tell largely culturally christian atheists, often who are white americans, to shut up about religious trauma from communities they've never been a part of and have no context for. Shutting down the actual victims is different, but this seems like a gross and purposely manipulative mischaracterization of the actual discourse. At the very least, what I described is a FAR more common issue. For some reason, certain people seem to think that their opinion is not always wanted and welcome, but necessary.

Or, as another example, what about white people inserting themselves into criticisms of POC who at worst messed up (I seem to remember discourse about a black singer, I don't remember who, using the term "sp*z" in a song, and tens of thousands of people who had never once before given a shit about ableism jumping on her for it. She issued an apology and changed it within like, two days. Some of those same people continued to enjoy songs by white singers that used massively ableist slurs). Or even generally adding nothing of note to conversations about racism?

What about abled commentariat on how conversations about ableism are ridiculous and overblown? Or singlets talking about how plurals aren't really oppressed (an issue a few systems have to, but even when wrong they at least are a part of the community and therefore have a place in the conversation)? What about even trans people inserting themselves into discussions of types of transphobia they claim not to experience? What about disabled people claiming certain other disabled people experience little to no ableism and have both privilege and the power to oppress them, just because they had the privilege to not experience ableism based on those specific diagnoses?

Because actually, if you are not marginalized in a specific way, you don't actually have a place in criticizing a community. Marginalized communities are capable of calling in their own members. You in many cases by virtue of your lack of marginalization wield SIGNIFICANT hierarchical power over every single member of a given marginalized community, and the entitlement you have to think you deserve to be a part of these conversations despite being unaffected by the things you're criticizing is in fact a form of violence.

That IS bigotry.

There are arguments to be made about how a nonmarginalized person can use their privilege to contribute to the conversation and uplift marginalized voices making critiques of their own community - though that's a delicate matter that requires a LOT of education to navigate.

But you do in fact have to do the basics of educating yourself to participate at all. You can't just cherrypick the members of a community you agree with. You have to learn about long and complex histories fraught with generational trauma and in most cases, genocides.

Yeah, if you disagree with marginalized people about their marginalization, you're generally a bigot, particularly if you're disagreeing with a large portion of the community. It's a lesson that sucks to have to learn. I was reticent myself at times while learning it, and was lucky to have patient people willing to guide me through, as well as my own experiences of marginalization to provide touchpoints of understanding.

And while it may be reductive for actual allies who can navigate discourse with nuance and grace for the marginalized people they are in conversation with, yeah, the best option for not being a bigot is to shut up, sit down, and listen until you have enough understanding to actually contribute anything meaningful to the conversation.

Because invariably, you've spent your whole life getting indoctrinated by kyriarchal society into having only the non-marginalized side of the story, which is going to be maliciously skewed to serve to further oppress people at best and have successfully convinced you that they are lesser in subtle, insidious, often subconscious ways at worst.

Now, the names thing seems more like tone policing. I mostly touched on OPs original part, because that... it quite honestly depends on what "names" mean. If they're referring back to OPs "calling someone a bigot"... that's not even calling someone "names", and to label it that way is purposefully emotionally manipulative.

Even in the edge cases where a marginalized person is wrong and just being a dick, calling you [blank]-ist is not "calling you names".

However, in the case of actual insults, leaving out genuine slurs... sometimes being a good person DOES mean taking it with some amount of grace.

Let's take an example of a child that's been abused for the whole six years they've been alive. They hit you when they're upset or don't get what they want. Now, because they are a child, you do start teaching them not to do that, but you do so gently. You acknowledge their anger and guide them into funneling it in more productive ways. Crucially, they should already be removed from the abusive situation before you do so. If they're not, sometimes you have to wait to teach them.

You never: Yell, hit back, call them names in return, or in any way retaliate, and you don't write them off as "bad people" for it.

Now, there are two crucial differences with marginalization of other kinds. One, these are adults. It would be infantilizing, condescending, and patronizing to try and "teach them" to "act better" when they are lashing out as a result of extreme, ONGOING systemic abuse, of which most conversations of this type are attacking ACTUAL PERPETRATORS OF.

You don't get angry or blame victims of abuse for fighting back against their abusers, and if someone who has not previously abused them raises a gand against them, you don't get mad at them for reacting imperfectly either. At least, you don't if you're a good person.

There's nuance in if someone misreads something as abusive due to trauma, but quite frankly I'm of the mind that if they apologize after getting out of a triggered state, own it, and work to do better, then they're not a bully for messing up or having fucking symptoms of trauma. Especially if it's not a pattern.

I don't know, everything about this post seems emotionally manipulative, and directly trying to avoid responsibility for any actions they may have taken which have actually harmed others.

I'd also like to point out - bullying, a form of abuse, relies on having some form of systemic power over someone.

If you are the one that holds the power in a situation, someone can be rude to you, even a total asshole, but they CANNOT bully you.

Determining who has the power can be more complicated than just one thing, too. That's what intersectionality theory is all about. There can be cases in which normal power dynamics are flip-flopped by a confounding factor, as well as influenced by how "severe" the impact of a marginalized identity is. Ability to "pass" for nonmarginalized, while not itself privilege, can affect this, for example.

But in general - note how OP uses absolutes. You have to "agree with and believe everything and never disagree", regardless of any context, regardless of what privilege or power OP holds in the conversation; and the addition that it's bullying to let someone treat you "however they want" by... calling you names. Note the moral absolutes of "bad person" and "good person". They claim that the alleged bad faith actors in conversations about bigotry are leaving no room for nuance while actively shutting down any themselves.

It's never possible that they could in fact be bigots by inserting themselves into a conversation on marginalization that they don't experience and don't really understand. They use gentle language for themselves; "disagreeing with" - the same dogwhistle bigots use to "disagree with" marginalized people's right to exist; but also to imply that it's a level debate in which everyone's perspective is of equal value, and lives and livelihoods are not on the line.

I saw in the tags someone say " 'disagreeing is about pineapple on pizza' has done irreparable damage to the discourse" but... I do think that's a good rule of thumb. If you "disagree with" someone who says you're hurting them, and especially a whole GROUP of people saying the exact same thing, you're not disagreeing, you're forcing your own narrative on the situation using your societal power to do so, and you ARE a bully, an abuser, and a bigot.

If you don't get that, if you refuse to confront your own bigotry at all, if you refuse to acknowledge that being an ally is more than having BLM and a pride flag emoji in your bio, then yes, that makes you a bad person. Being a bigot by harming marginalized people, repeatedly, when told to stop, and then speaking over them? Yeah, that makes you a bad person.

Maybe marginalized people are genuinely not granting you any nuance, but maybe they're doing that because there is none. Maybe you just suck.

[arabnico]

hey khlood!!

earlier this afternoon, i stumbled across this very good, although short, post that talked about the way white women online victimised themselves when faced with criticism, and it reminded me of your recent post about white fandom bloggers. while i do believe that setting boundaries online is important, there still is a difference between choosing not to engage with actual bad faith criticism/harassment and like. actively refusing to face shitty things you've done, which the groups the post i linked and you were talking about do often.

and... i guess my question is: as a white person in fandom, how can i learn to recognize this behaviour and not fall into it?

i hope this was worded properly; i apologize in advance if this came off as rude or entitled. i thought starting a conversation on this topic might be a good idea, as it's an actual issue that i've been noticing a lot but didn't know how to put words on.

anyway-- with all of this said, i'm glad to have your blog back on my dash; your nicoposting & contributions to pjo fandom discussions are valued ❤️ i hope you have a great day!

hey sam,

honestly, i don’t think this behavior is something one “falls into” - because that would imply that this is something that you get caught in, slip into unconsciously, which it isn’t. this just reinforces the idea that white people are overall innocent, never ill-intended, passive participants in bigotry that are racist because they were manipulated into it or got caught in the loop. this just serves the idea that white people do not hold any responsibility for the violence they subject people of color to, that they don’t take the active choice to target people of color, and tries to alleviate the blame that is –rightfully– on them for their actions.

recognizing this behavior is pretty easy in my opinion. equating being “drama-free” to refusing to acknowledge people of color speaking up about racism (whether it be online or in real life) is telling enough on its own. another thing is white people prioritizing maintaining a positive environment in which you don’t address obvious tensions caused by prejudice and bigotry, basically keeping the environment “positive” only for people lucky enough not to be subjected to violence (made even more violent because it’s swept under the rug and hushed down). being dismissive of discussions of racially-motivated violence, equating racial bias to other kinds of discrimination, calling affront at racism “fandom drama”, equating being called out in mass for bigotry by people of color to being flooded with hate and being harassed and painting yourself as innocent, staying silent if your mutuals/friends engage in bigotry for the sake of maintaining the peace, flipping the script to paint yourself as the victim, using parts of your identities as a shield and weaponizing them as a way to say that you’re not capable of bigotry because you’re otherwise oppressed, refusing to participate in or broadcast discussions that are concerns about the racist aspects of a piece of media or of fandom itself, etc. are all manifestations of that.

the thing is that white people refuse to face the fact and acknowledge that their ability to ignore everything going on in online circles and in real life in order to protect their online bubble that they consider their “safe space” is an immense privilege in its own. this privilege is one people of color have never, do not, and will never be able to share. people of color cannot take a “break” from being people of color. white people can distance themselves from “everything going on”, can pretend a crisis doesn’t exist but people of color can’t. social media isn’t an escape for us, a safe space, we don’t get that chance. white people have over and over again shown that they don’t care about people of color’s existence and whether or not they feel adequate. white people constantly refuse to challenge their own comfort to allow for ours to at least exist. and as those instances of refusing to own up for their actions, of shutting down criticism, of refusing to engage in spreading information about people of color’s literal reality, of caring about current events that affect people of color and especially people in the global south show, white people don’t even prioritize our safety and survival over their own comfort. expecting them to be willing to cut down their own comfort for ours is barely imaginable for me.

i don’t believe the line between establishing boundaries and disregarding harassment and bad faith, baseless criticism and actively ignoring and refusing call outs on bigoted and violent behavior is a fine or thin line. the action of engaging in the latter is purposeful and intentional and rooted in willful ignorance, in prejudice, in blatant abuse of ill-gotten privilege, and in bigotry, for short.

the thing white people can do –and should and must do, in my opinion– is actively be the opposite of that. boost people of color’s voices. all people of color. even people of color who disagree with you. even people of color who aren’t nice about it. even people of color who don’t educate you in a “calm” manner. even people of color who aren’t willing to be patient with you, to coddle you, to explain things to you slowly, to not be angry at you. people of color are exhausted. people of color are always demanded intellectual labor, which in turn entails emotional labor considering this is our daily life, considering on top of having to be faced with bigotry from the “bad” white people, we’re also expected to educate, to be supportive, and “grateful”, and to spoon-feed the “good” white people on their path to become allies. and you have to care about people or color beyond just boosting up their voices. being anti-racist involves being empathetic, involves fighting for people of color’s financial security, involves advocating for their wellbeing, not just fighting racists. however, that’s also something you must do. white people have to stop waiting for people of color to confront a bigoted white person before they do it themselves–if you notice this, remaining silent is being complicit. call them out yourself. challenge their untouchable-ness. stop expecting people of color to do all the heavy lifting. and don’t expect thankfulness and reassurance and a pat on the back because while some might express them, people of color do not owe you any of that for bursting out of the utopian, ideal, unaware bubble born out of being beneficiaries by default of racism white people have existed in forever. if you personally know a person of color being subjected to violence asking them how they’d like for you to support them is also good.

it all just comes down to not only opposing violence against poc in fandom spaces but also caring for us multi-dimensionally. you won’t “fall down” into bigotry if you actively work against it.

[handsome-lovecraftian-horror]

Of Mitski and Strawberry Blonde

I do not think queer people recognize racism.

I will repeat that again. I do not think queer people recognize racism.

There is a difference between being white and queer and being a white queer, and so many POC can tell you that difference. A problem within the music industry is the bastardization of songs, and the bastardization normally come from white lgbt members who refuse to acknowledge the music was not made for them.

Music is sometimes just not made with you in mind, even if you like that music. That is okay. That is something that should be able to be actively recognized. But I have noticed that within the white queer community, that often times the intention, meaning, and target audience of music is overlooked or ignored for the sake of queerness. This is inherently harmful towards those artists.

The white queer community has the horrible habit of stressing the fact that an artist is queer "because of the style of music they make" or "because they just give me that vibe" or because "I relate to them and I don't like straight artists." This comes at the price of the fetishization of artists of other cultures, race, and ethnicity.

Igor by Tyler The Creator was not made with white people in mind. None of his music is. It is about black queerness, and yet white queers will argue the music he makes is specifically for them and about them. Recently, Mitski has been a target of conversation in the white queer community, with many members actively discussing and speculating over her sexuality when she has not come out yet.

If someone was to speculate about your sexuality, to discuss it behind your back and in front of your face, ignoring your silence, ignoring you saying no, ignoring the fact you have not come out yet, would you feel hurt? Would you feel frustrated? Possibly enraged that these people feel entitled to your sexuality and your personal life. Imagine how these celebrities feels, with the world's eyes on them, just for people who don't know anything about their lives to speculate their sexuality.

A vague tweet from years ago does not mean they came out. A possible passing mention does not mean they came out. They would need to COME OUT for their sexuality to be "confirmed".

When white queers relate to music, they have the horrible habit of making it about them without focusing on the consequences of that action. They have the habit of assimilating music to fit them, while actively fighting against queer assimilation. White queers constantly live with the hypocrisy of fighting for their rights, their visibility, for respect, and yet do not give that same respect to people of color. It is the argument of "I can't be racist, I'm queer." Queer people have no problem telling other queer people they are being homophobic, lesbaphobic, biphobic, transphobic, and yet cannot handle the fact that their queerness does not erase their racism.

When it comes to artists like Mistki, who writes music for women of color, white queer people need to take a step back and investigate their own biases. It is not about if the music "cannot be both queer and about race"; it is simply not queer music. White people need to learn at one point or another that there will be music that is simply not about them and that sometimes it is music that they like, that they think is "queer coded".

[stirringwinds]

yosb & the historical hetalia collective

I didn’t think I could lose even more respect for this person, but here we are. You were smarter and more experienced than the rest of us when all of this happened. I completely accept that I and the other mods made mistakes in how we handled that member who was eventually banned, which we have discussed at length in our Open Letter. I completely accept that we had and still have much to learn about racism beyond our lived experiences, even if we too are women of colour. What I can’t accept is the casual way you’re just punching down at us when you were the *founder* (and still are the owner) of our Discord server and had even more mod powers. Does your friend making the podcast with you know this? In 2017, you were a Harvard grad, the rest of us were still in undergrad, and the youngest mod was finishing up her second last year of high school, even if she was picked for being creative and intelligent—Lyz/ “ok shroomer” was literally 19 when all this happened. You were older than her. You were the most popular and well-known Hetalia fancreator in our Discord server. 

You did literally nothing throughout—from 2017—2020 (until you decided you needed material for your ‘fandom drama’ podcast, it seems). Not even to offer us criticism, advice or support about handling it behind the scenes. (It wasn’t because you were unaware—you were there, and during one of the incidents, all you did was meme about texas and the alamo before immediately diving out of the conversation when it became serious, or coming in to promo your “Mafia AU” and to listen to our praiseworthy comments because we genuinely loved your art) when all of this happened. The accusation isn’t that you were racist, or that you doing nothing was in of itself unforgivable. We get that you were a busy person. The unethical aspect of your actions is you doing nothing then and now thinking you’re entitled to shit on those who had to intervene (while being less experienced than you) and did so imperfectly— we were all also being directly victimised by the racist member while struggling to figure out how to handle it. It’s how you, on your Twitter, characterised all this as “drama” you had no connection to (until we made your involvement public) to your Twitter followers—instead of being on a server you founded and still owned that very moment. It’s how you so flippantly depicted what was a genuinely stressful and traumatic experience for us trying to handle that member who was causing problems, while omitting to your Twitter followers the fact that it was a Server you created and still had access to. If this is about “accountability”, you could have been serious, nuanced and spoken with an empathetic tone about the mistakes made by less-experienced, younger mods. In those tweets in mid-October, our experiences were characterised as entertainment. That is what is genuinely upsetting.

Whistleblowing? Which of us had power over you? No, you’re more like a CEO who calls a newspaper to write a humiliating exposé on a lower-level employee who fucks up and tweets about it instead of calling them to your office to explain what they did wrong. You were on cordial terms with us for months after all this happened and mentioned nothing about this—so how do you expect us to take seeing your tweets characterising what happened to us as potential material “freaky fandom drama” podcast three and a half years later as acting in good faith, instead of as cruel, exploitative and duplicitous? That’s the whole problem here. That’s why we have a hard time seeing this in good faith. You had plenty of power but did nothing, and on top of that, you are now characterising this as “whistleblowing” instead of “being complicit in allowing problems with racism to go unaddressed” or “blaming problems on younger mods and refusing to be held accountable.” Even though our groupchat was sometimes light-hearted and us joking and shitposting, it was also a place where people held multiple adult conversations about serious issues including racism. Given this prior dynamic, there’s no reason you couldn’t talk to us directly instead of covertly leaking our messages. 

Yes, congratulations. You “whistleblew” a server you literally founded, where you retained the most powerful admin privileges—and where you positioned yourself as a Cool, Trusted Older Fan to us.  Instead of talking to us upfront, you abused our implicit trust in you and used your admin privileges to leak our messages. You made dozens of people (some of whom weren’t even members when the incidents happened) panic at the possibility of their personal photos and information being spread over the internet. I just can’t fathom how you think your behaviour was in any way ethical or justified

Edit: This post was made by me on (24th Oct, UK time) (see tumblr timestamp), before yosb’s most recent response on her blog  (29th Oct) where she significantly, adopts a very different tone from how she has tweeted about us on her public Twitter or characterised the stress and fear of retaliation we faced trying to deal with a racist member victimising our community as potential material for her “fandom drama podcast”. This post was originally made in response to her continuing to omit and mischaracterise her unethical conduct as the founder of our Discord server even after we laid out the evidence, which explained why we believed her actions to be in bad faith on 23rd Oct. Links below.

- Collective Administrator @ yosb’s involvement and exploitation of the situation.

- Letter addressing the Former Mod’s claims and how the Banned Member was handled. 

[thesociologicalcinema]

So You Want to Talk about White Fragility

White Fragility: The defensive reaction white people have when their ideas about racism and race are challenged. Sociologist Robin Diangelo, who coined the term, also describes white fragility as a state in which even a minimum amount of racial stress becomes intolerable, triggering a range of defensive moves. These moves include the outward display of emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and behaviors such as argumentation, silence, and leaving the stress-inducing situation. 

Defensive Reactions: "White privilege is not real...because I grew up poor, so I am not privileged...because I have had to work hard for what I have." Instead of taking the time to learn about white privilege, the knee-jerk reaction is to deny that it exists at all. White people take the term "white privilege" as a personal attack instead of attempting to use their white privilege in a positive way.

Causes of Racial Stress (CRS) and Effect on White Identity (EWI): 1. (CRS) Suggesting that white person's viewpoint comes from a radicalized frame of reference. (EWI) Challenge to objectivity. 2. (CRS) People of Color talking directly about their own racial perspectives. (EWI) Challenge to white taboo on talking openly about race. 3. (CRS) People of Color choosing not to protect the racial feelings of white people in regards to race. (EWI) Challenge to white racial expectations and the need/entitlement to racial comfort. 4. (CRS) People of Color not being willing to talk about/answer questions about their racial experiences. (EWI) Challenge to the expectation that People of Color will serve white people. 5. (CRS) A fellow white person refusing to agree with your radical perspective. (EWI) Challenge to the idea of white solidarity. 6. (CRS) Being presented with a Person of Color in a leadership role. (EWI) Challenge to the idea of white authority. 7. (CRS) Receiving feedback that your behavior had a racist impact. (EWI) Challenge to the idea of white racial innocence.

White Fragility in Action: Remember when Colin Kaepernick took a knee against police brutality? The response to this display of peaceful protest was met with outrage, largely by white Americans. VP Mike Pence walked out of an NFL game after Kaepernick took a knee during the anthem, costing taxpayers $325,000 Because of public outrage, the NFL threatened to fine teams if their players took a knee during the National Anthem. White Americans lost their collective minds when Kaepernick was given a Nike campaign. They "boycotted" the brand.

The Hard Truth: Allowing yourself to take a step back and listen to others when they discuss their racial experience with you might be uncomfortable. You might feel inclined to toss an "I would never do / say that" into the conversation. Don't. All yourself to open up to understanding the plight of others without keeping your guard up. Conversations about racism, specifically when the conversations are about racist white people, do not specifically mean you, just because you are white. It might be difficult but it is necessary.

Source: Robin Diangelo / @soyouwanttotalkabout

[sometipsygnostalgic]

I'm kind of curious what your experience has been with the Amphibia fandom that you see it as aggressive? I've never had this issue myself and I think the show is really worth giving a try if you like TOH (I love both). But every fandom has its bad apples, I know the TOH fandom has a LOT of issues with racism, LGBTphobia and fandom superiority, and have chased Dana off Twitter more than once since airing.

When season 2 was reaching its end, fans developed very strong ideas of how they wanted things to go. Most of my exposure was from my Adventure Time friends on Twitter, some of which basically abandoned AT to talk about Amphibia.

I saw people getting incredibly upset and hurt when others speculated that a character could be a traitor. They even developed warning tags when saying how much this upset them, as if it was this really bad harmful thing to discuss. But I figured out already that the character was TOTALLY a traitor just from this secondhand information.

Yes I was upset back in 2012 when people said "PB is evil", and yeah those convos have always been terrible, but i didnt try to stop those conversations from happening, i just annihilated them :P (and then they turned out to be... half correct anyway?)

Then there was the shipping scene which scares me because I dont know how serious it is. I know people thought Ryan/Min Gi were an item then got angry when they weren't.

But what scares me most about this fandom isn't this stuff that other fandoms also experience, it's the heavy handedness of Matt Braly. Namely, when True Colours aired somewhere a bit early, he said that anyone who watches the leak is not a true fan and has no respect for the creators, which is self-entitled bullshit if you ask me. I don't like creators who make their fans fight among themselves. No other creators ever called their fans fake for following fandom nature and watching any new material available so they don't get spoiled.

I think if Matt carries that attitude into season 3 and keeps being aggro with his own fans, or fuelling their own aggression, he's going to make it blow up in his face. I want NO PART with Amphibia when that happens.

Ill watch it when everything is quiet.

[weaselbeaselpants]

I have a lot to say and not enough time to say it. It hurts, but ya’ll know what this is about so if you want my full fandom retrospective opinion thing guys, here.

I’ve been following Vivienne’s art and career since I found her on dA in 2009. I’ve basically grown up with her and have a wide range of opinions up and down her collective work. I must stress that I do not know her as a person and no matter how critical I get in my personal time if I somehow met her in real life or converse with her online again (like, back in the day we went back and forth. She was pretty nice to me), I’d be humble and congratulate her for her success.

Critique does not, EVER equate to attacking people.

But

the reason I don’t call myself a VivziePopVivzmind-fan is the exact same as to why I don’t like the proud use of ‘anti’. Let me try and explain -

The vast majority of Viv fans are just that: fans. Viv’s one of their favorite artists and they’re happy for her and obviously defensive when some mouth breather pops into their fan discussion calling her and all of them trash. Quite a lot of the Hazbin fans I know in my circle of friends are all pretty accepting and agree on the problematic notions and implications of her work.

HOWEVER, there’s a vocal minority in the VivziePop fandom that were and still are toxic. Their specific interest in Viv back in the day was toxic...and now that she’s moved on into a successful career I doubt they’ve gone away, considering the things I’ve heard. These people - they’d flood Viv’s comments sections and stuff with messages like they were talking to her when they weren’t and they’d unironically call her a god in a way that feels like gaslighting, ex: “I’ll NEVER be as good as you Viv! My art is just sooooo unpopular oh god you are incredible no one will ever like you as much as meeeee”. It made me uncomfortable. It made me not want to be around her because these people took Viv’s role in their lives so seriously and their demand for her attention...it struck a nerve.

These same fans have been around long enough to see actual shitlords - the likes of Kiwifarms and tapatalk wikis - come in and actually harass Viv. Viv’s been sent revenge porn by sick freaks who think they’re funny and believe she deserves it. No. In my non-name fan bystander opinion, Viv’s got some shit to work on, but no one deserves raperevenge porn. EVER. It was genuinely bad and yes Viv and her base have every reason to NOT TRUST these communities. Unfortunately, when these incidents happened, these particular fans took it upon themselves to gatekeep the fandom and act like Viv’s unofficial guard against any kind of decenting opinion of her, all without her say so.

((to the critics who will be all “but Viv or Faust said THIS to their fans-”, like I said, Viv’s far from perfect but regardless of how much she prolly wanted people to side with her I’m gonna guess that she didn’t want people sending transphobic death threats to DollCreep. Again, and this is coming from a bystander here, I have a feeling Viv knows about some of the toxicity but doesn’t know how/want to address it - which is a conversation all it’s own.))

This particular breed of VivziePop “fan” holds so much toxicity in her fandom(s). They aren’t the only cause, but they’re there. They feel entitled to her attention and her approval. They creep me out. Having spoken to other much-less critical admitted fans of Viv around me, these fans appear to creep everyone else out and put the rest of the fandom on edge. They’re gatekeepers. They’re creeps. Like the bronies and SU fans of yestertodayyears, they know harassment exists and that people have crossed the line - so they think any means is necessary to prevent that is automatically good. I could pile together all the incidents and folks who’ve had bad runs ins with this aftershock of Viv-obsession, but I do have a life of my own and this post is already stupid long so I’ll just list out the biggest examples and provide receipts when asked.

Critical blogs have gotten RAPE and death threats because they don’t like Viv’s art. HonestZoophobiaCriticisms, a blog I interracted with back in the day, def got one. Now Viv’s opinion of crit-blogs is that they’re “bad takes” but I can assure you she doesn’t want that shit being said on her behalf.

I’ve seen young artists get blacklisted from sites and forums cause they so much as post a redesign. Viv and co get told through the grapevine that someone’s making hatespeech and so preemptively block said person (prolly cause they’re in the middle of WORKING and can’t deal right now) only to find out after the fact that no, it was just a kid drawing their version of her characters. There’s serious miscommunication issues within the fandom about who’s ‘good’ or ‘bad’ and once you get the actual staff involved in this game of telephone you’re begging for trouble. The problem acknowledged, however, it’s souly from the “Viv never did anything wrong camp”. No word is said about how ugly the fandom is under the surface it’s all one type of person’s fault and not complicated’. Blah

I’ve only ever had ONE obsessive ‘fan’ who’d stalk me, mock me, and then redraw my art just to get attention from me. That shit fucked with my head. As a follower hundreds of miles away from Viv who’s agreed/disagreed with her through the years - I absolutely believe her when she says she hates ‘creeps’ and that she doesn’t want anyone in her fandom spreading hate on her behalf. It’s the one thing about her I’m POSITIVELY sure of. Whether she believes that said underlying harassment exists and/or is even a problem within her fandoms is anyone’s guess. That’s not what I’m here for. I’m here to write stupid blog entries like this, talk about fandoms and media and how they and the real world affect one another, and rb fan art I like. I’m cautiously optimistic fan with a side of salt.

Mixed opinions and critique within a fandom CAN and SHOULD exist. Hazbin Hotel has been greenlit by a studio! It has a product line of merchandise you buy. Helluva Boss is getting eight more episodes this coming year (yeeee:3yeeee). Two of Viv’s properties are now products. Nothing is immune from critique. And in critique you will find a lot of people who are not ‘nice’. Critique or analysis doesn’t have to be nice. There will be, in Viv’s words’ ‘bad takes’ on her writing. Maybe they will be actual CinemaSins-styled bad takes or maybe Viv is just mad that people don’t love and feel inspired by her characters the way she wants them to - it’s a fact she’s going to have to get used to.

((TBH, I’m pretty sure she’s already realized that criticism of all types need to exist. It’s just that, again, her and the SpindleHorse staff are kind of overwhelmed by all matter of takes and opinions coming their way they kinda can’t deal weeding out the fair ones from the assholes, so she lumps them all together.))

Shitposters, ironic fans, unironic fans, critical fans, just critics of Hazbin and Helluva CAN and WILL exist. They should exist and not feel threatened by the megafandom. There are people out there who are one step further and rightfully bothered by Hazbin/Helluva’s use of incorrect symbols, portrayal of certain topics, and the response by creators. These people have strong opinions and are actually disgusted by Viv. They deserve to exist too and should not be vilified because, like me, they’re commentary doesn’t consist of anything personal towards the people at Spindlehorse or the fans of her works. They can rant, they can be professional, they can be petty and they can be fair. But they will exist. You have to deal with it.

I am an ADD/OCD ridden autistic woman with serious anxiety issues who has no one to talk to half the time and so only HAS my fandom to communicate with. But that’s just it - it’s a fandom. A community. You have to learn to not think souly of yourself and of others in a community. A fandom doesn’t exist just for you or any one person. You have the right to be angry and defend or be offended. And it’s in the spirit of that that I ask, prrraaaaaay even, that I please

NOT BE CALLED AN “ANTI-ANTI” for not liking the moniker?!

I DON’T TO BE AN “ANTI”. Not ironically, not unironically. ‘Anti’ should be for politics and shit like pedophiles, necrophiles, nazis, serial killer stans, Trump, racists, antisemites, terfs, animal abusers, rapists, and antivaxxers. Anti should only come into critical media analysis when these ethical issues follow suit IN TO fandom discussion. ((EX: Anime and MLP proudly waving their cp and non-con into the public eye; Hazbin appropriating cultural symbols which are not satanic; Basically anything that concerns John K or Butch Hartman.))

If your DNI list unironically consists of the entirety of one fandom:  CONGLATURATIONS! You have done the exact same thing these particular creepy Viv fans have done: monopolize the conversation. And yes, people I’m referring to, IT’S STILL A PROBLEM EVEN IF YOU’RE FIGHTING RACISM/SEXISM/HOMOTRANSPHOBIA.

There are hundreds of Vivziefans who ARE more critical, accepting of faults, interested in discussion and especially rewrite and redesign stuff who would LOVE to engage with you and give you a follow. There’s hundreds of people who no doubt agree with you!

But the thing I’ve seen these very proud AntiHazbinVivzieHelluvaWhatever blogs do is lash out at fans for continuing to like Viv and consume Viv’s art in a healthy way. What the actual fuck is your problem?

I get it. Say a crazy Hazbin fan gets on your case for even SUGGESTING Viv could be homophobic ((”SHE’SBIANDWORKSWITHGAYPPLblahablahblah”)). They get in your face, make some callouts, try to rile up support against you, leave disgusting harassment throughout your social media? Absolutely ban worthy. After that it’s perfectly understandable why you don���t want to engage with anything HHHBZPVivzierelated because you’re so fucking tired of being labeled an abuser or “just jealous” for having an opinion on a show you don’t like. I’m with you!

But,

A fan agrees that something in the canon is bad or that Viv did something they don’t like?

A fan likes your silly shitpost meme?

A fan asks if they can like Hazbin and follow you at the same time? 

A fan does fan art of something you don’t like?

If your response to any of these ^^^ things is to get LOUD and accusatory, Vivsplain them about how they’re an absolutely awful person to ever question YOUR opinion, or just block them without a second thought? You’re a petty, vendictive shit and you also need to learn to let things go. I’m sorry but you do. As I already said, Viv’s work is a brand at this point, not just the work of a singular person. As such, there are gonna be mixed opinions and you can’t judge every single one of these people by what they like. You’re a shitty critic with a shitty attitude and yes that will demean the value of what you’re saying. This is bad because, if you’re trying to point out how Angel Dust’s abuse IS handled terribly; gay rep in Viv’s work is weak and terrible; the show appropriates closed practices; the fandom makes excuses for predatory artists and creepy behavior and individuals who have sketchy pasts - I’M WITH YOU. WE NEED TO BE TALKING ABOUT THIS SHIT. JUST BECAUSE THESE ARE ADULT CARTOONS SET IN HELL MEANS THERE SHOULD BE ANYTHING CLOSE TO 2013 PONY-TUMBLR. <<<---- this shit is as important to me as it is to you and I really don’t like being called an abuser or apologist for saying “hey maybe blowing up at ppl for the shows they like ISN’T the way to go about this”. 

But I have, just like the good old days of 2015 Zoophobia of yore, been blocked because I admit to being tired of ‘Anti’ being equated to ‘critical’. Same with hater.

Critical DOES NOT = Anti+Hater. I’m fucking tired of people saying it does and I’m tired of people taking up the term as some weird form of fandom reappropriation. It’s stupid.

Tl;dr: Once upon a time, I was in a budding fandom for something I liked made by an indie artist I watched on dA. I wanted to be a bigger fan than I was already, but was told by toxic people within said fandom that I couldn’t be part of it for reasons they’d made up in their head about my ‘motives’ against Viv. My admiration for Viv or what I liked about Zoophobia didn’t matter because I thought the story was really rushed and people weren’t being truthful with how they really felt about it - ergo, I HAD TO GO. 

Flash forward 8 years later- My opinion of Viv’s body of work has changed but I still find myself in love with her style and some of her characters. I want to be on a forum or service that gives a healthy look at the problems there are with this series and fandom...and I’m met repeatedly by petty bs where people are again at each other’s throats. And yes, I do think it’s causing more harm than good especially when you insist there’s a “x person shouldn’t be trusted” mentality when fighting actual fucking racist, xenophobic, predatory bullshit.

[abla-soso]

I'm sending you this ask because I saw this post and I think this might be a case of a cultural misunderstanding? The entire conversation was very disconnected; almost nobody understood what the other was attempting to say.

I think witchesofcolor did assume about mimiwrites2000 originally but they did correct themselves pretty quickly.

They warned mimiwrites2000 about the language they were using and then explained it to them. In the U.S. if someone saying says something incredibly offensive (part of the statement they made most certainly was) then it's considered good manners to correct them immediately (particularly foreigners) so that they don't accidentally offend others. However this might be offensive in wherever you're from.

I also don't particularly believe you're anti-black either.

But, your overall behavior was (by western standards) super aggressive and you've mistaken some things as well.

When referring to AAVE that is not a 'Westerners' issue. AAVE is a specific dialect native to only Black Americans. It's words have become quite popular on the internet but they're often used improperly (as you mentioned); however because Black Americans still use the words as they were meant to be this leads to confusion and irritation (particularly the latter for Black Americans). Both you and mimiwrites2000 use it quite a bit so be there might be more confusions in the future.

Throughout the post no one called mimiwrites2000 a racist or anti-black; they said the language used was. The action was anti-black; no one said anything about the person. There's a big difference.

It was said/implied that both witchesofcolor and visibilityofcolor attacked mimiwrites2000 which again isn't accurate. To attack is imply they were purposely malicious; which they weren't. In reality, they were relatively polite. That of course doesn't mean that mimiwrites2000 didn't feel hurt; but they weren't attacked.

Honestly, you sounded really dismissive? It almost seemed like you didn't care that something offensive was said? You appeared more offended that someone corrected mimiwrites2000 and you then that something harmful was said? Like, as long as you're suffering in Palestine damned be anything else; even if it's hurtful to other marginalized communities.

Also, you claimed that you were being tone policed but you really weren't. Tone policing is when someone refuses to help/support a movement because they didn't like your tone (or attitude/words/etc.). While your tone wasn't liked; all involved still support Palestine regardless.

Overall, everybody made accusations and assumptions.

I believe neither you nor mimiwrites2000 are native English speakers (or from a western country) and language is really tricky (especially English!) so certain things are maybe lost or aren't understood but it's lost on me how you are so confident you've said or done absolutely nothing wrong. Especially since most of that entire post is in regards to something most non-Americans (including those from western countries) would have a lot of trouble understanding.

Anon, I appreciate your compassionate effort to fix this mess, but I’m really over it, and I highly doubt we can see eye to eye on this. 

It’s not just a language barrier, there is definitely a huge difference in culture clues/values. 

What I found incredibly offensive in my culture (ignoring a grieving person’s cry for help and focusing on how their wording offends me) doesn’t seem to be a big deal to you. Where I'm from, if a person is in desperate need of help, you don’t get to make it about yourself instead. Even if that person deliberately insults you, you listen and help them first and then deal with the insult. And it’s more outrageously rude when that person who was asking for your help was obviously clueless and never meant to offend but you still prioritized your hurt feelings anyway. 

You can’t imagine the level of shame and humiliation a person from an Arab culture feels when a person ignores their cry for help and tries to nitpick the words they used to ask for help, especially if they were subjugated to constant silencing and dismissive attitude before (and mimiwrites2000's private messages to me expressed how terrible she felt). 

That’s why I was angry and aggressive. 

And I’m not gonna apologize for it. 

Because while I listened and honored those guy's wishes and vowed to never again use that word that they found offensive (because I was NOT dismissive of their complaint itself), they - on the other hand - never listened. 

They demanded that a grieving victim who was crying for help be held accountable for an innocent mistake she made, but they completely absolved themselves of their own gross western-centric bias. 

They choose to call me all kinds of nasty names over and over and bombarded me with really vile, hateful messages for days.  

So sorry, but I don’t owe them shit.

But I will answer the rest of your points:

I had no idea what AAVE is, and neither did mimiwrites2000. Assuming we should have known anyway is a classic example of western-centric bias.

Even if mimiwrites2000 wasn’t directly accused of racism, the mere fact that her cries for help were ignored and she was forced to defend herself - because of an unintended offense that was caused by nothing but innocent cluelessness - was outrageous enough to me as an Arab. That post was about uplifting Palestinian voices - who were actively silenced right now - and allowing them to express their outrage and grief freely, regardless of how westerners feel about it. It was NOT the time or place to nitpick and police Palestinians voices. If someone was offended by a Palestinian’s choice of words; they should have approached them privately and respectfully, but not in my fucking post.

Mimiwrites2000 felt hurt because she felt ignored AND attacked. You don’t get to decide that for her. I already explained why an Arab victim would feel greatly humiliated in this situation, so I won’t repeat myself. 

Excuse me, but I’m too busy caring about my people being killed and colonized. I don’t have enough emotional energy to ignore my own deep pain and grief and focus on catering to other’s hurt feelings (which were caused by an unintended mistake and nothing else). We’re already deeply suffering and utterly emotionally exhausted, so have some freaking empathy and don’t demand that we should prioritize your feelings. And the most fucked up thig is: even AFTER I swallowed my own deep grief and pain and catered to their feelings; I was still called a racist bigot who didn’t really care about my own people’s suffering!!! I truly can not fathom this disgusting level of entitlement and lack of empathy.

Tone policing has many examples and it’s not limited to the one you mentioned. Also; claiming to “support” Palestine doesn’t mean shit when you nitpick and derail posts made by Palestinians and prioritize your own feelings over theirs. Don’t police, derail, or silence Palestinian voices. If you find something offensive; you can speak up, but keep the discussion in the DMs.  

[kirstinmaldonado]

CHAPTER TWELVE 2.0

I started the last two chapters, happy to have something of substance to talk about, me being at home, improvements I was seeing, maybe even some rightful disappointment at some people’s lack of care in their actions…but like clockwork the beginning of the week brought in new developments and my mind drifted focus. My fingers lost the spark to write about feel-good situations when the chaos in the world seemed to extinguish the flame.

I was in Texas just two weeks ago but it honestly feels like forever, as if time is confused on what pace its on. The USA seems to be confused as well.

Theme parks across the nation are opening up. Some flights are back to full capacity. The world seems caught on a pendulum of thought: “Are we good enough to pretend and pass like we can go back to normal?”

Meanwhile, people are still getting sick. People are still dying. Protests are still happening, although it apparently doesn’t serve the media to still be airing that. Justice has still not been served for those we’ve lost: Breonna Taylor, Vanessa Guillen, Elijah McClain, and so many more. The media and internet is ablaze with people ridiculing, attacking, or making fun of each other, on top of everything going on.

I wonder if I’m a part of that sometimes. While I still think protesting for “bar lives” is unfathomable and tone deaf, while it was so easy to ridicule because it was so insanely insensitive to compare to the BLM movement, did I help to further a narrative full of spite? Did I egg on anger and divisiveness, did I unintentionally help create arguments online? Did I give a platform that I don’t agree with more attention by calling attention to it?

I’m all for the hard but important conversations. I love them, to be honest. My family and I had many thought-provoking conversations when I was home, about what they’ve experienced with racism, about our opinions on all sides. It was wonderful to expand our ways of thinking using past and present! I think we all walked away with more rounded backing to our opinions, me included, and I’m thankful to have a family that can be so open and willing to discuss.

Yet, those conversations can’t be condensed into however many characters can fit in to a tweet. The art of negotiating is not all about winning, it’s also about empathizing. It’s about explaining and getting the opponent to understand your side and school of thinking; if you just tear them apart for their lack of understanding or different opinion, how can they ever fully understand or want to, especially if you are the one trying to teach them something not in their wheelhouse?

Racism, of course, is non-negotiable.

Everything else, and it’s a lot, that we have encountered in the last few weeks (mainly dealing with COVID) feels like it’s cumulatively driven us to a breaking point, to a point where I don’t really feel like I live in the “United” States of America. I feel like we are now all pitted against each other, immediate to defend our point, and jumping to 10 because honestly we are tired of the bullshit.

I get it. I do. But in the last few days while I’ve watched coronavirus cases develop, “Karens” making a fool of themselves in public places and endangering people’s lives with their sense of entitlement, while watching Hamilton for the first time and seeing good and bad critiques, Kanye running for president, while I’ve cried over Vanessa and what happened to her only to have someone try to belittle my reaction compared to others we’ve lost, I realized something.

Chaos. All chaos.

How can we make real change when we are all just screaming? How can we move mountains when we are pushing from two opposing sides? And while we have made progress, will we have the sensibility to keep with it or will our boiling frustrations overrule and distract us from our end goal, lasting and transformative change for the betterment of BIPOCs and everyone?

I’m not hating on our progress. And I’m not vilifying people’s reactions to things not in your school of thought, albeit insanely frustrating things. I’ve been there and am there. The amount of Facebook posts I’ve written novels for, the shock I feel on a daily basis for some people, is all still there. Yet, my sadness for this world and how to heal it has crept in and bated me.

What can “I” do to make a difference?

Hating and bashing things is our new normal, our humor has become intertwined with it so much that we ridicule and make jokes out of everything. Click-bait headlines only stoke the flames. Coronavirus is still surging every day, and you know what, some people can’t pretend to go back to “normal” amongst it all.

The entertainment business, for example, won’t be back up and running for… who knows? I wouldn’t be surprised if Broadway was closed for longer than a year. We rescheduled our tour in hopes that we would be able to go, but with the way things are looking I can’t help but feel distressed about the outlook for the entertainment industry/shows all around. So many people’s “normal” won’t come back at all until we get a headway on this virus, and it’s gonna take us all coming together for that to work as well. We have to truly be THE UNITED states of america.

As a side-note, Pentatonix has never been this stationary since we started…and that’s bittersweet too. Never take anything for granted, guys.

So while I dissolved into a puddle over Vanessa and how I don’t even know how to help mediate the world anymore, with people at each others throats literally and figuratively all the time, with good people and bad people on every side, I returned to a very old school of thought for myself. 

Be kind. 

What can “I” do every day? 

Yes, use my platform as a strong voice of advocacy, try to filter through everything to make sure I’m posting facts and not scare-mongering or leading anyone astray from what they should be seeing.

I’ve protested. Signed petitions. Written emails. I tried to raise awareness and bring everyone along with me on my journey as I learned, which I thought was helpful.

But I forgot about the most important thing, the thing that’s been ingrained in my head since I was a child for better for worse, the one thing that even though practiced vehemently, never always comes back guaranteed.

Be kind.

I lost that somewhere along the way, a bit. I could feel my soul hardening at how cruel some people can be, I felt how easy it was to smite and bash people’s names who have done far worse. I felt my eyes cloud with hate.

For a long time I thought the battle was human vs earth and I was always so sad to see how easily we destroyed such a precious gift. 

Now I know at its core that the real problem is human vs human: how to one up each other, how to be more successful, how to win, how to be MORE all the time. That feeling has been slowly poisoning us and our empathy and compassion towards others. That feeling is not about bettering oneself, it’s about greed and it spreads like cancer. 

For a long time, I didn’t want to “be kind” like a Disney princess anymore. I was tired of trying to use kindness as a shield as if people’s actions did not hurt me. I was mad at my kindness for blinding me and letting me get hurt. I thought the phrase “kill them with kindness” was stupid, because I was the one that kept getting hurt.

But my kindness did not do that to me. I did not do that to me.

People did. Hurt people. Confused people. People that had problems within themselves that were in no way a reflection of me. People with opposing views. Those people are not my fault. Those people don’t get to have their anger bleed in to my life, they don’t get to poison my disposition with their greed and animosity.

What can I do?

Every day, I can make a point to not be divisive. To not so easily make fun of things, belittle, call names, etc.

I can tone down my “complaining” online. I can not get so upset and rush to attack people that would be hard to get my point across to anyway online, so I don’t work myself up for hours about one internet troll when I could be doing other more important things. Why lose sanity over someone only wanting to argue? Why revert to the name bashing, why invite more stress and anger in to my life, even though there’s enough anyway with what’s going on in the world?

As I uncovered more history, had more awakenings and understandings, and dealt with my own personal stresses, I felt my strength oscillating and now I know why. I was so hardened with hate and disbelief, I felt like a fool living in a world that said it was something else. And...I left my best ally behind in my own rush for MORE.

Kindness. 

Empathy. Understanding. Patience.

So for July, I’ve decided to take care of myself a little more. Take care of others. Make sure that I am not contributing to anyone’s pain, and only being an ally to amplify voices that need to be heard. 

There’s a kinder way to say everything. There’s a kinder way to live. Amongst all this chaos, maybe if we were all a bit kinder, we could ease the waves of tension and calm the storm. Maybe if we could see past ourselves, we could make a lasting change for us all.

I changed my bio the other day. We must be like the sunflowers, pulling toxicity from the ground and air. Nature’s helper. I said I would be like that.

They don’t contribute anything negative, they just stand tall and strong, a mediating force in a world that needs purifying. 

So, I will armor myself with my strength, knowledge, and kindness. 

And see about tomorrow. 

[grimreich666]

So once again we are to this point when it comes to the Christina + Ruby server drama. Now I realize I made a YouTube video that explained my disgust of certain Fanfic Writers writing community of Lovecraft Country that write for the Ruby and Christina fandom that's ran by Kswhateverspace and Hernameisjaye. Now know it looks like I bullied somebody but that's far from the case, as every action has a reaction. Now because the situation I wasn't going to go too much into it until, someone told me about the twisted mess both Kwhateverspace and the other admins were saying. And it had come to alot of my members attention that they done stuff with members in the past and it has clearly made people unhappy to a point where they aren't talking in thier own server. When it comes to the Ruby plus Christina server owned by Kwhateverspace, I joined with decent intentions and it thought it was a community that shared a love for Christina and Ruby, but it turned out to be a Sixth-Grade Mean Girls Special on Crack. I never wanted it to get to a racial points between servers, but it is looking like these white women with a Misguided Black Woman as thier Server Owner, obviously do not know what true racism is and how to handle their power as Admins and accept others opinions. And the saddest part is that not just me but other members have been kicked out for absolutely no reason and I don't know if anybody seen Kswhateverspace Blog. But everything on there is just about a lie, she claims that all of us violated the rules but nobody was given any warning before being kicked out. Now mind you I do know that the rules exist but the rules should have been implemented for more extremer conditions, but none of us members took it to that level. The issue that I have with the other server is their ability not to gauge a situation at any kind of frequency of balance as they just kick off people who they don't like. A friend of mine who's in my Discord now got kicked for absolutely saying a joke it was nothing that was malicious or ill intent to these people, and while I get that respecting their mental health as Fan Fic writers is a thing to do, me and others always supported before we started reading racist ass Ruby and Chirstina fics. This friend of mine was enthusiastic about reading their stories and very supportive and we all kept a good positive energy that could be see in my current Discord. The issue that the Admins on the Christina + Ruby Server is that they made someone's enthusiasm for a story seem like it was an issue with harassment and that was not cool eespically when she meant it in a LOL kind of way. There was no reason for her to get kicked off just like there was no reason for my other friends to get kicked off and there was no reason for ME to get kicked off. I understand people were all into safe spaces and making safe spaces but as Admins they should've addressed thier complaints to people in warnings, but the kicked people for simply commenting. Thus making thier own server and its members uncomfortable to be themselves and thats when becomes a dangerous place and if I hadn't of known that I would've never ended my own server to expose my friends to their toxicity. The issue between the Admins is that pride themselves on being Admins, but the lack leadership skills and comprehension skills necessary for it. For me as an Admin if there was an issue with a person's comments I would talk to them in Dm's and warn them. So for them to say that they're not big on public warnings that is fine, but when you do not privately warn somebody for a simple comment and for them to get kicked the next day something isn't right. Also how can a behavior improve if there is no communication between an Admin and their members? Me as an Admin I dont function that way, I always take the time if someone comes to me with a complaint to address the person on DMs. And if you read Kwhateverspaces blog on the issue and the screenshots nothing she says parallels to the intent in which these comments where said.

The issue that I have with this group is there ability to flex around their power an act like we had did something so wrong when we were simply just expressing our opinions. And we were well within our respectable means to address our opinions in the saddest part is that these admins are white within a predominantly black server and they do not get our way of culture.

Now as for the next member who was kicked it was totally uncalled for as she questioned why I was gone due to the fact that I told Hernameisjaye to learn her Black History due to the fact that she and another member Agent Sheryl did not understand why I did not think Christina was racist I had a whole You Tube Video about it. So they knew my opinion on it and why they chose to double team me on an opinion was so uncalled for. So when I made the comment that I'm sorry if I dont want to be black and militant to a character that I dont find as racist she flipped out on me, and kicked me I never called her anything I told her the truth and if you've seen my YT people know I could've taken it alot further with these Birdbrain Hoes. Nevertheless until a certain point I thought we were having a decent civil discussion, yet she took it out of context very fast when I said what I did and as for the Black History factor you could see that they were giving no concern to it and only cherry picking my words to make me seem antagonistic to them, as I was telling them about the harm that white women had done in history vs Christina Braithwhite. Now mind you I had told Hernameisjaye several times that she is entitled to her opinion and I was entitled to mine and it's as you could see on the time stamps. At one point I thought it was a civil discussion, that was until I got kicked out for it. It's clear that these Admins have no commonsense to read a room and come to a basic agreement, even as I was telling them they have an opinion and I have mine and I respect it. And yes I was mad for the kick and I did warn Kswhateverspace that I would be going to my platform with it and she even gave her approval of it as I do have the screen shots for that as well.

Hernameisjaye along with Agent Sheryl had been going on a Christina is racist rant for two days, and both were very antagonistic to those in the Serious Discussions Discord Server, who engaged her. I even went so much so to agree with her just to shut her up, yet she kept on at agonizing me and another member to the point of harassment. It was clear that they had spoken about us, before as they were so ready to kick us AGAIN WITH OUT WARNING US PRIOR. Now I will be continuing the Dandybear situation on part two. However I find it messy that these Admins cherry picked our conversations that me and the other member thought where civil and tried to turn it into something uncivilized on our end. This is the same kind of intent that always happens when it comes to black and white people, it always happens that a white person says something out of line and then when black person gets mad then they act as if the black person had antagonized and started the situation. Hernameisjaye is really sad at this point to try a tactic like that, and it's detrimental that shes allowed racism into her group, but has dropped the people that meant her no harm with there opinions as FELLOW BLACK WOMEN.

The Admins Kwhateverspace and Hernameisjaye claim that they want freedom for people to express themselves, but they act like bullies when the situation is not to their favor. Yet it was after the fact that told a lie and still continue to tell one after another member and I were kicked, that made the situation worse. You can read the screenshots of my responses on Kwhateverspaces blog or this one qnd you can clearly see I did nothing in the wrong, as I was coming at Hernameisjaye as one black woman to another. And if she had talked to me in DMs and cleared things out maybe I would've apologized for the comment even if I personally thought I wasn't wrong for it, as I had no shame in my game to apologize even when I'm not wrong.

YET the point I cant stand the most is that they overreacted to a statement I made, and yet they allowed a racist fan fic writer to stay in group. It is clear these Admins don't have thier heads on straight as they kick us out for having a simple opinion or objection to common discussion. Now I do understand there is a level of what Admins can take and what they cannot take, but when you do not make those boundaries clear and when other members make their boundaries clear when your antagonizing them, and you still keep doing it theres something wrong with you as a leader. All I have to say is look at the screenshots and out responses to ours.

[ssaseaprince]

ive seen alot of discourse around jacks character and i wanted to share my thoughts. this is just my pov and of course everyone is entitled to their own opinion, and if you have something to add to this or want to have a conversation im totally open to it! and i want to preface this by saying I dont hate jack, i just don't like him. I think he was a good person in alot of ways but there's alot of things that make me not like him that I want to explain. This is going to be a long post, sorry.

so one thing ive heard is things like "you cant like Hannibal and then not like Jack because you think he's bad, Hannibal is way worse." and i completely see where this thought process is coming from, and yes hannibal was a way worse person then jack, so im not disagreeing with that at all.

We know from the start of the show that Hannibal is bad, hes a serial killer, cannibal, he manipulates and hurts everyone around him, the show doesnt hide this. we go into watching it knowing who hannibal is and knowing hes bad. So when he does something bad, (most of the time) its not shocking in the sense that we expect it from him because its who he is and his characters role in the show.

Jack however, is supposed to be a upstanding person, hes wills boss and is in charge of "taking care of him" so to speak while hes working. Jack is never presented straightforwardly as a inherently bad person, so when he does bad things, its more shocking and hurtful in my opinion, because its not expected of him. He admits that he knows will is unstable, but it doesnt really matter to him as long as will is saving lives. Yes, Hannibal did write off will as good to be in the field, but it was very clear will was unstable, and Jack admits to knowing that. I dont remember what episode it was, but in one conversation with Hannibal he talks about how hes willing to let will go mad as long as he can help solve crimes. Jack is in a position of authority, and when it comes to doing field work for the fbi, willingly having someone obviously mentally unstable is extremely reckless, neglectful, and dangerous. When Will gets out of the hospital for the criminally insane, Jack takes him straight to a crime scene. And all throughout the show Jack shows time and time again that he is reckless and disregardes rules and safety precautions if he thinks it'll get him what he wants. This arguably leads to mariam lass being kidnapped and held hostage, the 2x13, and Hannibal escaping with Will. hes also very manipulative when it comes to will. Yes, Will is a grown man capable of making his own decisions, but Jack also knows how much will wanted to help, and exploited that through guilt tripping and manipulation, like in s3 when he goes behind will to get Molly to help guilt trip and convince will to help and talk to Hannibal again. Jack is in a position of power and authority, and he (imo) doesn't do well with it, again, disregarding rules and safety precautions, ignoring incredibly dangerous situations, etc.

When Hannibal, who is a serial killer, kills somebody, its not much of a shock. When he manipulates somebody, its not much of a shock because that is what is expected of him, we know his morals are completely different then everyone else's because thats who he's supposed to be. If he didn't do those things, there wouldn't be a show. We know he's bad, so when he does bad things, it doesn't change our (my) view of him much, because I expect it from him.

Whereas with jack, there is alot more expected of him, because he is not a cannibalistic serial killer, so when he manipulates and hurts people, its more hurtful because its not expected. Jack has good intentions, he wants to save lives, and he's obviously going through alot like with Bella, but the way he goes about it is so harmful and causes so many issues that it can make him seem very unlikable.

hannibal doesnt care about hurting people (mostly), i would venture to say he's not capable of caring about (most) people (not to say he doesn't know right from wrong, just that hes not capable of having adequate empathy), whereas jack is completely capable of empathy, and he does care about people hurting, but he chooses to continously hurt people anyway and cause problems anyway with the excuse "its to save lives". he puts up this idea that will is only worth who he can save, ergo, his life is not as important as others.

Arguably almost all the characters on hannibal are "grey" characters, not completely good or bad. But long story short, when a serial killer kills, its expected and acceptable in the sense that thats what their character was made to do and has to do for the storyline to further. But when a fbi agent, whos supposed to be helping and a good person, does bad things, its much more upsetting.

Something can be said about racism in the writing, and within the fandom, because I have definitly seen people who dislike Jack for obviously racist reasons. And that's definitely not okay, and it needs to be called out and not happening, and we as a fan base need to acknowledge the racism in the writing of the show (like killing off almost all of the few poc the show had to begin with). I would like to say in regards to this, that I am white, and I'm also still learning alot and still working on identifying racism in spaces that I didn't recognize before (due to being uneducated), so I don't think I'm the right person to be having a full discussion with about race in reference to the show, because I dont want to speak over poc voices and misinform anyone. But I will call out racism where I see it and continue to educate myself about it. Thats just to say that i can give the input I have on this, but I would recommend talking to a person of colour if youre looking to learn more about this.

Anyways thats just my take, sorry for the long post. This isnt meant to be controversial, but I see how it could be. Again, if anyone would like to discuss this im completely open to discourse and new ideas ❤

[diversetolkien]

To the anon who sent me that post url in my inbox: yes, it’s absolutely about that situation! but, I took a step back and did some breathing. Long story short, I overreacted.

I shouldn’t expect people who aren’t black to boost black issues, or even draw attention to racism. This isn’t me being self-patronizing, this is me looking at a situation realistically in the fandom we’re in, and really in the society we’re in. the more I expect, the less I get, and the more upset I get. People aren’t entitled to care about black issues, or even draw attention to them. I hate this, but understanding it has made things easier for me.

It hurts to have your voice omitted in a post where bloggers who discuss that subject matter are being referenced. It hurts to boost other voices and not have your own boosted, especially where it matters. But it is what it is. And I’m willingly to except that.

I’m black, I should boost black issues. It hurt to see people do it for others who aren’t black, but that’s pretty much how the world treats black people.

So yeah, it is what it is. I felt my voice was left out in a conversation that really mattered, with people who I’ve interacted with in the past who would have known my perspective.

I don’t really want to talk about it. Please don’t dm me, or send anons about me, or even bring it up to the bloggers themselves. I’m in Texas with little to no power and I really don’t want to spent what rationed power I have thinking about this. I just want to move on with my new perspective.

[uglyduchessrantsandcomments]

Help start the conversation on transphobia in France

You love France and think it's a beautiful country? Help it get even better.

You hate France, its structural racism, sexism, and fake progressism (etc)? Make French people realise their entitlement and obliviousness.

Following the suicide of two trans students, Doona and Fouad, people in France are starting to grow ever so slightly more aware of transphobia at school. Please sign the petition! Transphobia, and especially in schools, is never discussed in France and we need to do better. I'm the only lecturer in my department who even asks for pronouns and real name, so I think we should definitely start this conversation and bring it to mainstream attention. This petition certainly won't solve the problem, but it will at least get the conversation going.

Other things you can do:

Share your own experience with transphobia with the hashtag #transphobiescolaire

As a teacher and as a person of authority in general, always keep in mind transgender people in your decisions

If you think it's safe, discuss transphobia with your friends and family. Some people are open-minded but simply never thought of it.

Le suicide de deux étudiantes transgenre, Doona et Fouad, semble avoir poussé les gens en France à s'intéresser ne serait-ce qu'un petit peu plus aux questions de transphobie à l'école. Signez la pétition, s'il-vous-plaît ! La transphobie, et en particulier la transphobie à l'école, n'est quasiment jamais un sujet de conversation en France : il faut qu'on se bouge. Je suis la seule enseignante de tout mon département à demander les pronoms et le prénom réel des étudiant.e.s. Nous devons lancer cette conversation et la rendre plus publique. Cette pétition n'est pas la solution au problème, mais elle permet d'en discuter.

D'autres choses sont possibles :

Partagez votre expérience de transphobie scolaire avec le hashtag #transphobiescolaire

En tant que professeur ou personne ayant une certaine autorité, gardez toujours en tête la manière dont vos décisions pourraient affecter les personnes trans

Parlez de transphobie avec vos amis et votre famille. Certaines personnes sont ouvertes d'esprit mais n'y ont simplement jamais pensé.