#and yeah im white passing but then everyone's like ARE YOU REALLY A POC DO YOU COUNT AS A POC

[moonfableflor]

Honestly I'm just filled with rage that so many people are so fucking stupid they can't even begin to conceive the idea that people are literally just meant to eat and drink and watch the stars and be content with life and whatever helps you do that as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else is fine but then here comes along Moneys Richson Jr and he wants ALL the money and to make ALL the people suffer and to get in ALL of everyone's business and judge them for just feeling happy in themselves and OOOH NOOO A PERSON DOESNT FIT INTO MY TINY BOXES AND EXTREME STANDARDS IM GOING TO USE ALL MY MONEY (because I'm Moneys Richson Jr) TO MAKE IT EVERYONE'S PROBLEM AND SAP THE HAPPINESS OUT OF HUMANITY WHICH IN THE METAPHORICAL SENSE ALREADY DIED I just want to like punch some people or something,,, like WHO CARES IF HE FEELS BETTER AS A GUY WHO CARES IF SHE FEELS BETTER AS A GIRL WHO CARES IF THEY FEEL BETTER AS NEITHER WHO CARES IF HE USES HE/HIM AS A GIRL WHO CARES IF SHE USES SHE/HER AS A GUY WHO CARES IF THEY'RE BOTH A GUY AND A GIRL WHO CARES HOW THEY RELATE TO THEMSELF WHO CARES WHO THEY DO OR DON'T FUCK OR LOVE ROMANTICALLY OR LOVE PLATONICALLY OR LOVE QUEERPLATONICALLY WHO CARES IF THEIR BRAIN DOESN'T WORK LIKE YOURS WHO CARES IF THEY NEED MORE THINGS THAN YOU TO NAVIGATE THE WORLD BETTER WHO CARES IF THEY NEED HELP WHO CARES HOW OLD THEY ARE WHO CARES HOW THEY LOOK WHO CARES WHAT THEY THINK IS ABOVE HUMANITY AND PART OF THE UNIVERSE WHO CARES ABOUT THEIR HAIR OR FACE OR EYES OR ANYTHING WHO CARES!!!!! WE'RE ALL HUMAN AND THAT'S THE ONLY THING WE NEED TO KNOW AND WE SHOULD CARE ABOUT EACH OTHER!!!!! WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS GODSDAMN MONEY-CULT

[buttercupbuck]

this is just me having complicated feelings about all the eddie/poc week discourse so if you’re tired of that feel free to dip lol 

but idk it’s very confusing to have constant discourse around how you should identify and in which spaces you are/aren’t allowed. 

because like. one thing that has always given me a lot of anxiety is the idea of taking up space in places i shouldn’t, and diminishing the experiences of others in doing so. so i don’t, and it’s hard to tell when it’s to the extreme and when it’s not

but then idk the last few days have just made me feel lowkey sick and shameful because of all the “if you disagree that eddie belongs in POC week you’re a racist piece of shit” posts going around, and like?? i don’t disagree? not really. i made a post a while ago about eddie about being a white latino (mostly because, as someone who is also mixed, i’ve been constantly told that this distinction is necessary and right), but at the same time i wouldn’t not consider him a POC? and idk i know that’s contradictory as fuck but the more i sit with the “white latino” distinction, the more it just. doesn’t sit right with me

i absolutely get the whole ethnicity =/= race discussion, but it just doesn’t really feel that simple when it comes to latinx tbh 

because we’re obviously not a monolith and it doesn’t easily boil down to white/black/asian, mainly because of yk...colonization, and subsequent mixed european/indigenous ancestry. and unless you get an ancestry test it’s difficult to determine where your racial roots lie, and thus what to identify as 

and on a separate note, race is supposed to be mostly based on physical features and what not, and isn’t entirely dependent on the color of someone’s skin. so even though eddie is lighter skinned, he looks very mexican to me imo. feel free to disagree with me obviously, but even if i just saw him on the street, i’d feel the same just based on his features (beyond the color of his skin - which, even still, is decently tan). obviously this isn’t gonna be the case for everyone who sees him (like was shown in 2.05 with the guy who assumed he was white), but yeah. 

also im not even meaning this entirely facetiously, but at what color hex code does someone surpass whiteness? because for example, people argue that olivia rodrigo is white passing when she’s just. not? (ik she’s not latinx, but just roll with me here). like she’s light-skinned for sure, but she’s clearly not white...which kinda gets me into the point that it’s becoming more and more of a Thing for white people to adopt the physical features of other races (via trends like tanning, the fox eye trend, lip fillers, etc), and it’s becoming more and more difficult to determine which features are white and which aren’t, and then people who are clearly not white (or at least not entirely) are considered as such. 

so just in general, the standards for whiteness/non-whiteness are ever-changing and subjective and oftentimes dependent on who’s doing the determining 

and idk like there’s obviously room for conversations about colorism and the privilege that lighter-skinned folks receive, but imo it feels more and more unproductive and confusing to have these conversations about white latinos when the standard is nowhere near fixed and when it’s mostly used to exclude large groups of latinx from certain spaces and conversations (and i see it within fandom as well, with people dismissing racism against eddie because he’s supposedly white). again, this isn’t to say that all latinx have the same experiences or that latinx like me and eddie don’t benefit from privileges due to colorism (because we absolutely do), but yeah.

anyway if anyone wants to talk about this im down. im still learning and trying to figure out how i feel about all this, and if i sound like an idiot just lemme know lol 

[abbeyfangirl]

dragon age: all characters (companions)

I’ve been in this fandom for a hot minute now and I want to update my opinions on characters :)

Origins

Alistair: super sweet dude who literally is not the stereotypicalchantryguyfightme. He’s a great example of healthy masculinity and I totally wish he was bi because I have an entire essay on that— also: he’s a poc! His mum was brown. In game he’s got dark features. if you really want a blond/blue-eyes/white guy, make your warden that. or accept that brown people can be noble and moral. or just draw cailan, idk. just because BioWare whitewashes doesn’t mean you should.

Leliana: someone hug my singing girlfriend before I crush her under with my own hugs. Also: nugs. Yes! Shoes. Yes! She likes how I style my hair? YES!! I honestly think she’s super duper and it pisses me off whenever someone’s like: yeah she enjoys killing people and the Game. ok. and michel de chevin willingly participated in genocidal marches through the alienage he grew up in with his elvhen mum. 

Morrigan: dirty swamp witch that i stan and also have a v big crush on. tiddies. Have a son with a GW so we can raise him with our tiddies out in the forest. she’s also white-passing, as her father was chasind and all people we’ve seen that are chasind are black. therefore, she is biracial. therefore, poc can be goths and don’t shy away from giving morrigan a darker skintone. if the devs had of been thinking, she’d have a darker skintone.

Zevran: Actually is the best romance, I think. Loves consent, therefore I will stan him so hard my skull cracks a little. Also: he is a very brown boy and if he’s white in da4 I’m seriously going to throw all canon out the fucking window. genuinely a good person who needs to be told so. 

Wynne: grandma who only likes my friends who go to church. but also super sweet and I’d rest my head on her bosom (in a platonic way omg ZEVRAN)

Sten: angry quiet boi. the bestest boi. I totally would give him a kitten for a gift and bake him cookies. Thicc softie. I think if I had DA:O and i knew how to use mods i would mod the fuck outta him. sorry.

Sha(y)le: who’s gender? idk her. See also: fuck birds and authority. pound ur ass into the ground you feathery meatbag little shits. fuck songbirds.

Dog: such a good boi. thicc. thinks Alistair is a whiny fuck and is Morrigan’s only friend. love him. he’s the cutest companion. bet.

Ohgren: honestly forgot about him bcc he’s such a shitbag. also: he could’ve been a really cool addiction recovery type but NOPE. probably would have a trump shirt in a modern au and would catcall wlw and hit mlm. no thanks.

Awakening

Anders: he acts like rlly straight but he’s so gay I can smell it. also he’s rlly cute and fun and I love him so much.

Justice: MAYBE i’M selF CONSCious OF THE twitchING. is the friend that genuinely doesn’t get dick jokes but is ur 110% ride or die.

Nathaniel Howe: honestly is sort of a white knight/neck beard a little, but it’s kind of charming with his whole velanna m’lady?? grump boi. annoying soul patch that I’d mod out SO FAST—

Sigrun: would have ROMANCED the FUCK out of her. why she even entertains the idea of fucking with ohgren makes me realize most of the writers are dumbfucks.png. peppy little emo. 12/10 would die if she kissed my cheek teasingly.

Ohgren: why. why. why. I’d have brought Shayle over. Maybe Zev? Definitely Dog.

Velanna: she was written to be an annoying feminist and you can tell but I deadass am a kindred spirit with her bcc I too am deadpan annoyed with Thedas’ general population too. love her. Would’ve loved to romance her. She’d totally be one of those who’d get all tsundere and be like “n-no i hate you” *kisses the fuckin soul out of you then blushes so hard she’s now a tomato*

Dragon Age II

Anders: fuck the cops. i don’t care. fuck the cops. (vine reference). also: do i hate him for blowing up the chantry that would eventually annul a huge collection of his people? no. read dalishious’s meta on Anders. v intriguing. didn’t they retcon the fuck out of the reported deaths too? like there was like eight Templars and Elthinia in there. Templars killed more “abominations” in a day than Anders in the game canon—

Aveline: initially thought she was fine and then realized she’s shit to my lil brother and I will fucking clap her ginger ass. See also: whorephobia isn’t a joke so fuck off with treating Isabela badly, you tit.

Bethany: sunshine. Literal sunshine. I feel my freckles grow in her presence and i love it. she’s my little baby sister and I’d slam that ogre so fuckin hard before it touched either twin.

Carver: there has to be a mod where both twins survive. I love them both to bits. My babies. carver is my bitter, angry little brother and I can relate because I too am very angry and would totally clap my own ass. hes so genuine and I don’t get the competition between Beth and Carver. Like, both are fuckin stellar in different ways. In this essay I will—

Fenris: honestly, I don’t get the general hate between him and Anders. Fenris’ main arc should’ve been a recovery arc, not drunken moping and revenge. he deserves better. give him a soft sweater instead of his spikes and let him love himself as much as I love him for MAKERS SAKE. like when you really think about their relationship, it could’ve been an eye-opener for fenris and finally some legit sympathy for anders. but we all know that if they had of teamed up that Meredith would’ve been dead before the end of Act 1 so.

Isabela: whorephobia is not a joke. oversexualizing your only appearing brown woman is so poorly written. how about we appreciate her and her lovely bosoms but also let people tease her about her heart of gold? her innate understanding of freedom? instead of just a wave of dick? please?? can we give her some pants for when she fights? can we accept that i fall for rogues who hate themselves?? fuck. also whomever draws her x femHawke x Merrill literally is after my own heart.

Merrill: my fucking babygirl MARRY ME. Fenris could’ve been her older brother type, but NO. she and Isabela should’ve been canonical gfs instead of Isabela/Fenris (no shaming the pairing tho!!). I love how she’s written as neurodivergent. V nice. Sometimes I just look her up and cry because she’s fucking everything. Also: she’s in the Dalish origin and she’s far from being white. Why did they make the most innocent/naïve character really white? hmmmm.

Sebastian: whew that boy. Would totally be that annoying Mormon at your door but you still let him in bcc he’s super sweet. Also: huge ass bible thumper and should get his head slap because you said the maker loved all his children why do you defend a complicit old hag you annoying attractive fuck—

Varric: totally is a bard and the devs couldn’t handle the idea of him being one bcc it might make him look less straight. is the only grey morality person I don’t want to fucking bash in with a fry pan. he sees people and I like that, but you totally know he’s siding with mages every time bcc him and Anders are like besties. I’m sorry. I don’t make the rules. “Professional Younger Brother”.

Tallis: I know nothing about her but she seems okay. I think she was an escaped slave and honestly? Fucking props. Spy on a shitting organization, idk what you’re doing, but your VA was that cool lesbian from SPN so I think ur okay?

Inquisition

Blackwall: Redemption Arc 101. Love him to bits. Sad dad bunwall. good man. actually atoned for his sins by actively becoming a good person. his initial design is 80% hotter im so sorry but so not.

Cassandra: was way browner in the last game. would romance the fuck outta her. I love me a butch lady who melts at my dorky recitation of poetry. BioWare is a coward. also is the worst choice for divine. but not a bad person. could use some more guidance or get her ass whipped by a dalish elf about religion or a circle mage kid whos like “yeah bud i didn’t ask for the templars to whip my ass everyday for existing.”

The Iron Bull: I think the Qunari/Vashoth were a little based off black people (the whole anti blackness thing where ppl are scared of them bcc of whatever reason) and it pisses me off that he had a weird ass dubcon thing with Dorian in banter. It doesn’t make sense— he’s an A+++ dom and would not jump straight in role play without at least checking in at first like wtf BioWare.

Cole: his mother was chasind so he’s like not supposed to be that white? or like biracial? albino? idk. love him to bits tho. He’s neurodivergent and I deadass love him. romancing him? idk. I see why ppl think it’s fuckin nasty but also like as a writer I’d age him the fuck up so fast before my inquisitor even THOUGHT about that. like idk. I’m down with him being a sweet little bro character tho. he’s a babe. love him.

Sera: had the worst fucking writer I’ve ever seen and I willingly read the twilight saga twice by a shit ass racist white lady who okay’d pedophilia. like. Fuck you Kristjanson suck your own dick you fuck. had the worst options in regards to speak to her. has a thicc case of internalized racism that literally most of the fandom just loves to use against her. my lesbian neurodivergent queen. Would write a thousand fix it fics for her. Love her to bits. im gay.

Varric: I haven’t played DA2 so i don’t get why everyone wants to romance him but like. a dwarf romance? yes please. Idk he reminds me of my uncle so I only see him as fun uncle material. Deadass should adopt Cole and Merrill and co parent with Blackwall for Sera. dads? fuck yeah. love me some wholesome, present fathers.

Dorian: is a gay stereotype that I love/hate so much. and he’s also just as bad about being a creep bcc he sexualizes qunari men (in banter). I attribute that to shit writing tho. I want to protect him from all the “omg gay best friend!” people. he’d clearly be that tired gay that wouldn’t give a diddly damn about ur het romance. wanna talk about politics? he’s ur guy/gay.

Solas: “me, an intellectual:”. I don’t hate him, but I’m not about him. He comes off as mysterious and suave (which he totally is) but I deadass would not save him from himself because he’s a racist, exclusionist eggshell. idk. not my cup of tea, but I can totally see the appeal. And he’s interesting, I’ll totally say that. “I think the Dalish are garbage but they made you” is not a compliment. it’s so offensive. and such bait for “quirky girls” which I’m no fan of. Would be Achilles and let Patroclus (Lavellan in his case) die before he realized how his pride is literally a waste of time. If he gets a redemption arc I hope Lavellan gets to slap him before getting him to teach all about ancient Arlathan and show that the Evanuris weren’t all total dicknozzles. (Aka I really have a hard time believing that they’d be slavery cult things. especially since they’ve compared elves to indigenous ppl, Jews and the Romani.)

Vivienne: it’s so racist that they’d make a black woman be pro-slavery. That’s such internalized racism. She could’ve been the cool ass “educate yourself first before you speak, fool” ice lady, but NO. the devs could’ve kept the “Templars are a tool that I proudly can mandate” and the “circles are very good education” and we. Could. Have. Romanced. Her. Like. Fuck. Sake. I just wanna give her a hug and say “love yourself omg!!” and not even in a romantic way. Also: she and morrigan should not have been so antagonistic towards each other. I’d expect them to have great respect for each other, as they both moved up in the world through hardwork and very little help. They could learn different magic from each other too and still maintain that rival respect “oh you” mood. Sidenote: probably the cooler option for Divine. if her approval is high enough she’ll love and be loyal to you forever and i can’t see her agenda being bad. she improves the circles exponentially and tells all the antis to suck her pretty painted toes.

Josephine: an actual disney princess. romanced her my first playthrough. I love her so much. she just makes me so happy. And she’s like: “Integrity, Loyalty, peace. That is what it means to be a GREY WARDEN good fucking person.” she’s the person who would let you hold her hand if you got anxious and she’d be that person who shouldered the whole group project with finesse and poise and would probably lie for everyone as to not be mean. i love josie. her and leliana’s relationship is so cute, too. whether it’s romantic or not: women supporting women.

Leliana: if you leave her hardened you must hate her. why. she becomes so against herself. i like how shes feminine and lighthearted because that’s so powerful-- to remain hopeful when the world is hopeless. (its hard to know when to soften her/harden her so i get it but. google it. she deserves to be happy and sweet again.)

Cullen: uwu war criminal with shit ass “redemption arc” that was actually a half-assed (at BEST) recovery arc. Recovery isn’t linear, it isn’t pretty, and even the broken need to be told they are wrong in order to heal right. Like I’m offended by that bullshit. I’ve had to do some mental health recovery in the past and unlearning lots of toxic ideologies— which I’m still unlearning— and it bothers me that he gets an easy pass because he’s hot. It’s one thing if you like Cullen, it’s another thing if you hold him accountable.

[someoneintheshadow456]

heejin(.)tumblr(.)com/post/183049888604/full-offense-but-as-a-nonblack-poc-im-fucking

This ask basically says:

full offense but as a nonblack poc i’m fucking tired of other nbpoc painting black ppl as aggressors and bullies

like i’ve seen so many freezing cold takes abt how black ppl are privileged bc of the media coverage BLM gets, privileged bc they’re more “prioritized” and “visible uwu” than ppl of other races, etc and it’s fucking frustrating!!! like i’ve seen white passing natives on here being like “step the fuck down black people and listen to us” and like…….okay then that just makes u sound antiblack bc you ARE being antiblack?

like nbpoc really want to act like black ppl have no idea what racism or micro-aggressions are like, and they want to see black ppl as oppressors bc of their aforementioned “privileges.” (hypervisibility isn’t a privilege, y'all!) they want to act like black people are so mean and won’t listen to their struggles or support them when they’re being targeted which is blatantly false.

as a nonblack poc, i know i need to do better irt these issues too. and so do y'all, bc i’m tired of hearing ppl say that a black person is “anti-asian” for not wanting black terminology to be appropriated. it’s so immature and only shows that you don’t want to listen to black people in the end.

whites do NOT touch this post and nbpoc do NOT add unnecessary comments

Maybe you should stop encouraging racist people to be racist just because they happen to be Black and maybe you should actually consider South and East Asians as POC instead of “POC today, White tomorrow”?? Maybe when Hispanics and Native Americans talk about their problems you shouldn’t go “yeah but Black people tho so STFU”? Maybe you shouldn’t literally change the race of Asian characters in fiction while also demanding you don’t whitewash them? All while saying you aren’t racist?

It’s called POC for a reason, the term is supposed to include everyone but it’s clear Tumblr only wants ONE race to be seen as the priority. 

[transgenderteensurvivalguide]

(If there are any trans mods of color I would prefer their take on this ask) so I've been considering changing my name but I feel almost like im "assimilating" into white culture by doing so, bc the name i like is a shortened version of my last name and it feels like im erasing my culture (i am latinx) by shortening my name. Do any other trans poc feel this way? How should I go about dealing with this?

Lee says:

I’m Black and biracial (my mom is Black and my dad’s side has Irish roots) and I had an Irish birth name but nobody ever pronounced it right when reading it off paper. When I selected my chosen name I has three criteria: I wanted something that would be easy to pronounce since I was tired of people saying my birth name wrong, I wanted something that I could pass off as a nickname of my birthname since I wasn’t out to my family at the time, and I wanted a name that was masculine so people reading it on paper wouldn’t assume “girl”, and I didn’t want something gender neutral because that would make it more likely for someone to gender my name/me as a girl than if I had a masculine name. I ended up going with Lee since it was short for my birthname and I changed my name legally to Lee despite it being a White Southern People name and not a Black or Irish name. It was easier for everyone to get used to Lee than a completely different name and my family wasn’t all that accepting at first so I doubt they’d have used my chosen name or let me change my name if it was a masculine Black name instead of a nickname from my birth name. So Lee was a good name to pick given my situation at the time.

If things had been different, I wonder if I would have chosen a culturally Black name if I had considered that aspect of the name more at the time- not fully considering what your name will convey to others is always a risk when you choose your name as a youth. I know I wouldn’t have chosen an Irish name because I’m not really connected to that part of my ancestry and I don’t look Irish. My Black relatives mostly have white or race neutral names instead of black-coded names because #discrimination, so it wouldn’t be in line with my family even if it’s in line with the overall culture I’m a part of. And that’s also something to consider- I would have faced more discrimination if I had chosen a Black name. There’s studies proving that you’re less likely to get your resume chosen as a candidate for a job if you have a Black name than a white name even if everything else on the resume is identical so it it is a significant issue but that doesn’t necessarily mean that you should choose to get a white name, it’s just something you need to consider.

In the end I don’t want to change my name from Lee since I’m used to it and don’t have an issue with it but yeah I do sometimes think that I shouldn’t have placed more importance of it being able to be a nickname for my birthname than the cultural significance. But Lee works for me, and I like having a connection to my birth name because it feels like I’m not rejecting it or my past which is important to me. I don’t feel like it’s necessarily erasing my culture because I’m still Black and changing my name can’t erase that. 

This post has more info on choosing a name when you’re a POC.

Kai says:

For context, I am Chinese and nonbinary transmasculine, but identified as a binary trans guy for a time. I first changed my name to Kevin, which is a more western name, but is a common Asian-American name so that I would be more “accepted” as a trans guy. It sounded vaguely like my birth name, which I liked because I couldn’t be safely out to my parents but in the end that didn’t really end up mattering (whether or not it sounded like my birth name).

I have since changed my name to Kai or rather added Kai to my name (technically I plan to legally change my name to Kevin Kai —-rest of my name—- and just go socially as Kai). I like Kai because it has personal meaning to me in Mandarin and in Chinese culture, and I’m willing to share about that if you message me on my personal blog @kaikev and it also happens to be easy for people to pronounce in English. I plan to change my legal name to Kevin Kai —rest of my name-– because of institutionalized racism - similar to what Lee mentioned, it’s harder to get an interview or be considered for a position if people think your name is Chinese/foreign than if they think it’s “American” and western.

Honestly, I didn’t like the name Kevin because it felt too western and wasn’t Chinese even though I will still use it professionally most likely, but ultimately it’s your name and you should do what you want. If you want to use two names like I do, that might work as well.

Pat Says:

I’m latinx feminine non-binary and I totally understand where you’re coming from. My chosen name is a shortened version of my given name and while my given name is very latinx my chosen name, Pat, isn’t all that latinx, I decided that I was going to keep my middle name and change my last name to my mother’s maiden name both of which are latinx (my given last name is latinx but I want to change it for personal reasons. I think it’s important for everyone for you to make choices that make you feel comfortable in your gender identity as well as your ethnic identity.

Followers?