#choices racism

[oceanatydes]

why the fuck is there no brown mc for south Asian players? they keep making the MCs paler and paler. they literally look like zombies

[hussyknee]

I know some dickheads have now decided that Judaism is the "bad, violent, terrorist religion" and Islam is the "good, peaceful" one, which is only to be expected of white people, but how much of an issue is it currently? Like I've seen some USAmericans sharing how the Islamic faith shapes Gazans values and perseverance (good) except with that distinct white hippie "I'm about to imprint on this like the world's most racist duck" vibe (bad), but I didn't think they're already turning on Judaism in numbers.

Do they realize that Christianity is also the same kind of comfort to Christian minorities in Asia and Africa? That it was Buddhists that genocided the Rohingyas in Myanmar and Tamils in Sri Lanka? That Hindu fundamentalists are even now trying to ethnically cleanse Muslims in India? How Hindus and Christians are terrorized and persecuted in Pakistan? That Muslims have a history of persecuting and ethnically cleansing Jews too?

Really tired of asking y'all to be normal about people's religions man. There's no religion that's inherently violent or exceptionally peaceful. It's just like any other ideology that becomes a weapon in the hands of ethnic power. Interrogate power, not religion, and respect people's belief systems insofar as they aren't in your business.

Edit: I've amended the "long history" of Muslim persecution of Jews because it might be misleading in the current political climate. Zionism and antisemitic Arab nationalism are twin births resulting directly from Christian colonization, and Islamic empires tended to actually be more tolerant of other religions compared to Christianity, especially Judaism, which was considered a sibling religion. Antisemitism wasn't ideologically entrenched in Islamic tradition. It's simply that ethno-religious power will lead to ethno religious domination and intermittent cleansing of minorities, and Islam is no exception. Humans be humaning always.

[sassydefendorflower]

I want to talk about something. I want to talk about ableism in fandom. And sexism in fandom. Oh, and racism in fandom.

Mostly though, I wanna talk about how the discussion about these things often gets derailed because people don't understand what trends and typical behaviors actually are.

Whenever a Person of Color, a woman, someone disabled, someone queer (or an intersection of any of these groups) points out that certain fandom trends are bigoted in some shape or form, half the replies seem to be "but they are my comfort character! Maybe people just like them better because they are more interesting!" or even "people are allowed to have headcanons!" - the very daft even go for a "don't bring politics into fandom" which is a personal favorite because nothing exists in a vacuum and nothing is truly apolitical. But alas~

What most of these replies seemingly fail to understand is something very, very simple: it's not about you.

You, as an individual, are just one datapoint in a fandom. You are not the trend. You do not necessarily depict the typical behavior.

When someone points out that there is racism in fandom, that doesn't mean every fan is racist or perpetuating racist ideas*. By constantly mentioning your own lack of racism, quite often, you are actively derailing the conversation away from the problems at hand.

When someone names and describes a trend, they don't mean your headcanon specifically - they mean the accumulated number of headcanons perpetuating a harmful or outdated idea.

I am not saying this to forbid anyone from writing fics about their favorite characters or to keep anyone from having fun headcanons and sharing their theories and thoughts - quite the opposite actually. A critique of a general trend is not a critique of you as an individual - and you're going to have a much better, and more productive, time online if you can internalize that. If you stop growing defensive and instead allow yourself to actually digest the message of what was pointed out.

I am saying this to encourage some critical thinking.

Allow me to offer up some examples:

Case 1: A DC blogger made the daring statement that maybe Tim and Jason were such a popular fanfic focus because they are the only two undeniably white batboys. Immediately someone replied saying "no, it's all the fun traumatic situations we can put them in!". Which is an insane statement to make, considering the same can be said for literally ANY OTHER DC Batman and Batfam character.

The original post wasn't anything groundbreaking, they didn't accuse anyone, didn't name any names... but immediately there was a justification, immediately there was a reason why people might like these characters more. No one stopped to take a second and reflect on the current trends in fanfiction, no one considered that maybe this wasn't a declaration against people who like these characters but a thesis depicting the OVERALL trend of fandom once again focusing on undeniably white (and male) characters.

(don't get me started on the racebending of white characters in media that has a big Cast of Color and the implications of that)

Case 2: A meta posted on Ao3 about ableism in the Criminal Minds fandom caught my attention. A wonderful piece, very thoughtful, analyzing certain characterization choices within the fandom through the lens of an actually autistic person. The conclusion they reached: the writing of Spencer Reid as an autistic character, while often charming and comforting, tended to be incredibly infantilizing and at worst downright ableist. They came to that conclusion while CLEARLY stating that the individual fanfic wasn't the problem, but the general fandom trend in depicting this character.

Once again, looking at the replies seemed to be a mistake: while many comments furthered the discussion, there were quite a few which completely missed the point. Some were downright hostile. Because how dare this author imply that THEY are ableist when they write their favorite character using that specific characterization.

It didn't matter that the author allowed room for personal interpretation. It didn't matter that they noted something concerning about the entire fandom - people still thought they were attacking singular people.

Case 3: I wrote a fic about abortion in the FMA(b) fandom (actually I've written a weird amount of fics about abortion in a lot of fandoms, but alas) and I got hate comments for it. Because of that I addressed the bias in fandom against pro-choice depictions of pregnancies. I pointed out that the utter lack of abortion in many omegaverse stories or even mpreg or het romances, painted the picture of an unconscious bias that hurt people for whom abortion was the only option, the best possible ending. The response on the post itself was mostly positive, but I got anon hate.

(which I can unfortunately not show you since I deleted it in the months since)

And I'm not overly broken up about it, but it also underlines my point: by pointing at a general problem, a typical behavior, a larger trend... people feel personally attacked.

This inability to discuss sexism, ableism, racism, transphobia, etc in fandom without people turning defensive and hurt... well, it damages our ability to have these conversations at all.

Earlier I said YOU are not the problem - well, i think part of this discussion is acknowledging that: sometimes YOU are in fact part of the problem. And that's not the end of the world. But you can only recognize yourself as a cog in the machine, if you can examine your own actions, your own biases, your own preferences critically and without becoming defensive.

And, again, this is not to keep you from finding comfort in your favorite characters and headcanons. This is also not to say that I am free of biases and internalized bigotries - I am also very much a part of the system. A part of the problem.

This is so you can comfortably ask yourself "but why is there no abortion in this universe?" or "why are my favorite black characters always the top in my slash ships?" or "why do I write this disabled character as childish and in need of help?" - and sometimes the answer is "because I am disabled and I want comfort", and that's fine too.

There is no one shoe fits all in fiction. There is not a single trope that captures all members of a group. There is no single stereotype that isn't also someone's comfort. No group is a monolith, no experienced all-encompasing (or entirely unique).

There is never a simple answer.

But that doesn't mean you should stop questioning your own biases, your own ideals.

Especially, if you grow defensive if someone points out that a certain trend you engage in might be racist. Or sexist. Or queerphobic. Or fucking ableist.

*this does not mean negate the general anti-blackness perpetuated by most cultures as a result of colonialism and slavery

[edwinisms]

it’s actually so wild to me that this fairly quirky YA type show gave both of its main characters deaths that can, in one way or another, solidly be considered hate crimes. they were both flat out murdered as a result of being A) gay and effeminate or B) brown (south asian, specifically) and you could argue whether or not those kids thought of it that way in the moment or whatever but the bottom line is that they would not have been in the situations that killed them if they weren’t of their respective minorities. like legitimately that is a ballsy choice for this kind of netflix show, let alone for the two Main Characters, and i respect it big time

[hippityhoppityyourenowmyproperty]

Vivzie, you cannot write Alastor, a mixed black person who was alive during segregation, as an explicit, evil slaver and expect that to be anything near good representation for poc.

Alastor petting his head and remarking on how "fluffy" it is and saying that Husk is his pet, plus Husk being voiced by an actual black person while Alastor isn't is just further implying this.

[magz]

It's February 27 - you may have heard it's "Dominican Independence Day".

Here's some "food for thought".

Let's question why Dominican Republic's official "Independence Day" celebrates being separated from Haiti.

Why not instead celebrate any of the times Spain's colonizing forces were defeated or when slavery was abolished - especially when Haiti was an ally?

Why not truthfully highlight the damage Spain and United States did with their colonialism, instead of scapegoating Haiti?

Let's question how pro-colonial antiblack D.R. nationalist propaganda has been normalized.

"When is the real Dominican Independence Day? Is there just one day? Why is the separation from the first Black nation so fervently celebrated more than the independence from European colonization? How do Dominicans celebrate our independence day? And why are so few people educated on the important series of events that comprise our independence history?"

[dank-pro-life-memes]

Abortion is a Nazi W

[tarucore]

I’m going to hold your hand when I say this but some of you need to realize that if Devin Grayson used racist stereotypes in Nightwing 1996 writing Dick and Yoska then she was also using racist stereotypes writing Catalina Flores

the concept of an aggressive, sexually predatory Latina is not new, it’s not original, and frankly it’s tiring to see be repeated

acting like the way Catalina was/is portrayed in canon/fanworks is totally divorced from her ethnicity is how we get fics where Dick is triggered by hearing someone speak spanish (not even the specific pet names that Cat used, just spanish in general??!)

and I like Catalina as an antagonist, at least a secondary one, I think the Blockbuster arc has held up well compared to some other runs, I think that Devin is a decent writer with pretty good pacing for comic books which I can appreciate, and shockingly, I’m fine with the rape taking place in canon and the aftermath, as I know that the run was cut short (I’m a dead-dove fan and I’ve always liked any kind of whump, I can see why others don’t though and I understand that)

I also think that fanwriters need to be aware of bigoted source material, and that they don’t need to exacerbate these problems by flattening Catalina into a hypersexual, “crazy Latina” caricature which Devin even didn’t fully do in her run

I promise guys, there is a way to write her that doesn’t lean into stereotypes but still has her doing a terrible thing, I pinky swear

[meowcifer-nails]

To elaborate more on this without spamming op's post, if you think about it, Harry himself is not entirely unlike Lena.

Even if thorough the whole game you manage to pick the least shitty options possible in terms of his behavior and thoughts, even if you stray as far as possible from the racist routes, even if you do your best to play him as a kind person whenever possible and to always be nice to Kim in particular, there is a specific instance (I'll keep it vague but if you know you know) where you might say the wrong thing on 'accident'.

[Important to note, this is NOT an outright player choice, you will have NO clue about how badly you are about to fuck up if you never came across it and weren't spoiled about it. You can go the whole game denouncing racism at every chance you're given to do so, and it will not change this outcome. ]

If this happens, Kim will not only be furious about it, he will snap and remark on several things Harry ALREADY did or said that made him wonder about Harry's stance and prejudices, telling you about how he overlooked it both because he wanted to be professional and because he assumed it was at least partly influenced by Harry's condition, but still hurt him nonetheless.

Now, I'm fairly sure he points out more things if you picked more "bad" dialogue options through the game, but it's important that you will still get called out even if you didn't.

Harry canonically says and does racist things even if he (or you, the player) means no ill by it, simply out of ignorance. It's not entirely outright, you might not even notice them, but he does and you cannot avoid this. He canonically disrespects Kim because of his ethnicity on multiple occasions, whether you want to or not, whether you notice it or not, but one thing is for sure: Kim sure as hell fucking notices. He just doesn't SAY anything about it all that time unless you fuck up so badly he cannot hold back anymore.

And once Harry is faced with this, he is stunned, because he never had a clue that he was hurting Kim. You can at this point pick the way he responds to this, but not the fact that he is shocked by the news, because he was never fully aware of it.

This is part of what makes the commentary of this game so good in my opinion, because not only it examines the more outright racism (the big 3 main racists) as well as the less aggressive and seemingly benevolent kind (Lena being the prime example), but also the kind that's so ingrained and subtle that someone not only does not do it on purpose but has absolutely no awareness of it, and having this be examined using the main protagonist is such a powerful way of showing it, as well as the way they throw this at you (a lot of the ways the game "punishes" you for picking "bad choices" is simply to let you know you are disappointing Kim, so this particular instance feels extra bad because it turns out you've been low key disappointing him all along without even realizing it).

[anistarrose]

On the note of the last "disability rights to do fuck all" reblog: I don't know what environmentalist/vegan needs to hear this, but "humans are parasites" is literally Ableism 101, regardless of whether or not you claim you're only talking about "the capitalists" and not the disabled community when you say it.

I'm not just talking about the harm that phrase does to disabled people who can't support themselves on their own — I'm also talking about disabled people who need things that aren't considered "environment/animal-friendly" in order for them to live with dignity, or live at all.

If you're willing to resort to dehumanizing language when you see someone using a plastic straw or eating an animal product, then I don't fucking trust your plan for a post-capitalist solarpunk utopia or whatever to be a safe place for disabled people, of any form.

[oceanatydes]

choices seriously has an issue w making the male/amab body type have dark brown skin. there’s literally ALWAYS inconsistency btw the male and female MCs and the male brown MC always has lighter skin for no reason. it makes no fucking sense and it’s so infuriating bc I feel like I have to play as a female MC to feel seen and that is extremely dysphoria inducing

[aces-and-angels]

i love the self-reflection going on in regards to checking yourselves for your own internal biases and in the spirit of that- i want to address one last thing.

the FIRST step in taking accountability is admitting what you've done is wrong. fully and transparently. apologies are a commitment made to those who have been wronged that you'll do better. they need to explicitly showcase what was wrong and who needs to own up to their wrongdoings (if you know anyone who needs to, ofc). otherwise it's only an apology made to save face so you can feel better and move on. not for the people affected.

so as someone done wrong, hear me when i say this:

whitewashing any canonically poc character is racist. supporting content that whitewashes poc characters is racist. and if you genuinely want to take accountability, you'll need to admit this out loud. fully and transparently for everyone to see:

bryce lahela from open heart was whitewashed. bryce lahela is an indigenous hawaiian person. [insert your name here] endorsed/supported fanart that whitewashed bryce lahela by [insert what you did here].

and before y'all start with the "i want to protect people's privacy" or "allow people the opportunity to acknowledge it themselves"--

being vague in your apology does no one any favors. it gives people an out. a reason to believe that whatever it is you're saying sorry for doesn't involve them. if they genuinely are unaware, you saying it out loud point blank period will go a long way.

thank you for listening 🖤

[decolonize-the-everything]

"Politicians are wonderful ideas but what you need is change. You don't need some icon. You need someone that is going to make sure you can feed your family, educate your children, spend time with them." - Jasmine Sherman

Debate starts at 2:05:25

A good watch for most people who wanna know if 3rd parties know what they're talking about, watch them debate, or learn about other candidates!

[joy-crimes]

Isn't weird how in Kingdom Hearts, one of the few people of color is portrayed as being inheritly evil & malicious...just some food for thought :)

[eff-plays]

Actually, no, I disagree. Astarion has his reasons for many things he thinks and disapproves of, but some of them are just ... He doesn't like it when people are nice. He actively likes cruelty. Those are both true.

And yeah, you get why. He's well-written and his motivations are understandable! You can have a lot of very long and sad meta posts about how he thinks cruelty is natural and kindness is fake, but that doesn't remove his joy at cruelty and his distaste for kindness. Those things are still true. He can get better, yes. He does get better if you encourage him to. But he starts out as an absolute jackass.

Stop woobifying him fr. He's a piece of shit, even if he's a well-written one. Just because you understand him doesn't mean he's right or somehow the only sane person in the group. Cruelty is not intelligence, kindness is not a weakness. xoxo <3

[gothhabiba]

"The bouillabaisse theory of gumbo's origins drives many in the black-hand-in-the-pot camp crazy because it puts gumbo's invention solidly into the French-cooking camp." (Ken Wells, Gumbo Life: Tales from the Roux Bayou, google books will not tell me the page number)

you know, I feel like if I were writing about food culture, I would simply chuse not to describe Black scholars arguing against what they view as a racist narrative as going "crazy." but hey. that's just me