#do NOT hit me with ‘akufo’s actor was adlibbing a lot of that’ do i look like i care he wasn’t in charge of the story beats

[piraytoro]

Where was your outrage when Sam had his righteous anger stolen from him, over and over, and every time this was framed as a good thing? The black man cannot be angry the way Roy and Jamie and even Ted can be. His righteous anger would not be seen as righteous, and so it must be handled by others, he must be talked or maneuvered out of it. He would not be having a perfectly natural and reasonable human reaction; he would be seen as violent, uncivilized, uppity. This would not be an issue if this was framed by the show as a problem. If the show allowed his father to admit that his anger, while justified, is directly compromising his safety. That it’s not about him and it never was; it is and always has been about the systems of oppression and racist hatred both baked into the system and being actively perpetrated by those in power. But no: he should forgive people for things they haven’t even tried to stop doing. You know, for himself. The system must be opposed only using the tools of the system itself.

Where was your outrage when Edwin Akufo and Shandy were reduced to racist caricatures, leaving in fits of rage and losing their composure entirely—their true, savage natures coming out to belie their attempts at the trappings of civilization. They don’t know how to compromise, they don’t know how to accept the decisions of others with grace, they refuse to change their behavior and only think about what they want. They’re power-hungry, but don’t know how to wield that power responsibly or justly. Both of their endings involve literally shit, a defiling of these majority-white spaces, whether pantomimed or actually physically present, while their white foils in Keeley and Rebecca are allowed to conduct themselves with grace and poise, as presented in direct contrast to them. Where was your outrage when Akufo was brought back only to be denied the very same chance to redeem himself that this show so loves to give its white characters? In the end, even fucking RUPERT is unwilling to stoop so low as he.

Where was your outrage when Dani Rojas was reduced to a caricature of machismo as soon as he was removed from a majority-white space and reunited with other Mexican players? Where was it when we had to wait the better part of two episodes before being reassured that Isaac wasn’t a fucking homophobe? Speaking of, where was it when the show completely failed to address the racist fan hate that players in this sport just like Isaac struggle with every time their team is doing poorly (and often when they’re not!) during its emotional reckoning with an equally ubiquitous homophobic slur? Where was your outrage when a giant chunk of the fandom on this very website was spewing the most reprehensible shit at Nate for doing the exact same things that at least three white men had already been forgiven for within the first few episodes of the damn show?

In fact, where is your outrage about Nate presumably STILL being the ASSISTANT KIT MAN while Roy gets promoted to head coach despite having admitted that Nate is good at all the things he struggles with. “Nate has to work his way up” why? Jamie didn’t get punished for his years of tormenting Nate. He never even apologized, he became a better person and all of a sudden people started pretending none of that ever happened. But Nate, he has to apologize individually to everyone he hurt and then he still has to “earn his spot back,” and yet no one seems to see a problem with this.

And these are just the most egregious examples. But yeah, the worst thing this show ever did was fail to unite your two or three white faves.