#even if you don't think the faunus are an allegory for black people in america (which...sure. okay.)

[unofficialadamtaurus]

why would you have lost it if ghira killed adam taurus

if the shoddy MLK stand-in kills the shoddy Malcolm X stand-in then maybe, maybe I might find that a bit frustrating

[the-path-to-redemption]

Hi I was scrolling through you blog and I saw the post about Rwby and the Racism issue and I was wondering how did Rwby failed in all 3 categories?

I have seen other POCs express their distain regarding fantasy racism and fantasy oppression because you are taking a real life minority experience and using it for your white race (Hunger Games and Bright are examples). Then we have some that says as long as that race is an allegory or being race coded is fine such as Zootopia. Did Rwby followed or try to followed these examples?

That moment when your blog is just chocked full of posts about this topic that you can't find the specific one-

So, I want to preface that this post is my perspective, and it will not always align with other POCs' opinions on similar matters. We're not a monolith, and I speak from my own experiences.

Long Post Ahead

I don't think I can answer the 3 categories you mentioned because I literally cannot remember which post has that. So I'm very sorry.

So I'll start with the next part. In matters regarding the Hunger Games and its usage of societal discrimination, I personally would not say that it's a bad example, and race plays a more subtle part in the totalitarian world of Panem. THG as a series is a commentary on what will happen when we let the government exploit and divide the people, keeping us under their thumb with a cruel system disguised as a form of social order rather than what it truly is. Hell, even the main villain of the series President Snow (spoiler ahead) in the prequel claimed that the Games are a method of showing order in a world thrust into chaos, that the tributes are part of a larger game of reminding everyone in Panem that they are only parts of a bigger machine in order to keep peace. Which the series clearly stated that what he's saying is propaganda, and the world isn't just full of woes. It is capable of love, kindness, and unity even in an environment where the people kill each other.

Sorry for the long rant, but I would highly recommend you read the series. Panem as a world setting isn't a fantasy perse, more like a hypothetical America or any similar nation where the discrimination based on race, class, and everything not considered "norm" is something inspired by real-life without making it a direct example, it's a series encompassing the struggles of being free and allowed to love without being oppressed, which can be seen by any race. I encourage you to get into a deeper analysis of this wonderful series, it's worth it.

And for Zootopia? I would not consider it allegorical. At all. It obviously takes inspiration from real-life racism, particularly that in the States, but just...

If you equate the predators in Zootopia, who are discriminated against because of their instincts to hunt prey and are faced with constant fear that they will kill their prey peers based on instinct or via drug, on any non-white groups in America, while the prey animals are white people? You... you see the issue, right?

You see the issue of making a fictional race that instinctually behaves very differently from humans via eating others an allegory to real-life races, especially black people, right???

That's why I wanted RWBY and the Faunus to be their own thing because the premise itself is fantastical. Don't Write Real Life Racism with Fantastical Allegories. PLEASE. RWBY shot itself in the fucking foot when they equate the Faunus to Black Civil Rights Issues when they aren't educated enough on the topic to even discuss it. If that was what they wanted, just write black people. There are other ways where you can write a fantasy racism plot without allegorizing it to real-life racism. Just write the fucking latter.

RWBY failed, and it failed badly. Even if you don't have the whole Faunus be about Black Civil Rights, the writers still INTENTIONALLY write a disabled child slave fighting for his rights after being abused by a corporation to be the VILLAIN. Not just any kind of villain, but the kind to abuse his loved ones, kill his own kind, aim for mass murder, and never actually gave a shit about his rights. That alone should tell you enough about whether or not RWBY failed or not.

[actualadamtaurus]

Right when we thought the writers couldn’t write Blake’s character further into the ground they pull out “Would you rather be a cat or a human?” bullshit. Like ???? She ISN’T part cat bruh she’s a goddamn human with genetics that give her animal like features. That’s literally the WHOLE POINT.

I don’t know how to better articulate it because how the hell do you even come to that line of thinking. “Do you want to be a cat or a human” seriously it’s the equivalent of asking me if I’d rather be a human or the color brown, and I just. Wtf.

IT'S SO BAD. I cannot even fathom how they could still be this oblivious to the fact that Blake is an allegory for a Black person in America, and so anything they write surrounding her is going to translate as commentary on Black people in America. And this whole volume has been weirdly fixated on Blake's faunus trait meaning that she is the animal her trait comes from? And generally just othering her from her teammates? Which is SO odd after they set up the faunus as people who strongly dislike being considered the same as their trait's source.

Not to downplay the incredibly uncomfortable implications about "simply choosing not to be a minority," but also as some kind of character moment for Blake, it falls so flat. We have never seen her struggle with her identity as a faunus, only the oppression that comes along with it. This sudden desire to shirk a responsibility we didn't even know existed (be a bridge between humans and faunus? since when?) feels like it comes out of nowhere.

Speaking from the outside as a white person - which, in fairness, most of the writers are doing too - I have seen that people's experiences with their race and culture are multitudinous, complicated, and sometimes even contradictory. I don't doubt that there have been times when someone wished they could no longer be a minority. However. That's an extremely sensitive and nuanced area to explore and certainly NOT something to suddenly spring on a character in a show that has repeatedly butchered its commentary on race. It was gross.