#i've had wonderful experiences in the kotlc fandom on both tumblr and ig so it's nice to kinda merge/talk between the two

[bookwyrminspiration]

thank you so much for giving us a chance to talk to the tumblr fandom! Hello! I used to use this tumblr account but haven’t used it in a while. I was active in the Instagram fandom though, and because it seems like the issue of racism was brought up with a LOT of misunderstandings here I thought I could give you a quick rundown of what went on so you understand where the attitude over there came from. (I’ll try not to make it too long)  So as someone else said, @keeperofthelostgrimms is this white girl who made racist TikToks where she mouthed slurs, including the n word, said some racist things about a fan who was black, and said she felt excluded from the kotlc Instagram fandom because she was white and straight. She left her account and made a new one @laurens.booknook . People began calling out the racist experiences they’d had in the fandom— and not just on Instagram. There’s been occurrences in the wiki, on tumblr, pinterest, Reddit, etc. livvysonden, indigoobers on Instagram along with other poc users I saw made a point of telling people that they should feel safe talking about their experiences so they could be talked about. Evidence got out but some users began to anonymously attack Instagram users who are poc, especially artists like nlmarte, furiouslyclicking, (especially those who made fanart of poc headcanons like black Vackers, black Sophie, Latino Keefe) and other poc like indigoobers and livvysonden (calling them rude for intimidating white users and believe it or not, gingers). This was a huge mess but the confessions account handled it by making it so that they wouldn’t post a confession about someone without asking them for permission first. A lot of Instagram users defended the poc while others continue to say they’re scared of being called out as racist or homophobic because they’re white (yes, they’re dumb). All in all, the event caused a conversation of the way white people in the fandom were ignorant towards certain issues. Especially those who defended the racist statement keeperofthelostgrimms made, or who began attacking the poc in the Instagram fandom and telling them to shut up about racism. Some of confessions you may see there are all about that situation! If you’re interested in seeing some that summarize it I’d check confession 1114, 1047, 1040, 974. Pretty much within that range is where the thing happened. So this is why the topic of racism has been prevalent in the Instagram fandom! It has nothing to do with tumblr but more of the experiences people have had. Thank you and I hope this explains something to tumblr users! We think you guys are cool overall and we don’t want any drama! 

Thank you for explaining all this history of the IG fandom! Some peole may know about this, but I think as a whole this is a situation the Tumblr fandom is entirely disconnected from and has no knowledge about.

For anyone who wants to look at those confessions without scrolling through the blog, here are links: 1114, 1047, 1040, 974. And for Tumblr people's reference, the oldest of these posts is only from 11 weeks ago. The most recent is only from 8 weeks ago, so a lot of the IG conversation was recent.

That definitely does give clarity to where the IG fandom would've been/is coming from. At least on the confessions account, you had a much much more recent encounter with discourse than we did, which may have been where those "this stuff always happens" (paraphrased) comments came from that confused us. Because for you it was just a whole other situation right after another, but for us this was the first significant discourse in a long time.

I haven't been in the kotlc tumblr fandom since it's beginning, but I have consistently been here for the past four years straight, and issues like what these confessions talk about aren't something you really see here. That's not to say we're all perfect, but what you're showing is definitely not something we'd be familiar with.

Discussions of racism focus more on (from what I've seen) the series itself and on the asian representation, and occasionally there will be a PSA from someone talking about that and addressing the fandom and appropriate behavior, which everyone is usually very receptive to. That way people can correct themselves if needed before things go too far and a problem arises.

So that's where we're coming from when it comes to the topic of racism. From what I've seen from the entire community, it's got a pretty good track record here so I appreciate you sharing how IG would approach it differently. I want to be very clear here that I'm not saying we're better because we don't have those problems, I'm trying to objectively share the Tumblr side of things so we can better understand where each platform was coming from.

Again, thank you for sharing this! I know I certainly didn't have this background when interacting with everyone, so I'm sure it's the same for some of my mutuals as well. Hopefully some of what I've said can also give a glimpse into our mindset and thoughts, though I don't speak for everyone.

Instagram seems to have a lot of great people as well, so we don't want any drama either :)