#it’s always stupid black incel men coming to the rescue for racist white women who constantly play stupid and innocent to get ahead and

[tariah23]

The fact that Daniel Caesars ass defended that white woman, starting his statement off by going “why are you guys so MEAN to white people- yeah, they were mean to us in the past but I don’t want to be treated like I can’t take a joke either-“ was wild to me 😭… the whole leveraging being “mean,” on the same scale as someone actively being antiblack and racist as hell towards your own people. I forgot all about just how embarrassing this whole situation was, omg.

[rpmemesbyarat]

I’ve noticed some commonalities in how bigots tend to be portrayed in fiction, and while these portrayals are not wrong per se, they are also not the ONLY way in which bigotry exists. I would like to put forth some other ways. Another common notion I see is that if a person is bigoted in one way, they will be bigots in every other way possible. But this isn’t always true either. A racist might not be sexist, and a sexist might not be classist, and a classist might not be a homophobe, and a homophobe might not be ableist. Of course, sexism and homophobia and transphobia do all feed into each other, and there’s an undeniable link between racism and classism, but even still, someone might still only have one type of bigotry and not any others, or at least not have ALL of them. This goes double if the group they’re bigoted against is FICTIONAL such as mutants, robots, and supernatural creatures, since the reasons a person would have for hating or fearing these groups is often something that doesn’t apply to any real-world groups. Which is also why you might want to think twice before drawing parallels in your fiction between real-world oppressed groups and a fictional group; the metaphor can often fail or even be insulting. Also, which groups someone is bigoted against often has a lot to do with the context of their time and culture. For instance, because my grandfather was around during WWII, he’s biased against Japanese people but not Chinese people. Bigots also are not limited by class or education; while there is a correlation between being more educated and more exposed to the world and being more tolerant and understanding, it’s not a hard rule. Oftentimes, very well-educated urban cosmopolitan people just have a different way of showing their bigotry than their rural counterparts. Speaking of that, if your portrayal of bigots is purely made up of blatantly over-the-top redneck stereotypes with bad grammar and comical ignorance about the world in general, that is in itself a bigoted classist stereotype. The tactic of using “this group is bigoted and thus acceptable targets” as a shield for bigotry is very common, such as “Muslims all oppress women so attacking their countries is okay and justified”. Ignorant racist homophobic hillbillies who couldn’t access higher education certainly exist, I have some in my family, but if you think that bigotry only ever comes from one group, think again, especially if you portray that group---Muslims, poor rural populations, whatever---using insulting stereotypes. Irony much? Another big one, perhaps the biggest point I see fiction miss a lot, is that bigots are not all or nothing. The world is not divided into KKK members and people who are 110% enlightened anti-racists. It is not divided into incel MRAs and perfect feminists. It is not divided into people who want to murder all LGBT folks and. . . .you get the idea. These extremes absolutely do exist, no doubt, but most of society exists on a scale between the two points. The majority of people will smaller, more subtle, more moderate versions of bigotry, commonly known as “microaggressions”. This can exist even among allies and amidst the affected group themselves. For instance, maybe Sally loves her gay friends and thinks they should have all the same rights she does, but also thinks gay men are all catty and fabulous like her pals are, and that you can tell if someone is a “top” or “bottom” by personality traits. Sally’s certainly more accepting than most of society, but she’s still got some wrong ideas. And we’ve ALL met a girl who thought other girls were all mean shallow stuck-up prissy plastic princesses except herself; the “Not Like Other Girls” girl is basically a cliche in itself at this point. As is the White Savior trope, who most certainly doesn’t hate the poor noble helpless POC, he’s trying to help them, and so on. And most of society will agree that women are more gentle, nurturing, but somehow also more mean (especially to each other), and more emotional, but also think that women should still be able to read, drive, vote, own property, and hold jobs, and will be appalled at someone who doesn’t think women should have these rights. Because that’s what the societal norm is, and most people tend not to question that. Likewise, I don’t think that the majority of people who express more “casual” or “innocently” racist or LGBT-phobic sentiments are violent extremists who secretly desire this entire group to be wiped out or enslaved. Some most certainly DO, we know this, and many more would likely go along with it if it did happen, we also know this, but for a lot of people, it’s either ignorance without malice, or malice that does have a line it stops at. Again, it’s a spectrum, not a binary. The real scary part, to me, is that bigots can be totally nice, reasonable, and even intelligent people. And this is the aspect that fiction most often leaves out. Bigots are almost always portrayed as incredibly unpleasant people all-around; the hellfire-and-brimstone preacher, the shrieking Karen, the ignorant redneck who abuses his family on top of being every kind of prejudiced under the sun. And again, all these people absolutely exist in reality. But lots of people who hold bigoted beliefs are often not otherwise unpleasant, unkind, or stupid people. Bigotry would not be such a threat if only “bad” people alone were susceptible to it. But because it seeps into our culture to such a degree, because we are raised in it, everyone is going to absorb it, and while it is comforting to think that people who are kindly and smart will be able to know it’s wrong and be immune (because, of course, WE are kind and smart, right?) that’s simply not reality. Many bigots, in fact, can even interact with people in the group they’re bigoted against, believe it or not, in a way that is NOT bigoted; they may even sincerely love individuals of this group. It’s actually VERY common for people to hold negative or incorrect beliefs about a group in general, while bearing no malice towards the individuals they personally like and know. Humans are very, VERY good at cognitive dissonance. And most bigots, being humans, will have a plethora of good traits; they rescue may animals, they probably love their family, they might help the poor, you name it. People are complicated. This is not to say that you need to show that your bigots have saintly qualities to “make up” for their bigotry (it does NOT) or to engender sympathy for bigots, but I think it’s valuable to have portrayals of more subtle, moderate, and even otherwise-likeable bigots because it helps us recognize them in real life. If our only image of a racist is someone who is an all-around jerk that openly hates all other races to the extreme, what are we to make of, say, our co-worker Doris, who brings us cookies, watches our kids when we have an emergency, has a Black son-in-law she loves, yet keeps saying very shitty things about BLM whenever the subject comes up? Or what about examining OURSELVES? Again, most people see bigots as being completely terrible people, and that gives most of us a mental block against recognizing bigoted thoughts and ideas in ourselves, since we don’t see ourselves as terrible people and don’t want to. If the only dog you ever see on TV or in books is a German Shepherd, that’s what you’ll think all dogs look like, and won’t recognize that any other breed is the same animal, is what I’m saying, basically, and that’s why a diversity of nuanced portrayals is valuable. And, again, more realistic. And, again, in many ways, far more frightening.