#racist tropes

[ride-thedragon]

The Lack of Nuance with House Velayron.

I want to establish that the strange relationship to blackness in the show is confusing.

The show runners didn't write black characters. The Velaryons are Valyrian.

The cast is filled with black actors who draw parallels in their interviews to their blackness and this house. Without correction.

In a similar vain to how house Targaryen, house Hightower and house Lannister are all played by white people the Velaryons look black but are not written o be perceived as black in the narrative.

It's not inherently colorblind casting because the intent was to differentiate the Velaryons and Targaryens and to show how obvious Rhaenyra’s adultery is. It does, however, act in the same way. Their blackness isn't supposed to impact the narrative past that extent. Unfortunately, that's not how race works in media. Look at Bridgerton. For example, they knew they wanted to include racial elements to justify their alternate history while imploring colorblind casting and building these characters around their actors.

The biggest issue that comes from this understanding is that because they didn't write the script with black people in mind and just wrote it thematically to reach up to the dance, they end up sidelining and putting black characters into a lot of reductive stereotypes and fulfilling harmful tropes that contribute to the oppression of real world black people.

Laena is the second choice bride for Daemon, a white prince. He spends their marriage, making it known that he'd prefer to be with his other niece while not discounting the fact that they are happy enough for their circumstance.

Laena is a black girl who is passed over twice in the narrative for white women for different reasons. Her husband can't truly love her or their black children to the full extent he would her white counterpart.

Laenor is a gay man who can not do his duty to the realm and, as a result, does not sleep with his wife, causing her to look for a man who will essentially making his successor not from his blood.

Laenor is a black gay man explicitly traumatized during a wedding, not being able to fulfill his duty. His wife finds someone willing to do it during this time and he agrees to take the blame. The kid doesn't look like him. This pattern and behaviour continues because it can cost these kids their life. Rhaenyra actively contributes to the erasure of black succession for this house, choosing instead to sleep with and have kids by a white man.

Certain things work with this change. Corlys saying 'history does not remember blood it remembers names' gives 'I'm not black I'm OJ'.

The perception of success defines him more than the inherent loss of blackness he's pandering, too.

That wasn't the show's intention, though. None of my reading was intended to be placed on the story.

They made Laena into a sapphire who ended her life brutally after thinking it would be lost to childbirth.

The statistical and historical relationship to black women and childbirth was a burden the show runners did not consider.

It gets worse when the writers call it a 'dragon riders death' because it's so much more brutal than the death she endures in the book. A black woman chooses a brutal death as opposed to being helpless in childbirth. That's not imagery that was utilized well.

Laenor rededicating his life to his family after his sisters death only to be replaced by a white man and killed off violently (not really though, he just abandoned his family).

They also casually make him and his dad absent fathers.

With Corlys, they unknowingly employ Uncle Tom tropes with him while making him absent from his family, and next season, a cheater with an outside family.

Vaemond is a black man being gaslit all around him, and when he stands up for what is a real concern to have in his shoes, in a moment where he chooses to be unapologetic and angry he's brutally killed by a white protagonist. They punish the black character who didn't want to assimilate.

Again, this wasn't the writers intention because they are not writing black character. With someone like Nettles, this relationship to the narrative will be clearer. The racism and prejudice she faces in the story are different from the Velaryons because she's perceived as other or black in this world. Like Missandei and Grey Worm, she's a black character in the universe.

However, the imagery that these things invoke can not be avoided just because you don't focus on them. That's even more reckless because you get the diversity points, claim there is a reason behind their blackness, and then utilize reductive tropes and stereotypes.

I truly think they should've utilized the Bridgerton method and attributed the difference to dragonriding and the fact that a lesser dragon riding family would still be better than a rich non dragon riding family and that their ability to have dragon riders now should evaluate their status even though, through the show we see it not shifting their dynamic.

Racism and the stereotypes that come from it aren't based on anything tangible. White hair dragon riders through marriage and people with white hair who inherently can claim a dragon by blood alone is the same nonsense racism is based on. It's not really an important distinction but a necessary one to perpetuate and hold power. It could simply be a prejudice that the Velaryons acknowledged is there and are trying to break through.

This is a good show. It was beautifully done with the source material they had, but consciousness when it comes to perception and duality are so important when it comes to media, especially when writing for marginalized groups.

I would've loved to see Laenor and Rhaenyra have a discussion along the lines of her icing him out of their family unit, replacing him during a hard time. Or him actively acknowledging the burden of his position as heir with Luke and relating to his inability to do his duty and Luke's burden of perceived bastardy.

I'd love to see a Corlys and Vaemond Arguemnt of Corlys' assimilation to the politics of Westeros and the identity of house Velayron being lost as a result.

Laena could've acknowledged her worth to their marriage, calling Daemon out on his complacency to their collective happiness and expecting him to be better would've ate, cleared and devoured.

Imagine that last scene coupled with book Laena's death. I would've secured the Emmy for Nanna.

Not only does this add to the world building, but it sets up future (technically past) relationships between the Velaryons and someone like Nettles. Between them and Targaryens.

I need a cold cigarette. I will end this by saying the framework should they decide to establish this better is already there. It's just unfortunate that we lost three cool people before the nuance would hit.

[mudwerks]

(via 1st RECORDING OF: Indian Reservation (as ’The Pale Faced Indian’) - Marvin Rainwater (1959)

This one is the most disturbing version of the song - lots of old-hollywood “indian” vocalizations

[fancyfade]

I feel like Young All Stars is clearly trying to represent more than just white characters in their comic, but it's pretty clear the writers are operating off of stereotypes or preconceived notions w/o doing much research and it's painful and still winds up being racist.

Like. Flying Fox is from a fictional First Nation in Canada, I'm guessing b/c the writers didn't want to do research on an actual one. he referred to American society as 'civilization' (as in being unfamiliar with civilization). Which. Someoen can correct me if I'm wrong but like. I do not think an indigenous character being written by an indigenous writer would refer to western civilization as 'civilization' in a way that implies what they are used to is not.

He's also portrayed as generally unfamiliar w/ sports even tho I'm sure indigenous peoples also have sports. He and Miya are portrayed as unfamiliar about baseball, which fair if he did grow up isolated from mainstream Canadian and American society, but about Miya: Miya is an American citizen who literally lived the first 16 years of her life in the United States, she just went to school in Japan for two years. How did you forget your own lore already?

Also even if she wasn't, I'm pretty sure baseball is more popular in Japan than in Greece (where Helena grew up).

Like it feels as if the writers are othering them a lot.

[fandomshatepeopleofcolor]

Saw this great video talking about the "good bro" or "best friend" trope that black characters get pigeonholed into by fandom on tiktok and thought I would share bc the creator captwinghead always makes such thoughtful videos about BIPOC rep in comics and fandoms

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTRWUTguX/

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTRWUTguX/

hey thanks for the link its a really good video I'll have to follow!

do you know if the creator has a youtube?

mod ali

[t0rschlusspan1k]

Fred Wilson, Untitled (Akua'ba), 2010, cast and blown glass, 88" x 43" x 14-1/2" (223.5 cm x 109.2 cm x 36.8 cm), overall installed © Fred Wilson

Since 2001, Wilson has worked alongside prominent American glass blower Dante Marioni with whom he first explored the possibilities of black-colored glass. During this time, Wilson produced his first black glass drips. The reflective surface of the blown glass and the teardrop-like forms suggest liquids such as ink, oil, blood and tar, and are blown from red glass so dense that it appears black. Wilson has continued to make drip works including Untitled (Akua'ba) (2010), a multi-piece installation topped with a black-glass sculpture cast from a traditional ritual fertility doll of the Asante people in Ghana. The glass doll extends from the wall looking down on a series of black drips that appear to cascade towards the floor—a nod to the fecundity associated with the African doll and the spread of the notion of the “Global African.” As Wilson explains, “Since the late 20th century the concept of the color black has shifted. Africans and those of the African Diaspora have embodied the color and flipped the negative meaning on its head and now view it as a powerful symbol of solidarity, born of our shared history and culture. My works in black are a mixture of positive affirmation, with a clear-eyed understanding of the racist tropes of the past.”

[tts-celestial-garments-au]

So, I have a bit of a fondness for TTS, however, there's been something I've been thinking about recently that I have a bit of a problem with in regards to the show.

In my Celestial Garments AU, there are a lot of POC/POC-coded characters (my biracial ass just can't help it), and when that's the case, I like to double check for harmful tropes by browsing the @/writingwithcolor blog. But whilst doing that and working out the relationships between one of my Black woman characters and Raps, I realized something unfortunate about the show.

While I love multiple of the POC characters we get in the show, I noticed that they perpetuate various unpleasant and negative stereotypes, and some of these tropes even bring down the quality of the show by not doing more with certain characters.

Let's go over each of the POC shown in the series, and analyze if/how they feel into racist tropes:

Xavier:

I love this man, since I like wise, mysterious characters like him. But unfortunately, he is 100% a Magical Negro. Half the time, it feels like he is only there to provide wisdom, advice, and exposition for our white protagonists. And that makes me kinda sad, since you could do a lot more with him, even in very subtle ways. Maybe better show how he is a legitimately respected pillar of the community, and don't always have him go out of his way to help. Instead, he'll just be doing his own thing most of the time, or priorities his fellow commonfolk.

But sadly, in canon, that is not the case. Instead, he mainly just pops up to help the white people. We barely know anything about him as a person or his backstory, nor does he have an arc of his own. He's just the wise old guy who's often delegated to being a plot device rather than a fleshed out character.

Lance:

This disappointed me so bad. Personality wise, I don't see too many problems with how Lance is written, though I could be mistaken. But narratively? Oh boy.

Lance is considered a "major character" and member of the main cast, being present in all three seasons and often accompanying the main group. And yet, somehow, he gets very few singing rolls (despite having an amazing voice), no real arc of his own, and very little time in the spotlight.

Cass has a whole song about "waiting in the wings," but Lance is the true one constantly waiting in the wings. I don't even remember an episode that's all about him. He has room for depth, and yet it's never explored.

He also, to my dismay, is constantly regulated to the "Black best friend" roll more often than not despite having so much potential. What is he often described as? Well, he's Eugene's best friend. That's essentially how he was introduced as in his debut. He's a sidekick, and we never really get to seem him lead during their times together. They are supposed to be partners in crime, and yet we mainly see Eugene taking charge, Eugene coming up with the plans, Eugene telling Lance what to do, Eugene getting the final hit in.

It's never Lance who goes first or makes a plan. I'm fine with characters being more followers than leaders, but in terms of duos, I think they should both be able to lead each other.

Honestly, the fanfic writers are better to him than the show ever was. There are fanfics in which he supports Varian and hangs out with Varian, Catalina, and Kiera, but in those, even when he's supporting Varian, there will be a large part exploring how his backstory has caused him to react this way. He gets depth and emotional intelligence and appreciation from the author and readers.

The show rarely explores his strengths and instead chooses to show his weaknesses and flaws, and whilst characters having flaws is great, you need to balance it out a little. The fandom knows that he has some amazing qualities, but the show never highlights that the way they do for the rest of the main cast.

The only times Lance gets to shine is when he's in a fanfic, and that makes me really fucking sad. And even then, part of his role is to support other people. Whilst I love Varian-Lance friendships in fics, it makes me sad that Lance never gets supported. He's always forced to take care of other people, and I have yet to find any fics where Lance is getting lifted up rather than doing the lifting.

It's just really disappointing and noticeable that they mainly do this to the only MOC in the main cast.

Adira:

If how Lance was handled made me feel bad, it is nothing in comparison to the immeasurable disappointment I feel in regards to how Adira was handled.

She was one of the most interesting characters in the series, to the point that I would 100% want a spinoff just about her travelling around and doing stuff. Many in the fandom have even called her the best character in the show, and I can see why. Which honestly makes how they treated her narratively much worse.

Adira clearly had her own personal goals and backstory, but she is still regulated to being the "mysterious Asian mentor". And worse off, her whole role in the series is to guide the white main character around and support her journey. Adira's whole (barely even finished) arc revolves around Rapunzel, and it feels disappointing. She has so much potential, but she is constantly forced to revolve around the white lead.

And once Adira starts having her own stuff (like the thing with Hector), she's quickly taken out of the story again. And then they don't even manage to finish her plotline properly. She has so much potential, and yet she's constantly being pushed aside.

Kiera:

Not completely stereotypical, which is good. I can't think of any stereotypes she fits into, though it does feel a bit weird that her red-head sister gets an episode around her, whilst Kiera doesn't. But at least she's pretty well written (in my opinion). But, I might be mistaken on the lack of stereotypes, so if any Asian folks have anything to say on her, please add more in the replies/reblogs.

The Separatists of Saporia:

Oh Saporia, you poor, underexplored concept. You had so much potential and were so intriguing, and yet this happened to you.

Other folks have commented on the antisemitic aspects of the Separatists and how they are designed, and since I am not Jewish, I can't exactly comment on that much. But I will believe people on that, and even then, I myself have some complaints to make.

Andrew's race/ethnicity is hard to pinpoint (racial ambigious character alert), but he clearly has a lot of ethnic features and there is no way in hell that he is white. And what is this character's main trait? He is a terrorist who has enslaved an entire kingdom. Not a good look for one of our few MOC in the series.

Juniper is one of the only Black woman in the show, and not only does she have little to no speaking lines, but she is also a violent terrorist and seems to fit the "Angry Black Woman" stereotypes, at least from what I remember. She at least always looks pissed off, which is...a choice.

Kai is a large, dark skinned man who is also part of this group of terrorists. A "Scary BIPOC Man", if you will. Great...out of the few brown/black men we have in this show, basically all of them are either big and muscular, or soldier/warriors. That's nice...

So, out of our very small cast of POC, three of them are terrorists. Fun.

Ruthless Ruth:

She is one of the two Black woman in the series, and god am I disappointed. Literally a "Strong Black Woman", and a violent "barbarian" at that. This hurts my soul. I just- I just can't. I can't deal with this shit. Two out of two of the Black women in the show are violent criminals. Why? Just....why?

Captain Quaid:

This guy is only in one episode, and he seems okay to me. I can't remember too much about him, though, so I can't say for sure. If anyone has any comments on him, please mention them in the replies.

Fernanda Pizazzo:

Not sure how to feel about her, but she's giving me "Romani Fortune Teller" vibes, in like, a bad way. I'm not sure how to describe it, but it's there.

Madame Canardist:

I thought Fernanda was bad, and then I saw this character. Holy fuck.

If there is an outline for how to write an offensive caricature of Romani folks, I'm pretty sure some of the crew read it and used it verbatim for writing her. It would almost be hilarious how stereotypical it is, if not for the fact that this portrayal is deeply harmful. -1000/10, very icky no good.

~~~~~~~~~

So, yeah, I mostly love this show, but the way the characters of color are written/designed is very bad and harmful. They are always either caricatures, bad tropes, or have their potential wasted in order to support the white leads. I hate it, and it adds yet another gripe I have with the show.

I just think it's very important to always acknowledge as a fandom the racism in the show. I'm just glad that the fans are better at writing the show than the showrunners, since ya'll have improved a lot of this stuff in your fanfics and stuff.

I'm not sure exactly how to end this post, I just felt the need to make it, especially the parts about how the narrative handled Xavier, Lance, and Adira. They deserved better.

[thatlittleegyptologist]

Anyone talking about 'curses' and 'letting curses out if you open things' on the Pyramid post, but also y'know Ancient Egypt in general?

Thanks for perpetuating Orientalist othering! That's pretty racist of you!

✨Go Fuck Yourself✨

[thenixkat]

So yer telling me that Ann Rice is responsible for the Confederate vampire trope? Ah

[magpieinthemorning]

I started watching The Power (2021), and I really wonder why the matron, who (at least in the first 30 minutes) is set up as a terrible person everyone is afraid of and dislikes, was cast as a dark skinned Black woman (Diveen Henry).

But I didn’t finish it yet and lol who knows maybe there will be a reason other than the racist trope of the Black woman antagonist/villain ... which is somehow especially common in British TV and film. :/ (EDIT, see below in the spoilers: kinda yes ^^)

Other than that I like it so far. The theme of the terror of the dark itself, manifested in power outages during the miners’ strikes and class warfare in the 70s is an interesting theme, and in general 70s aesthetics and horror movies about trauma are my jam. ^^

* * *

EDIT:

Okay, I finished it. Ehh, the first half to 2/3 were really scary, intense and effective, and had a well crafted and authentic atmosphere. But while I liked the general direction the ending took, I couldn’t really take it seriously and it felt pretty corny. It’s like the film changed its tone and became something else. (But I was thankful for that, because the first part got almost too intense lol. I have some small injury in my achilles tendon right now and I should be resting it instead of tensing up in fright ... xD)

!!!!! Spoilers !!!!!

The role of the matron was actually subverted - she turned out to be an ally. Meanwhile the young white male doctor, who at first had seemed to value the main character, unlike anyone else, turned out to be a villain.

Sadly the death and suffering of the actual villains wasn’t scary at all, just silly. It’s really too bad - while I was scared out of my skin for female characters when they were experiencing terrible things, creepy men don’t have to be scared by the male characters’ suffering in this film. :/ So that aspect ends up not really being that subversive.

[nandorsrelentless]

there seems to be far too many fans who can't seem to wrap their head around the fact that no relationship in the Vampire Chronicles is healthy. every relationship includes an element of abuse/power imbalance by normal standards. literally every single one.

they are all monsters who are no longer constrained by societal rules. so I don't think it's too crazy to expect them to do mosntorus things. the genre is Gothic HORROR. the show really prioritizes the HORROR element more so than other adaptaions, which i love.

i don't need louis to be a liar to enjoy lestat. if louis lied or misremebered things about the fight in episode 5, i literally do not care because it's never gonna make me hate louis. the baseline of what constitutes "evil" or "bad" is so different in iwtv because of the fact that they are NOT HUMAN. Claudia is literally a serial killer and she's still mother to me. ykwim?

the nature of vampirism is they have to kill to survive. so it would be really cool if people could accept louis, armand, and claudia as complex characters who are fundamentally not good people (because they aren't people!) without being racist about it. THEY ARE ALL KILLERS

im more interested in this exploration of the complexities of memory and seeing how the show integrates the other books into this story in a way that hasn't been done before than I am in discoursing about whether louis is a liar or not. who gives a shit???? grow up and realize that there are no good guys here and that's OKAY

[thedreadvampy]

The thing is. Bad/gross food is rarely a DISH - when food is bad it's because it's been badly made, whether because of skills or available ingredients. but a dish p much only exists recognisably and has a name because someone likes at least one version of it.

which is to say. there isn't really a way of naming a dish, school of dishes or specific food culture and going EW ISN'T THIS DISH UNILATERALLY CONCEPTUALLY DISGUSTING without denigrating quite a lot of people.

like you don't have to like it in any form. but it's eaten and shared because it's good to a not insubstantial number of people when cooked right.

(and I don't really understand how you approach that with total incuriosity when it's a dish you haven't tried like. ARE rocky mountain oysters good? Maybe! I would very much eat some to find out!!!!)

this is actually something the British food poll did in a way the American ones I've seen haven't really - they described how the food they're imagining is, specifically, badly prepared (grey meat and veggies; unseasoned shepherd's pie). which is wildly tipping the scales by calling it British Food but. like. that is an on point definition of why that food is gross.

(this also applies to American chocolate, which like. Broad category but I think most of us understand this refers to low-cocoa high-sugar chocolate, probably with bucolic acid. so we are being invited to imagine Badly Made Chocolate not. the concept of chocolate)

personally I just think it's very rarely a good or funny idea to shittalk how gross any given food culture is. partly because food is important and culturally evocative for most people, partly because it's very...alienating? to be like WHO COULD EAT SUCH A THING? just because you wouldn't, and largely because to be frank it says more about you than about the food that you have so little imagination or curiosity that you can't imagine why a food might be enjoyable to folks who aren't you.

yes this includes jello salad, I would like to try it. ONCE. if it wasn't appealing to someone it wouldn't be so widespread.

[mjuno99]

my two beautiful princesses with disorders who are very similar and thus would probably not like each other (initially at least)

[fancyfade]

Actually as you pointed out how people get mad that Damian isn’t nice to fan favorites is that I think fans of those characters forget the issues of lazy writing.

I notice a lot of writers use the “annoying American brat” troupe for Damian and think his reaction to say Tim is how he would be to everyone else.

A good writer would know Damian first impression of a hero like Wonder Woman vs Plastic Man would be different.

Though there the flanderization that plague comics. Don’t get me started how a lot of established characters act like Damian is the worst person they ever meet because of writers bias

yeah writer bias does involve writers just being like. making the other characters act likea ssholes (but the writers don't realize they're writing them as assholes) b/c the writer personally doesn't like damian. im like XD You guys don't realize that making your fave be petty to a 10 year old just makes your fave look stupdi right?

damian's foreign-ness is usually emphasized when writers want to make him 'annoying' (or even worse, villainized) so i dont think they go for 'american' brat, but they are going for 'annoying'. like in batgirl it's... IIRC they go with british for some reason? in red robin we have the metric system thing, in teen titans 2016 we have one of the only times he's really acknowledged to be arab in text and also its when villainizing him.

he wouldn't interact with everyone like he does tim but it is consistent that he's not easily impressed by established superheroes and he doesn't fanboy them. like see his interactions with the justice league in batman and robin 2011, or his hilarious interaction with hawk in new 52 hawk and dove. so he's not going to be fanboying random heroes no matter what even if they're not tim

[lilith-91]

"Firelady Katara" 🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩

"Mai is a toxic girlfriend, Zuko deserves better" 🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩

"Katara is an incubator and Aang's trophy wife" 🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩

[nyaskitten]

GUYS! LEGO JUST CALLED ME!! THEY TOLD ME THE NEW DJINN'S NAME!! HIS NAME IS "AHMAD OMAR ABDUL HUMMUS SHAWARMA FALAFEL MOHAMMED YUSUF AL BAQARAH ALIF LAAM MEEM BIN LADEN" !!!!!!!

[fuckmeyer]

blows my mind there's not even a Chinese coven in The Twilight Saga. no Indian coven. only ONE coven in the Middle East/Africa: EGYPTIAN. no Greek coven, no Iranian coven, no Afghan coven, no Ethiopian coven, no Nigerian coven; FUCK ancient civilizations i guess! no one in South or Central America but the AMAZONS???? for real?????? the POTENTIAL to incorporate LEGENDS and HISTORY and CULTURE — wasted! i CANNOT with this author thinking the only vampire civilizations exist in Europe & America!! fuck off directly into the sun!!!