#tw // internalized racism

[ladyylavenderrr]

Talked about this in an ao3 comment so I’m repeating myself, but I always interpreted Mila’s rant to Garak in A Stitch In Time about assimilating into Cardassian society as very telling about what the nature of her relationship with Tain might be like.

Tw: sexual assault and a whole lot of internalized racism

After Garak returns from Bamarren, he’s being forced into the Obsidian Order and Mila is the one to walk him to their headquarters. She tells him “Understand, Elim-you are being given the opportunity to move above the service class.” The opportunity here is emphasized again and again in this scene.

When Garak tries to contradict her implication that the service class isn’t valuable or desirable, she becomes furious, speaking with a passion we haven’t seen her express ever before and don’t see expressed again. I just want to highlight the exact passage I find most important.

"Listen to me!" she said with a passion that startled me. "You are my son and you are a Cardassian. Not a Hebitian. Look around you!" she commanded. I did. We were in the great public area which is surrounded by the buildings that house the power of the Union.

"Hebitians did not build this. Cardassians did. Your father and I serve and maintain, but we do not influence or guide the destiny of the Union. You could. That's why you must submit right now! Do you understand me, Elim? Once we walk through that door," she indicated the one that led to the subterranean levels of the Assembly building-to the Obsidian Order-"you must submit to your fate."

Mila is a Hebitian woman and yet she obviously rejects that heritage and culture. She’s directly juxtaposed with her brother, Tolan, who is desperately trying to keep his identity alive. Meanwhile, Mila assimilates as much as she can. She demands Garak do the exact same. She glorifies the acts of Cardassians (in this case I’m using “Cardassian” to mean non-Hebitians). Most importantly, she tells Elim to submit, submit, submit. Whatever is about to happen to him, it’s going to elevate him from service class and Hebitian to upper class and Cardassian, the dominant and powerful racial category in their society. The message is obvious. The best thing a Hebitian can do is assimilate and submit to Cardassians.

I always saw this scene as a sort of extension of her relationship with Tain, or what it could be like. Her dialogue here obviously reads as her projecting onto Garak in some way, that’s very clear. She’s telling him to submit to the Order, yes, and the racial and class divide of their society, but more importantly, to Tain and his whims. After all, he’s the one at the very core of Garak being forced into the Order. And Tain very much represents this racial hegemony of Cardassians. He’s directly contrasted with Mila, Garak’s other parent, he literally lives above her and her Hebitian family, he has a collection of ancient artifacts from other cultures collecting dust in his study like some kind of commodity.

Mila wants Garak to submit to the racial and class hierarchy by assimilating, just like she does. She also wants him to submit to Tain, because he and that hierarchy are the same. So then, can we assume she has also submitted to Tain?

We don’t know much about the relationship between Tain and Mila, and what we do know (her being his employee) doesn’t scream perfectly consensual. This interpretation makes that dubious consent a lot more dubious I know.

To me, this scene makes me view the relationship between the couple as Mila having more directly submitted to Tain by being his lover, because it’s an opportunity (there’s that word again) to have some kind of power, to be near that racial ideal, to be more than a mere Hebitian, and more importantly, because she simply won’t ever fight back against the racial and class hierarchy (Tain) she’s trapped in, unlike her brother. What Tain wants, Tain gets. What Cardassians want from Hebitians, they get, so why fight back? This is the only way to survive for Mila and it might just bring her some kind of power, no matter how small.

Their relationship is a sort of microcosm of how Mila navigates being Hebitian. Cardassians dominate her and she doesn’t fight back. And even if she cares about Tain (the way she talks about him in TDIC makes this likely to me), they both know she can never be his equal and she’ll always be expendable to him.

I hope this analysis and interpretation makes sense

[storyteller-aprendiz]

“Why not whitewash your flaws

With a Phaethon shine?”

VINCENT: And I took that literally.

[ID: Vincent Lin from Adamanadi with Ambrose’s jacket, tie and face]

[v-anrouge]

OK GUYS GUYS HEAR ME OUT.. we all know that sebek is there to represent the internalized racism of mixed ppl right??!! SO IMAGINE SEBEK TALKING TO A MIXED MC WHO HAD TO DEAL WITH BULLYING BECAEUE OF IT

either yuu tells him or he hears them venting about how they never felt they fit in and abt how ppl would say that they're not really a *insert race/ethnicity/species/etc* because they were mixed and about how they felt like they were inferior for being mixed LIKE JUST IMAGINE OKAY

HE'D BE SO FLABBERGASTED LIKE HE'D BE SO SHOCKED HIS BRAIN MALFUNCTIONING YET AT THE SAME TIME EVERYTHING MAKES SENSE YK PLZ HEAR KE OUT ON THIS ONE

[noperopesaredope]

Recently, I’ve been working on designing a 7 person family of Black characters, and because I’ve been made aware of how little we are taught about this, today, I was looking up how to draw Black facial features. By this, I mean the common ethnic features many Black Americans have. These features may vary due to the different ethnicities across the areas of Africa many AA descended from, and there’s been a lot of interracial/interethnic mixing, but those features exist. And I, a white-passing half-black person with identity issues, have begun to realize just how many black features I actually have, features I’ve never really noticed about myself.

I have a small nose, but it is in the same shape as the nose shape common amongst many Black folks (of certain ethnicities, obviously). It is somewhat flat, or at least rounded. It is wider than it is long. It has all those other aspects you see in that type of nose, and I never realized it. Or, at least, I never realized it was ethnically Black. I just thought it was “ugly.”

After noticing this, I took a headshot of my face (without smiling), and looking at the photo, I realized that, despite my light skin, I look more black than white if you take the time to notice. I can’t describe what features make me look that way, but I can say for sure that, in that moment, I saw more of my Blackness than my whiteness.

Fuck, people have told me a lot that I look like my dad, like that one random girl who stopped me in the library and asked if I was [insert my Black dad’s name]’s kid. I said yes, and she said “I see it,” before walking away. This was completely unprompted. And according to my mom, when I was a baby, every elderly Black woman could almost immediately tell I was mixed, or at least not fully white.

Learning about those little facial features that others saw in me ended up making me see how mixed I actually was.

And that relieved a lot of body dysmorphia for me, resulting in both affirming my racial identity and accepting my body more. I had been so focused on looking more like what conforms to Euro-centric beauty standards, that I didn’t even realize the legitimate beauty my appearance holds. And I began to love those parts of my body more.

So, to all those white-passing folks who think they don’t look enough like [insert race], you just need to look a little closer, and look at others too. Because I’m positive that you do have at least some of those feature. I’m sure that, despite the color of your skin, despite the shape of your eyes, despite the texture of your hair, you will be able to spot it.

[purplesockson]

🗝

Lotor - Magic

"...It isn't that I consider magic some sort of requirement to be considered Altean. Many Alteans have very little proclivity towards Alchemy, or lack the ability to use it at all. But when it comes to myself..."

He looks away, ashamed. "...I am well used to the idea that I will never be fully accepted by the Galra as one of their own. I once wished I were, but I no longer value their good opinion. If they find me ugly, or think me lesser due to my blood... I do not care, anymore."

"But Altea... The Alteans of my colony would try and flatter me on this subject, but they are biased. They love my actions enough not to care about my face, or my bloodline. True Alteans, the ones who were born on Altea and died with her, they are the ones whose good opinion I truly desire. Their standards of taste, of philosophy and morality, of art, of beauty, these are the standards that I would wish to measure myself by. And by those standards..." He sighs. "...I know I fall short of them in every respect. I fear... I am too much a Galra."

"If I could only use Alchemy, if I could learn to channel the magic of my noble ancestors... Perhaps I could prove, once and for all, that I am much more Altean in my heart and soul, that the Galra part of me is inconsequential, that I... Oh, I don't know..."

He seems at a loss for words for several moments.

"...That I am not part of the species that abused me, the race that is attempting to consume the universe. That I am not like them. That I am not like my father."

[stars-and-soda]

Something about how many of my relatives were/are self-loathing and tried to hide their Indigenity and I have to constantly prove mine. Would they be proud?

[griancraft]

I'm struggling to word this but I'm finally ready to talk about it and I want people to listen.

I've noticed a type of racism in leftist communities I don't see talked about a lot. I am Quarter Japanese and I am visibly mixed, but a lot of leftists see "quarter" and assume that I don't have the right to an opinion on issues that effect me. The sentiment I've gotten from mostly white leftists is that I'm not "POC enough" for a lot of discussions.

There's this weird thing in a lot of leftist spaces where your appearance and percentage, not your experiences based on your race, are considered above all.

Meanwhile, in reality, all aspects of my identity are affected by my race and my family's experience with Japanese internment. An event which stripped them of any wealth they had acquired since moving to Canada over 50 years before the war.

An event that cause the intermarriage rate of Japanese-canadians and white Canadians to be over 90 percent post internment because we viewed proximity to whiteness as safety. An event which left them in severe poverty until my dad and aunt worked their asses off to get a degree. The generational trauma goes so deep my dad didn't want me transitioning because he was worried about what the government would do to me.

Because of my race I experienced negligence from authority figures related to pretty severe racially based bullying at 12. That negligence could have killed me. I've had to deal with microaggressions and straight up racism related to my last name on multiple occasions.

One time I was out with a friend and he grabbed my arm tight and dragged me to walk faster. A man wearing a white lives matter T-shirt was standing in the middle of the path looking directly at me when I turned around.

I'm pretty sure this wasn't based on me being feminine and goth that day, I live in a city with a decent amount of people in alt subculture and my friend was way more gothed up and queer than me. I was barely passing as a guy at that point so it wasn't because I was a man in a dress. I know this is a weaker point, but it made me realize just how unsafe I am in my own community even though I'm a mixed person in a heavily multicultural city.

Obviously, this isn't on the scale of someone who is less white passing than me and/or has more compounding marginalizations. However I've found that the fact I'm mixed race has been used against me to devalue my experience and knowledge regarding what it's like to be a POC in Canada.

I can assure you I am aware of how bad it is, and I am aware of how good I have it. I also want you to be aware that it's not all sunshine rainbows and bunny farts to be more white, it doesn't make the racism go away. It often just makes it more covert and easy to explain away because I'm "not really Japanese"

[idiot-mushroom]

internalized ableism? more like self deprecation and deep rooted denial of problems am i right?

[spot-the-antisemitism]

https://www.tumblr.com/alienateddotmp3/757035526402523137?source=share

Radlibs when a black person is a whole person with their own autonomy who doesn't have their morally correct opinions (or just doesn't want an open fascist racist on power AGAIN): ASSIMILATIONIST!1!1!! CLASS TRAITOR!!!

sorry I'm on their dni so I can't comment

haha no that's not how callout work

proves that tankies are racist regardless of their own race

but please submit this to spot-the-racism next time

or you could have told thisismisogynoir if she wasn't a tankie jewhater who thinks the only way to enjoy Percy Jackson is to pretend he's a lesbian latina trans woman and violently attack and harrass anyone who dares point out he's a white man in every adaptation and also tried to claim spacelazarwolf was a corrective rapist for saying that lesbians and gay men have sex sometimes.

(My one beef with Lazar is he calls EVERYONE who disagrees with him a terf/rad fem like sir some people are just transphobes. transphobe is the word you're looking for sir)

Yes we're hitting two birds with one stone today

[ladyimaginarium]

Hey y'all, just figured I'd let y'all know about something that's been going on in "Canada" lately.

The RCMP is planning on disposing the evidence of the victims of Robert Pickton, one of Canada's most notorious serial killers, with most of them being indigenous women and/or sex workers and/or addicts; there were also a few Black women that have gone missing and/or murdered, as well.

For more information on the victims, here's a list of a few of them. Just be warned it's very graphic & tragic. This is important because today, on December 17th annually, is The International Day To End Violence Against Sex Workers.

Advocates, academics, indigenous women's groups & lawyers have repeatedly said that this is a violation of human rights and it's extremely telling that the RCMP is trying to borderline cover this up and dispose of evidence when it's not even just Pickton who did this, he's stated that there were others involved and people who knew about what happened and nothing's being done about it. It's genuinely horrific that this is even being considered, and the victims and the families of the victims deserve better, especially the lives of indigenous, black and/or sex workers, because the fact that this is even being considered is basically telling them that their lives — these women's lives, but also the lives of Native women, Black women, addicts and sex workers — don't matter. It's fucking disgusting, especially as a reconnecting two spirited person.

Please keep the victims & their families in mind!!

[odinsblog]

International Holocaust Remembrance Day

[elephant-in-the-pride-parade]

Calling comments pointing out racism in fandom “toxic” really isn’t it my friend. You are not escaping the white fans not giving a shit about anyone except themselves allegations

Alright I am going to take the chance that this is sent to me genuinely and that you are not a troll T-ing up a harassment campaign because I think I know the fic in question here and actually, unsolicited comments from strangers pointing out racism in fandom can be toxic to the cause of reducing racism - there is a lot to unpack here. I have a lot of thoughts on this from the perspective of a writer and at the risk of inviting a lot of trolls onto myself I am going to list those thoughts out here, for all the good they probably won't do:

First a few thoughts on this subject generally, and then specifics about the situation of the specific fic you reference:

1. Unsolicited Concrit in the AO3 and Tumblr environment - no matter what it is about - is not helpful.

Writers dont know the experience, context, or intention of the concrit giver. So writers are just frankly disinclined to trust it. Too many trolls and too many bad experiences mean a writer doing fanfic with limited time and for fun doesnt care to receive this in their comments. If they do want to improve their writing they are going to seek out a good fandom / writing community and then after that look for a trustworthy beta.

2. This unfortunately goes doubly so for accusations of homophobia, sexism, racism, transphobia, ablism, etc.

Too many bad actors and trolls use these kinds of painful accusations for nefarious purposes. This goes doubly so for kink fics and smut fics - trolls use these accusations with the primary intention of harassing writers into taking down fics they find to be "depraved" - aka too sex-positive. Kink and smut writers especially will only see your unsolicitied accusations of anything, im sorry that includes racism, as trolling harassment.

3. White writers who write racist portrayals of POC characters are, by and large, not racists themselves.

More than likely theyre unaware, undereducated, and come from a cultural context where what is obvious to you is not actually obvious to them. (A white american is more likely to be aware of stereotypes around native american and african american characters, for example, than a white european or australian). This does not mean that you have to tolerate this. You, the reader, can block and mute writers who write characters in ways you find harmful. Muting on AO3 has made my reading life 100x better.

If you're going to take the time to point out racism to a writer and see if they will improve their portrayal of race: you need to approach them privately. If you want them to trust you, you cannot use anon. If you must be on anon then you need to at least link them to trustworthy resources if you have them. Or at the very least be specific about what in the fic garners this accusation - because it might be something the writer can fix!

4. In my experience, with some exceptions, writers are open to discussing ways they can improve their racial sensitivity: but it needs to be presented as something actionable.

There need to be specifics regarding issues and examples. The Writing With Color Tumblr is excellent for this reason. Concrit about something as substantive as improving protrayal of race also needs to be respectful of the effort a writer puts forth to write stories. Because improving this might require a complete overhaul of the fic. Writers who hear these concerns from a respectul, trustworthy source are more inclined to actually improve how they write race. They will seek out a sensitivity beta or take your resources with the good faith intended. It of course is not POCs job to educate white writers - but if youre going to say something anyway and you want to do more than cause hurt - this is how you do that. With respect, under the assumption that this writer cares about the characters as much as you do.

Now regarding the fic in question: this was a new J/C writer, writing a kink fic. It was setting up, very excitingly for kink lovers, a well researched and nuanced portrayal of hardcore D/s kink. and the D/s as a lens through which to also explore some flipping of traditional gender roles. I'm not going to link to the fic because the writer doesn't deserve more harassment. But this is what they said about the content of the comments: (tw: for mention of suicide)

I am going to trust the writer that rather than educate or motivate her to write better POC characters, she just stopped writing the kink fic. And my comments were only intended to inform her that this trolling was very likely not genuine, nor the culture of most trek fandom in my experience. To me the comments and the escalation described here do not sound like a genuine outreach on race or homophobia. They, in fact, sound like the kind of classic trolling committed by right wing and russian troll farm style internet harassers. Bad actors who want to keep kink and sex out of fandom. My troll alert starts to go off especially when I hear that this writer is being harassed on multiple fronts over this fic. And that is what this is: internet harassment. Racism, homophobia, and other hurtful criticism used to push a writer off the internet. Whether the original commentor intended to raise awareness or not, they're doing it with all the tactics of classic bad actors.

There are actual ways to get racism out of fandom without bullying writers whose background and racial sensitivity you don't know.

Create or share rec lists of writers who write sensitive portrayals of race. Emphasize what these fics do well.

You can even create and share lists of fics to avoid on race - its helpful then to know what the issues are if you have the bandwidth: just for the love of god don't do it in the authors comments. and make sure to ask readers of your list not to harass the writers - bc thats not going to help anybody write race better. Too many bad actors use these accusations for other purposes. I am sorry, but no writer is going to assume you're being genuine.

Promote resources within fandom communities about how to write race well. Or that point out known issues surrounding the character. This helps writers and beta readers to look out for these things. As someone who does try to be sensitive to race - I look for these. I read them. I try to write a better Chakotay, for example, than the canon one we got in Voyager, who was written based on advice from a fake native american consultant (all Voyager fic writers are starting from a disadvantage on the racial sensitivity front bc our canon content sucks on race. It's either absent or presented terribly in canon.) By and large Voyager writers know that and if we understand how, we do make a good faith effort to write the shows non-white characters better than our 1990s source material does. Writers who don't understand how to improve just try to avoid race in their fics as much as possible - which is whitewashing and just as harmful to the cause of improving how race is treated in fandom. Comments from strangers on the internet are not where writers turn to find our trustworthy sources on race or any other culturally sensitive issue, which brings me back to my first point.

If you dont have the bandwidth to do any of the above - just block / mute the writer. Let someone else be their educator.

[doeeyeddyke]

Snap Out of It

Desi LGBT Fest

Day 8: The Acceptance You Hoped For vs. The Acceptance You Got

@desi-lgbt-fest

TW/CW: Body Horror, Flashing Images

(I’m afraid I don’t know how to censor images so the gif is beneath the cut. For the non flashing ver, see my reblog.)

Snap Out of It

Desi LGBT Fest

Day 8: The Acceptance You Hoped For vs. The Acceptance You Got

@desi-lgbt-fest​

[queerafricans]

This Arab is Queer: My intersectionality was my biggest bully

[killerqueen9099]

I really hate being black. I wish I was asian, specifically japanese or korean. I wish I had beautiful soft pale hairless skin instead of this disgusting layer of tar that wraps around my body.

I wish I had long dark straight hair instead of this thick mop of brush that clings itself to my skull.

I wish was thin and graceful like the gorgeous women I see on tumblr and insta and pinterest. I want to be weightless and beautiful just like them, but every time I look in the mirror, I just see a fat black cow that can't keep it's hands off food for five seconds.

I hate the scars on my body. From disgusting, pus filled acne bumps to scars I got from accidents to scars I got from abuse to the scars that I gave myself. Every time I even look at my own refection I just feel repulsed and that just leads me on to cut and cut and cut again mutilating my already hideous body even more.

I wish I was smart again. I used to be the 'gifted kid'. I used to get the highest scores. I used to be mom's favorite. But now it feels like I can't even pick up a book. I can't study. I never needed it before and so I dunno how to do it now. Every time I go to class I just fucking space out because my dumbass monkey brain cant even begin to comprehend what everyone in my class has already mastered.

If anyone has any tips or advice on how I can achieve my dream self (japanese looking and very thin and very academically smart) then please please please please share it with me. I'm a minor and also very broke so surgery is not an option. I just want light skin and pretty hair and pretty eyes and a pretty figure and perfect grades and for people to love me. Is that too much to ask???

[small-strong-bookish-butch]

In retrospect, eleanor & park was incredibly racist. (Did I know it was at least somewhat racist at the time I was reading it? Yes! Did I know the full extent of it? No!)

But. I read it at least 4 times, and it taught me two things I really needed to hear as a teenager:

1. Fat people are beautiful/attractive/hot/etc., and

2. People you’re living with can be mean and abusive (in the case of Eleanor’s mom’s boyfriend) and dysfunctional and unable to take care of you and unable to leave the situation (in the case of Eleanor’s mom), and other people don’t know that