#like we talk about acknowledging this show's racism but like. it is SO SO RACIST

[cer-rata]

TW: racism

I think the way that comic book media has uncritically pushed anti-Arab racist propaganda (among other kinds) for decades upon decades is an important thing to acknowledge. Like it's not just a couple of bad apples here and there, it's always been pervasive. So many stories, so many villains, so many Arab coded fake evil countries. That kind of thing desensitizes people, dehumanizes entire groups. The politics of media designed for young men and boys (and not just them but for years that was the only audience that mattered, thanks sexism) has consequences.

Seriously, what was this:

As far as I'm aware this never even got an explicit retcon.

I was a little Muslim boy in the mid 2000s reading a Death in the Family because I wanted to know what happened to Jason Todd, and I didn't understand the depths of the propaganda that was being fed to me. I was so desensitized to hearing about terrible things happening in the middle east, and evil terrorists that I didn't question it. And my parents talked to me about what was going on and how it was wrong. But I was still a little kid and I loved Batman and I wasn't at the point where I could really look at the narrative critically, to realize that the authors have worldviews that are biased. I don't think I even grasped that different people wrote the characters. Iran electing known super-terrorist-serial killer-baby eating clown The Joker to represent them because he understood their values is yes, notably crazy, but most of this stuff isn't so loud and obvious, and we didn't leave it in the 80s. Just look at what happened to the depiction of Talia and Ra's post 911 and how they progressive became less human. So just think about the generations of kids reading this crap who had no counter messaging at all. Where does that leave their empathy?

I'm not saying that everything we're seeing is the fault of comic books, that's stupid and reductive and insulting to the complexity of the reality. But what I'm saying is that a lot of these narratives are actively complicit in the kinds of inhumanity we're seeing. Marvel thinking it's appropriate to throw Sabra into a movie in current day is a glaring transgression but it's not some kind of strange outlier. Lots of those films are actively funded by arms of the American military, just look at Captain marvel and Iron Man. And if anyone likes imposing an agenda onto the narrative, it's the military. A lot of this is baked into the fiction, and we owe it to ourselves and others to actively contend with what that means.

I dunno I'm just mad, and disappointed and maybe a little guilty that it took me this long to really realize the full state of things. I spent a lot of time blindly consuming. Like these books were created to be aspirational, to show good people trying to make a better world. But as always happens when art is completely beholden to money, they still serve the politics of the ruling class at the end of the day.

#dc comics #marvel comics #marvel mcu #batman #captain america #iron man #dehumanisation tw #i/p #imperialism #tw racsim #talia al ghul #ra's al ghul #reposted with better formatting

[eastgaysian]

okay here's one post i have to make. Finally racism confirmed real in succession. other people have talked about this before but it is a huge blind spot of the show not to acknowledge the intersection between racism and capitalism, and the excuse that the characters are the 1% and the 1% are vastly white is pretty weak. the fact that the show sidelines its existing characters of color while every now and then broadly gesturing towards race makes this worse, especially as the show more directly focuses on fascism and just Doesn't bring race into it. like i don't even think race is totally absent as a concern of the writers but it's clearly not a priority. i think a lot about how mo's widow is a filipino woman

anyway. ken and rava's conversation in this sense doesn't really qualify as, like, revolutionary in terms of succession's commentary on race esp since it's a discussion between two white parents about their brown daughter without her present. the point of interest to me really is that kendall completely fails to recognize racism as a systemic issue, much less that he works for and is trying to sustain a company that actively works to perpetuate that hegemony. his questions are why was sophie on the street? why wasn't rava there? in the same episode where he calls matsson homophobic for saying the numbers are gay. socially aware king

it's not particularly revelatory to say that a rich white man doesn't grasp the concept of systemic racism LOL but i do think it's more than that for kendall, and i also think this trait is something his siblings don't share. it's like how he doesn't realize he's in a position of power over anna and she was pressured into attending the recny with him, and his adoption of a faux-feminist stance in s3 while continuing to treat women like shit. kendall's whole concept of Everything, including systemic social issues, goes back to logan. there's no system outside of dad. the doj doesn't find the cruises evidence compelling? that's because they're scared of logan. logan's the source of the evil in the world, therefore opposing him is inherently progressive, leaving kendall with even less of a coherent moral framework after his death. and he's completely unable to process the idea that he could be participating in and benefiting from the greater racist or sexist system, because that's fundamentally incompatible with his logan-based idea of his own identity.

i don't think roman or shiv or even connor share this particular nearsightedness. roman 'we do hate speech and roller coasters' roy knows what's going on but he doesn't really care and he doesn't believe it can be changed (or, maybe more accurately, that there's any point in trying). he doesn't buy into fascism on the ideological level, exactly, but the spectacle appeals to him and he does believe it's profitable to align with it, so he's perfectly happy to do so. i think he's the most similar to logan in this regard. and shiv and connor have actual political ideologies, even if they're far from being meaningfully opposed to fascism, which requires a base awareness of the fact that We Live In A Society and That Society Has Systems In It. for kendall it really boils down to logan and logan alone

#chalkboard

[end-otw-racism]

End OTW Racism Link Round-Up: Week 1!

We are now in week two of our action demanding that OTW live up to its commitments to address racist harassment & abuse, which ends May 31st! There was a lot of great discussion during the first week, so we wanted to post a round-up of some of the longer-form discussion/analysis that people have been sharing (we're going with posts on Tumblr, Dreamwidth, and other sites, as well as Twitter threads that are longer than three tweets). These are posts that we think would be helpful to consider as fandom engages in the necessary conversations about these issues.

If we've missed something you've written, we'll be doing another round-up of week two, so it's not too late! You can either submit it on tumblr, tweet at us, or email us at endotwracism [at] gmail [dot] com. We do reserve the right to only share posts that are in line with the intent of the campaign and that we believe are adding to the conversation.

Tumblr

beatrice-otter: Why AO3 needs to be accountable for reducing fandom racism in its internal culture and the archive [link]

pretty-weird-ideas: End OTW Racism and the “Fed” Accusations [link]

aretethegreattelleroftales: You don’t understand what EndOTWRacism is asking for here, and because you clearly do not understand it, you should have known better than to speak on it. [link]

vex-verlain: In response to the reactions I’ve seen to #EndOTWRacism [link]

unrealromance: I don’t really understand how people don’t know the difference between ‘whoops I’ve fallen into a racist trope’ and 'I am literally writing hate speech that is unveiled, mask off’. [link]

pretty-weird-ideas: Codification of a Living Document as a solution to Harassment on OTW [link]

indifferentvincent: RE: End OTW Racism Derailment [link]

elumish: In light of some of the backlash to the End OTW Racism protest, and particularly the concern that an anti-harassment policy would lead to abuse of reporting mechanisms or censorship of unpopular authors/ships… [link]

seepunkrun: How to Find and Attend OTW Board Meetings [link]

indifferentvincent: The people who use the excuse of saying ao3 is an ‘archive’ and so 'must preserve’ the most vile, intentionally racist fics just sound like the most privileged motherfuckers on the planet to me. [link]

spacebeyonce & pretty-weird-ideas: wow this is such a normal and rational thing to say about having a diversity consultant to help ao3 fix their bullshit. [link]

indifferentvincent: I have to assume this is in regards to my promotion of the end-otw-racism call to action, because I don’t know what else it could be referencing. [link]

princeescaluswords: Writing Doesn’t Happen in a Void [link]

mousieta: There is a place, a magic place, a giant, ever growing park filled with sandboxes of every color and shape imaginable. [link]

Twitter

spacebeyonceart: alright so I want to talk about this post I made two years ago now that the #EndOTWRacism ball is finally rolling. [link]

generalfrings: This shit makes me so goddamn angry, yall. [link]

eruthosish: One of the calls of #EndOTWRacism is to improve the AO3's Terms of Service and how the AO3 deals with fanworks that are part of an offsite harassment campaign, so I wanted to share a story about the only time I have ever reported offsite harassment and had Abuse agree with me. [link]

buttonthemdown: They've proven they can move quickly *when they want to*, but the fact the OTW hasn't made an official statement acknowledging their lack of action and pledging to do better sends a signal they don't care about their POC fans. [link] 

Clonehub7567 Seeing the reactionary dismissals of #EndOTWRacism from white fans who pretend to care about racism is reminding me of the backlash i/we got for #UnwhitewashTBB. [link]

hydrochaeris3: ppl who are worried that not participating in the call to action will get them labeled racist..... first of all once again yall are showing that you care more about what others might label you than putting forth tangible effort into caring for a community [link]

m_sketchyart: If you think that #EndOTWRacism is censoring your escapism, here’s a thought to chew on: why is being anti-racist a threat to your escapism? Is true escapism not also leaving racism, antiBlackness, fatphobia, abeism, misogyny, etc out of your escapism? /rh  [link]

lunedraws: Have you wanted to walk the walk and not just talk the talk, re: racism, in one or more of your fandom spaces? This is a concise and timely line of actions we can take. [link]

aliasmarionette: One thing I see a lot in #EndOTWRacism comments which are in favour of the status quo is assumptions about who we mean by fandom, and about the user base of the Archive. [link]

SapphicScholar: New profile photo while participating in the important fan-led campaign to demand that OTW make good on the promises it has already made to address issues it has already acknowledged as problems in the archive—that is, instances of extreme racist harassment and abuse [link]

Fansplaining: Since the endotwracism campaign has begun, we wanted to highlight the timeline they've put together about the OTW's communications re: hiring a diversity consultant since their initial statement of commitment in the summer of 2020. [link]

gwenpendrcgon: ive seen so much backlash over #EndOTWRacism which shouldnt surprise me (also majority of this comes from tumblr is also to be expected) but most if not all backlash received by this event is done is such bad faith and complete wilful ignorance [link]

fiercynonym: so op of the #EndOTWRacism post on reddit dm-ed me and the situation is even more fucked up than i originally knew???  [link]

kitschlet: seeing a lot of people confused about what the OTW can do to address racism [link]

generalfrings: poor AO3 maintaining a 'absurdly heavy site'. all that text! [link]

RukminiPande: Fan scholars should be paying attn to #EndOTWracism. [link]

Saathi1013: The thing to notice about all the assertions that people know who's behind EOTWR is like... Okay, there are a few things, actually [link]

buttonthemdown: If you think that victims of racism need to "develop a thicker skin" you're a fucking racist [link]

mousieta: if i could have people understand one thing abt #endotwracism right now is that This issue matters not because racism makes you feel bad, or uncomfy, or squicky but because racism is actively harming Real Living Breathing Fans right now. [link]

fiercynonym: okay so…you know how OTW has been saying, when asked at meetings, that they have a budget surplus of about USD $1 million? well…manogirl & i did some digging, and it might actually be more than TWO AND A HALF MILLION USD. [link]

runpunkrun: Speaking of OTW Board meetings, if you're interested in attending, here's what you need to know [link] 

Dreamwidth

satsuma: A Chronic Habit of Avoiding Responsibility? #EndOTWRacism [link]

bcgphoenix: I have a lot of feelings about OTW and End OTW Racism as a book conservator/general preservation person, most of which verge into tl;dr territory. [link]

killabeez: Looking at past archive policies [link]

nyctanthes: End OTW Racism (Fannish Fifty #47) [link]

chestnut_pod: Be more democratic, be more autocratic, OTW [link]

Other sites

Lady’s Weblog: End Racism in the OTW [link]

The Rec Center: #384 Final Thoughts [link]

Stitch’s Media Mix: I’m Supporting #EndOTWRacism [link]

#end otw racism #racism in fandom #otw #ao3 #organization for transformative works #archive of our own #fandom racism #link round-up

[scarrletmoon]

i originally added this to this post and then realized it was almost entirely off topic so:

people more eloquent than me (@chuplayswithfire comes to mind) have talked about racism within the context of the show and how izzy exemplifies a version of it that’s subtle enough to be realistic, obvious to POC and almost invisible to a lot of white people

i don’t think the writers wrote izzy intending him to be a racist the same way the badmintons or the british navy are. but saying he’s not racist at all, despite clearly living in a racist world, misses the point that i — and many other POC — have been trying to make. even stede is racist (see s1e2) and he’s our romantic hero

my point is, white people tend to perceive “that’s racist” as an attack on their moral integrity rather than a description of patterns of behavior, and it’s important to acknowledge when that happens so we can have actual productive conversations. i think some white people are afraid of calling something out when it seems like bullshit, and i’d encourage y’all to just……read more. read about anti racism. read about microaggressions. read about the history of racism in your country and the backlash that always follows progress

it’s going to take time and it’s going to feel uncomfortable, but i promise you’ll be vastly less afraid about fucking up if you just arm yourself with information

#scarrlet rambles #ofmd #like a lot of us are queer and weren’t born knowing all the words #same thing here #this strayed from the topic of fandom but idk #i think people need the reminder #and im not tagging the gremlin man bc i dont want to deal with racists in my notifs

[velvette-hussle]

VELVETTE’S BLACK-CODING & THE HH FANDOM’S RACISM

A lot of y’all (and especially the ones of you that will cry about how ‘not racist’ you are without having actually unpacked any of your racism, and who are more scared of being called racist than actually being racist) are so viscerally against even the mere headcanon— let alone active canonical race-coding of Velvette being black, and I’m so over that shit.

Y’all will fight tooth and nail when a show has one barely purposefully black character — out of an already predominantly white cast of characters & more non-black poc characters than there are black ones (who have speaking roles, most notably) — to deny (black) fans the ability to celebrate and actively acknowledge that character and their race. Especially if y’all can’t ignore that character, or if before you realized they were black/black-coded you liked them.

⚠︎ I wrote this out of pure utter frustration and anger so I’m going to cuss and I sound fairly mean and angry so do with that what you will. ⚠︎

P.S. — This isn’t necessarily meant to be educational; I’m allowed to be angry without having to teach y’all how racism works while crying over my phone (because, yes, I am an emotional bitch) for free.

Some of you people are truly insidious. We get half of a bone tossed to us (because Velvette’s demon form is still dark grey which gives the audience a lot of plausible deniability when it comes to not accepting that she’s black) and everyone is still trying to snatch that half a bone out of our mouths despite the fact that y’all are eating good. It would be embarrassing if you bitches had any shame about your anti-blackness, but y’all don’t.

Then all the little pussyfooting-ass bench sitters can sit around talking about how they don’t care either way, they just don’t think everything should be focused on race (which is what y’all always say, but if people didn’t care ‘too much’ about rights and how a lack there of for minority groups seeps into everything including our entertainment media most of you wouldn’t have the rights or entertainment you do now - these things are systematic so you have to attack and address the racism everywhere, not just in the areas y’all find it more appropriate/appealing to be hit with that reality in) - but fuck it if real people are actively being exposed to the fandom’s racism though, right? Or how they just prefer Velvette white (while explaining away her afro as her just having been a curly haired ginger in her human life so that’s not actual evidence towards her being black-coded or over-emphasizing that she’s WHITE British as if black British people are some nonexistent group) and they don’t see how that should be labeled as them being racist when it’s “just a preference”; but why does the sheer idea of Velvette being black repulse you in such a way in the first place?

Like everyone will accept Vaggie’s, roughly Valentino’s and even Carmilla’s coding as some form of ethnically Latino because they speak Spanish and because their voice actors are Latino of some sort, but when the same type of evidence gets brought up for Velvette’s black-coding (her VA being a black woman, her hair being in an Afro, the type of British accent she has sounding like it took inspiration from predominantly black British areas - though definitely less so than a character like ATSV!Hobie Brown, and the audition sheet for her character allegedly specifying that she was to be a black woman even) all of a sudden coding doesn’t exist, because y’all said so I guess. It’s the same fans of the show too that will whip out Alastor’s being black biracial to brandish it like a fucking weapon against those who call out Medrano for her racism and misrepresentation/demonization of vodou and voodoo in order to absolve her of any culpability or fault that will then turn around and deny the hell out of Velvette being black, and ain’t that just a bitch? Fandom has a racism problem (and me saying this is NOT new) but despite y’all thinking your radical because of some of the shows you watch and characters you like y’all are so obsessed with keeping the status quo in tact that every time someone points out a fandom’s racism it somehow manages to keep getting swept under the rug every time.

Regardless, Alastor’s alleged page in Medrano’s Pitch Bible says he could be ‘Any Ethnicity’ which was then retroactively changed for poor accountability reasons (but most everyone takes even that retroactive change as gospel and acknowledges that, as he is now, Alastor is biracial), but when Velvette’s alleged page in the Pitch Bible explicitly states that she’s a ‘black woman’ (and that hasn’t been redacted)

now everyone spontaneously doesn’t care about treating Medrano’s words like they’re the word of God and Velvette’s race is in the “eye of the beholder” or some shit. At this point just admit that you guys are racist and can’t stand the idea of having to regularly see, having genuine enjoyment for and interest in, or having an attraction to a black character. Y’all are so transparent in your anti-blackness, but too cowardly to admit it, that it’s almost painful.

Velvette’s coding (especially before you hear her voice, see who her VA is, and see her character’s appearance in s1ep8 where she’s depicted with textured hair) is not great, and I’d be remiss not to acknowledge that. She’s got the same skin tone color-coding problem as the other black - and only supposedly black - characters where she’s somewhere between a medium to dark grey in lieu of just making her brown skinned (which I get is because she’s a demon, but still), and in general there’s just enough not going on to make her black-coding more explicit that all the ‘I don’t really see her as black’ people can have a field day, and that makes arguing her blackness a necessity because you have to provide a whole bunch of evidence before people concede defeat or call you some backhanded insult that’s almost a slur before blocking you. That’s the reality and it sucks, but I am glad that there is at least things we can point to and that (even though not the best established/depicted) Velvette is supposed to be black.

All this to say, VELVETTE IS A BLACK BRITISH WOMAN (just black-coded or otherwise) and you can certainly argue about it, but I will not be responding; I have better shit to do.🫶🏾

The one thing about fandom and fan spaces - and just any media I consume for joy, period - that has always stayed consistent is the racism (and especially the anti-blackness & misogynoir). I can never escape that shit and I hate you people for it, I really do. Y’all’s favorite phrases to hit black people with are either ‘it’s not that deep’ (which it is, because your fandom preferences and reactions likely channel into how you vote, for instance, and how you regard the real life human beings in front of you’s worth at a given moment; I’ve seen it, because the same way that y’all take in misinformation about irrelevant shit like HH & HB is the same way y’all take misinformation and run with it when we’re discussing real life instances of oppression & discrimination) and that ‘be the ones to give black characters attention/make your own black character & predominantly black media’ bullshit. News flash though, a couple of black people in every fandom cannot cure the levels of systemic racism that’s sunk into you all like a fucking disease, but that so many people are just totally fine repping. If you’re “tired” of hearing black people complain about racism don’t you think black people are tired of feeling it? Of never being able to escape the effects of it? Of dealing with it? We hate this shit (at its most extreme it gets us killed and at it’s tamest it ensures we have less enjoyment & feel less welcomed in a given space), but if we can’t enter a physical or digital space without being hit by racism and anti-blackness then neither will you bitches. Also - because I’m looking back at this & can’t help but edit - I fully understand the desire other black people have to go into entertainment/fandom spaces and not have to think about racism, and so we’ll ignore the racism we do see (and sometimes even push back against its existence & downplay its harm), but ignoring the problem doesn’t fix anything. So while I also feel that desire and the majority of my stuff (especially my posts and creative endeavors) that’s aimed at black people is “escapist” or just not “trauma porn” to some extent, there is a point where I have to deviate and bring the shitty side of reality back into focus. So yeah.

P.S. — I kept saying alleged to the Pitch Bible because I didn’t trace the Bible pages all the way down to some official Vivziepop page, but you certainly can if you want to.

And here’s the full Pitch Bible page if you want it:

It also fucks over the people that want to insist Velvette stay Vox and Valentino’s ‘daughter’ figure despite Velvette’s redesign and characterization in season one of HH— and her age.

If you’ve made it this far, thank you for reading (if you actually read the whole thing that as, but if not then whatever)!🩷

#velvette #hazbin hotel #fandom racism #the vees #hazbin hotel velvette #hazbin velvette #race coding #hazbin hotel fandom #fandom #hazbin hotel criticism #vivzipop critical #hazbin hotel critical #i speak bitches *mwah* #me• #🩷 #unrelated but #❤️

[qqueenofhades]

Once you get offline, Biden’s doing ok with everyone but Republicans and racists. Unfortunately, that’s a pretty big voting bloc, but it should be manageable. More unfortunately, Harris is. Not popular. With anyone. Like, we’re talking Dan “To not have a mind is being very wasteful” Quayle levels of dissing. You can blame some of it on sexism and racism, but enough women and people of color have jumped on the “Kamala’s letting The Team down” bandwagon that there’s got to be more to it than this. Any thoughts?

Yeah, uh, I don't think that's fair OR accurate, and deserves quite a bit more reflection and pushback than is implied here (since your question frames it as thinking there MUST be something wrong with her and invites me to expand on it). First off, I am not comfortable comparing the first female vice president (AND female VP of color) to empty suit Dan Quayle, and especially when there's such a disparity in their background, social perception, and accomplishments, not to mention their role in the administration. So:

"You can blame some of it on sexism and racism, but -- " Okay, but how much? Are we actually assigning a weight to that and taking it into consideration, or hand-waving it aside in search of the "real" cause? Online Leftists are already disposed to irrationally dislike Kamala because of the "she's a cop!!!" business that went around during the primaries, which was likewise inaccurate and misleading, but showed how women, especially women of color, are often treated in white leftist spaces (including by leftist-identifying women). That very much WAS down to sexism, racism, and perceiving her as "shrill" or "there's just something I don't like about her." Okay, what is that? WHAT is the thing you don't like about her? Would you notice it in a male politician? Would you critique it in a male politician? If the answer is any part unclear, this needs more work and is in fact reflective of that dynamic, whether or not anyone is aware of it or thinks that's the reason why.

No, seriously. If someone professes that they "just don't like" Kamala or "there's something about her that rubs me the wrong way" or whatever else, my immediate next question would be "Why? What don't you like about her?" And keep drilling down through whatever excuses about "unlikeability" or "personality" or whatever else is offered. If this can be persuasively articulated in a way that a) exposes a substantive policy reason, b) can be differentiated from what any male vice president or other person in her position would do or what should be expected of them, and c) isn't just about "offputting vibes," then sure, we can have a discussion about that. Otherwise, yeah. That's not convincing me that it's anything other than the constant, long-running, ever-present discomfort with seeing a powerful and accomplished woman of color, who started her career prosecuting sex criminals, was the first Black woman in the Senate, and is now the first female vice president, actually state her issues and own her role.

"Enough women and people of color have jumped on the 'Kamala Is Letting the Team Down' bandwagon that there must be -- " Really? Must there? First of all, it's damn near impossible to find any Online Leftist who's willing to give Biden accurate credit for his accomplishments -- see the "Biden is bad and uninspiring and anti-trans but we should I guess vote for him anyway" rhetoric which is the closest they can possibly get to acknowledging it. (None of which is actually true!) When that's the case with the top of the ticket, it's orders of magnitude easier to project that irrational dislike and distortion onto "shrill" or "dislikable" Kamala. So who are these "women and people of color" who don't like Kamala? Are they in the room with us right now? Do they actually care about/vote for the Democrats, support their policy accomplishments, and realistically understand the progress that's been made and what remains to be done, or do they want to use Kamala as yet another convenient stick to beat the Democrats (since they won't give them accurate credit to start with?)

Even if this was true, sexism and racism somehow magically wasn't a factor (which uh, it is not) and Kamala had some terrible personality defect that was unique to her and her alone and not any of the far worse vice presidents there have been in the last 20 years alone: what is this kind of question intended to accomplish? Are we supposed to fear that by voting for Biden, we might vote for Kamala as well? Well, she was on the ticket last time too, and they won the election. Don't know what else to tell you.

#anonymous #ask #politics for ts

[bohemian-nights]

No this fandom is actually insane

Do people think it’s ok to write “he was teaching her how to bathe”?????? I’m honestly scared to go read the post that they were talking about. The lengths that these people will go to just to prove that dettles never happened

Read at your own risk.

The person who wrote that is actually Black(or so they claim), but is willing to throw Black characters and Black fans under the bus and promote negative stereotypes about us for their mostly (racist) followers in defense of a racist characters desirability.

Sir/ma’am, if you are reading this, get some self respect. I’m actually embarrassed for you cause this shit is actually pathetic. You’re better than this.

Case in point they wrote this crap a while back with 100% sincerity:

(I should also note that I actually had a run in with them about a year and some change ago and they threatened to block me after I asked them if Corlys bathing with Rhaenyra would be normal father daughter figure bonding time so I blocked them first😊).

Like you don’t have to like Dettles, but when you are pushing harmful ideology and stereotypes (Black people are so stupid/dirty that we need the white mans help to civilize us) as a way to discredit them and make those who ship it look like angry Black women jealous of the poor helpless white woman and her stans, you’ve gone too far.

Let’s keep in mind that this poor helpless white woman was actively trying to kill a Black girl for a crime she claims she didn’t commit and that despite claiming that Nettles definitely didn’t sleep with Daemon her stans spazz out everytime you mention her name and actively want her cut from the show.

Or how about the fact that these same stans actively stalk and harass Dettles shippers whose only crime has been pointing out y’all’s bullshit.

Let’s keep in mind all of this shall we:

So who is actually jealous of who here? Who in this scenario wants racial revenge?* Who is the problem in this hellhole of a fandom?

Is it the people merely pointing out Nettles importance to the Dance and Daemon’s arc or the people who hurl racial insults and stereotypes? The people who want her erased from the narrative in its entirety cause she disrupts the status quo?

(The fact that someone would even fix their mouth to say that when Black people have been beaten, raped, enslaved, terrorized, tortured, disenfranchised, abused, subjected, and not even given common decency and respect for centuries by these people. If we wanted racial revenge it damn sure wouldn’t be off the back of a fucking fictional character).

The fact that they can’t see Nettles value and only see her as some irrelevant Black girl and reduce people liking her down to a gotcha/“woke” moment is fandom misogynoir in action.

They forget that she comes from nothing, claims a dragon, has a prince willing to give his life for her(six men or sixty remember that since y’all claim to be capable of reading🙃), survives the Dance and becomes a firewitch worshipped by a group of people, because they don’t want to acknowledge her importance.

It makes them uncomfortable to do so because she doesn’t look like them, but people like I’m not like those other Negros cover up for them so that when they are called out for it they can go see this n-I mean this Black person agrees with me.

Imagine being this butt hurt about a fictional character that you can’t even leave your racism or tap dancing at the door for five seconds.

Nettles doesn’t fit the mold, but that’s the point of her story.

They can recognize maester propaganda and scream about feminism when it comes to their white faves, but when it comes to the Black girl who is actively being stereotyped and maligned for her gender, race, and social standing in the source material they believe it no questions asked?

Again, what does it say about you that you are so willing to believe that a Black girl who was clever enough to claim a wild dragon doesn’t know how to bathe herself? What does it say about you that you think Daemon would never touch her with a ten foot pole just because she’s Black?

What does it say about you don’t want her on the show because of her race? What does it say about you that a fictional character who just so happens to be Black has you worked up into a tizzy.

Y’all claim to be for women(real or fictional), but in reality you only care about the women who look like you and shit on women you see as beneath you. Women who you think are a threat to the status quo. You’re no better than the men who oppress you.

#bnask #bnasks #this is longer than I wanted but black people and black characters aren’t the problem here #nettles #anti daemyra stans #anti rhaenyra stans #full of bullshit #hotd fandom misogynoir #hotd fandom bs

[chuplayswithfire]

something ive been thinking about and you always have good takes on this so im asking you. do you think the show has decided to Not Talk About Race this season? when ofmd was sold to me, that was one of the aspects that were brought up. not that season 1 is perfect, of course, but they had the "racists get killed" rule, and both ep2 and ep5 have lots of interesting bits and jokes ("not the crowd for skull talk" being my favourite). i just don't see s2 donig anything like that, which made me realise it could be a deliberate choice??

honestly sometimes i think season 1 was just so good and tightly scripted and purposeful that we all thought more highly of it than it may have deserved. i certainly wouldn't have sold the show on that basis, though it is something i like about season 1.

i think season 2 is genuinely just more careless, with regards to this kind of thing. from izzy's "wild dog" and "thought you (ed) were roach" comments to the joke of people not being able to pronounce china, it's felt a lot less purposeful when racism is invoked than in season 1. i don't know if it's a deliberate choice or an artifact of trimming things down to fit the adjusted budget count and getting a bit careless, but it definitely feels like statements that at least would have been acknowledged as racist by a beat in the show - like the man for sale bit having roach and frenchie in the background getting out of dodge - are just being presented without commentary now.

#ofmd #ofmd s2 spoilers #asked #answered

[ineffectualdemon]

I feel like there is confusion over what is alleged and what is confirmed in the Colleen Ballinger situation

Especially if you haven't been down this rabbit hole for weeks now so I'll explain for those who want to know what the hell is going on

Now my bias is that I believe the victims but I am not a court of law so when I say alleged I do not mean I don't believe them just that it isn't as hard evidence

So I'm going to break it up into what we know is fact, either because confessed to doing it or we have video evidence, and whar is alleged because we only have the victims word or screenshots which we know can be faked

TW: grooming and sexualisation of children and mentions of implied CSA (of a fictional character for that last one but still)

What is fact:

Video Evidence:

Spreading a 16 year olds legs as wide as she could on stage while the teenager was wearing a short dress and therefore exposing her body in a way that made the victim very uncomfortable

Putting snacks down the front of her trousers and then getting young boys to reach into the trousers

And ongoing "bit" about how "Miranda's" (her character) uncle molests her. Like not innuendo its really overt and not okay. Especially for a child audience which she knows she has

A really uncomfortable and weird joke about teen girls and "leaking"

Calling girls on stage to talk about how they are "porn"

A really weird video of her inserting a tampon in her mouth

Lots of racist shit that was or currently is up on her channels

Animal cruelty - not just the dog story. There are a lot of videos of her being horrible to her cats

Offering to send her underwear to a 13 year old Adam even when she acknowledges the parents would be upset

Stuff she confessed to in her "apology" videos:

Talking to her underage fans in group chats

Oversharing in those group chats

Getting ideas from Adam (a minor at the time) for her channels

Sending a 13 year old her underwear like WHAT THE FUCK! Her "defense" is he asked for it! She offered and he took her up on it because he was a huge fan! And he was fucking 13!

Alleged:

(Again- I believe the victims. Their stories are too similar and their screenshots corroborate each other. I'm just saying alleged because screenshots are not the best evidence by themselves in a court of law. I am not a court of law so I can say I believe the victims)

The exact content of the group chats including sexual content sent mostly to and about Adam

Whether or not she sent Trisha Paytas' 18+ content to others without Trisha's knowledge or consent to make fun of Trisha

Including to someone who was a minor at the time

How much work she was getting Adam to do for her

The conversation her brother had with an underage fan

Her best friend Kory abusing Johnny and her allowing it

Her behind the scenes treatment of the lady who worked on her netflix show and her general racism irl

Her mocking and bullying her own fans

Her encouragement and insistence that they keep the chats private and and a secret from the victims parents

That's what we know at the moment

I think even with what we have of the hard evidence this woman should be kept away from kids but that's my opinion

#tw colleen ballinger #colleen ballinger #tw grooming #tw csa mention

[electrificata]

here are my house observations, im in season 3

some of the shit house says to foreman is genuinely unforgivable

foreman as a character i generally like. omar epps is giving a good performance of an even-keeled-but-not-without-effort kind of guy, i do like the plotline of a guy who came to learn from an expert whos the worst guy in the world and trying to figure out how to do the same thing without being the worst guy in the world. i also think they way they keep him out of hospital love triangles is racist, foreman is not currently hot but could be with 15% more attention from the writers room.

really sexist as a general rule. i have not encountered the idea of "jailbait" this much in literal years.

hipster racism. its the 2000s. funny to talk abt this because "hipsters" were younger at this point and the character of house is, im assuming, in his mid 40s at the start of the show, but thats the general logic that seems to be on display. "well you know that he's a good guy so its ironic and funny that he's threatening to use the n word as a joke."

a) stupid logic to begin with, doing something ironically is also just doing it, b) doesnt even work on its own terms here because house is widely acknowledged to be an awful person in the context. the entire show is built around the question "how much deliberately annoying, dangerous bullshit will we endure from this dickhead to maintain access to his unique skillset"

i still dont "get" house/wilson. like i do see it, like i can see that theyre a little obsessed with each other and they have a fun mutually manipulative dynamic, and they make sense as foils (guy who's self-consciously awful and often ends up doing noble things accidentally/guy who's self-consciously noble and often deliberately does awful things). but i cannot feel myself going insane about it. if anything i like him better with cuddy

cuddy really really hot. really really really hot. cuddy.

so like yeah i see house/wilson im just not going insane about it the way i thought i might. altho tbh it took a global pandemic and a extended, byzantine renaissance of tumblrina supernatural scholarship to make me have a destiel spiral. i need infrastructure for these things.

cameron's character is such an old school token girl character. i hate how they treat her "niceness" almost as much as i hate how they treat her crush on house.

a better show (written by me) would have some more cuddy and foreman "managing" house plotlines (foreman being a protege allows focus on the legacy of house's medicine, how to replicate it, how to contain damage), probably give him some of the cuddy and wilson time. the three of them together would be good i could do that.

cuddy/foreman. hm. in the remake.

like, i do get how this happened. house is troubled in a durable, interesting way. the writing is good enough to support his layers, the way his snap-judgement psychoanalysis of everyone he meets curls back around to shine a light on his own issues. good balance of competence and patheticness. laurie is giving a masterclass in the niche field of "british comedian comes to us tv drama, grows some stubble, becomes a sex symbol." i read an old review that referred to his "sourpuss charisma" i really like that turn of phrase.

(i was also into josh on the west wing when i watched that last year, i have a type i love antagonism. no im not dating anyone right now, who wants to take me for a candlelit dinner and tell me i smell good and my voice is sexy) (you cant just compliment me, ill be bored or uncomfortable, you have to bury it in a disagreement and make it clear youre kind of mad that youre into me)

that said i think the show kind of misunderstands house's sex appeal. it feels very written-by-men. women characters throw themselves at house in a porny kind of take-me-now way. in my observations guys who are arent traditionally hot but attractive in this antagonistic, talky was dont really get that kind of treatment, but they do get the main cast wilson/cuddy/cameron "i hate this guy but im obsessed with him and i will never make a move or i will and itll go badly" kind of stuff. my phantom house reboot does have cameron and house hook up and its a really mean and destructive fwb thing with like 4 false endings. does this make sense.

right now im in the middle of the plotline where leighton meester plays a 17 yr old girl stalking house because shes so in love. like thats not the vibe. at least from what ive seen. im not omniscient.

lol it turns out she has a spore makign her hypersexual lolllll i literally have this on in the background rn ok i take some of this back.

whenever i mention to someone im watching house theyll recount to me the plot of the one episode they can remember and it always sounds insane and its never made up.

"the one with the intersex teen model who fucks her dad to manipulate him and has testicular cancer" like yeah. yeah thats real. if you talked to me 3 weeks ago thatd be the one i recounted to you.

yes house does leer at her in that episode and its treated as logical and normal for a 45 year old man.

i hate chase, he's awful but boring.

im curious how long im gonna keep watching this, i know the later seasons get kind of soapy plotwise and i dont know if thats what i want out of this

#god this got long.

[byclairs]

Lucas's arc seemed like he deserved to be put in his place and recognize that he was wrong for believing he could hope for better? And they did not even focus in his character that much. Most people say Mike has a spectacular forced conformity storyline waiting for s5 when we had a forced conformity storyline for Lucas but it was so sloppily written. I thought the forced conformity narrative is suppposed to be written good in any case for poc too, not just for your white character that you send a message with.

it feels like the duffers just don’t care enough to convey a cohesive message for lucas’ arc and/or don’t know how because on the one hand they’ve acknowledged several times the racism he faces both on and outside the show so they can’t even play dumb and yet they then constantly downplay what he goes through and so you end up with scenes like the end of s4 where he basically learns to know his place or whatever like..lucas is not in same boat as someone like mike who’s mainly bullied for being a nerd. he’s ostracized in a way that mike and dustin will literally never understand but the show almost never makes any attempt to show how he deals with that yet it’s explicitly talked about in an official book from his perspective (and i know lucas on the line is not technically canon but it’s still tied to netflix/st and if they had someone in the writer’s room who could’ve incorporated even part of the type of material from the book into the show i think it would’ve done wonders to flesh out his story) like i’m sorry if you’re gonna acknowledge that his situation is different than the rest of the party’s then you need to put more care into following through with that because the whole “i thought i wanted to be like you—popular, normal” scene was just..it felt like they were insinuating his main reason for joining basketball was just to be cool when we know it’s a lot more complex than that; he was trying to protect not only himself but his friends too even though they don’t face the same shit he does. and possibly even enjoy something new in the process god forbid. and you would think that he was ditching his friends and other interests for the basketball team when that’s not what happened at all? like he never started acting aloof with them or ignoring them, he was still very much in hellfire and he never turned his back on them he even used his status on the team to lure them away from where eddie was hiding even though everyone was saying he killed chrissy and lucas didn’t know what was going on yet. he never let his desire to fit in turn him into someone unrecognizable who needed to be taught a lesson and that’s why it pisses me off so bad that he was made to feel this deep regret in the end as if he made some huge mistake that he learned from because in reality he’s never been anything short of a loyal friend or strayed from his morals. and to top it all off mike and dustin get off the hook without having reflect on how they hurt lucas because apparently you should never support your friends unless you fully understand and agree with the things they want 👍🏼 idk.

i also think his conflicting feelings about helping his (ex) girlfriend deal with her grief for her canonically racist brother who traumatized and literally almost killed him would’ve been really interesting and important to explore especially since that most likely relates to the reasons he started feeling like it was urgent to fit in more in the first place but. none of that because this boy’s feelings are never taken into account

i also think everyone should read all of this

#and as far as mike stans go well if everything revolves around him in s5 and the writing for every other character was shit they’d still #call st the greatest show ever written and be dead serious about it so that’s what i’ll say about that lmao #so yeah this is all just my thoughts but i’d say the audience’s reception of lucas is equally their fault for not extending him the same #sympathy and interest as other characters and the writers for refusing to put more time and care into his storylines #*their own fault #asks #my brain is so fried for real right now sorry if this is super annoying to read

[goldsrc-hl1]

And I think the fact that sienna, the white fang civil rights leader who actually cared about the cause but was willing to use violence to achieve it gets killed off and her worldview barely gets acknowledge

Also I think crwby straight up compared the white fang to the black panther movement/organization?

Wether we want it to or not the show did initially frame the white fang subplot as violence vs non-violence

Plus ghira getting mad tgat adam killed a member of a lynch mob because “this is why they think they can” tells me ghira is on sone level focused in what humans think of Faunus,

Not helping that ghira gets put in charge again without having changed whatsoever

I hate to say it but intentionally or not, the idea that an oppressed minority need to “prove themselves” in any way to their oppressors is kinda racist, it’s at least problematic

Heck it’s a double standard “that we see in the real world as well” that Faunus can be branded like Adam or killed in mines like ilia’s parents to by humans like Jacques, yet humans as a whole don’t need to “prove” they aren’t him,

Because, quite frankly, most humans are entirely permissive of what Jacques and the SDC do

Yeah, Sienna's worldview is barely acknowledged. That's part of the failure to discuss racism and if responding to it with violence is justified or not.

Barbara Dunkleman, who is not a writer, said this

Barbara Dunkelman: So if anybody needs, like, a comparison for what the Faunus are in this world, it’s kind of like if you’re in the 1930s, or 1940s, whatever, and it’s like, the way African-American people were viewed.

Someone else (I can’t identify the voice): You mean like 50s and 60s, like Civil Rights Movement and stuff?

Barbara Dunkelman: Yeah.

Faunus are related to the American civil rights movement. They're certainly not viewed as poorly as African American people were viewed in the 50s and 60s, but they are still viewed and treated poorly and it is still based off of the American Civil Rights movement.

It's not 1:1 Black Panthers though. Sienna KINDA reminds me of them but not too much, Adam definitely doesn't.

The only time it was framed as violence vs nonviolence was in Blake's talk with Sun about why she left. As mentioned, that talk is about why she left, not what the White Fang is doing now. Even as early as Volume 1 and 2 it was clear that the White Fang wasn't fighting for equality.

Blake: The White Fang is hardly a bunch of psychopaths. They're a collection of misguided Faunus.

Weiss: Misguided? They want to wipe Humanity off the face of the planet!

Blake: So then they're very misguided. Either way, it doesn't explain why they would rob a Dust shop in the middle of downtown Vale!

Roman: I'm glad you asked, "Deery"! Now, I'll be the first to admit, humans... are the worst. Case in point. So, I understand why you would like to see us all locked away, or, better yet, killed!

So yeah, the White Fang was always an organization dedicated to just killing and hurting humans. In the past, it fought for equality, which is shown in Volume 1 through Blake's backstory, but it's never states that the White Fang currently fights for equality. The reason Blake left is that she didn't want to take part in the violence anymore (she never says they were wrong to resort to violence though, she just personally didn't want to be the one pulling the trigger), but the goal of the White Fang is no longer equality, as evidenced by Weiss and Roman.

You may say Weiss isn't well informed, which is true, but if she was wrong, why didn't Blake correct her? Roman is literally speaking at a White Fang rally when he says the line cited above, so he clearly knows what he's talking about.

Onto the next point...

Ghira wasn't upset that Adam fought back, he was upset when it got lethal. Ghira has a point, by killing humans, you're giving the humans an excuse to hate you more, regardless of how justified it was. It's something you wanna avoid at all costs. It's unfortunate, but it's the truth.

Ghira is put in charge of the White Fang again, only after he assembles an entire army to stop a terrorist attack in the making. I think it's pretty clear that he's past all the solely peaceful stuff.

The message is that the Faunus need to dispel racist ideas by proving them incorrect. I don't see how that's racist or problematic. Minorities should play a part in proving racist ideologies wrong.

Bear in mind that the Faunus aren't "proving themselves" as in repenting for past mistakes and whatnot, they're "proving themselves" as in "your racist idea that the Faunus are all murderers and terrorists is wrong." No Faunus apologizes for how the White Fang treats humanity. The whole thing is basically a big "you're blatantly wrong" to racist generalization that is extremely hard to ignore.

I don't see how it's racist to promote minorities proving racist ideologies wrong.

Humans in the show already prove that they aren't like Jacques by literally arresting him. They don't condone his exploitation. Hell, his own daughter doesn't condone it.

Most humans are, but by proving racist ideas wrong, the hope is that they will become less racist and ultimately oppose Jacques.

#rwby #anti rwde #rwde #rwby analysis #white fang #sienna khan

[adarkrainbow]

Given I haven't seen people talk about this, here is the simple thing you need to know about the "Snow-White live action battle".

Everybody heard and talked of the upcoming live-action remake of Disney's Snow-White. Everybody had a part in the never-ending debate this caused. This seemed to be all rounded up, and we were awaiting for the movie to be released to be finally able to speak about it...

And then, something came up. This to be precise:

A trailer for an upcoming movie called "Snow-White and the Evil Queen". This is set to be released on Bentkey, a new streaming platform part of the DailyWire+ group - basically DailyWire has recently decided to create a whole branch dedicated to the making of kid content. Children-aimed movies, children tv shows and cartoons, all that. And what everybody has been talking about is how this movie was made with one specific design: to oppose and contrast Disney's own Snow-White release.

The people behind this movie, openly dismissing and disdaining the live-action remake project of Disney, decided to create their own movie adaptation of the fairytale, which would be more traditional and closer the folktale, and thus show what an "actual" live-action remake of the Disney cartoon might look like. A lot of people have been chering and celebrating at this "anti-woke" and "anti-Disney" move, and they're all amused and all that...

And if you don't know who or what is behind Daily Wire and Bentkey, you might be tempted to support this movie. Well, please, DO NOT. Because I personally did not even know what DailyWire was - but I went searching for Bentkey, this "brand new streaming platform". And I found the Youtube video posted on the DailyWire channel introducing Bentkey, where the platform's creator explains why they launched this project and... And this is vile and frightening. You can see it down there but if you don't want to give more views to this I'll give you a little breakdown below:

I only watched one minute and a half of this nauseating thing, and it was already enough to make me identify this whole project as just pure evil. Under the pretense of fighting against "woke extremes" and "far-left politics", the creator of Bentkey and its team explain very clearly their homophobic, racist and misogynistic views. The guy literaly opens up by saying that Disney is pushing a "queer agenda" to "brainwash" and "indoctrinate" children into the "LGBT cult". He also criticizes some of the things the Disney company does such as "paying for abortions" as dangerous political extremes ; and to add a cherry on top, he accuses the fact of Disney making shows acknowledging the existence of racism and discrimination in the USA as being "anti-American" and against everything Walt Disney stood for.

So, funnily enough, while we all mocked and insulted and accused Disney of being an homophobic, racist company... Turns out THIS, DailyWire and Bentkey, is the actual "evil Disney" people have been denouncing and criticizing all along. As in... Our fear of a massive corporation making tons of kids' shows and movies while pushing forward homophobic, racist and far-right agendas is now real. These guys do not even hide their intentions, they blatantly say "We will make kids movie so that they will grow up straight and only straight, we will make kids show that will not mention anything about racism or discrimination, and we will certainly not allow any of our employees to have any abortion".

So yes if you see people cheer for this "Snow-White and the Evil Queen" movie, make sure to check if they are aware of Bentkey's socio-political goals and intentions. And if they are... well I don't need to say anymore, do I?

#snow white #disney's snow white #snow-white #disney's snow-white #live-action snow-white #racism #homophobia #bentkey #dailywire #Youtube

[lykos-attic]

Randomly thinking about how angry the way Winter is treated in the narrative makes me

They show the real Winter and acknowledge who he actually is JUST to once again present him as the mean stuck-up prince??? HE GOES THROUGH SO MUCH DEVELOPMENT IN WINTER TURNING JUST TO BE SHOWN AS THE SAME OLD 'ANGRY RACIST STUCK UP PRINCE'???? IN THE NEXT BOOKS LIKE WHAT. TUI. PLEASE. I KNOW THAT WE AREN'T SEEING IT FROM HIS PERSPECTIVE, SO WE DON'T KNOW WHAT HES THINKING BUT. HE BARELY CHANGES AT ALL... LIKE AT THE END OF WINTER TURNING HE REALIZES THAT THE WINGLET IS HIS TRIBE AND HE CARES ABOUT THEM MORE THAN A RANKING AND A FAMILY WHO (mostly) DOESN'T LOVE HIM. THEN IN THE NEXT BOOKS HE'S BACK TO THE SAME OLD 'WINTER'. TUI.

I've seen people calling Winter 'nasty mean racist man' HAVE YOU READ THE BOOKS. DRAGON RACISM WAS SO RAMPANT IN THE BOOKS.... LIKE ALMOST EVERY CHARACTER HAD A MOMENT WHERE THEY WERE BEING THE DRAGON EQUIVALENT OF RACIST. WHICH OBVIOUSLY, ISN'T GOOD, BUT TO JUST PIN IT ON WINTER??? WHAT??? HIS HATRED OF NIGHTWINGS WAS FUCKING DRILLED INTO HIS BRAIN GROWING UP, HE GETS PAST THAT AND LEARNS TO NOT BE DRAGON RACIST. HE REALIZES 'OH FUCK. MAYBE THE THINGS MY SHALLOW HIERARCHICAL SOCIETY TAUGHT ME AREN'T TRUE'. DID WE READ THE SAME BOOKS, WHERE APPARENTLY, NONE OF THAT HAPPENED?? MEANWHILE DARKSTALKER, THE FANDOMS 'PRECIOUS MISUNDERSTOOD BABY' TRIED TO COMMIT RACIAL GENOCIDE BECAUSE HE HAD AN ABUSIVE DAD WHO HAPPENED TO BE AN ICEWING??? (And when Winter is upset about this he is treated as unreasonable by the guy who KNEW WHAT WAS GOING ON (Qibli) )

I've been a Winter defender for so long, surrounded by a fandom who mostly hates him and now that I have emotional intelligence since I'm not nine (no offense to nine year olds 🙏) and I have a place to ramble where I'll be listened to I can finally defend my angsty ice dragon I will absolutely do so. This stupid ass garbagefire of a series has meant so much to me over the years and I'm passionate about so many of these characters. I adore Winter so much, reading through the books for like the 50th time is so amazing, like I used to immediately hate moon because she was called a Mary sue, Qibli because people find him annoying, Kinkajou because she was the 'annoying one', but now I love all of those characters. I can see traits of all of them in me, and they mean a lot to me. Turtle's anxiety, Qibli's Sociotropy, (needing to be liked by everyone) hypervigilance (I've never seen people talking about it, and to see it represented in my favorite book series makes me feel seen.), fierce loyalty, Winter's guilt, self-loathing, desperate desire to please his parents, Moon's social anxiety, nervousness, and love of reading, Kinkajou's desire to be a dragon others notice and remember.

This turned into a rant about a completely different thing I'm so sorry, I'm not even done I have so much to say about these guys

Please don't let this flop I poured my heart out about this book series for children

#rant #winter wof #wof #wings of fire #winter is so mistreated by tui #just because she doesnt really like him #like tui please #write characters with nuance and keep it #please dont just return them back to the one-note characters they were originally shown as #i love how pretty much every wof fan hates canon #like i fucking adore this series and it means so much to me but the way tui writes characters is so shit #anyway #sorry for the wall of text #moonwof #qibliwof #jade winglet #adding many tags so people see this

[wearenotjustnumbers2]

Hello and I hope you are well.

I am a Norwegian-American, and the news in both my countries is filled with what basically amounts no pro-Israel propaganda and I despise it. I hope I don’t come across as ignorant or uneducated, but is there a single reason why the world leaders seem intent to ignore the genocide happening in Palestine? I’ve been reading as much as I can about the situation but I haven’t found a definite answer. (Of course, no “reason” would ever be enough to excuse standing by whilst children and innocents are slaughtered, I just can’t comprehend how anyone with a heart could watch this happen and do nothing.)

My heart weeps for the people of Palestine, and I will do everything that I can from my place in the world to aid you.

🇵🇸 ❤️🇵🇸❤️🇵🇸❤️🇵🇸❤️🇵🇸

Hello, first of all you shouldn't be afraid of coming off as "ignorant" or anything. I said before that my inbox is open for people who are looking for answers that aren't here just to be racist or hateful.

The most definitive answer here would be racism. It's so easy for Israel to share propaganda and get people to believe it, because it's so easy for westerns to fall into the "barbaric violent brown arabs" propaganda over and over. It's become so easy to label someone a terrorist for their ethnicity, it's even easier if they're Muslims. Another thing, Israel paints this as a "war" between religions, it's not. They try to show it as a fight between Judaism and Islam to get people's sympathy. When in fact, Palestine is one of the most diverse countries in the middle east. It has a huge population of Muslims, Christians and guess what? Jews. There are cities in there that are exclusively Christian such as Bethlehem. But the world believes the lies about it being Islam vs Judaism, and that Muslims are out there to kill every Jew and commit violence. Why is that so easily believed? Racism.

And you have to keep in mind that media coverage plays an important main rule in this genocide. If not for media coverage many of people outside the middle east would've never heard about gaza and Palestine. Which is why Israel spends million of dollars on pushing the narrative on social media alone. It was revealed that lots of international influencers were offered thousands of dollars if they announced their support for Israel (which is already the case with many American celebrities).

As for the governments, I will share with you this statement. People don't see genocide or ignore it and avoid admitting the severity of it because they don't see the people experiencing it as human. You have to actually acknowledge that someone deserves to live in order to acknowledge their death. I talked about the dehumanization of Palestinians here so you can know more.

Not to mention the economic situation. Israel has control over so many international companies and brands. When we decided to boycott Israeli products, we were surprised to find almost every brand to be related to israel. Such as McDonald's, Starbucks, Loreal, Pepsi, and so on even things like toothpaste brands. Also israel is in control of gas and oil reserves in palestine, as well as agriculture that Palestinian aren't allowed to have a say or a part in any of those things. For western governments, Israel pays you money, why would you turn against it?

I don't know if I answered your question satisfactorily, I hope you can reach out if you have any more questions or anything you want to know. I would love to be able to help.

Thank you for speaking up against the genocide 🙏

#palestine #gaza #israel #there's so much more to cover obviously #asks

[that-left-turn]

Some thoughts on "inappropriate language"

I'm barely in fandom, so I don't have a horse in this race. I don't know the people of the different factions, so this is an outside perspective on the recap that was posted last Sunday and the subsequent reactions to the criticism leveled at it for "inappropriate language." I haven't read any recaps for DD and my knowledge of this one comes from seeing a screenshot of the original version.

The comparison used in the recap is racist and this is how institutionalized racism works. Someone says something, others don't think it's so bad (and that mostly happens when they aren't personally affected by it). If you like a person, you'll excuse things they say which you shouldn't (eg. both Steven Yeun and Norman Reedus have friends who don't see anything wrong with a little rape joke now and again). This is particularly the case if the accusation against your friend comes from someone you don't like. To an extent, that's human, but friends should call each other on their shit because who else will help you become the best version of yourself? The motives of the other cliques/factions shouldn't matter because, regardless of the fandom shit slinging, they're not wrong in that the remark was racist.

I have no idea what the writer's intentions were or how she felt before or after being called upon to change the problematic wording. I do know that she isn't American and since there are cultural parameters to racism, she might be ignorant of the why and how the remark was a textbook example of US institutionalized racism, but her editor and the person responsible for the review site would both have cleared the recap for posting. Why wasn't this caught? Three people were apparently completely blind to the use of "inappropriate language" and if I were to guess they share a similar privilege—we mostly don't notice the sly little barbs that aren't aimed at our own demographic.

When the racist wording was finally changed, Caryl fans were outraged at the consequences and showed support for the use of clearly "inappropriate language." Racism affects us all on subconscious levels, not only the person directly impacted by it. Rap music isn't a criminal subculture, but painting it as such perpetuates that impression of it for individuals with limited exposure to rap and/or black people. It grows and gives way to "black people are thugs." American sociopolitical issues are grounded in a history of oppression, exclusion and violence, and it's why we have a school-to-prison pipeline in this country as well as police brutality. When we have the privilege of not being affected by something, we forgive each other's slips. "I know this person. She isn't racist. She just said something unfortunate. It was a poor choice of words." Black people get killed in the US because others unwittingly perpetuate prejudices and stereotypes.

I want to be clear that I'm NOT saying the writer of the recap is a racist. I haven't talked to her about this. I don't know what she's thinking. My problem with the apology is that it was a standard white person apology where the issue was skirted around—it's worse to be called a racist than to acknowledge that you've said something racist. If you're sorry for hurting someone, you accept responsibility for that hurt. "The language I used was inappropriate because it's racist." There's no shame in admitting you messed up, that you were ignorant of something; it's taking responsibility for your actions and there's a strength of character in that.

We all say dumb, thoughtless things at times and we need to get better at talking about racism without getting defensive. "Be kind to each other" includes listening to the people who've been hurt by what's been said, even if you don't like them. There are other Carylers of color, who don't belong to the factions of fandom that you don't like and by saying, "there was nothing wrong with the recap," you've just told them that they're not worthy of human consideration, or your compassion. The fandom is already toxic, why do we have to invalidate other Caryl fans' experiences?

My DMs are open and so are my asks (for any anons) if anyone wants to talk. I've spent two days debating whether I wanted to post and I fully expect to be drummed out of the fandom for it. But, I figured someone who isn't part of any of the drama needed to say that the language was problematic—nobody was imagining it or making a willful interpretation. I wish the aftermath had been handled differently and I wish I didn't feel so sad and disillusioned by it. I've spent two days feeling brokenhearted over everybody's rush to defend the use of "inappropriate language."

Thanks for taking the time to read my thoughts on why what happened was hurtful. I hope your takeaway is something other than anger.

#caryl fandom #caryl #name that -ism