When People On Twitter Or Tiktok Say "yeah Tumblr Is Bad, Its Always Been Bad And Gross And Problematic"

It’s sad how much of what is taught in school is useless to over 99% of the population.

There are literally math concepts taught in high school and middle school that are only used in extremely specialized fields or that are even so outdated they aren’t used anymore!

"I'm not waiting here for you anymore. Otherwise, I really will end up breaking."

I hope we see her again :(

Milly + Meryl

I think I am annoyed enough to write about it, actually. Here's why "curate your space" and "don't like, don't read" and "fandom safe spaces" fail to work for everyone:

People don't usually don't tag for racism and misogyny. It's just fandom as usual for way too many fans. And asking them to tag for it? Is taken as a personal attack. Because the suggestion that they might have have done something racist or misogynistic is far more hurtful and offensive in their mind than what they actually wrote.

The argument that someone's properly tagged niche fetish fic will damage society is bs but fandom at large exists on a sliding scale of casually to actively racist and misogynistic. The queer utopian fandom experience is really only true for people who get on board with whatever the most popular ship is in the fandom--usually mlm, sometimes m/f, only vanishingly rarely wlw. Almost always white. Most fans don't see the racism and misogyny as an issue because their wants and needs are being met in fandom. If other fans are unhappy? "Curate your space!" But you can't curate out a systemic problem.

If you think your fandom doesn't have a racism or misogyny problem, you're probably happily living in that popular ship bubble.

Fushiguros

Talk no Jutsu should’ve affected Naruto as well—each encounter with an antagonist should have forced Naruto to alter his conception of what becoming hokage will mean in terms of the problems he will be working to solve, continuously building on a growing conflict between Naruto’s desire to be adored by the village and serve as its leader and his growing understanding of the many ways it has hurt the people he encounters. Naruto’s empathy should’ve been a starting point to these questions and conflicts rather than their supposed solution. His alliance with Kurama should have required him to actually accept his own anger rather than suppress it, since consciously accepting that anger and working with it rather than pushing it to the depths of his unconscious mind (as symbolized by the cage that Kurama was kept in) would parallel his ability to work with Kurama rather than constantly fighting to hold him back.

In the final fight, these conflicts should’ve reached a final resolution. Naruto’s relationship with Sasuke, which has always pushed him to grow and improve, has repeatedly led him into conflict with the village’s rules, and is what he swore to restore before becoming hokage, should’ve led him to reject his dream of becoming hokage altogether and with it the system it represents, instead seeking to change the shinobi world into something not built on violence and exploitation with Sasuke’s help. Sasuke’s ideas about needing to change the shinobi world and his steadfast dedication to achieving it should have complemented Naruto’s lack of a solid ideology and tendency to be swayed by praise and propaganda, while Naruto’s emphasis on friendship and human connection should have taught Sasuke that it’s okay to care for himself and to accept love and friendship, and that revolutions can’t be achieved alone.

Instead of this, however, Kishimoto sacrifices the intregrity of both Naruto and Sasuke’s storylines and the narrative as a whole in favor of cheap wish fulfillment by painting Naruto as the flawless savior who does not need to change, self-reflect, or sacrifice anything, while Sasuke bears the burden of being evil and wrong and having to change almost everything about himself and simply submit to the village and system that caused him so much suffering.

Sketch concept of Queen Iradel Anwyn for the Almarren comic, by the gloriously talented oldshuck.

One of the stupidest things ppl respond with is "instead of complaining about your character of color's lack of popularity why don't you make stuff for them instead?"

It’s a horribly shitty thing to say because I only got to the point of pointing out racism in fandom because I’d noticed it for years. I have spent YEARS in fandom. My contributions to this blog are from personal experience. I didn’t write mod R’s super popular post but that’s just because I’m not great at distilling my observations down like she is but I agree wholeheartedly.

I started out in white fandoms almost a decade ago because back then the shows I liked had been predominantly white. You know the type, they had a recurring character who was a WoC and several poc villains and I thought wow great representation! But I was young and dumb and hadn’t finished college yet. As time went on I noticed how my new fave Ugly Betty was still featuring a lot of abuse towards its woc lead. It relied heavily on the white savior trope weekly (Daniel would save the day with money for her family problems) Wilhelmina another woc was the villain (she ended up having a great arc but did they have to pit the woc against each other so much for so long?). I was afraid to join the fandom because occasionally there were problems with the show I couldn’t articulate. (Why did Betty only date white men? Why weren’t there more poc in the office? Why did it have to be called ugly betty in the first place?).

Eventually I became more involved in fandom and this process I’d gone through with Ugly Betty started repeating itself with different shows. I started noticing that stanning for my faves wasn’t easy because fandom was incredibly typical in its preferences. I started reading meta and noticing horrible patterns. I’d already been a feminist but being a feminist in fandom and seeing all the shitty ways fans belittled MoC reminded me of the shitty treatment my father gets just because he’s a brown immigrant. Seeing ppl constantly cry for equal rights and mysteriously only stan for white cis het men made me realize that intersectionality was missing in fandom.

White ppl forget that a poc growing up in the States don’t automatically get when something is racist. Because here colorblindness ideology keeps our own white friends treating us like tokens and using us as “proof” against their racism. So in fandom when all the love goes to white cis het males we’re expected to ignore the fact that our characters of color are not loved the same way (and instead are villified needlessly). Or when we talk about it you respond with things like, “well then make stuff for them” (maybe I did and fandom can’t wait to tear it apart because a PoC can’t possibly be “that awesome”) “my preferences don’t make me racist” (discounting whole races because you don’t think they’re beautiful IS RACIST) “I like villains they’re more interesting” (simple q & a: why are they all white villains who get complex stories? Your media is fucking racist).

To the ppl who feel the need to defend themselves as not racist: stop acting like you know a damn fucking thing about racism, if you’re white you will never truly understand.

"Black/Asian Solidarity" Readings

A lot of Asian Americans have been sharing the dozens of think-pieces we’ve produced in the past few months on this topic. While I’m pleased to see more Asian Americans engaged with this than I’ve seen before, I think it’s critical we don’t only listen to other Asian Americans, but listen to Black folks and actually hear their voices and what they've been saying. I threw together this small list based on the bookmarks I have on hand - I’m know there are many more openly available. 

Proprieties of Coalition: Blacks, Asians, and the Politics of Policing - Jared Sexton [x]

People-of-Color-Blindness: Notes on the Afterlife of Slavery - Jared Sexton [x]

Black/Asian “solidarity” on MLK Day; some thoughts on the current nature of the discourse around African American and Asian American activism and “solidarity.” - I’Nasah Crockett (so_treu) [x] so_treu also makes antiblackness resources openly available on this tumblr [x]

We Real Cool?:On Hip-Hop, Asian-Americans, Black Folks, and Appropriation - Kenyon Farrow [x]

“Rap, Race & Black-Asian Relations” with Jeff Chang and Kenyon Farrow, moderated by Walidah Imarisha [x]

Black/Non-Black Divide and The Anti-Blackness of Non-Black Minorities - Robert Reece [x]

(3 pieces) Three Notes on Solidarity; or, In Want of a Requiem [x] | Black Imperative: A Forum on Solidarity in the Age of Coalition [x] | The Coalition Moment and a Black History [x] - John Murillo III, Nicholas Brady, Ben