Fandom Racism - Blog Posts

Controversial take maybe, but "Real-life opression reflects in fandom spaces too" and "You shouldn't see what person ships as a reflection of their morals" can and should coexist

White Fangirls: I love when the male lead ends up with the girl next door or his childhood bff

*Girl is Black*

White Fangirls: um ... the girl next door thing is so cliched.

White Fangirls: I love when the male lead pines over the girl and she's oblivious

*Girl is Black*

White Fangirls: She's so CRUEL. Why doesn't she see he's in love with her? She's a bitch.

White Fangirls: I love when they go from partners to lovers. It's my favorite trope.

*Girl is Black*

White Fangirls: Why can't they just stay friends. Not every relationship is romantic. Ugh!

White Fangirls: I love when the female lead is more than just a love interest. I love when she has her own storyline and can kick ass.

*Girl is Black*

White Fangirls: Why do they focus on her so much? [Other white character] is so much more interesting.

White Fangirls: I don't understand why there aren't more strong female leads.

Me: *looks at all the strong Black female leads on TV*

Me: What about -

White Fangirls: There's just no strong, three-dimensional women on TV to root for. Sigh.

I love Star Wars to death but nothing broke my heart more than seeing a North African coded Muslim character bombing the Jedi temple ;-;

Tom Hiddleston doesn’t know you exist. You’re sitting behind a laptop making fan edits and Zawe is happily engaged and pregnant

Y'ALL!!! THIS IS A THING NOW!!

TOMMY'S ENGAGED!!!!🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩

@e-p-hart responded to this post:

What I'm hearing is that you want to know how to confront racism in fandom without hurting the feelings of predominantly white women who participate in patterns that negatively impact fans of color (especially Black fans, since MANY of the patterns involve antiblackness).

The answer to that is that you can't. There's no easy way to confront these patterns in fandom (or education, or tech, etc etc -- you're correct that racism isn't only a Kylo/Rey shipper issue, but there is a reason Kylo/Rey is being talked about regarding antiblackness in fandom) without people getting their feelings hurt. But here's the thing: these patterns have been harming people in the fandom for a long time. One of the major facets of the racial empathy gap is that the hurt feelings of white people matter more than harm done to Black people, unless those Black people agree with them. And that otherization of Black people talking about antiblackness causes more hurt, widens the gap, and causes intracommunal discord.

When we talk about racism in fandom, it's not about individuals being inherently bad people. Of course racism is bad, but that bad/good dichotomy is harmful, because it ignores that a lot of racism is socially acceptable. It's socially acceptable to shut down people of color when we talk about racism. It's socially acceptable to say "not all white people" as if the fact that exceptions exist reduces the actual harm caused by things like the empathy gap and otherization, which are also socially acceptable. Focusing on the exceptions and calling it a day does nothing to work against racism, and in fact allows it to flourish.

Why are people talking about Kylo and Rey shippers and racism? Because there has been a long pattern of erasing, demeaning and demonizing both Finn and John Boyega, which culminated into a clapback from Boyega himself. We've seen a steady Black Brute narrative attached to Boyega over the past few weeks where it has been suggested that he is a threat to Daisy Ridley and more broadly to "woman fans." Understand that is a very dangerous narrative that has caused harm and even death to Black men. Even if they don't know they're doing it, it's harmful. And yes, Kylo and Rey shippers are doing this, including influential women in the media. R/K shippers have also recently tried to aggressively silence a Black scholar who talks about racism in fandom. (I was directly involved in this incident and it is well documented).

Certainly, all R/K shippers aren't doing this, but the ones doing it are R/K shippers. You said you doubt women of color in fandom have gotten more racism from R/K shippers than anyone else. I urge you to listen to Black women who talk about antiblackness in fandom. Speaking for myself, your doubts are wrong, and I've been in various online fandoms since the '90s. I've never had smear campaigns against me from any other ship. I've never been harassed by a Kylo/Hux shipper, and it's also a ship that focuses on white characters. In fact, I get along with a lot of Kylo/Hux shippers and am mutuals with some, even though I've criticized patterns in white slash shipping. I get along with Kylo Ren fans (villain fans and self shippers). I get along with Finn/Poe shippers even though I've said I think Finn/Rey was set up in TFA and have criticized racist FinnPoe fics. But to Kylo/Rey shippers, I'm a demon who needs to be taken down. Believe me when I say they've tried.

Possibly the greatest struggle in fandom is trying to talk about racism in either canon or as a general fandom trend and then immediately having your inbox filled with denial that exists in any form anywhere and also getting repeated personal attacks against you for daring to so much as mention that racism is still happening. It’s all good and well until you mention racism is an issue, and then it’s like the entirety of Tumblr turns into Fox News.

how do i properly articulate that the problem isn’t people shipping two white men once it’s about the TREND of people shipping two white men (or women) instead of the canon interracial & or poc/poc ship and defending it with the same identical arguments for why they just don’t vibe with it or don’t like it or whatever. 

like if you look back at the ships you tend to gravitate towards, the dynamics and the past fandoms you’ve been in, do you consistently shun the characters of color in favor of white characters and ships? have you considered that maybe there might be some implicit bias there?? 

like frequently with storylines and ship dynamics ppl would go crazy for if they were transplanted onto white characters ppl will call it boring just because it involves one or more characters of color. or they’ll find some petty reason to dislike the character/ship and pin it all on that. or even worse they’ll straight up steal it and give it to their white fave like?? 

the problem is you’re gonna have to make an effort if you find you don’t like characters of color/their ships like genuinely make an effort to seek out those you might enjoy and boost them because when it’s immediately obvious who fandom will choose as their next fanon white character to ship with the (white) main character there’s a real fucking problem lol.

Star Wars SDCC Reaction I am going to go line by line down the defense of this artist and shred him. First, I find it hilarious he thinks the prominence of women, white women needs to be increased but sees no need for POC representation despite acknowledging it lacking in his opening I am not a racist defense. Second, I thought the main point about Rey was she is a random untied to the Skywalker Baggage. Yet the point of this poster is Skywalkers and yet Rey is not a Skywalker and to hear Reylos tell it that is a great thing. Third, I don’t know if he or the art company are racist. I think its pretty hard to argue though that given the treatment the POC have gotten under LF with KK in charge that she is not racist. George Lucas got raked over the coals for racist aliens (fairly if you ask me) that were based on stuff you see an Old Flash Gordon Serials. But at least he had the decency to make them non human looking Aliens doing the physical comic relief. Lando ran city in the 80s was the coolest cat around and took out the 2nd Death Star. Mace Windu was the 2nd highest position in the Jedi Order and took Darth Sidious the distance. Finn cannot beat TR-8R in a duel, first lead to every lose one on one to a nameless stromtrooper throughout history in all Star Wars media. You never saw Mace or Lando drinking from troughs with animals or walking around leaking water from their suits like a damn minstrel show. And George never baited and switched on a marketing campaign, Mace was shown with a lightsaber and was a Jedi unlike Finn. Poe at least got to take down Star Killer Base but boy was the TLJ a letdown as he trades lives without care and suddenly has a problem with female leadership. Lets get into character choice. PT: Palpatine is the main villain thus he should be up top to go with the other main villains. Qui-Gon had like no impact on Anakin, since he basically instantly died before he could really impact Anakin. If its about mentors then it should be Yoda here or Mace. Both had way larger impacts on Anakin falling then Qui-Gon. But mostly it should be fixed in keeping with the character limit by moving Palpatine up top and moving Anakin down to replace Qui-Gon. Also the theme is suppose to be one character  per movie so even if I buy these characters choices Qui-Gon should be on the left, Kenobi center, and Padme right. But that doens’t work because and this will come up again who thinks Padme’s best stuff was in III? If it has to be these three characters then it should be Qui-Gon, Padme then Kenobi. Qui-Gon cause he dies in this in I so he has to be there. Padme eh it does have most of the senate stuff and you know she isn’t pathetically dying or enabling Anakin. Kenobi he duels Anakin on Mustafar. Under my system keeping the character limit Padme keeps the middle, Kenobi goes to the left for dueling Maul. Anakin goes to the right for obvious reasons. R2-D2 stays and Palpatine is up top with the Villains. OT: Seems fine really, I mean you could make the case for C-3PO to fit the droid theme. But Yoda does have to go somewhere. The rest are obvious although funny how when they are white the heroic trio all shows up. Although there is a reocurring issue why would anyone pick Episode VI for Han Solo? No Star Wars fan thinks Han got his best material in that movie, heck even Ford doesn’t think that. Honestly, Luke can be any of the movies. Han should definitely be IV or V and Leia should be IV or VI. Seems like these choices were only made to make Leia the center. But even then you put Han on the Left and Luke on the Right. But if it was me, Han is on the left his best stuff is in this movie like the iconic Han shot first. Luke is V this is after all the movie with a certain I am your father scene. Leia in VI this is one where she chokes out Jabba and you know the Resistance finally wins. ST: Luke and Leia mentors. I mean Leia at least mentors Poe mostly offscreen but Han is far more Rey’s mentor then Luke. Luke didn’t teach Rey anything. Not to mention if the goal is representing each movie in the series well Luke and Leia are already doing that for IV and V. No one else is double dipping. Also why is Leia the furthest representing the last movie in IX. I mean I doubt he started before Carrie Fisher sadly passed but Leia is not representing IX that is for sure. Honestly, I do Finn, Poe and Rey left to right since Poe was more plot relevant then Finn in TLJ while Finn was moreso in TFA and Rey can go anywhereas the main lead who again is not a Skywalker. But its not the artist fault that its called the Skywalker Sage when Rey is a Random. After all we all know KK and RJ think Kylo Ren is the main lead and protag anyway.  He certainly drives the plot more then Rey.