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.