#Fallout racism

[rjalker]

The Fallout TV show puts people of color in the most supreme positions of power within the evil corporation in both past and present as though racism didn't exist in pre-war society, as though the United States didn't cannonically have internment camps for Asian Americans before the Great War -.-

Because, you know, the original series is supposed to be about criticizing systemic bigotry and the forces that uphold it? But now we're pretending Pre-War society was completely colorblind and didn't discriminate based on race at all.

Because the white writers think having a Black woman be the one who literally decides to end the world for profit is a good idea. And thinks having another Black woman be the Scary Infiltrator inside the Vault is a good idea. While portraying a white man who wants to keep all outsiders out and execute prisoners as the good guy, while the "bumbling, ridiculous" people of color suggest welcoming the raiders into society and treating them like people with the potential to be good if only their circumstances change to allow them that option.

[jzargo]

Anyways while racism in the writer's room is definitely a thing and does affect how black characters are written and portrayed, to say "well this character wasn't written well (because of racism) so THAT'S why I find them boring!" is just disingenuous and trying to shove blame elsewhere.

Wyll may have been shafted in terms of writing, but he still clearly had more effort and time put into him than Halsin. And yet out of those two characters, which one is more popular in the fandom?

Dragon Age: Inquisition may bend over backwards to make Vivienne seem like a villain at times, and her opinion on the Circles is a bit complex, but that game also has Cullen in it - who was an antagonist for two previous games, and also has even stricter views on mages and the Circles. And out of the two of them, who's the one people are more forgiving to?

Preston Garvey might have a bugged radiant quest that means he says the same thing over and over and over again, but why is it annoying when he does it and endearing when it's characters in other games? (Brynjolf's "Sorry lass, I've got important things to do" comes to mind)

While yes, we should hold writers and developers accountable for the racism they bake into their games, this does not change that fandom is a transformative space. Fandoms will regularly take characters who were underwritten, who were treated poorly by their source material, or who were overlooked, and create beautiful works of art and fiction surrounding them.

So it's quite telling when they refuse to do this with the black characters.

[nukacourier]

Okay so I've gotten a couple of comments here and there whenever I complain about the anti-native american sentiment (aka racism) that's baked into Honest Hearts asking "how is it racist??", which I know it's not my job as a native american fallout fan to teach ignorant white people how something is harmful but I'm gonna spell it out anyways because it's annoying when people constantly act blind to it

First of all, the dlc is very heavy handed with the "uncivilized savage" depiction of native americans. The fact that they had to be TAUGHT how to use guns and use their own natural resources to make medicine are already two examples of this right out of the gate

Plus, the fact all the tribe members wear rudimentary hides, hardly speak english, and sleep on the ground without any buildings (where Joshua and Daniel get to wear normal clothes and Joshua has his own work station) are more examples of this troupe (and its especially stupid since iirc a lot of southwestern tribes were known for making buildings that still exist to this day)

This also ties into the white savior troupe, since as said, the Dead Horses and the Sorrows both had to be taught to take care of themselves and have to be protected by another tribe by two white men (Joshua and Daniel), and that they practically worship them for it because they apparently would've died off if these two white guys didn't intervene

This, plus the fact they're both missionaries who are trying to convert the tribes into a Mormonism is downright offensive as Christianity as a whole has been used as a tool to justify committing genocide against us for centuries. Do I even need to explain this?

And speaking of them needing protection, the White Legs themselves are a whole shitty can of worms, falling right into the (what should be) long-dead idea that if we're not stupid mud people, that natives are bloodthirsty, cannibalistic, warring savages (which. Again. Another tool of propaganda used to literally kill us for as long as white people have been here). Which in turn loops back around to the whole white savior thing with the problem of the White Legs only being solved because Joshua uses his mighty hand of God to take them out or whatever. No matter if you try to end the dlc peacefully you STILL have to do that! It's fucked up!

This post is already lengthy and there's a lot of things I haven't covered (such as the native characters in the dlc generally falling into the "noble indian" troupe), but these are the most glaring issues I can come up with from the top of my head

Tl;dr - quit heralding Honest Hearts as the pinnacle of good writing when it's all built off racism. Listen to us native fans for once, please

[sarafangirlart]

I can only name 3 instances of this and the character getting sidelined in all of them is black (gee wonder why…)

[describe-things]

new meme format.

[ID: A chart labeled, "Fragility scale", with three colums down the side. The first is labeled "Fragile" in yellow, and reads, "Glass". Next is "Very Fragile" in orange, for "The tail of a Batavian tear". Last is "The most fragile thing in the world" in red, for "Fandom when you criticize racism, misogyny, ableism, and other bigotry in media.". End ID.]

Download the HD template from the internet archive here. The image description should be copied and pasted whenever you use the meme, just edit whichever parts you're changing. No credit is necessary as long as you make your post accessible.

[twosides--samecoin]

I wish Maximus was allowed to exist as a character exploring/unlearning the institutional toxic masculinity of the Brotherhood without the racism he's introduced to us with.

The world asks of you to be tough. It pushes you down and takes everything you know and love. So you join up with whoever makes you feel strength, whatever institution makes you feel like there's a way to fight back. And if you conform, maybe someday you could be the powerful guy in the suit.

Maximus grows up in the Brotherhood of Steel as one of the only people of color at his camp. In exchange for an education and bare necessities, the Brotherhood requires of him to conform. He's introduced being beat up by a bunch of white people. He's shown tasked with digging latrines. Seriously, what the fuck? He's passed over for Scribe and he conspires with Dane to trade roles, something that happens by Maximus using violence and asserting his oath and conformity to his (white) Elder enough that he is given the role. And then he learns that there's no glory in the suit; it doesn't make him powerful.

And I like Maximus a lot! I want to see him grow and to keep breaking away from what the Brotherhood has taught him. But I think his arc could have been explored the same (including exploring otherness within a white and patriarchal society) without some of the gratuitous parts of what he's put through.

[dykedvonte]

I dislike takes that Danse would be just as conservative in modernized aus when it's clearly shown his staunch views of things come from his time in the Brotherhood and his deep-rooted desire to belong to something with a greater purpose.

Not to mention lines that show much more open-mindedness that get overlooked for his harsher sentiments when you first meet him. Like the oppurtunity to be a part of something is why Danse fell so far into Brotherhood dogma and it doesn't negate the offense things he does but I feel like it's just lazy to be like "hmmm he'd def be racist" just so it aligns to his BoS beliefs.

[ginghamcheckers]

i cant fucking stand it dude the fallout show is so fucking bad and noone on Tumblr seems to give a fuck? Nevermind the fact that it's violently anti black, that goes without saying, if you can somehow excuse the racism because I JUST KNOW YOU GUYS ARE, even the story and lore is absolute ass. Vault boy ghoul? Fr? Why the hell was the house in the beginning of the first episode modern style. The nukes were so badly edited it had me and my buddy crying out laughing. Why did Mr house want to nuke the planet. How did he agree to that and then still die to the nukes even tho the entire plot of nv for him and his survival is making an iron dome to blow up the nukes above Vegas like did he forget or???

and the absolute fucking disrespect to matthew perry for off screening him and all of new vegas. Benny is a tribute to a dead man who truly adored fallout and they don't even have the guts to let his memory live on. Fucking crooks

[undeadcourier]

honest hearts is, in many ways, anti-indigenous racism the dlc, but we should also talk about how the only indigenous companion is also a violent alcoholic...

bc i think you could view cass' history/personal quest through the lens of colonialism: she's being driven out of her family business—she even has her name taken—by a larger caravan company run by a white woman. but i'm less inclined to give chris avellone credit for that as an intentional criticism of colonialism or exploration of an indigenous character's strugggles when he couldn't seem to be bothered to give cass' mother or her tribe a name.

what's more, cass has virtually no dialogue about house, and either doesn't know or doesn't care to comment on how he assimilated the tribes that became the white glove society, the chairmen, and the omertas. she does hate the legion, but her ire is focused almost exclusively on their misogyny with next to no attention given to the imperialism they perpetrate.

[delafiseaseses]

Y'know what always darkly amuses and royally pisses me off me about Honest Hearts?

The fact that Daniel was supposed t' be of East Asian ancestry... an' they thought that if he was that'd've been enough t' deal with the blatant White Saviour content of that DLC.

Like, lads, even if Daniel was Asian and Joshua Graham was black... it'd've still been anti-indigenous white saviour bollocks in a post-apocalyptic paint.

Like, y'am missin' the forest for the trees there. Say Daniel was Asian, would that change the coding of the ""tribals"" as indigenous stereotypes? Would that stop the fact the so-called 'Good Guys' am literal missionaries?

Would that stop, say, Jed Masterson from sayin' incredibly racist shit like 'You got raiders all over the damn place, tribes of degenerates that'll eat you as soon as look at you, regional warlords... the works.'

And when you question 'Degenerate tribes?' respond 'That's right. The folks that lived in Zion before the war, they didn't just get a little savage, they're downright feral. Most of them don't even speak English any more - you got to get yourself a New Canaanite translator to talk to them.'

Like this shit is rancid. T' think a little race swap can fix Honest Hearts is laughable. Jed is black y'know 'ow much that matters? It doesn't.

Ah... seriously, fuck Honest Hearts t' Hell. The fact that makin' Daniel Asian was somethin' anyone thought would've some'ow made it better tells me exactly what I need t' know: Nobody who has ever written Fallout should write anything on anti-indigenous racism.

[newvegascowboy]

I think the fallout fandom needs to learn how to drop the word 'savage' when talking about wasteland communities just like... as a rule

[walks-the-ages]

Every fandom hates Queerplatonic Relationships up until a show has a canon interracial couple, then suddenly fans are crawling out of the woodwork to proclaim "oh, white female character and Black male character who passionately kissed on screen are soooooooo Queer Platonic Coded!!!!! They're not romantic! or sexual!!!!!"

Guys.

Lucy and Maximus talks openly and frankly about sex multiple times on the show, including Lucy directly asking if he wants to have sex, and then explaining what sex is to him when he doesn't know what that entails.

They passionately kiss on screen. They're totally, 100% into each other, and this is coming from a sex-repulsed aro ace.

If you watch a canonically interracial couple appear in your favorite show and you instead insist they have no chemistry, or that they're Queerplatonic instead?

You're not being an ally, you're just being racist.

[nukacourier]

For 2025 I need other fallout fans to promise they're gonna actually start sharing and reblogging more content with non-white OCs and characters. I'm serious

[sarafangirlart]

Funniest (saddest) example of modern fandom racism is how a lot of ppl prefer to ship Lucy with the guy who torture, kidnapped and cut her finger off over the black guy she actually has romantic chemistry with and actually cares about her well-being. Not only that, bc if you do find Ghoul to be an interesting character and you like messy toxic relationships, you can ship him with Barb, y’know, his WIFE but she’s black too and is barely discussed I wonder why…

[fandomshatepeopleofcolor]

Idk if it's alright to send this because i'm white but i just finished the fallout show and really like it right? i liked the story and ending and all that shit.

So i logged onto Tumblr to see cool posts and fanart and then, immediately notice that there was lack of Maximus posts. and i mean posts of him by himself, not just with the other characters. Like the guy wasn't my favourite or anything but he was one of the 3 main POV characters and was really enjoyable as a character. so i thought there would be more of him! but apparently not??? and then i learn apparently the main ship in the fandom is with Lucy (the main MC) and like, the ghoul???? despite her and maximus actually having a romantic relationship (or really fucking implied if you wanna be pretentious) in the show by the end. but there is so much of her being shipped with the guy that couldn't care less about romance at the moment than maximus. what. i'm not even a big shipper or anything but it stood out as a bit weird man. and the more i thought about maximus the more it's like, how tf is he not talked about more? his fucking final shot has so many questions and implications, whereas it's obvious where the other two mcs will end up what tf is going to happen with maximus huh. his whole character is so important to the story and environment as a whole too but nah got to see another ghoul x reader before that. i stopped really looking at the fandom after that, maybe it's change but ehhh

mb if this was the wrong blog to send this to but i like this dude and this feels kind of shitty. and like, racist. my guy deserves way better, sorry if this came off as really aggressive or something, i'm a bit annoyed rn

no worries Anon! you're absolutely at the right blog.

so its been a few months since I've seen fallout but Maximus is such a sweetheart?

(for those that haven't watched the show there are definitely problems with the show and I totally acknowledge that and will talk about it in a separate post soon specifically the problems I'm referring to are misogynoir)

but ok getting back to Fallout Lucy actually pursues maximus!!! she straight up propositions him first! and like he is super inexperienced and gets scared but like he totally does like her and has romantic feelings for Lucy.

Don't get me wrong I like the ghoul and I respect his journey but he absolutely shows no interest in Lucy like that. Like I got a very fatherly vibe towards Lucy from him?

I'll try going through the tags soon and calling out some of the maximus hate and erasure!!! ofc followers you can always submit posts about fallout!

mod ali

[enlichened]

The thing thats consistently bothered me the most in the fallout show is the racism. I would hesitate to recommend it because of that alone. And there was obvious love that the set and prop designers, actors, costume department, and even maybe the writers put into the show! There are themes and characters in fallout that i'm certain would resonate with fans of color!

It KILLS me that so many of the fallout entries are damn well unplayable/watchable in this regard because the writers simply Don't Care how the people in their work are presented. That this like hugely popular world with a lot of worldbuilding and thought behind it does such wrong to so many people, fans and otherwise, that you cannot find any game in the series that does it right or well. It alienates a lot of people who might've been fans just because the majority white creators and fanbase don't give a shit, and I'm sick of it.

it's not enough to say "in the fallout in my head that racism doesn't happen," you actually have to put some things into PRACTICE. Allow space in your head, your games/show, your fan spaces for people of color! notice and say something when you see racism coming from media, yourself, and others!