#I’m not talking to or about ppl who see these characters as Jewish and genuinely incorporate it into their mind spaces all the time

[starlooove]

I think the retconning of Dick to white truly causes some of y’all’s brains to rot. Like yes that is racism but also part of that racism is that fanon treats and sees him as white; which is the ERASURE part of the convo. I get so sick of white people who couldn’t care less going ‘actually Dick is Romani 🙄🙄🙄’ when they still operate and treat him as if he’s white except for the occasional fanart. I’d love if more ppl and dc canon actually talked about him not being white but as of now until that happens when discussing fandom racism and the way y’all prop up white characters before everyone else; Dick is included in the convo precisely because of the erasure.

[black-is-beautiful18]

i saw that you posted about the ones we burn by rebecca mix. i don’t support racism, i’m a poc myself (not black), and this ask isn’t meant to justify racism but to clarify things because the situation is more complicated than reverse racism story where black people oppress white people.

most of what i’m about to talk about here comes from reviews on goodreads by casey and laura. (can’t link them, but it’s the 4 star review by casey and 3 star review by laura. both are on the first page on goodreads)

i’m not going to repeat everything they say in their reviews but long story short, aramis, the black princess, and her brother, galen, are not in complete control of the kingdom. they’re young and inexperienced and just inherited the throne. much of the troubles in their kingdom was not caused by them and they spend a fair amount of time trying to solve those issues. the main character, ranka, later realizes that she has been lied to about the royals and they’ve been used as a scapegoat and blamed for problems they haven’t caused.

furthermore, the ruling class is not all black and has lots of different skin tones, including white. same goes for the witches, who are not all white, but diverse. it’s not a case of black people as an entire group being superior to and oppressing white people. ranka, the white MC, initially views aramis, the black princess, as privileged due to her royal status and the riches and privileges that come with it, not her skin color.

i say this not because i want to condone racism but because this is a book by a woman that features an interracial lesbian relationship and i keep seeing people rushing to cancel it without any quotes/evidence to back up their arguments. part of me is even a little suspicious about the intentions behind this backlash because i’ve never seen anything quite like it when it comes to other media made for and by straight white guys. i don’t like reverse racism stories, but this isn’t one of them. this genuinely sounds like an interesting story with some good rep and i encourage everyone to check it out.

I saw this on Twitter. Not the reviews themselves but the explanation. While the the ruling class isn’t fully Black, it is still very much a reverse racism story. Racism isn’t simply slurs. It is just as systemic as well. We know this, but ppl have to start actually acknowledging it. The book still contains things that are harmful to both POC and Jewish ppl no matter how small or big it is. I said this in on my post about the book and I’ll say it here: This book will capture the attention of the wrong crowd. We weren’t talking for no reason. No one just decided one day to randomly pick on Rebecca Mix and make these claims. They’re very serious. Not that you think that, but there are ppl who do. Also, this was enough for Chloe Gong to delete her review of the book. She hasn’t addressed it which is sus, but that still should be enough proof that something is wrong. I honestly don’t want white ppl writing Black and Brown characters due to things like this, what happened in Wrath Goddess Sing, and there are dozens of other examples. You can like the book. That’s fine, but that doesn’t make anything go away or make it untrue.

[notesofarichlycolorednight]

hey @colalexander​! I hope you don’t mind but I saw your question on this post and wanted to answer it

I'm asking out of genuine curiosity, but is this still bad if other characters are being depicted as queer? Like, if people are depicting both the good and explicitly evil characters as queer, why does it make a difference if there's bad characters that are queer?

I was going to try and answer in the reply of the post but it’s a very complicated and nuanced question. so wanted to make it its own post so I could answer more comprehensively. some things are bolded for emphasis/for easier reading.

first, the answer cheshirecatboy gave is a small facet of it. you also hit on something in your initial question.

if you have a diverse cast of characters from all types of marginalized communities (queer, poc, disabled, etc.) then having some of them be antagonists/evil can be okay. but you can’t haphazardly slap labels on characters.

once you hc a character belonging to a marginalized community, you have to immediately watch how you think, approach, and talk about that character. one example is hc Jon as an (ambiguously) brown man, then turning around and calling him a rat is racist

and some hcs will always have negative connotations and should not be used, full stop. two examples:

1. hc anyone in the Keay-Delano family as Jewish and/or poc is racist and/or antisemitic for reasons detailed by gerrydelano here and here

2. as the post you originally commented on says, hc Elais as trans and/or gay is transphobic and/or homophobic bc it demonizes trans ppl and gay ppl, and reinforces negative stereotypes. not to mention, the actions that Elias has taken, what he’s done, speaks only of a privileged cishet white man raised in an age of colonialism and capitalism.

having the only characters whose races have been canonically confirmed to be poc as antagonists is racist (the Haan family, Annabelle, on some level Basira and Manuela) bc even though the fandom may hc the archival staff as poc, it has not been confirmed in canon.

when western/european media is created that isn’t visual and the characters aren’t described as having canon races, the characters are presumed to be white bc that is the social default. which is why it’s important to state, in canon, their races and make sure the only ones who are poc aren’t just the antagonists.

now replace “poc” with “queer” and/or “disabled,” etc.

so while, yes, you want to be careful when it comes to perpetuating negative stereotypes, there’s a lot more nuance to just slapping on any marginalized identity on a character. it becomes especially complicated and nuanced when you start hc someone as being part of multiple marginalized communities.

an quick example of this would be hc Tim as bi, moc, and an avatar for the desolation (i know this isn’t a marginalized community lol but you’ll see what I mean by complexities): 1) you have to be careful about the negative stereotypes surrounding bi people. 2) you have to be careful about oversexualizing a moc. 3) you have to understand that hc a man of color as an avatar of destruction is super racist.

i hope that makes sense and helps!

[brw]

Simon Williams

first impression - well, at first i only rlly knew him as the guy who has vision's brainwaves who also dated wanda! so i didn't rlly like him much, because obviously there are. those panels of him hurting her and beyond being a bad actor and also not rlly being great to vision those were. the only personality traits he had. but i got interested one day and decided to search him up and? discovered he had an Interesting Relationship with a certain hank mccoy and this didn't rlly add up to what i knew abt him previously so i was inspired to read some stuff and. then i was hooked hsjsjeje

impression now - honestly he is SO underrated. like he. gets written weirdly... a lot and its very obvious that a lot of writers dont know how to write him outside his relationship w/ wanda but he's honestly cool! he makes a lot of mistakes but he genuinely wants to do good for people and he also sees the best in everyone. like he was vocally in support of wanda, and seemed completely understanding & accepting of hank when he told him all the bad he'd done over the years. he's also canonically a victim of abuse at the hands of his father & elder brother, which still seems to effect him and his relationships even now. and that abuse makes his decision to be a pacifist all the more potent and meaningful. he's also been implied to have suffered from an anxiety disorder & an eating disorder so like. he is genuinely an interesting and compelling character, it's just a shame he so often gets reduced to "guy wanda sometimes dates who doesn't like vision and doesn't know how to act" smh :/

favourite moment - ooo boy... its hard to say. but. probably his arc where he calls the avengers out on their bullshit in what i think was avengers vol 4. and it's a shame they kinda fucked it over and chalked it up to him being unstable because he genuinely had points. he wasn't wrong. like sure i think. threatening to chuck the avengers tower or whatever into the sea was a little extreme but he did genuinely have a point. and also then straight up told hank he loved him so I'm. hsjsjhjehjjrje. this was a good arc anyway and it's a shame they ruined it. special mention though to his talk w/ hank in uncanny avengers vol 2 #28 (i think it was 28 but it could also have been 25 i. can't remember jsjsjej) because that was genuinely also super sweet and shows how he's willing to grow <3 another special mention to his scenes in vision and the scarlet witch because i think we deserve more content of simon and vision being good family members

idea for a story - with our current understanding of child abuse i would LOVE to see him explore his past and actually get help for it. because it did genuinely affect him for some time and while i think him becoming a pacifist did help i also know that. isn't enough to make years of repressed trauma go away lol. i also think were he to meaningfully think about what he went thru w/ his brother eric, he'd be better able to build a stronger and less strained relationship with vision. and i also think it would be helpful if simon, with our current understanding of eating disorders, had that be a canonical part of him. because he doesn't look like someone w/ an ED. and i think it would be important to see a man who looks muscular and healthy struggle w/ that. just generally. character development. i think it would also be good to bring up his issues w/ amora the enchantress (who was implied to have r*ped him) because while his 90s solo series did bring it up it was also. the 90s jajsjsjsjs. i just basically think something similar to his other series but with better writing and a better understanding of what we're talking about.

unpopular opinion - probably that his relationship w/ wanda is um very unhealthy, on both sides. on one hand, when simon was unstable he violently attacked her and tried to kill her. and that is... not good in the slightest, and him being in emotional distress and physically being unstable due to his ions doesn't excuse that in the slightest. simon also had an issue of putting wanda on an unattainable pedestal, which as someone who did that exact thing with a past partner is not healthy at all. you should be able to admit your partner has flaws and is human, and he did not and could not. but also, wanda hasn't been awfully good to simon either. like for a while she refused to be upfront about her feelings to him, and she slept with him while he was still in incredible emotional distress and upset. and imo because of that he. wasn't rlly in a position to meaningfully consent. so yeah. his and wanda's relationship, even without the relation to vision (which makes it worse) has never rlly been healthy.

favourite relationship - his and hank's! tbh it's probably the best one he has. those two. really love each other it is very sweet. they've both obviously grown a lot but i still think they're good/best friends and their relationship, romantic or platonic is obviously very important to the both of them. they're. very close together and i hope that at some point we can. see them be avengers together again because they were so funny sjshwnsnejen. but i also really like his relationship w/ vision when it's written well, because the two of them have. obviously been thru a lot in their own familial relationships so seeing the two of them have some semblance of "normal" with each other is very sweet. i also like the mental relationship of him being viv's uncle a lot. its not canon yet but i have hopes 🤞 he was a good uncle to tommy and billy growing up so by logic he should be a good uncle to viv too!

favourite headcanon - hmmm, probably the one i have now that he is jewish. idk it just. works with him! he is after all a kirby creation. but there's also one i have where he played the violin when he was younger, which also works with him. like idk. it's seems like a thing rich ppl make their kids do and it fits with him 😊

send me a character!

[fromchaostocosmos]

Not Jewish Great Cause This Addressed To You

i’ve done a lot of posts about Judaism or like character viewpoints from a jewish perspective or like just diff stuff related to jewishness in my time and a lot of them are with a humor or from a logic that other jews will very easily understand and get and enjoy 

and a lot of these are not posts that intra-community related so i don’t tag it or mention in the post goyim don’t reblog cause it is not something that you have no place in 

and as jews tend to do discussions tend to happen on the post and it is lovely for me and other jews to have this

and when its gets rebloged by goyim i think it is good because it helps i think to dispel many of the myths surrounding jews, how we think, our culture, how we approach stuff, etc 

thing is odds are with jews being only .2% of the world pop. most ppl will never meet or interact with a jewish person and sadly most info ppl have on jews is from movies, books, tv, and such

which really is so narrow and antisemitic so to me there is something wonderful about knowing that people can see aspects of us beyond that

but more and more what has been happening is that additions are being added onto my posts, additions that have no place.

additions that bring in christianity, which seriously always a super fucking bad idea, or start taking what i have written and applying to characters that are not jewish or start like trying to make a discussion where it is totally not needed and is really out of place

these additions that i’m talking about are ones that are written by you people who are not jewish.

discussions are awesome i love them, but when you have no fucking clue what you are talking about and then start talking about things you don’t know or understand all while acting like you have an equal say and understanding on the topic it foolish and arrogant as well as not wanted

it is also exhausting honestly

like there has been way too many fucking times where there will be a post where myself and other jewish bloggers will be having a really awesome debate discussion thing about something in Jewish culture or what not and suddenly like a whole bunch will start like talking about whatever the fuck and seriously you wanna reblog it cause you think the conversation is inserting cool with me

but seriously why are you adding your two cents it is not needed but also you don’t know what you are talking about

like i have reblogged posts where black american where talking and explaining certain aspects of black american culture that i found really fascinating (posts that was clear that it was ok to reblog if not black) like one was talking about certain hair styles and the history of it and it was really cool and educational 

thing is i’m not black so i didn’t say anything because not my culture so not my place

and there are i’m sure other examples within my reblogs you can find bc i enjoy learning about other cultures and i like to learn new things but i don’t add my thoughts or opinions because a. it is not my place because that is not my culture and b. don’t know the fuck i am talking about  

like there is nothing wrong with wanting to learn new things but you don’t always need to add to it just sit back and learn

i’m not saying you can’t have questions either bc questions are great but be humble enough to recognize that you don’t know things and that it is not necessary for you to shove your way into conversations where you have no place to share what you want to say bc you are either to arrogant to see or just don’t care enough to see the harm that you are doing

questions cool come to my inbox or another jewish blogger’s inbox and ask trust me we will take it seriously and answer to best that we can unless you are being an asshole about it or being antisemitic which if are genuine and do want to learn then it will come through in how you ask.

so like just try thinking twice before adding your thoughts onto certain posts

and pro-tip if you are thinking about brining in jesus or christianity to compare to Judaism or something like just don’t 

Seriously stop it