#and another unfollowed me because I talk about racism and the like a lot like this is a really well known artist too so I was like 🧍🏾‍♀���?

[tariah23]

oooooo white people in my replies really saying ‘I can excuse racism but I draw the line at homophobia’

Not surprised since this is the site that only talks about racism and thinks it’s a big deal when they see it demonstrated in the cartoons and comics they like *coughs* dungeonmeshi *coughs* (for example at least. I haven’t seen THIS many white ppl talk as in depth about racism on here as much as these fandom nerds, man. I stg. Like “Ohhhh, so you all DO acknowledge that racism is real? Just not in real life even if you could feel it slapping you in the face at high speed. Gotcha.” It’s crazy.

Tumblr is like, 90% white and is extremely centered around them. That’s why you barely see stuff that’s important to black and brown people ever trending here or being talked about. It has to be something incredibly huge to the point where even white people can’t ignore it like they usually do, to talk about it here.

They only talked about George Floyd here because the topic of his death became world news. Even people in other countries were talking about it. Before him, it was probably Ferguson and Trayvon Martin… most of them are still trying their best to ignore the genocides because it’s a “touchy subject.” What do you expect from white people who live in their own bubbles of comfort and refuse to pop it with a needle??? They find comfort in their privilege and faux ignorance (they love playing stupid to avoid conversations about important things outside of fandoms like, are these mfs born with half a brain dedicated to fandom or what.) That’s literally all these mfs make a big deal out of, especially on this annoying ass platform. The ao3 mfs will go to war for the site that allows racist ff and cp like it’s no big deal. I wonder how many people here even donated to the site while actively scrolling past dono posts from folks who really do need help. They act like they’re doing a civil service by defending this site that makes over the amount of it’s intended dono goal in minutes.

Then you already know as soon as you even bring up racism in the stuff they like, they start ganging up and harassing black bloggers especially, calling them TERFs and the whole nine. Anything to make that person look bad for being concerned about the racism that they have such an intense aversion to. God, it’s absolutely exhausting knowing that these people would have no problem choosing a cartoon character over your entire existence if they COULD. Isn’t that fucking sad, man?

[weaselbeaselpants]

Lindsay Ellis plagiarized a ndn author

This post isn't a callout and it's only my own post because the OP source I just learned it from, @neechees, doesn't allow rbgs at a certain point on that post.

After Hmbomberguy's expose on Illuminaughtii and James Somerton some people are giving a well deserved eye back to the leftube sphere that was kind of schism-d and held under scrutiny in what I feel was, a lot of the time, misinformed hate campaigns in response to genuine criticism; especially towards Lindsay Ellis who up left after she was canceled and hasn't returned to continuous video making publicly even after people have mostly agreed the hatedom directed for her Raya and the Last Dragon takes was stupid and was erasing actual SEA people's discussions of the culture. To hear and see a decent breakdown of that film's representation problems BEYOND the Ellis-parts because it's worth your wild regardless of if you've seen the movie, please watch the three part video series hosted by Xiran Jay Zhao.

To tl;dr the 2021 drama: people have held an ire towards Ellis for a long time feeling like her and her white-woman base talk over, steal, or just straight up don't apologize for their own racism towards women and ppl of color, and after Lindsay did a problematic by pointing out that Raya and the Last Dragon was like ATLA, people jumped on her.

Being both a longtime fan of Ellis and white as fucc, I personally feel like Lindsay kind of forgave herself and threw out the actual criticisms held against her every bit as much as people just kind of treated her like a punching bag. Or, to paraphrase @padawan-historian's old takes from then, they treated Lindsay like she was trying to be the ENTIRE conversation, not the start of one, and like every possible outcome that could happen over her videos was her fault personally. Some of Lindsay's loudest and nastiest 'critics' were, in fact, other white people or just people who have no good faith in addressing her fuck ups, like Lily Orchard, fe.

One 'Lindsay did a racism'point tho that I felt wasn't truly addressed in full though were claims by indigenous people that she was anti-native, especially in her videos about Twilight and Pocahontas, which yeah at the time I was very passive of you can 100% find post abt that. But then Neechees linked me to an article I, and I think a lot of other video essay-fans had never seen before. This article accused Lindsay of stealing half of her talking points on Disney's Pocahontas from theirs.

When people on the breadtube spectrum talk of Lindsay, even people who criticized her at the time. all kind of agree that the intensity of the backlash was uncalled for and, while not everyone agrees if her public silence is a 'canceling' or not, agree with her need to just take care of herself these days. For those curious, this is the article making this claim:

I am not saying you need to all unfollow and hate everything Lindsay ever touched, mkay? But I also genuinely hope that Lindsay addresses this+comes clean because holy fuck. Unlike Somerton, all I can tell you is I don't just 'believe Windsey wouldn't hurt nobody uwu~'. I am pretty certain that Lindsay care about the topics she covers, for whatever that's worth to say as another whiteperson. It's just that, like Contrapoints, I ALSO think she has a tendency to deflect criticism within that sphere and lump all her negative bagage together. This really sucks cuz not all of us are Lily Orchards or Vaush clones.

Most of us are/were casual watchers of Lindsay like we are Hbomber, Contra, Lady Emily, Folding Ideas, and ToddintheShadows (does he count as leftube idk?) and we really, genuinely don't want to believe that Lindsay stole from + refuses to listen to women of color when they call her out.

Where I like almost everyone in the leftoob analyst sphere that's ever growing and hopefully now weeding out Illumanaughtii-s and Sommerton-s of the world, there ARE controversies within the space that I don't agree with creators on. Some are dumb things like the exact takes Lindsay has about movies n shows that I just up and disagree with her on, Princess Weekes' proshipping apologia that I have LOTS of thoughts on. However, some matters are clearly personal and about maters that just don't involve me. Earlier this year, Folding Ideas and Lady Emily ctrl+alt+deleted some replies they made to Quinton Reviews, making clear that they very much still dislike him based on something that happened between Quinton, Lindsay and I think SarahZ. And by "dislike", I mean also still believeing his former editor over him on who was boundary pushing about who in their relationship. On the offchance any of those creators or their stans somehow see this, know that I'm not going to tell any of you guys how to feel about whatever Quinton did in private I'm not aware of; it's just that I also happen to believe Quinton on this issue and I don't like the guiltybyassociation mantra.

>>>>side note: I hate that every time someone says "I believe so and so after hearing their side now" ppl jump on the "you were just a stan from the beginning and never actually able to listen"-bs. Yeah, being more familiar with one creator over the other means there's bias, sure, but I kinda hate that that once held bias means you can't be held as any kind of source or form your own opinions. <<<

Big introvert vibes ahead: the thing about any big social circle of better-spoken people than you is they ALL seem like a scary meangirl's table from outside looking in. The kind that'll send goons after you with passive-aggressive "this is slander against me and I have the right to be upset abt it sorry if the stans eat you alive". They can also be made out by their fans to be harmless internet nobody's who YOU are at fault for getting mad and staying mad at cuz it's not like it matters on the internet and are clearly just out for drama and 'twofaced' yourself. I think the reality is the same thing that drives every community forward as well as drives them apart: these people are legitimate friends. They stick up for each other the same way we stick up for our personal internet friends whenever there's shit coming their way. The breadtube circle, whoever that is at this point, clearly know some shit we don't about themselves as much as they don't know shit about us and our true intentions. One of them has a platform and responsibility, where the other has power in masses and following them or not. We gotta all make the choices best for us.

Anyway. I guess, if any of the stuff about Lindsay ripping off that writer IS true, I really hope that she admits and apologizes for it. That's not cool to do to her indigenous audience, or even me, one of her white fans who expects actually allyship.

[sunhated-a]

Hello! Welcome, this is a blog I've created to curate inspiration for Muzan Kibutsuji. But I am open to interactions, so I may dip my hands in some writing for him as well.

My portrayal of Muzan is quite canon divergent and based on equal parts headcanon and canon material.

I'm very laidback on this blog, so expect minimal formatting and icons, sporadic activity, and varying post length.

Guidelines under read more.

Basic RP etiquette applies. Do not control my character without my permission, in character =/= out of character. Muzan is a very abrasive muse. So please don't take his rudeness personally. If you are a personal blog, you may follow me and send in asks or like headcanon posts. I have anon enabled if you'd prefer to use that. However, I would ask that you do not reblog my headcanons or threads. Please understand you are a guest in this space and be mindful with how you engage. Other than that, you're welcome on my blog! I hope you enjoy!

Fandom is a space meant for everyone to enjoy. Period. Bigotry of any kind, racism, sexism, transphobia, etc. Will not be tolerated. If I catch you engaging in any of these behaviors it's an immediate block from me.

Do not involve me in interpersonal drama. Roleplay is a fun hobby to me, and drama exhausts me. And to be frank, I am too old to care to keep up with who did what and why. I don't engage in dogpiles. I am just here to write my characters and stay in my lane. However, if any issues were to arise, I'd prefer to talk it out like adults. But if you'd no longer wish to interact for whatever reason, feel free to hard block me. There will be no hard feelings.

I am neither pro-ship nor an anti, nor do I care what camp you fall into. I'm just here to do my own thing. I will be exploring darker content on this blog: Including manipulation, abusive relationships, cannibalism, obsession, twisted dynamics among other things that come with the muse. I do have hard limits, however. I will not interact with you if you engage in noncon, underage smut, or adult / underage muse ships. All triggers will be tagged accordingly. And as always, if you need something tagged do not hesitate to let me know!

I run my blogs primarily on an interest basis, I also manage a household and I work. So my activity will fluctuate and be sporadic. I manage chronic depression and unmedicated ADHD both so I will probably be all over the place. IRL > Anything else. I will always prioritize the comfort level of a mun over writing and roleplay.

This is a canon divergent blog, as it says on the tin. There are a lot of aspects about Muzan and his story that I interpret differently, or omit entirely. If something about my portrayal isn't to your liking, I completely understand. You are entitled to your opinion, but please don't try to argue with me. Feel free to unfollow or block.

OCS. I love them. Feel free to send them my way, just be sure to have a page where I can read about them and we're golden. I am also duplicate friendly.

I am not open to shipping on this blog. I, however, will make exceptions if we have interacted OOC or if we're on the same page on what we want out of a ship. I'm uncomfortable shipping with people I don't interact with, this is purely for my own comfort and because of personal experiences in the past. But, if we've interacted and you think our characters would mesh well and have a good dynamic, by all means feel free to bring it up. I will not be posting smut or sexual content on this blog. So anything veering into that territory, I will ask to move to discord or another platform.

[evreeone]

a vent that seems tonally inappropriate in spots but if i give it the appropriate tone i think i might lose my mind (also i would recommend skipping if specific talk of Ways of Thinking When Mental Health Is at Its Worst and some physical health anxiety are something you'd like to avoid) ((also some political talk))i think i'm sort of on the cusp of a nervous breakdown and i might delete this later i just feel out of my mind

i have been extremely on edge lately and i noticed i'm starting to have heart palpitations with more regularity again (last time it wasn't anxiety but this time i think it is) and migraines and i think i've sort of shoved it into the background for the most part but in sort of checking in with myself today i realized i'm dealing with a sort of…background Ideation again. which--it's been a while since my mental health has been this low, but here we are.

i think a large part is the upcoming election. like, to be blunt, i do not think i will live through another trump presidency if that's the path things take. i don't Want to, so there's a chance i just Won't.

with the increase of struggles with what i definitely now (in the recent year) acknowledge as agoraphobia, my world has gotten…really fucking small. and whenever i stop to think of how little i am currently capable of as an adult and how i don't know if things will be changing any time soon i start to feel That line of thinking start to creep in, and compounding that with the fact that the world may became an outwardly hostile place for me to navigate again is just. i can't mentally come to terms with it.

covid sparked a lot of the agoraphobia, but trump's first presidency and the empowerment it gave to dogged right-wingers definitely contributed. (i mean, trump's response To covid also did just. compile things.) i live in a red city with no way out. i stopped feeling safe leaving my home, and then covid was a nail in a coffin so i just. stopped.

my brain is so fogged and scrambled right now i can't even properly articulate myself here because everything Bad is too loud for me to think, but i do think i will be taking a break from tumblr over the next month (and kind of already have been pulling away for a bit) because as much as i've tried to unfollow the people spouting the "i'm not going to vote" type posts i keep seeing it and seeing a pro-trump joke (don't care if it's a joke. shut the fuck up.) from some big tumblr account has sort of pushed me over the edge. to be blunt tumblr feels like it's mostly populated by white people who don't take trump seriously as a threat because they ultimately didn't have to deal with the threat he stirred the first time around. (i had a friend who voted for him as a joke the first time and now he gets anxious whenever he talks to his dad because his dad was so radicalized by trump he openly and vehemently talks about wishing he could kill all democrats. he now takes trump as a threat seriously, not just because of what trump himself can do but because of the way he encourages others to be just by being in power. he fucked around and found out, i guess, as much as a white person could.) i feel like no one in the 'won't vote' side actually had to deal with the uptick of racism and the threat of violence that came with trump's presidency. people see Not Voting as an option because they don't think a rise of fascism will Actually touch them. my mom has always said, growing up, that white people see options in situations like these where there are none because they don't see the fight because they've never Had to fight--they've never been at risk and believe they never will Actually be. it's easy to hem and haw in the face of fascism when your rights and treatment as a human being have always been pretty secure.HI HELLO HI this is evree from the future i deleted the majority of this post because i felt the anxiety of having a Hot Take opinion start to crash into the already existing anxiety and i feel now more out of my mind than prior when usually shouting into the void is a Boon tldr the upcoming election makes me want to kms but i am not an active at-risk risk! just the thoughts and feelings! i have resources saved for if the risk becomes active so do not worry about me! i will be Okay!

[daffydancer]

LET ME BREAK IT DOWN. no one in this musty choir room compares to my megawatt star power.

daffydancer is a senior citizen rp blog for brittany s pierce !!

written by kq, 28 y/o, est, she / her   —  discord available to mutuals!

rules under the cut 🦄🦄🦄

HOWDY hi there!! i’m kq! i’m 28, live in est, and use she / her pronouns! i've had this blog for 84 years and i'm mainly only over here to party with the besties but if u like what u see i can party with you too!

ACTIVITY i am not fast. i’ve taken a bit of a break from rp, but have a lot of different blogs. i tend to go where i have the most muse and can sometimes disappear for a bit. i try to pop in and reblog musings / silly things in the interim, though. my discord is always available for mutuals!! just ask!!

FORMATTING its all about the vibes ... ive got no icons ive got no cares im just a girl!! i use small text and sometimes i put links in when i underline because i think its funny thank u!

GENERAL this blog is multi-verse, multi-ship, multi-everything! unless we’ve discussed overlapping plot lines with a whole bunch of muses, it’s safe to assume that my interactions with your character and my interactions with another are happening in completely different timelines! also,  please don’t godmod!! little things that move along the thread are fine, but please try not to assume my character has done/will do anything in particular, in it!

TRIGGERS / SENSITIVE SUBJECTS as a general rule, i will always be trying to tag or avoid common triggers! my formats for tagging are ‘trigger cw //’ and ‘trigger tw//’. i will always try to do both and i always look for people’s triggers in their rules, but please don’t hesitate to let me know if i’ve forgotten a tag. as for myself, i have a weird teeth related trigger! it doesn’t need to be tagged, but if you could avoid talking to me directly about dental things it would be greatly appreciated! also, as a rule i don’t do smut! it’s just not my thing!

VERY IMPORTANT!! there are few things that i vibe with less than i vibe with people being mean. on a small scale, i don’t post hate, i don’t send hate, and i don’t like to see hate. on a larger scale, i don’t tolerate racism, homophobia, transphobia, or anti semitism. if i see people posting things with an obvious malicious intent, i steer clear, unfollow, or block.

[arbitraryreveries]

So I'm watching the first bit of Queen Charlotte today. I wasn't gonna talk about it because the debate has become either:

"You don't care about the HISTORICAL PURITY" despite the fact that it's Bridgerton,

or "YOU HATE BLACK PEOPLE AND HAVE BEEN ERASING THEM FROM HISTORY THIS IS HOW IT REALLY IS" when even Bridgerton seems aware (based on the intro) that people are gonna know that Queen Charlotte was not POC AND their "racism can be solved by love" story is presumably gonna be ... well, just another fantasy. Because we all know racism is systematic.

But then I realized that not talking about it was silly because normal human beings can enjoy this show without needing to 1) pin it down and call it historical erasure or something dumb like that when it's related to Bridgerton which is not accurate about virtually anything and that's fine, and 2) pretend that there were POC in the European royalty in the late 1700s when in reality, there weren't. (There were, however, a lot of amazing POC queens - literal queens - over the years ... Maybe someday we shall hear about them. We can hope.)

So like, maybe we can just enjoy it as an objective piece of media? Is that something we can do? Let's do that thing.

Also, unfollow me if you don't want spoilers because I shall be posting themmmm ... if I get to anything spoilery, anywho.

[shittyasexualwitch]

okay so as promised in the comments of my last post, here's a take on political hypocrisy nobody asked for inspired by me having to unfollow someone because they said something icky

not a callout post, not trying to start beef with some random internet stranger, if you somehow trace back the post I'm so very vaguely talking about as a stepping stone to a point from just what I'm about to say then, uh, shit, you weren't meant to, oopsie

the post in question: a preface, along the lines of "not to gatekeep or anything, but" followed immediately by the take that you shouldn't be allowed to call yourself a lesbian unless you specifically have a vaginal genital preference, and that anyone who considers themselves a lesbian and isn't in it for the vagina should be forced to find another term

the individual responsible for the post: a transmasculine guy who self-assigns as a straight lesbian, with a blog that's otherwise seemingly built around the philosophy that queer people should be allowed to have complicated "contradictory" identities without judgement, because a label is meant to be what works for the user (the very reason I followed in the first place)

essentially, the reason this take rubbed me the wrong way is because A. it's biological essentialist bullshit, it's essentially denying trans women womanhood on the basis of their partners' gential preferences, B. well, fuck ace lesbians I guess, and C. (this one's the key point of this post) the level of fucking hypocrisy required to gatekeep women out of lesbianism when your claim to the label is already much more controversial than that of the people you intend to exclude is bewildering, fucking astounding

to be very clear, I've got no problem with this guy using the lesbian label, but by his own logic, he fucking should, no?

which brings me to the actual reason I made this post, because all of that was merely something that reminded me of something I was already pissed off about, immigrants (wait, I know it looks bad, hear me out)

I live in a very immigrant dense country, on an even more immigrant dense island, mostly quite progressive, tax haven, very beautiful, big industries, one of the safest places to live on earth, EU/Schengen/Eurozone member state, paces away from northern Africa, southeastern Europe and the middle east, lot of diasporas around the world that are looking to come back, it makes sense, immigrants of every walk have a lot of reasons to come here, and I welcome each and every one with open arms because I'm of the opinion that if you make a conscious and active decision to move out of your homeland to here, you've put more effort into proving you're one of us than most of us, but unfortunately that's definitely not the majority opinion, we're a deeply racist country, and it's hard to fight, because what the fuck of substance am I going to say to another native Gozitan to correct their racism beyond "hey, could you be a little less racist?"

but then what baffles me, and I mean truly fucking baffles me, I cannot even begin to wrap my head around it, is that very concerningly often, I come across an individual who happens to have immigrated here, who in any other circumstance I would consider an equal in every regard with just as much leeway to say dumb shit as any native, and then these individuals manage to muster up the fucking audacity to start going off about how they don't like immigrants, and then argue with me about it when I disagree

...

motherfucker, if I shared your opinion, if I had the opinion you are arguing with me to try to convince me to have, I would tell you to get the fuck out of my country running, and go back home, you as an immigrant do not get to say that shit

and I'll tell you a little secret, it's only the western white ones that pull that shit, they're talking about immigrants, what they mean is African and south Asian immigrants, sometimes eastern European immigrants too, but they're just saying the word immigrants, as if it's assumed that being from Australia or England or America makes them not that, as if they're in a separate, more respectable category, nono, they're simply expatriates, but I know what you are, I know what you fucking are and I'm okay with it, I am, truly, but evidently you're fucking not, and I'm not okay with that, you fucking hypocrite

and the great irony in all of that is that on the surface it may look like those pasty fucking hypocrites command more respect from the natives than the immigrants they don't want to be associated with, but that's not how it works here, racism as the world knows it is an American invention, discrimination has regional variants, the races here aren't white, black, and asian, the races here Maltese, Gozitan, and everyone else, you don't cozy up to the fringe groups of racists because they don't like you either, which brings me to my final overarching conclusion that wraps this whole post up with a neat little bow, hear my gospel loud and let it echo within your head until you've heard it sevenfold:

political hypocrisy as displayed by the examples above serves only to achieve one outcome, and that is bringing the movement down on oneself, it is an act of self-harm that one undergoes by forcing their siblings to be harmed with them, so if you're planning on taking a dive off a cliff, be a dear and have the decency to not pull anyone down with you

[hundrbark]

PSA to alterhuman tumblr because my stalker has seemed to migrate over here now that i ran from instagram because of them!!

if you ever follow @/kmere / @K9poe or any of their alts on any platforms (they were known as @/mupdaws, @mountpup, @mountbarks, @v4mpiredog, @curiousbudre, @/caninotes, @/starkispunk and @/kaninmere on instagram iirc (i know it’s a lot, they just make new accounts fsr after i block their old ones)), please do NOT interact with me. they have stalked me for years, they made absolute bullshit up about me, deadnamed me, ranted about me for months before and after i even acknowleged who they were, and only after i ranted on my instagram about them anonymously in a highlight called “please read” and then left instagram for this platform because i am genuinely traumatised, they have come onto here. please fucking block them. they are disgusting, racist and abusive.

we went to high school together and since they like to tell every fucking person we meet, we didn’t fall out over “high school drama”. they defended and joined in on their friend’s racist bullshit and since we were 15/16, i decided to not be their friend anymore since they should’ve known better, and even told me the racism was wrong but they didn’t care - they only made threatening tiktoks aimed towards me and my friends at the time (saying they were going to kick and scream and kill us or smth idk this was like 2020-2021 my dudes and i have not spoken to them since yet they make me out to be a stalker). everytime i block them, they make a new account. everytime i go to another platform, they follow. i am not safe. i am crying so much writing this.

after i found out who they were and what they were saying, i unfollowed yet they continued to follow me back, to which after a few months of a friend showing me everything he said, i blocked him everywhere on instagram. (only for him to try and make multiple accounts to ig talk to me and has now moved over here to tumblr???)

please fucking share this around i am sick to fucking death of him. i’m reconsidering going to the police because i’ve researched and what he’s doing is a criminal offence (stalking online, online harassment and malicious communications, from my knowledge).

[tinysidestrashcaptain]

I'm making this post because while I tend to stay out of fandom "discourse" for a variety of reasons, racism in our fandom isn't discourse and shouldn't be classified as such, imo.

I'm white, so I don't talk about it because I feel like I shouldn't. There are so many brilliant people of color in this fandom who have made better posts than I ever could, and I strongly feel that it is THEM we should be listening to. Not me. There are enough white people talking over people of color in real life, I didn't want to take up space here in our fandom, too.

But, as I've seen more and more the pain, the frustration, the anger at their very valid concerns being dismissed, ignored, or argued against, I've realized that maybe my silence could be hurtful in another way. I want my blog to be a safe, inclusive space for EVERYONE. I don't want anyone to feel like I don't care, or worse, that I agree with some of the frankly disgusting bullshit that has happened. I don't want my silence interpreted as a lack of care, or concern.

I may not talk about it, or post about it, but I do see things. I quietly unfollowed some blogs, followed others. I have stated before, and I will again, that if you catch something in any of my works that I didn't see, please tell me. I don't want my blog, or my writing, to be hurtful. I don't want anyone to feel like they can't call me out.

I see the way people in this fandom love to jump in on discourse over a nasty comment about a skirt, but can't be bothered to talk about how when people of color point out hurtful things, stereotypes, and blatantly racist scenarios or characterizations they get tons of hate for it. They get blasted with hate anons simply for speaking up, or publicly dragged by the accounts they've tried to talk with.

I have seen the callouts, and I've seen some people accept it with grace, issue apologies and move on, trying to be better. I've also seen grown adults having meltdowns and behaving with a staggering level of immaturity and ignorance.

At the end of the day, I don't think that any of us get to decide what is hurtful to someone else. We also don't get a say in who forgives us, either. Apologies can certainly help, if made from a place of remorse and followed by action, but saying you're sorry doesn't guarantee anyone will accept it. If I, knowingly or not, hurt someone...it's not up to me to pass judgement on what I did to cause the hurt, or make excuses for it. It is up to me to acknowledge it, atone, such as I can, and it is up to the person that I hurt to forgive me or not. And we both will live with it, whatever the outcome.

I guess the point of this is just to say that I see it. I hear it. And I agree that it's a major issue. I have thoughts and opinions, lots of them, but my voice, as a white woman, is frankly unimportant. There are a lot of people of color in this fandom who can speak with authority on racism, on what hurts and what doesn't, and we should all be paying attention to THEM. Because ignoring a problem doesn't make it go away, so let's stop ignoring it.

[skateboardtotheheart]

I see a lot of people who are against Lalex, Ruke, and some other ships because they think people just want their favorite white boys to be in a relationship, and I have to say something about it.

You're not wrong. There are plenty of people who ship them for that type of reason and ignore the fleshed out, canon, interracial ships. Those who do that should be called out and deserve your criticism. But if you think that's the only reason people ship those, then frankly, I couldn't disagree with you more.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with shipping things that aren't canon. There's nothing wrong with finding a relationship where canon has moved differently. All the different ships in this fandom should be celebrated and respected because it means people are looking to this show and finding love and care. Why should you care what people ship? If people can look at Luke and Alex and see a friendship that survived starting and ending a romantic relationship, then that's wonderful. If people relate to that story and never get to see representation of happy, friendly exes, I'm so happy for them. If people look at Luke and Reggie and see chemistry, the history of longstanding friendship and having your best friend be the person you fall for, and the lack of stereotype between two boys that are traditionally masculine but in love, then that's amazing.

And so I've seen so many people think if you ship Julie and Flynn, it's because you ship two white boys together and still want to look like you care. Yes, it's true in some cases. That deserves to be called out. But to think that that's always the way it goes? That blows my mind. These two characters are teenage girls of color, living through realistic hardships and ups and downs of friendship, and just regular teenage lives. If girls just like them look at this loving, caring friendship, listen to Flying Solo, and see themselves or something they can relate to and find romantic love in it, then god, I'm proud of them.

Interracial couples deserve so much more love than get, and they deserve so much more representation in the media. Julie and The Phantoms has given us that, and it should be celebrated and loved because it's so, so, so important. Julie/Luke and Alex/Willie are phenomenal, and such a step forward in representative media. But don't assume that just because someone likes another ship means they don't like the ones we're given. If you go through life being angry at those who ship something other than what you do, make assumptions as to why someone ships something, or attack others based on what they ship, that's the most clear path to becoming a toxic, hateful fandom. That should never happen. You don't know the full story about why someone ships something. You don't need to know the full story. It's not your business. If the ship isn't your thing, then it isn't your thing. I'm glad you found a different ship that you love.

And like I said before, sometimes it truly is the case of implicit racism or sexism. And that's not okay, it should never be okay. I get mad at those people, too. It's a discussion and call out that deserves to happen. But I'm begging you, stop making it so that shipping anything but Juke and Willex is wrong. It's not. People find love in different places, ways, and forms. That's good! We should be happy about that because it's making someone else happy!

I think Juke and Willex are the best ships in the show. I love both of them with everything I have, and they're literally some of my favorite ships of all time. But I've also written for Reggie/Luke, Julie/Flynn, and I've shown support for Luke/Alex. Shipping multiple things is okay. Shipping what makes you happy is okay.

Attacking someone or being rude for what they ship is not. And that goes to everyone. It goes to those who get mad at people for shipping Ruke, Lalex, or Julynn, and it goes to people who get mad at people who don't ship those. We could all stand to be a little nicer. Remember that you never know the full story behind someone's actions. If you want to talk about why people ship something, then by all means, talk about it. But make it a conversation and learning experience, not an anger or judgemental fueled attack.

I know people will disagree with me for saying all this, I know people will get mad at me, and I know people will feel the need to respond. This is not a personal attack on anyone, and I'm not trying to call someone specific out. This is just me starting that conversation that we should be willing to have. If you get angry with me, that's cool. Block me or unfollow me. Know that I'm not going to respond to rude messages. If you think I'm wrong, that I missed a point, or that I didn't think something through, that's awesome. Shoot me a message or an ask, I'd love to hear your side of things.

Either way: This fandom is getting a little too toxic, and I'm not just gonna sit here and let it happen.

[pyaasa]

lesbiansandgayssupporttheminers is racist; she thinks she understands racism better than poc, stands by racists, and attacks poc for trying to speak to her about racism

Tw: racism, rape mention, incest mention. also possible transphobia 

For the full story, you first need a bit of background: if you’ve been following me for a while then you will be aware I have called out @ayeforscotland’s racism several times. I would recommend reading this post for a full explanation.

In addition to the incidences mentioned in the post I have just linked, ayeforscotland has also had interactions with neo @androidgynes who is Romani and another person who is black (but didn’t want to be named) and they’ve both also called him out for his racism.

Anyway so. @androidgynes​ saw that lesbiansandgayssupporttheminers was reblogging from ayeforscotland, and that the op of the post was @/getpoliticaluk (who defends incest). Androidgynes messaged lesbiansandgayssupporttheminers (who I will from now refer to as lagstm) and informed her that ayeforscotland is racist and getpoliticaluk defends incest - the conversation that followed went like this. (the below screenshots are posted with permission from @androidgynes​)

The post that neo (@androidgynes) linked of mine was this. And I mean... clearly that particular post by ayeforscotland was very racist, he literally just sat there laughing about anti-black racism as if it was a joke. When @mangopickled​ tried to speak to him about how offensive this post was, he removed her comments from the notes of the post (like. to be clear: ayeforscotland, a WHITE MAN, made a post about racism, and then removed a WOMAN OF COLOUR’S commentary from that post when she told him that his comments were inappropriate). When I saw that, I called that out, and he blocked me. There’s many levels to his racism here that I don’t have the energy to explain, and if you don’t understand why it’s so problematic then you should probably stop reading here cos you clearly know nothing and probably care even less about anti-racism.

So on that particular post that neo linked to lagstm, there is ayeforscotland being racist, and 2 woc calling out his racism. And yet on having this post shown to her, this is how she chose to respond

lagstm literally says that she thinks my views on racism lack nuance. I am a woman of colour, I am visibly muslim, and I’ve experienced racism pretty much all my life. And here is a white woman saying that she thinks my views on racism “lack nuance”. I,, I genuinely don’t have words to convey how angry this makes me. Literally who does she even think she is. Not even is it racist to dismiss my literal LIVED experience of being a woman of colour in this country, but she is literally saying “look at these stupid brown folk, they don’t know what they’re talking about cos they’re so stupid :)”

neo points out firstly that as a white person lagstm doesn’t have the right to make that call, and also that there is ofc another woc on that post saying that exact same thing, and androidgynes themselves are roma. lagstm is not just dismissing me as a stupid savage who is too stupid to form complex thoughts, but she is also indirectly saying the same thing about 2 other poc, and saying that her judgement, as a white person, is more sound than all of ours.

It’s also worth mentioning that neo, who is Romani, was polite to lagstm during this exchange, and lagstm was rude and dismissive. I find this deeply hypocritical. Lagstm has been talking a lot about the policing bill and how it will affect GRT communities, but when she’s talking to someone who is actually *from* the Roma community, she is dismissive and condescending. All this shows is that she’s fake AF. She pretends to care about the Roma community on her blog and then speaks down to them in private.

And again this is worth repeating: AYEFORSCOTLAND WAS BEING RACIST ON THAT POST. IT WAS RACIST. WHAT HE SAID WAS RACIST. So lagstm isn’t just ignoring 3 poc, she is also ignoring,,,, you know,,, the actual racism,,,

And she also says ayeforscotland is borderline racist? Like she acknowledges ayeforscotland is borderline racist but she’s still happy to follow him? Like that alone would be enough for me actually

neo then blocked lagstm and messaged me and told me what happened, and showed me the above screenshots - btw prior to this neo and I had never interacted. Anyway I was obviously a bit disgusted but instead of going straight to blocking lagstm or making a callout post straight away, I messaged her to explain herself and take back what she said. That is now two poc who tried to resolve the matter privately - clearly a lot more than lagstm ever deserved. Androidgynes messaged me last Friday, and I messaged lagstm the next day on Saturday

My convo with lagstm went as follows:

So you can see that initially she was apologetic and said she “didn’t mean to imply that that my judgement on racism was flawed” (even tho that’s literally what she said) and defended herself by saying “I react poorly in interactions like this” - genuinely not a defence but whatever. She then proceeded to say that what she doesn’t trust my opinion on is Scotland and Ireland - which completely irrelevant. Firstly I am ambivalent to Scottish nationalism and have always said I don’t know much about it, and I support the reunification of Ireland. And secondly, my issue with aye has got literally nothing to do with Scotland or Scottish nationalism; he is racist all on his own. And the post neo linked was barely even about scottish nationalism, it was just him being anti-black. So lagstm saying “I don’t trust your judgement on Scotland and Ireland” is ridiculous considering that Scottish/Irish nationalism have nothing to do with this.

Like akjfbkjdfbs this is actually so ridiculous. It doens’t make any sense. Lagstm clearly says “I don’t trust pakisstani’s judgement on THIS issue [the issue being racism] and her views on THIS issue [the issue being racism] lack nuance” but now turns around and says “I wasn’t talking about racism, I was talking about Scotland/Ireland” like she must really think I’m dumb

And you can see Lagstm bringing up unrelated hypothetical scenarios, and saying “in this situation, you can’t tell me to defer to poc” which i found ??? Like why are you bringing up scenarios in which you think you are allowed to educate us poor and stupid black and brown folk?? I then told her she was straw-manning and that her points about Ireland/Scotland were ridiculous, but then she claimed it was me that was engaging her in bad faith. Like SHE, the white woman who practically said that I am too stupid to understand racism, and when confronted on it started straw-manning and bringing up unrelated scenarios, said I am not engaging her in good faith. AFTER both neo and I tried to speak to her privately about this. Like I tried to speak to her privately AFTER I FOUND OUT SHE HAD SAID RACIST THINGS ABOUT ME. BUT I’M NOT ENGAGING HER IN GOOD FAITH? LMAOOO

And then the accusation about rape threats which is actually the most disgusting part of this entire thing. I shouldn’t have to explain that accusing 2 poc of conspiring to send her rape threats (without any evidence whatsoever. Frankly I think she’s lying about the rape threats 🤷🏽‍♀️ it’s quite a transparent attempt to distract from her own nasty behaviour and deflect onto us) is actually extremely racist. She is invoking her white fragility and painting me and androidgynes as aggressors who are threatening her safety and inflicting/threatening to inflict sexual violence on her. It is beyond disgusting 🤮

What’s more, neo is trans, so when lagstm is baselessly accusing them of issues related to rape, she is also playing up to transphobic tropes.

One more thing worth mentioning is that there are several lies peppered throughout lagstm’s comments. Firstly when she claimed to have briefly unfollowed me - she didn’t actually. I was checking regularly, and she never unfollowed me. This was a small lie that I picked up on striaght away but because it wasn’t relevant I didn’t say anything about it. But I just think it’s interesting that she would lie for no reason. And another lie - feigning ignorance about ayeforscotland’s racism, and actually even asking for receipts is incredibly disingenuous when on this particular post, if you scroll through the notes, you can see she has literally liked it. Like she had already seen the posts where me and mangopickled called out his racism and literally LIKED it, and when neo says to lagstm that aye is racist, lagstm says “receipts please :)” YOU’VE ALREADY SEEN THEM! AND LIKED THEM! screenshot in case she unlikes it (sorry for including dumb comments by dumb scots but i need to prove it’s the same post so):

LASTLY. Last point I swear. When lagstm said “it was also coloured by the statements they’d made about another tumblr user, which didn’t relate to racism, which I didn’t address with them because I didn’t want to upset them” <- she must mean getpoliticaluk defending incest? So like what is lagstm saying here, she didn’t want to bring up that she also herself defends incest?? Like is she tryna say she’s a pro-shipping freak?????????????????????? What other way is there to read that statment

Okay that’s everything.

I’m not interested in discourse on this post - if you are white and think lagstm isn’t racist or you’re inclined to defend her then save your breath, I don’t need white people telling me what is or isn’t racist. I gave her the chance to defend herself, which is way more than she deserves, and this is how she responds. Her actions and indefensible and she can choke ☺️❤️  I will be unfollowing/blocking anyone I see reblogging from her because I deserve better than to follow people who are ok with racists ❤️ 

[wenellyb]

hey! every now and then i've seen random posts about sebastian's comment/s on colin kap kneeling among other things, but i've never seen any source material or hard facts. do you have any posts about this or deconstruction of your own? i'd be very interested, ty!

Hey yourself😉!

So I've found the screenshot of the post (at the bottom) and just so you know he also posted an apolology but that one I couldn't find a screenshot of.

There are plenty of posts talking about this but I think most of them are old so it would take some time for me to find them.

If you want my opinion. The whole thing was f*cked up and I remember being extremely surprised and unfollowing him after that post.

And he did apologize, which is good and I do think he understands that that post was not great, but it wasn't my main issue.

When the whole story with Kaepernick happened it was a real eye opener and exposed a lot of racists even among celebrities. I'm looking at you Christopher Meloni. But not only him.

So Colin Kaepernick was to kneeling to protest against police violence and racism.

And a lot of people reacted like a lot of White people react when the topic of racism arise: deny everything and get defensive "How dare he protest blablabala" "He's so rich and he's saying White people are priviledged..." "How dare he say there is racism in this country". You know the usual.

But the thing is to me, the way he protested was the most respectful, and most peaceful way to protest and also so impactful. And some people had still a problem with it...I don't understand how ANYBODY could have a problem with it ... unless they were racist in one way or the other. That was the bar for me... I could not have respect ANYBODY who had a problem with him kneeling, because their message was clear “just sh*t up and play football”.

To me, anybody who had a problem with Colin Kaepernick taking a knee... was automatically problematic and the worst.

For other forms of protests there can always be arguments against it, lousy arguments, but arguements nevertheless: "They're blocking the streets" "There was violence during the protest",... etc... But what is your argument with having a man kneel during the National Anthem, to call out something as serious as police brutality.

To me it was clear that they just wanted Black Americans to shut up, and stay in their lane. "Sports have nothing to do with politics blablabla"

And unfortunately history proved Colin Kaepernick right, and I don't think anybody could voice bad opinions about him today, but at the time, a lot of people were criticizing him, calling him names, insulting him, and even some celebrities were talking about how disrespectful he was.

They cared more about the way he was voicing his protest, than the fact that racism was a real issue.

And because of the protests last year, I think a lot of people tend to forget about that time, but Kaepernick faced A LOT of backlash, A LOT and for what....??? Absolutely no justification. With the way some people reacted you would have thought he burned the American flag on a daily basis, or used it as toilet paper.

So having that in mind, it was really disheartening to see an actor you respect take part in that...

And just to be clear, this is my personal opinion, but I don't think Sebastian had any bad intention with that post (not like other celebrities who were outright criticizing Kaepernick, for some reason I only remember Chris Meloni lol). But the timing, and the content, even as a joke, even as a promotion tool for his movie was extremely bad. You also have to understand the context, and how there were a lot of people rooting against Kap.

Worst case scenerio Seb’s post was racist and best case scenario it was tone deaf.

I can only assume Sebastian watches the news in the US, so he must have known what the caption "take a knee" meant and still decided to post it... So maybe he wasn't ill-intentioned, but to him the topic was light enough that he could post it on his social media...

My main problem isn't even with Seb's post, it was a weird way to promote his movie, or a joke I don’t know. Artists do problematic stuff all the time, and it's up to the fans who support them to decide if they keep doing supporting him or not.

My main problem was and still is the reaction of the fandom, where White Seb stans think they know and understand racism better than anyone else. And honestly this is not me saying that Seb is racist, this is me saying that we should be allowed to voiced our opinions without being silenced or accused of trying to villainize him or cancel him blablabla .

But the Seb stans don't understand that and prefer to turn a blind eye.

I make difference between stans and fans. The Seb fans are the ones who are willing to listen, understand why some people might be offended and admit that their fav f*cked up. The stans are the annoying ones who yould rather keep their head in the sand.

And nobody is even asking to stop supporting Seb... If I cancel an actor, I will stop consuming his content, supporting him, paying to see his movies etc... But I'm not forcing anybody else to do it... But I would like to be free to voice my dislikes especially if that actor was being problematic... without the stans complaining about how "I don't know their fave"

I haven't cancelled Seb btw, I just don't feel like finding him excuses and glossing over the words and if I think that something he did was racist, I will say that it was racist, not "problematic" or "tactless" or "clumsy"...

I think that a lot of people are confused about what racism is, and think it is only White Supremacists who want to harm all non White people.

But it's not only that and in my opinion, there are many layers to racism. If you have "nothing against Blacl people" but there is a part of you that believes you or White people are better than Black people, well you are racist... If not hiw would you describe it? I have already told this story, but I have a friend who swore she wasn't racist and we even had a big debate about racism, and a few weeks later, her boyfriend told me that during a family dinner, she had talked about a common Black friend of theirs saying "She is pretty for a Black girl"... But if you ask my friend, she will say she isn't racist.

If you try to silence people calling out racism, you are contributing to it instead of fighting it.

Another example, I received a lot of "problematic" comments at work from coworkers on my hair, my origins etc, but when I talked about it to my friends and said those comments were racists.. they said that I was "overeacting" that those comments were harmless or just my colleagues being "ignorant". But one time, I was done with it and I wrote to HR about it losting all the comments I had received and the HR director called me and told me that those comments were racist full stop, he didn't try to minimize it or act like I was exagerrating.

And that's how I see the reactions of Seb stans whenever something from him re-sufaces, like my friends who just act like it is nothing.

Just so you know you are not helping when you do that.

They act as if we're suppoosed to accept that because "it's not that big of a deal". Who told you that? How do you determine what is a big deal or not? Especially when you have never dealt with racism?

Fandom behaves as if people who were hurt or offended by that post were overracting. "It was a joke" "It was a long time ago" "He would never do somthing racist"

How hard is it to say " I can see that my fave did something problematic, or that what he did was racist, and I would still like to support him but I understand that people were hirt"??? How hard is it to continue to stan your fave WITHOUT trying to silence people who call out the behavior.

And also the way they refuse to use the words is annoying... it's always "I'm sorry if anybody was offended", never "What I did/wrote was racist and I know better now". If no one wants to admit it when they do racist stuff... nobody will never get anywhere... Like my friend who is convinced that she isn't racist but goes around thinking that White Women are more beautiful than Black Women, and even says it when surrounded by her family. 

And people act like the people who were hurt have no reason to be hurt because he apologized, but I hope those people realize that it doesn’t work that way. An apology is great of course, but it doesn’t take out the hurt, or the feeling that if he was comfortable enough sharing this on social media, what is he comfortable doing in the safety of his close circle?, or remove the idea that maybe an actor you adored, and respected doesn’t view Black people struggles as a serious matter.

I personally don't hate Seb, far from it. And the reason why I have so many posts about him, calling him out or not, is that he is one of the very few White actors I'm interested in. I don't know him personally, but I enjoy his interviews with Anthony and enjoy his movies. But I'm not about to act like he is perfect like some of his stan do and also I have absolutely no issue with people who have "cancelled" him because of his past behavior, because I understand them and it's their choice, it's what works best for them... I don't want to force them to root for someone who maybe wouldn't root for us.

Last point, that I won't elaborate because I have already written way to much. There's a difference between people actively trying to be racist, and people who are racist and maybe don't realize it, or people who have prejudice but are working on it...

I hate it when White people act like the worst thing in the world is being accused of racism when the actual worst thing in the world is being racist. Because it shifts the conversation from... "Oh how can I improve myself and stop this racist thing I'm doing, or how can I work on this prejudice I have?" to "How dare you call me racist!!! I would never" all the while they continue doing the racist thing they do.

TL:DR: His Instagram post was f*cked up, and he apologized. And it's up to each person to decide if they still want to support him or not, but it would be great if thise who still support him stopped pretending that those whose don't are overreacting or had no reason of being offended.

[strawberrygardenkisses]

I’m sorry that you got rejected and that sometimes this is the only place that makes you feel happy. I relate to that a lot, although one of my blogs just got another wave of hate and I once again had to grapple with whether or not I wanted to delete it because it was bringing me down vs staying to spite people/for those that actually do enjoy my content. Then I realized that if I was unhappy I could just change. Unfollow and block the blogs I follow that made snide comments about people like me in the tags, making me feel like I wasn’t good enough, change the kind of content I posted that I largely reblogged to make other people happy, etc. It’s not a permanent fix but it’s a start. A start of change for the better, and I’m really proud of myself for that, just like I’m proud of you for putting yourself out there even knowing you could get hurt. As for a distraction, what are your thoughts on these ~controversial~ foods:

Mint chocolate chip ice cream

Candy corn

Pineapple on pizza

Olive

Tomatoes

First off, I am so sorry that that happened to you. It's amazing the amount of people that can't just mind their own business, or realize that there is a such thing as an unfollow button. I don't get hating on another blog unless they've done something awful (ex: racism, homophobia, etc.) but also why waste your energy on even speaking about someone like that? I am very proud of you for taking matters into your own hands and not letting those people get you down. I hope that we both continue to heal and learn as time goes by.

Okay so, here are my hot takes on controversial foods:

Mint chocolate chip ice cream: absolutely love it. It's in my top 5 fave ice cream flavors.

Candy corn: I'm very neutral on candy corn. I wouldn't seek it out, but I'll eat it if it's offered to me.

Pineapple on pizza: I think tf not personally! but to each their own lmao.

Olives: not a fan.

Tomatoes: Okay this is the hill I'll die on. Tomatoes are delicious, amazing, and one of the best foods. Nothing beats a fresh tomato right out of the garden and they're one of the best sandwich fixins.

Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.

[thealexchen]

One Year On: Life is Strange 2 Critique

December 3rd, 2020 marks a year since Life is Strange 2 ended. I was inspired by @smitethepatriarchy‘s text posts (here, but there are several other answered asks worth reading) and @suhaplays’s text post (here) criticizing Life is Strange 2 to write a critique about how Life is Strange 2 handled certain themes and social issues.

(tw: gun violence, police brutality, animal death, incarceration, racism. In this essay, I use the word “queer” in a reclaimed sense, as a queer person myself. Of course, spoiler warning for all five episodes of Life is Strange 1 and 2).

A year on, my feelings about this game have soured... a lot. When the game was first announced, I was overjoyed that our new protagonists would be two Latino boys. Finally, we would have a culturally meaningful, groundbreaking video game with people of color and their experiences at the forefront! 

Then the game was met with immediate backlash and I utterly exhausted myself defending it for weeks on Reddit and Tumblr. Throughout 2019, as the episodes came out I became increasingly disillusioned, frustrated, and disappointed with where the story was going. I couldn’t figure out why I felt so damn miserable while playing this game.

Then in the summer of 2020, when Tell Me Why began rolling out pre-release material, I noticed that they posted a Q&A about transphobia, gave content warnings, and discussed at length about their collaboration with GLAAD, Checkpoint, and the Huna Heritage Foundation to make the game with sensitivity and proper research. I cannot speak for trans and gender non-conforming people on whether Dontnod succeeded at doing so with Tell Me Why. But Life is Strange 2 did… none of that.

Essentially, I realized that the reason why I was so frustrated with LiS2 is because it focuses way too heavily on a trauma narrative. This comes off as insensitive to players of color without any content warnings or extensive research.

Sean didn’t have to get kidnapped, kicked in the face, and called a racial slur by a gas station owner. Daniel did not need to watch his puppy get mauled by a mountain lion for the sake of a “difficult choice.” Sean didn’t have to lose his eye for the sake of heightened drama. Sean didn’t need to get called a racial slur and humiliated by his native language/beaten in the desert for refusing to sing. Daniel didn’t need to get shot— twice. Hell, all of “Faith” probably could’ve been cut— how is a church cult that brainwashes Daniel and beats Sean half to death relevant at all to the story?

Even if not all of the game’s violence was racially motivated, the consistent trauma that Sean and Daniel endure does not make for positive representation— or even good characterization. There is a difference between sympathetic characters and well-written characters, and trauma does not make Sean and Daniel any more complex or likable-- just more fucking traumatized.

LiS2 is more grounded in reality, but that also makes plot holes that much harder to excuse (Daniel’s powers being spotted, most of the Parting Ways ending, Sean’s prison sentence). But most of all, it grounds all of Sean and Daniel’s pain and trauma in reality. 

There is no magicking away a town-destroying storm with time travel. Sean can’t keep his dad alive by ripping up a Polaroid. After Max unlocked her powers, she was still a Blackwell student, reconnecting with Chloe, taking photos, saving lives, and uncovering a murder mystery. After Daniel unlocked his powers, the Diaz brothers lost everything. 

The game never lets you forget that Sean and Daniel are homeless, wanted, constantly in danger, and that they are never getting their old lives back. It permeates the entire game, and for players of color, just reinforces a sad, miserable, grim reality about living in the United States. It is, as @smitethepatriarchy said, potentially triggering for players of color, and it is certainly not something I needed to be reminded of.

And the representation of POC? It feels shallow and ill-researched. It would only take a Google search to find out that Dia de Muertos (a holiday to honor the dead, no less) was from October 31 to November 2 in 2016, the year the game takes place, but Daniel only talks about Halloween in episode 1. Sean and Daniel never discuss any Mexican customs, foods, or holidays. Sean doesn’t speak Spanish with his immigrant father, only during a scene when he’s traumatized (again!) by two racists, and again when talking to Mexican immigrants— in jail. Daniel doesn’t speak Spanish at all. Most of their allies throughout the game are white, including Finn and Cassidy, who appropriate Black culture with their dreadlocks.

So what’s left? Sean and Daniel’s existence as people of color is, at worst, just a narrative prop to justify everything that happens to them. They are people of color on the surface only. In a meta-sense, the game only considers the color of their skin and their last names as what is narratively important… yikes.

I don’t have anything against people who genuinely loved the game and were moved by its messages and story. But I can’t help but feel bitter that white players have the luxury of only thinking of this game as a work of fiction and not feeling any personal reliability to Sean and Daniel’s racialized trauma.

I don’t regret playing LiS2, but I do regret all the time and energy I spent defending it in the beginning. I understand now that I shouldn’t let people’s opinions get to me, nor should I feel obligated to like or defend a game for its attempts at representation. But now, I think I understand how queer fans must have felt in late 2015 when Polarized released. After following the game for 10 months, to see that Chloe’s ultimate destiny was to die and Pricefield is another ship plagued by the Bury Your Gays trope (in the ending that the devs clearly put more work into) must have been just as disillusioning and infuriating. I understand why some fans were so quick to unfollow LiS or develop mixed feelings about the series, because that’s how I feel too after following LiS2’s development from September 2018 to December 2019.

Before I end, I will admit that Life is Strange 2 arrived at a time when I needed it. I still stand by my belief that DN did a great job characterizing Sean, Daniel, and Chris without toxic masculinity, which is the best thing they could’ve done for a male-focused follow-up to a game about queer women. I love that Sean is still a canonically bisexual man of color in a major video game and that DN didn’t forget their queer audience. I love the world and characters that DN built, but I still prefer AU fanfictions of their normal lives, without all that trauma. 

So, I will continue to treasure Lyla and her 10 minutes of screentime (aka the only shred of Asian American representation I can get from this series). I still reblog LiS2 fanart to support the artists. I still support Dontnod, because as Tell Me Why has shown, they are capable of researching and writing stories with more sensitivity. And let’s be honest-- I’m still gonna be hella excited if Life is Strange 3 is announced.

But so many aspects of Life is Strange 2 were bungled that it came off as a remarkably average and forgettable experience. A year on, I don’t hate Life is Strange 2, but I am writing this to move on from it.

Thank you for reading.

[420pogpills]

I’m the anon that was talking about the Twitter thing. I’m sorry if this is worded badly but I’m really tired so I just hope it makes a bit of sense

I’d like to start by saying that being part of gen z is so fucking stressful. There is this constant pressure to know what’s going on and to have the right opinions. I remember being too scared to ask my friend what being Demi meant because I thought I was supposed to know just because I’m gay (which its just stupid to have this expectation). I had a panic attack the night when dreams political history was put out because I fell down the rabbit hole of really biased critical blogs and I disagreed with what they were saying, I felt like I was personally being yelled at for being “wrong.” Having the expectation that young kids have the answers to anything is just wrong. It’s stressful and anxiety inducing. Saying that gen z is the generation of change is a lot of pressure to put on kids who can’t even drive. We have to move forward together, as people of different ages and generations to better the world and make positive change.

no worries at all, you’ve worded yourself wonderfully :) my answer got quite lengthy so i’m putting it under here

first of all i am so sorry to hear about how insecure and fearful you’ve been feeling about expressing yourself. please don’t ever be afraid to ask your friends things, because if they are your real friends then they will never judge you. sometimes you can feel so left behind, but those who love you will be more than happy to help you! and on tumblr you can talk to some amazingly nice people, even strangers, who can help as well! 

there are a lot of people who believe there’s only a right and a wrong opinion, but it doesn’t work that way. the point of an opinion is to express your thoughts, and they may not always be in live with the majority, and sometimes they may not be in line with the minority either. sometimes people take things unnecessarily personally, and can tell you that you are wrong just because your beliefs and opinions don’t coincide with their personal beliefs and opinions. does that make you wrong? absolutely not. you just have a different opinion. of course it’s all situational, and certain topics are more sensitive than others but the important thing to know is that everything can be discussed :) 

it must be very stressful, because for example, what i see on twitter can be very extreme. of course it’s important to know what’s going on in the world, it’s important to be aware of your moral compass to make sure you’re making the best decisions that you can make and you’re not hurting anybody. but you can’t be caught up with everything. you can’t be an activist for every single issue, while also living your life, going through school, figuring out what you want to do. 

i admire young people’s desire to make the world a better place. but young people need to learn to pace themselves. you won’t change the world in a day, no matter how aggressive of a stance you take. so tweeting about ‘i won’t forgive you guys for not talking about this’ ‘i can’t believe no one cares about this’ ‘unfollow me if you’re not gonna reblog this’ ‘don’t live tweet this because of x y z going on atm’ - that’s like telling yourselves that you shouldn’t be enjoying yourself right now and you shouldn’t be caring about good things, because sad and horrible things are happening. making people feel guilty for not being caught up with these things, making it sound like someone is an awful person for not retweeting this link or another link - that’s not how you bring forward positive change. 

of course we need to care, and the thing is - we do care! but there’s nothing wrong with getting on twitter and talking about a stream you enjoyed, talking about a tv show you’re excited for, sharing pictures of your favourite band - even when things are happening. because you can’t stop caring about yourself and your happiness and your mental health because bad things are happening. that’s the thing i dislike about twitter - people acting like tweeting and retweeting is the lifeline of change in the world, like that’s what it’s going to take. but the truth is, the real change happens outside. 

do your part, be a better person, sign the petitions and donate where you can if you can, correct your friends if they say something problematic, support the people who’s voices are being overshadowed - that’s what will make a difference. stopping yourself from enjoying yourself online on your twitter profile because people will make you feel like you’re not contributing anything good to the world is not going to help anyone. you should never have to feel shame for wanting to enjoy yourself. 

you are so young. you have so much time to catch up, to learn, to figure things out! the world will change with you. don’t put so much pressure on yourself. you can care about racism, sexism, islamophobia, xenophobia, homophobia - while also caring for yourself. caring about those things shouldn’t go hand in hand with stress and panic and the feeling like you can’t enjoy yourself or ask questions. you’re allowed to be a kid :) 

[draculeo]

do you have any advice for ppl in majority white fandoms trying to...just enjoy it??? im in a few and normally everything is fine but recently when somebody points out something like whitewashing a character they get shut down and he rest of her popular blogs/ppl just, ignore it. they act like it's not a important conversation or try to stray away. and it's INFURIATING bc these ppl have had week long discourse abt whether a character had CHEST HAIR!!! part 1

but for some reason they can't talk abt how valid accusations of whitewashing may be? this paired with the fact that I recently found out the author has been called out for writing a book that was super racist towards asians and biracial ppl and NOBODY had ever mentioned it before AND that none of the popular bloggers said anything abt blm all through june bc "their blogs were safe spaces" and they didn't talk abt "political stuff" on there. part 2 im SO sorry this was such a long ask but I've just seen how well u manage to handle things like his in the pjo fandom with the help of other fans of color and i just was wondering if u could give any advice bc i... Have No Idea how to handle this. part 3, the end

it’s frustrating and it’s infuriating and at times it makes me want to rip my hair out. I know what you mean and it burns me up inside seeing the same people who reblog a cute little blm graphic focus for weeks at a time on discourse about insignificant details completely ignore actual legitimate issues.

I think the best advice I could give you is to become friends with your block and unfollow buttons. Sometimes, the coolest, funniest, smartest bloggers on your dash could be the same ones refusing to acknowledge issues or actively contributing to them. It sucks, but taking them off your dash is the first step to actively improving your online experience. Even if it’s a relatively small transgression on their part, it usually points to a bigger issue and you’ll probably be reminded of it every time you see them on your dash. It will suck and you will feel mean but at the end of the day it is YOUR dash and you shouldn’t feel stressed whenever you log on. Make boundaries and stick to them.

Another bit of advice I’d give (that was also echoed by most of black pjo discord when I asked if they had anything to add lol) is to find your people. Follow bloggers of color, form connections with like minded people. Not only does this help with feeling isolated, it also gives you a good place to vent because they probably go through the same thing. One good way to do this is to form discord groups (for example: black fandom discord, poc fandom discord, lgbt fandom discord, etc.).

and don’t feel like you have to hold yourself back! If you want to speak up or call someone/something out, do it. I rant on here all the time and so many things that I think are just me things tend to resonate and spread, and eventually they start to actually sink in to the overall fandom. A few years ago, people didn’t blink twice at white washed art, but it’s a lot better now that people have spoken up on it. HOWEVER, do not feel like you have to speak on everything and be a spokesperson because that is exhausting. but if you feel like you have something to say, say it.

I’m not going to lie to you though. Sometimes the negativity is so pervasive that you have to leave. I recently took like a break from tumblr and genuinely considered not coming back or just restarting my blog. I came back and decided to stay after doing a mass unfollow, but were it not for the people I interact with and enjoy seeing on my dash, I would’ve been long gone. If you unfollow and you block and you do everything you can and your dash still feels like a punch in the face, think about cutting your losses. take a break from tumblr and see how it feels. gauge whether you actually enjoy being online or if it’s become something that drains you now.

most important of all never ever ever let someone who is not affected by racism/sexism/homophobia/colorism/etc gaslight you or tell you you’re being overdramatic. ever. it is almost always to preserve their own comfort rather than to actually help you. trust your gut!! more often than not, it’s right.