#i'm aware racism plays a big ass part

[hyperactivewhore]

I firmly believe Elijah plays the biggest part in why Klaus changed for Hope.

Of course, he loved his daughter more than anything, but I don't actually believe he started prioritizing her until she was born. Elijah kept pushing him to, constantly reminding him of her importance in his life and etc, something he never did with Marcel, which always leads me to wonder: if Elijah had given Marcel the same importance he gave to his niece/her place in the family, would Marcel had been Klaus's redemption?

Klaus, at the end of the day, had close to zero character development, and all he had was thanks to his family, but I honestly believe he wouldn't have prioritized Hope so much if everyone around him didn't constantly push him to.

[psudopod]

Splatmas is coming, and you know what that means?

Bet none of you guessed it's Psudopod's Big Lecture on How Y'all Need SPORTSMANSHIP!

Sportsmanship is behaviour and attitudes that show respect for the rules of a game and for the other players. 

Part 1: Rules of the Game.

There are indeed rules, here they are!

In Splatoon 3 you may be reported for breaking the rules for the following infractions;

Inappropriate Nickname

Inactivity

Intentional Disconnection

Unsportsmanlike Play (Self-Destruction)

Unsportsmanlike Play (Disrupting Team)

Intentionally Not Contributing

Network Manipulation

Malicious Use of Glitches or Errors

Cheating

Griefing (the action or an act of deliberately spoiling other players' enjoyment of a game by playing in a way that is intentionally disruptive and aggravating)

I've bolded the rules I see broken, often, especially during splatfests. Thankfully, I rarely see the ones I didn't bold. What I do see, pretty often, is Bad Sportsmanship.

I am referring to mid-match squid parties.

What are squid parties? A squid party is when the players ignore the in-game objectives and do... Whatever they feel like! Usually, this is seen as people standing around squidbagging together. It's honestly pretty fun! When everyone is on the same wavelength and the full lobby parties, it can be a cool time to explore how the game feels, play party games, and be silly! Note however, I said the full lobby. To play by your own rules when any single player is playing by the game's rules, is unsportsmanlike.

Thankfully, for all you partiers, there is a simple and easy way to make sure every player in your lobby is playing by the same rules; private lobbies! Make a private lobby, invite your friends, or join a pool to make some friends! I imagine "Squidparty" is a code you could use, but please do share any codes you've tried in your reblog. You can even plan games in lobbies, like "bumper brushes" or "hide-and-seek"!

Please, if you want to party, join a private lobby. Everyone else there will want to party, too. Assume everyone in public lobbies is there to play the game as described by the rules, even if they leave you to party.

If you are in a lobby to play, don't ignore partiers. They are just as often "Griefing" with intentions to use your mercy against you. Kill. Leave the lobby. Report. Move on. Pick any of the multiple rules that apply to squid party behavior. You can find the report button in the battle logs section of the terminal. Don't join a private lobby and report the goofs going on there, don't join a public battle and goof.

Part 2: Respect for Other Players

The Sportsmanship life doesn't end when you put the controller down! Y'all still Unsportsmanlike in the community. You need to treat other players right. We don't have Rules out here, but here's some bullshit I'm sick of seeing:

Racism (colorism and xenophobia)

Bullying (extreme language, hate mail harassment)

Being a sore loser (BS points 1 and 2, really.)

I don't need to re-hash the colorism issues. This is an old problem. Stop. Please remember your comments on the physical features of the idols can be hurtful, real people share those features.

What I do have to hash is the xenophobia. Y'all aware that blaming an entire nationality for you losing is bigoted? Y'all aware that claiming an entire nationality is just too good at the game is a stupid stereotype? Stop saying weird shit about Japanese players.

Bullying- hey, are you aware saying "KYS," any suicide baiting, is bullying and harassment? This is EXTREME language. Do not throw that shit around in the Splatfest tags when you're sad you lost. Do not throw that shit around in plaza posts. You will lose your plaza posting ability, account-wide. I dare you to send that shit on anon. I will drag your ass. Again.

It's ok to be sad you lost, but please be aware that lashing your negative feelings out on real people, or in ways that can hurt real people, is POOR SPORTSMANSHIP. Do you remember, in grade school sports, how the coach would tell you to line up and tell each member of the opponent team "good game"? You ever wonder why?

You should always be grateful and courteous, respectful, and constructive to every one of your opponents. You would not be able to play the game without opponents.

This splatfest, I really hope to see some better sportsmanship inside and outside the game.

I've said way too much already, I'll leave you with homework. This 'fest, I'd like for you to thank your opponents. Even when they beat you. Especially then. They did their best and respected you with a display of the fruits of their effort.

[ca-suffit]

You talk about people playing chess when no one is doing anything of the sort. If anything it’s you just trying to start drama and get everyone mad at each other while being a hypocrite in the meantime. You got mad at that one anon calling Anne a pedophile after you reblogged a post pointing out her grossness and say it’s all rumors while also calling Anne abusive when you have no proof of that either. You say people are obsessed with Maven but you’re the one in the tags about her constantly and in the tags about other blogs as well making the entire fandom aware about your drama. You talk about how this space is small because of those gatekeepers as if you aren’t unwelcoming as well. Get some perspective.

all this is trying to do is distract from the fact this fandom is abusive and racist af. it's not "drama" it's "racism." ur talking about me exposing the fandom's racism and making u all uncomfortable. ur blaming me for behavior u all do already and are mad that ur getting in return now. ur also mad that u can't threaten me with anything because there's nothing else on this account but exposing u. ur mad because I make u feel stupid and powerless and have support doing it too. to play along and respond some to ur points tho. here's one v small thing about anne rice and how she treated her own fans. that's only SOME stories, there's a lot more. she famously attacked the 1994 film *of her own story* as it was filming and pissed literally *everyone* off, had to be removed from interacting with them anymore, and her influence on stans made filming a nightmare......just because she didn't like tom cruise (and she blamed her fans for inspiring this in her too, couldn't even own her own shit). she defended paula deen for saying the N word, she defended antisemitism, she beefed with the popeye's guy cuz of her fictional books?? (she wanted to own property he ended up owning and was mad about it, that's rly what it was all about [end of this article]).

let me pull this part out from the movie link so u can rly hear it from the producer of her film: "Geffen echoed the sentiment, accusing Rice of displaying an attitude of "self-importance" and characterizing her attacks as unkind, indiscreet, and unprofessional."

here's ur proof and it's not even all of it :)

and ur trying to put blame on me to make white woman maven a victim, which is an age old racist thing to do that white women luv doing. "how could I ever cause harm lil ol me 🥺" why don't u go read about emmett till and think about ur life choices here. here's an article about how white women weaponize this shit all the time, to give u a quick link and never say I didn't do shit for u.

none of us would even know about shit with maven if she hadn't posted about it herself to brag about it. when has this bitch ever been in the show tags before? and when she shows up what is the topic about? oh look it's all about her. she's the one who brought attention to this in the first place so jot that down btw.

she chooses to post on youtube and open her mouth about these things. she chooses to be stupid about racial topics and claim to be an expert on things. she chooses to speak in a v condescendingly racist, white woman way when she talks to me, as if she's trying to help soooo much and she's soooo nice and I'm just so big and mean :( :( that's overt racism but half of u are still gonna act stupid about it like u rly can't see it. she is not meeting anyone halfway, she is throwing her black friends around and keeping the focus on her. she is not listening. she has no intention to listen. she's trying to save her own image to keep viewers and a paycheck. if she doesn't want to hear real shit then she can get off youtube, she can get out of here, she can stick to her white ass lane. u can't pin this on other ppl reacting to things that are worth criticizing, but that's all anne rice taught u to do so I'm sorry ur so fucking stupid still as adults. get well soon!!!!!

[the1975attheirverybest]

Well, I've decided to come here, and rant since that anon kinda mentioned it. So feel free to ignore but since the line in IILWY has been going around recently regarding the whole "You show me your black girl thing." Both from Swifies/ Maylors and even some 75 fans completely discarding the meaning behind it, and I've had it up to here with that bullshit.

(please bear in mind I am half black and therefore biracial.)

I'm going to be real there is a level of racism in this fandom (I'm not saying a lot, but there is a percentage), and to say there isn't is just ignorant. (I have personally dealt with it on here over a character in my fic because "she was too dark for Matty") The majority of the fandom wholeheartedly ignores the existence of Twigs and Matty's relationship, and I find it so fucked up. That man was so fucking clearly (the most we have ever seen) in love with her.

"So, there’s the line that goes ‘You show me your Black girl thing/Pretending that I know what it is (I wasn’t listening),’ which came from this moment when she was talking about something that I had no cultural understanding of, and all I was thinking was, ‘I’m in love with you.’ And maybe I should have been focusing on what it was, but in that moment, I didn’t care about anything cultural or political. I just loved her."

It's like everyone just forgets this ever happened. It honestly breaks my heart and also makes me personally feel some type of way because it genuinely feels like everyone ignores her because of the color of her skin. But yet continues to suck Gabby's ass even though that shit was years and years ago (no hate to Gabby I love her)

Yes yes yes yes yes yes. I know it’s just one line, but it honestly means and does so so much. Which I think is the point of the song. Love makes you aware of difference and makes you more open to it. Including racial and cultural difference. The fact that he’s whites and she’s not is an essential factor in their relationship. Because society makes it so. And for stuff that’s seemingly mundane (which as hair and skin routines or whatever) that he hadn’t considered before or encountered, it makes a big difference. And it becomes a moment of awareness. Like juxtaposing the “she’s the person I’m in love with” with the “there are things about her life experience and her perception of the world and her lived experience that I will never know” is VERY important. To ignore that aspect of the song would be like ignoring Twigs’s blackness.

I’m so sorry that you’ve had to encounter that kind of attitude towards your fic character. That’s just indefensible. People who legitimately think this way need to examine why they have this impulse to reject the idea that Matty would be with a black girl.

And I’m gonna say it now before y’all come at me: NOPE. It’s not the same as “having a type,” and go educate yourself before you speak.

Sometimes songs ARE up to interpretation and that’s fine. Encouraged even. But if your interpretation rests on the erasure of someone’s racial identity….it’s an invalid interpretation.

Side note: this is not 75 related but I actually do research about this. There’s a black female character in one of Shakespeare’s plays that all the academics refuse to acknowledge. Even though the play LITERALLY says that she had “ebony colored skin” and that “her beauty is dark.” Editors of the play insist on saying “oh it just means she’s not blonde.” My argument is that they’re fuckin racist and they can’t believe the poster boy of white genius poets (Shakespeare) would have a black woman as a main character in a love plot.

I guess this doesn’t really help much. Expect to say that the problem within the fandom is definitely part of our social politics. Fandom spaces are not exempt from sociopolitical / cultural issues because they exist within them. And we need to be more aware and critical of our presumptions. Yes art is fun and escapism and entertainment. But it’s also culture and education and ethics.

[icarusfallsforwalls]

tbh... people would rather discuss his name than have to have more painful discussions about the role they and their faves have played in the racism he faced, lbr. a LOT of 1d fans have done racist things over the years. some of them blatantly openly racist (the ones holding terrorist signs, throwing things at him, etc) but a lot more have been passively racist (pushing ugly narratives, having double standards, believing unsourced tabloid nonsense about him that they'd instantly question about the others, the whole "he's so mysterious~ and brooding~" shit, etc).

we've ALL done it at some point, as much as it hurts to admit. i'm a woc and zayn has always been my #1, but even i'm guilty of holding him to different standards than the whites. it's a societal thing. we've all been raised in a racist world and we've all internalised certain messages, even those of us who are literally asian sjfhsjf.

it's like women claiming they shave their legs because they "want to". we all know that's nonsense and we do it because if we go outside hairy we'll be ridiculed and considered lazy and disgusting, but none of us like to admit we've crumbled to societal misogyny. "i just like having smooth legs!" we say, even thought we are all aware that when we're home alone and won't be seen, we never shave or do our makeup or anything. racism works the same - it infiltrates every aspect of life and all our interactions and none of us have escaped its web of deceit.

i mean, hell, how many of us have gone "omg i'd love a 1d reunion" or "i wish zouis would talk again" or whatever? i would NEVER talk to any of my white ex-colleagues who had stayed silent while i was being racially abused en masse, and yet, despite that fact, i still expect zayn to put himself through it just because i like louis. even if the individual 1d boys weren't the issue (zayn has the bus1 tattoo for a reason - clearly louis was his friend and not just a colleague), having to put himself back into 1d territory would undoubtedly stir up a lot of traumatic memories of things and people who WERE racist.

and we all know that! we're not stupid! we are 100% aware of the trauma he faced in that band, both from the fandom and the management and the media. and yet we still expect him to package it all up into a neat little box, tie a bow around it, and hand it to us like a gift. even those of us who are poc, who have similar trauma, who KNOW who awful that would be to go through. it's so insidious! we're all guilty!

and i think a lot of fans are stuck in a very childish mindset where you are either a good person or you are a big scary racist. (to be cringey and quote sirius black: "the world isn't divided into good people and death eaters, harry"). but that isn't how it works. no one is perfect and pure. no one has escaped the societal pressure of racism. it isn't a moral failing to put your hands up and go "damn, i'm part of the problem, i'll try and do better in future". like, that's literally all it would take! no one is expecting white fans to start whipping themselves in repentance!!! but a lot of these fans are struggling with that, clearly lol. they'd rather hyperfocus on one little line of cathartic and pretend it's a big deal, cus it's easier to talk about "zayn vs zain" or whatever than it is for them to analyse their own behaviour. but, like, their refusal to discuss the part they've played in the fandom's racism is literally just reinforcing the issue!! this is what zayn meant when he was said nobody is listening!

sfjsfhs sorry i've written you such an huge essay lmaooo. might set it to a cool beat and drop it on soundcloud, @zayn hit me up boy!!! sjfhsfjs

Oh my gosh, this was such a great read. Thank you for sending this to me! And quoting Sirius Black! And your joke at the end; this is iconic. You also touch on some very real and important points.

I have always felt so deeply for and sympathized with these issues, but I could never truly understand because while I am white and hispanic, I am white-passing and have white privilege. I hate evil and discrimination and racism, but I'm also sure I have at times contributed to it, even unintentionally. As you said, it is deeply engrained into our society, our entertainment, our jobs, our conversations, our jokes, our lives, our thoughts, our homes. It is in fandom too and I've always noticed a different tone (mainly when I'm on twitter) when people speak about Zayn. They cut him no slack. They question his motives. He is always judged so harshly. His music and lyrics are often ignored. And the Zouis breakup is usually always placed on his shoulders, even though we don't know the actual truth of what happened between the two. I've been thinking about this the last couple of days and even more so after listening to Cathartic. Zayn Malik is a grown ass man. A POC who was mistreated and discriminated against while in One Direction and still. He knows his trauma and is allowed to do what is best for him (Calamity). I wish Louis and Zayn would publicly be friends again, that is no secret, but it's not necessarily fair of me to put that on their shoulders because it has more to do with me than what is best for them. I still love and always will love Zouis, but it's in the past and that's how I'll celebrate it from now on because I do think they cared for each other very much.

@anon thank you so much for sharing this perspective. It’s always welcome and appreciated.

[electricprincess96]

Now I'm imagining some marketing deapartment trying to reverse engineer SMT's appeal the way I remember how some rival companies obsess over emulating BTS in single minded ways. Ofc, this isn't bad per se, but it's telling which parts they ignored bc it'd go against putting the player first. P5 is flawed, but it didn't kowtow to the player as hard as 3H does and still managed to carry the edgy SMT spirit. Sometimes SMT will hurt the player's feelings, as a treat, and it won't apologize for it.

Ok 1. I dig the BTS reference because it's true that like it or not an Agency like SM or YJ are not going to be able to recreate BTS because part of BTS' appeal is their underdog story. SM and YJ are too big and too powerful to successfully sell that narrative, it's also why BigHit have been very smart and not marketed TXT the same way, because it wouldn't work a second time because BigHit is now... Too big. Also another big selling point of BTS is they are actively involved in the creative process of their own music, something that is quite rare or at least was in KPop (but not unheard of G-Dragon and Taehyun from Big Bang was good examples of previous KPop stars who had a hand in creating their own music although Teddy Park always helped).

Secondly I can only assume the people who pitched this idea to Nintendo for IS to make a Persona/SMT inspired Fire Emblem game..... Weren't actually fans of Persona or SMT because as I said a School setting does not make an Atlus game. Like Catherine is 120% an Altus game in all its weird and wonderful glory and there ain't a school in sight.

Like to defend Persona 5 for a moment yes it's a bit over the top with the teenage rebellion shtick it was framed as rebelling against actual real life injustices that people are facing in Japanese society such as the incredibly high prosecution rate and the plight of millenials and how they are expected to always trust and do as they are told by the older generation when said older generation don't always deserve that level of respect. Since you referenced BTS and I'm aware Japan is not Korea but a good comparison is Baepsae/Crow Tit/Silver Spoon. I did like that not every adult you came across in the game turned out to be Ike irredeemably evil, like sure some start out pretty hostile or indifferent to you (Saw Niijima, Kawakami, Sojiro, Takemi etc.) but over time it shows how some adults are just as much victims of society as the younger generation. It also touches on one of Persona's more recent but favourite topics, sexism in the work place, Sae Niijima isn't a woman with a stick up her ass because that's the funny trope, she's like that because women in her profession are incredibly disadvantaged, similarly Naoto in Persona 4 (regardless of how many times people want to shout that she's trans, she isn't that was not the intention of the developers) is a girl who society convinced she had to become a boy in order to have a chance in her chosen profession. And yeah Joker gets a Deus Ex Machina at the end but after that battle I wanted it to be over so I was not caring how they did it, ok Demon Lord.... I'm ok with that, not entire out there for Persona.

In contrast what is Three Houses saying? Um..... Racism is bad..... Unless you're a cute young girl who the player might want to fuck.... Ok um feudalism is bad... No shit Sherlock... But we don't actually know what we're replacing it with.

As for Byleth/Persona Protagonists I just feel in Persona they always feel like they just give the Protagonist just that little bit more personality, such as getting thought bubbles when examining certain objects or hearing certain songs in the over world. I also just think they give you way WAY more dialogue options that you can get a sense for who this character is you're playing as... But also especially in SMT moreso than Persona those dialogue options fucking matter, it changes things and has repercussions for the rest of your playthrough. Byleth.... Nope, just a blank slate with like zero personality except a semi snarky comment here or there and absolutely no reason whatsoever for why people are willing to betray their countries and childhood friends just to be in this block of woods presence. Also at least in Persona 5 if they deliberately had a close up on Joker's face they like animated it doing something and not just staring off into space like the Sun/Moon Trainer.

Also just gonna say when Persona 3 did the "your player character is Jesus" they had the balls to go FULL Jesus like, you must die (or be put in stasis or whatever) for humanities sins. Byleth.... Falls over for a few seconds for humanities original sin and then..... Gets back up because power of love or some bullshit I don't know anymore 🤦🏻‍♀️

Atlus is not afraid to make you cry. Like Persona 2 Innocent Sin.... You lose at the end of that, you have to make a deal with a god to get a do over but the fact is you lost that time, and even when you win in Eternal Punishment it's bittersweet because you (or more importantly Maya since you are playing as an existing character that time) can't stay with her friend and the Tatsuya we played as in Innocent Sin has to return to his world that's in ruin. They'll kill off party members right in front of your very eyes (Maya at the end of Innocent Sin, Shinjiro in Persona 3). Now admittedly Persona's 4 and 5 ended on pretty happy notes, not too many dead people (at least no one we actually cared about) and yay justice which is nice sometimes, not every game has to have a somber ending so I'm ok with those. I do hope the next game in the series is maybe a bit darker though, but if it's a good plot I won't mind too much.

Compare that to IS who do not under any circumstances what the player to feel back about their choices because people didn't like that in Fates. You can recruit almost everyone to your side so you don't have to worry about killing characters you may like and every ending is almost copy paste identical except maybe Almyra likes you more now, or maybe Edelgard steps down eventually or maybe Byleth's God King for all eternity but people don't mind because it's you and you're amazing....

Also please no spoilers for Persona 5: The Royal I still haven't played it and I haven't been spoiled yet so I'd like to keep it that way.

Also I did not expect to have as much to say here as I did..... So yeah, could probably say more, might think of other things to add later but for now have my incoherent Atlus ramblings.

[warriorlid14]

Aight, I wasn't gonna respond but some of y'all are pissing me off.

First of all, did y'all just not read anything I wrote? Because I had literal paragraphs defending Cassie before I wrote one (1) sentence that even mentioned race. But nah, let's dismiss the other arguments and instead go "aha! You're playing the race card, I got you now!"

Second, look. There are valid reasons to not like Cassie. Yes, her moralistic views go a bit too far sometimes. Yes, sometimes they're inconsistent (though I would say that the ghost written era plays some part of this). Yes, she gets stuck with a lot of the wackier books. Yes, she has flaws. That's the point. And it's fair not to like her. You don't even have to have a valid reason. You don't vibe with her? That's absolutely fine. (And the same applies to every other single character in this series. They are all very flawed people who make mistakes. That is the point of this series.)

And yes, going "if you don't like X character, you're racist" is kind of a ridiculous statement to make. And guess what? That's not what I said.

What I said is that she is the one out of the entire group that gets the most criticism (which is, by the way, true. Or at least was not too long ago) and implied that it's not a coincidence that she's also the only black girl in the team.

For the first part: I wouldn't bat an eye at the excessive criticism by the fandom if she was the one that objectively did the worst stuff out of the group. Which she does not. What, have we forgotten that Tobias and Ax annihilated an entire species and that it's NEVER brought up again? In a series that goes over every single morally dubious decision? Not even a shred of guilt afterwards? (That was bad writing, you say. Well, so was a lot of the weirder Cassie moments). And those two are everyone's fan favorites (and mine too! Again, you're allowed to like and dislike whatever character you want). Have we forgotten that Jake killed thousands and thousands of yeerks for shits and giggles? And wasn't convicted for it? Or what about that time Marco let his stepmom be infested by the yeerks to get his parents back together? (I'm not even bringing up Rachel, who also gets a lot of criticism. Most of it fair. But some of it overblown without acknowledging that other characters are also ruthless (Ax for instance). But then I'd get called ridiculous for acknowledging that sexism and double standards exist. ) But everybody LOVES Tobias and Ax and Marco, and to a lesser extent Jake. And I don't hear as much criticism for them as I do for Cassie.

Is it a coincidence? Well, I mean, I couldn't tell you that for sure unless I could read everyone's minds who ever read animorphs. But what I can say is that this isn't some novelty that I'm pulling out of my ass. Across literature and movies and shows you will see a trend where black characters are judged harsher than other characters. (Wow, it's almost like that's a thing that happens in real life as well.) And that is NOT a coincidence.

(And by the way, I don't think everyone out here is looking at a character and going "ah, a black character. I must hate you now." But like, internalized racism and implicit bias are real things that exist, and guess what?? People do it unconsciously. That's why being aware of it is a big deal.)

So don't come at me calling me ridiculous for acknowledging that racism and double standards exist. Especially not when it is the one black character that gets the MOST criticism (or did at one point) for having flawed moments when every other character is at the same level or worse.

No, I don't think you are racist if you don't like Cassie. However, when she is the character that is receiving the most hate, we should take a step back and consider why that is.

So no, the narrative did not favor Cassie. (Or well, it did sometimes but it also favored all the Animorphs at various points).

(Is this essay years too late because there's a general consensus now that Cassie's awesome? Yes. Do I care? No.)

So the main examples brought up that I've seen to the whole narrative favoring Cassie argument is that the narrative rewards Cassie in her Two Major Fuckups. So:

Fuckup Number One-

Honestly, I don't even really consider this a fuckup. More like a veeeery big gamble. But, one, half of the Animorphs' decisions are gambles. How many times did Jake not go "if I'm wrong, my friend will die immediately"? Like, in any chapter of every one of his books. Some of them were stupid gambles, too. "Sure, something could go wrong if I'm needlessly messing around with morphing, but man, I really want to go to this concert and don't want to pay."

And the narrative ABSOLUTELY acknowledges that this is a gamble. That this could go wrong. Yes, Cassie was very lucky, and she knows this. This was not Cassie being stupid. It was Cassie being kind. It was Cassie choosing hope and forgiveness and compassion. It was Cassie choosing peace instead of war. It was Cassie fighting for another way, instead of having to choose between the enslavement of entire species and the annihilation of another. And Cassie was the only one who could do this, to befriend an enemy like that. Not to mention that this led to one of the most selfless acts in the entire series. I mean, c'mon, Cassie chose to essentially give up her life not for her friends, not for humanity or her family, but for one person (well, two). One person that had the power to destroy her but didn't.

Like, jfc, that was some powerful stuff. I love Cassie so much. Yes, the stakes were super high. But so was the payoff.

Fuck Up Number Two-

... yeah, okay. This was a major fuck up. It really was. Oh, she had her reasons, but... yeah, that was a fuck up.

However! There were immediate, bad, MAJOR consequences for this fuck up. Like, within the first few pages of the next book Marco and Tobias almost died because of this fuck-up. Half her friends gave her the cold-shoulder because of this fuck up. One of them hated her because of it. The guy she loved ignored her because of it. Like, guys, there's an entire book where Cassie is walking on eggshells.

It is true that there is one positive outcome of this fuckup. And it's a major positive outcome. BUT. There were also very important people that died because of the decision that Cassie made. So I wouldn't exactly say that she got away with it.

BUT EVEN IF SHE HAD. Must I list all the other horrible shit these kids "got away with"?

Because, like. There was a lot of deaths in this book series guys. There was some genocide and mass murder as well. Two particular cases I'm bringing up in fact. One where the justification was "they deserve this . I don't care. They started it." The other where it was LITERALLY NEVER MENTIONED AGAIN. (Which kind of makes me want to ignore it sometimes considering it wasn't even in the main series but I can't because it's canon.) And this one was by a fan favorite, too. (This isn't even a callout post for him, I love him too, but like... you guys.) Must I bring up the other three? Because Ax, Rachel, and Marco are all known for their ruthlessness. So, yeah, when we're talking about "getting away with stuff", Cassie's isn't even at the top of the list.

And seriously, Cassie is this kind, gentle kid stuck in the middle of a war who's doing her best to remain good and compassionate. Does she fail? Yes. Do her standards sometimes annoy me as well? Yes! But they're all in an impossible situation with no way to know right from wrong when the survival of the entire human race depends on it. She's desperately trying to draw a line in the ground about what going too far is, and guess what?? The team needs someone to do it. They all would be lost without it. Is she a perfect soldier? No! But that's the point! She's a kid forced to fight a war she has no business in. Give her a break.

(And by the way, it's not lost on me that the character that got the most criticism is also the only black girl in the team.)

[abassi-okoro]

THE ANGRY WHITE WOMEN

by Abassi Okoro Eziokwu

Hate is too strong of an emotion to waste on people who don't deserve it. I hate Meghan McCain. Rather I hate what she represents, angry white femininity. It was an angry white woman who caused the savage annihilation of Emmet Till. It is the knee-jerk reactions of angry white women who call the police on black people for doing nothing more than blinking one too many times. White women are just always angry with something or someone. Have you noticed that? Despite the racial stigma that black women are often awarded, the “ANGRY BLACK FEMALE,” at least black anger is justifiably directed at a specific or definitive idea – RACISM!

Black anger carries a certain rationale, a certain sanity. It's understandable to sympathize with the anger of a people who are systematically and institutionally oppressed, abused, and persecuted – and that's only talking about black MEN! Now add to that persecution the reality of being a black WOMAN and your abuse has just gotten worse. But in 2019, you would think that it is "White Women" who are the benefactors of white male infliction or structured social abuse and oppression. It seems that every time we tune into FOX, CNN, or some feminist round table television talk show - there is no shortage of snarling, beady-eyed, 'trembling in anger' blonde-haired, white women all too eager to tell the whole of America how they're outraged over something or someone or how “women” (which is really code for WHITE women) are discriminated against more than black folk in this country.

These white women remind me of yappy little – big eyed Chihuahuas barking uncontrollably at the slightest insignificant sound or purely imagined discomfort. When white folks profess their anger over something, they call it "Outrage." Black folks call it, "White Tears." They're always stepping out of line, ridiculing and pointing fingers and especially when it comes to American Patriotism. Nothing gets these white women barking louder than the notion that American "Ideals" are being threatened by black people's audacity to call to attention racism or the fear that immigration of Hispanic people is going to colorize and lord forbid, "colonize" lily white neighborhoods like Boise Idaho or Cedar Rapids Iowa (because I'm sure that one of the whitest towns in America is worried to death over some Mexicans coming in and stealing their warehouse associate jobs at the Adam's Lumber Yard). Or the worse case scenario, Colin Kaepernick takes a knee. Tomi Lahren every week on her show damn near had a complete mental and emotional meltdown anytime Colin Kaepernick's name was mentioned. Despite my thoughts of her anger being nothing more than a cover-up for wanting to sleep with him, she didn't fail once at getting her "outrage" out to the American public. Meanwhile, white male executives who control the FOX network had no problem offering her the platform to exploit her little annoying blonde ass.

Megyn Kelly spends a great majority of her airtime interpreting innocent remarks or acts as "sexist." That's why she always has a frog up her ass, she thinks everything is sexual. Meghan McCain's shtick is that everyone and anyone who falls short of worshipping white Jewish people is, "Anti-Semitic." Then there's the rest of American white women in general who have a long history of voting against their own best interests. White women historically have always been proponents of white supremacy and the Feminist movement is an off-shoot of that white supremacy. Black women told you that years ago that white women were going into the black neighborhoods trying to recruit black women for white feminine agendas while suggesting to these black women that they would have to leave their families, give up their black men before they could be part of the “Women's Liberation Movement.”

And so many black women did exactly that. They stopped being mothers, wives, caretakers, they got jobs in corporate America, became “secretaries” in white owned companies, put on a business suit, told their kids, “I ain't cooking shit - I ain't got to take care of you,” traded in their natural hair for a perm, learned how to talk “white” on the phone and if the police came knocking at the door, they had no problem turning in their black boyfriend or black husband and especially if he was not treating her right. The white feminist snatched up many of these black women and said, “We're sisters now” and eventually sisters became partners and partners over time became "lovers." Meanwhile, white men were locking up black men over petty shit like 10 to 20 years for $10 of weed. That's called, “Engineered Racism” folks.

BUT WHY ARE WHITE WOMEN SO ANGRY?

I'm not suggesting that only certain people are allowed to be angry (the oppressed) but it sure does make more sense for oppressed to be angry and non-oppressed to NOT be so angry. Unless of course you're implying that white women are an oppressed marginalized group? I was told that white women are angry over gender inequality and especially in the political arena. Makes sense - if I was ignorant that is. When asked a little under two years ago how Donald Trump got elected, the answer that was told to us was because the people who voted for him were white and angry. They were suffering from financial anxiety and Trump's rhetoric of bringing jobs back to America sounded pretty darn good to Becky and Bob. Now here we are in 2019 and those Trump voters who were white and angry are STILL white and they’re STILL angry but only now they're angry because they STILL haven't landed those good ole' American jobs that they were promised back in 2016 and on top of that, Trump is more concerned with building a wall to keep Mexicans out than opening up a factory in your already dilapidated - one sheriff- rural town. I'm sure it feels awful to white people who just aren't accustomed to being bent over and screwed in the ass. But if you need a shoulder to cry on white people, give people of color a call. We're experienced at being lied to by white assholes. The grief counseling hotline after being lied to by white men is 1-800-YOU-DUMB. Negroes, Mexicans and Native Americans are waiting by the line to accept your calls.

FEMINIST RAGE 101

White women in particular are encouraging each other to let out their anger in the face of the current administration. Yet, white women have failed miserably in dismantling racism. It appears that white women's rage only became a thing when white men became indifferent to white female sexuality. In other words, white men simply are not that into you (just like the movie suggested). When white men were abusing women of color, sexually exploiting black women, committing sexual violence against black women with impunity, and we didn't hear a single outcry from white women. Instead, white women actually downplayed and silenced the anger of women of color - hoping that it would gain favor in the eyes of white men. You held out for nothing, he didn't care that you had his back. White men don't need your help with being a racist or a rapist. But in recent years, white women switched and played the role of “Social Activist” and despite all the protests and public outcries and unpaid emotional labor by women of color, what did these "socially aware" white women do? White women turned around and sold black women out. They threw black women under the bus and went out to the polls and voted for the party of toxic white supremacy. It's safe to say that white women are more likely to betray their gender for their race, a proverbial gut-punch to black women who have been victims of white masculinity for generations. White women should be more ashamed than angry.

Bu let me tell you how angry white women really are. White women are so angry that 53% of them put their white privilege above their 2nd class gender status to vote for Donald Trump. Despite their "anger," white women believe they benefit from white male patriarchy by trading on their whiteness to monopolize resources for mutual gain. In return, they’re placed on a pedestal to be “cherished and revered,” by white men who in reality will not only be quick to deny them their basic human rights but will, "Grab them by the pussy" while denying them. Look, let's cut through the bullshit and just go ahead and be brutally honest: White women, your white man will NEVER love you the way he should (to full capacity.) Maybe because he spends most of his time fantasizing over black, Latin and Asian women. He'll never tell you that, but I will! Hurts doesn't it? Maybe that's why you're angry because despite supporting the system of White Supremacy, you know deep down inside your soul that the whole premise of white supremacy is predicated on white male sexual inadequacy (white genetic survival, penis envy and trying to get back into the womb of the black woman in order to recreate himself without the genetic deficiencies). Isn't that why many of your fellow white women leave their white men to be with black men to begin with? Because even white women know who the real KINGS are (Royal blood). Now pick your jaw up off the floor.

Isn't this the real reason for white female fragility? The answer is yes! There exist a lot of truths about ourselves that most of us aren't willing to explore. For white people, some of those truths paint them in a very pathetic light. I'm sorry, but as a white woman in America - you're simply not a victim of anything structural. You may be a victim to some personal and isolated incident but there is no systemic or institutionalized "ism" in place to destroy you and NO, Sexism isn't your collective oppression. You can't claim that because sexism isn't exclusive to just the female gender and white men have always treated you like shit and so don't start acting like now all of a sudden you have a problem with being his bitch and especially after 53% of you voted in a "Pussy Grabber" as your President. GROW UP white women. Pull yourself together ladies. It's not a good look to be angry for no goddamn reason.