#include muslims and poc in your work

[what-even-is-thiss]

People who get mad about poc being included in medieval fiction and fantasy are not only racist but they also have a deep misunderstanding about how their own ideas of race and culture work.

Perhaps, yes. Most people living in Europe in the time period we call the Middle Ages would’ve been what we now consider to be white. But that doesn’t mean poc wouldn’t have been there at all and it doesn’t mean they understood identity in the same way we do.

“Outsiders” could be from within the same city or from a world away. A lot of peoples loyalties and who they saw as being from the same group as them had to do with religious conflicts, politics, and combinations of the two. Maybe just based on what neighborhood or village they lived in.

Historically before the era of colonialism Catholic countries like Portugal have sometimes given aid in various forms to Ethiopia because they’re both christian countries. People in the area we now call Italy would’ve killed neighbors less than a 20 minute walk away over papal politics.

People also traded frequently with people from other continents. Married people from other continents. Early into the so-called age of exploration Portuguese and Spanish explorers were known to sometimes marry women traders from west Africa for their wealth and trade connections. People from all over the Muslim world have also often been traders, enemies, allies, and mercenaries all over Europe and vice versa with Christian and Jewish traders, scholars, mercenaries, traders, crusaders, etc. traveling and living within the Muslim world as well.

Vikings got around. To Eastern Europe, the Mediterranean, North America. Many stayed where they went or made deals with the locals. Many brought prisoners, slaves, illegitimate children, and new wives back home.

Not only did the concept of whiteness and any other modern understanding of race not exist yet, people intermingled, intermarried, moved around, converted religions, traded across continents. Sometimes people made it all the way to North America even if that route and the colonies that came out of it faded out of memory eventually. The world was still interconnected even if it did move much slower.

Also when talking about fantasy and not historical fiction, it’s fantasy. There’s dragon. And wizard. Why are you worried about your racist ideas about “realism”? Besides the racism I mean.

[androgynousspace]

For any of you who even DARE to think about voting for trump just because of the war happening in Israel, this post is for you.

-First off trumps opinion on Israel is pretty much the same as Biden, in terms of sending money to them and being anti-gaza, https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna141905

-Let us not forget project 2025, I know a solid portion of palestine supporters are in the LGBTQ+ community, a vote for trump, is a vote to put your fellow queers in jail, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_2025

-Another section of pro-palestinian people are POC, not only does project 2025 include the killing and jailing of POC just in general trump has a long history of hating POC, ex: he used to pay hotels and casinos to get rid of any black people who were currently there, https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/08/trump-casinos-black-employees/

-Now let's talk about Jews for palestine, trump is also extremely anti-semetic and has a history of being anti-semetic, atleast Biden cares about the Jewish people, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/10/17/trump-history-antisemitic-tropes/

-Muslims for palestine, trump wants to ban the ability for hijabis to wear the hijab, and for muslims in general to work and be in public, https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/oct/17/trump-muslim-ban-gaza-refugees

Last if this has convinced you to not vote for trump I'm glad, this also applies to any republican running. DONT. VOTE. THIRD. PARTY. I don't know how many times I have to say this, it splits the leftist vote and gives trump or any republican for that matter a WAY better chance of winning the election, as much of anti-semetic you may be towards Israel, the only valid vote is for Biden.

[matan4il]

https://www.tumblr.com/drtanner/746570503303610368/zionists-should-never-feel-safe-go-fuck?source=share

This hypocrisy is so sad to see in real time.

"Don't use dogwhistles so Jews and PoC feel safe around you"

*gets called out for antisemitism on blog*

"90% of Jews should feel unsafe!"

I'd laugh if it wasn't horrifying.

I'd clap back at them but I was blocked :(

Hi Nonnie!

I don't clap back at anti-Zionists, because they don't deserve the attention, nor the added notes on their posts, but I think you did something meaningful in your ask, and I wanna highlight that, because you deserve the attention and applause.

So, someone who's anti-women, but doesn't wanna come across that way, will claim to just be speaking against feminists, and that there's no connection between women and feminists, because not all women are feminists! "Here," they'd say, "a tokenized anti-feminist woman!" But there is an intrinsic connection between the two, which is why it's no surprise that most women are, in fact, feminists.

The same goes for Zionism. Just like feminists wanted the right to vote to be equally applied to women, Zionists want the right to self-determination to be equally applied to Jews. Just as feminism is the liberation movement of women, Zionism is the liberation movement for Jews. Zionism is inherent to Jewish identity, and it's no coincidence that the overwhelming majority of Jews are Zionists.

One indicator that anti-feminism works to hurt women, is to take an anti-feminist statement, and replace "feminist" with "most women." Here's an example:

"Feminists are incapable of crafting a coherent argument using their words." -> Most women are incapable of crafting a coherent argument using their own words. Does that sound anti-women?

So a quick way to see that anti-Zionist statements are antisemitic, is to replace "Zionists" with "the majority of Jews," exactly as you have done, and see if it sounds antisemitic (every single one of the following examples is real, posted on Tumblr):

"Zionists should never feel safe" -> The majority of Jews should never feel safe.

"I don't want Zionists among us" -> I don't want the majority of Jews among us.

"Zionists always lie" -> The majority of Jews always lie.

"Arm yourself with knowledge to defeat Zionists" -> Arm yourself with knowledge to defeat the majority of Jews.

"Fuck Zionists" -> Fuck the majority of Jews.

Regarding the OP's post (not the antisemite's reblog), I wanna mention that OP's introduction of "dogwhistles" is kinda lacking. I mean, everything they said is true, but there are additional dogwhistles that they didn't address, ones which are more encoded than their examples.

For example, one dogwhistle neo-Nazis use is the numbers 18 (like in German neo-Nazi group "Combat 18") and 88. A is the 1st letter in the Latin alphabet, H is the 8th, so 18 is AH (stands for Adolf Hitler) and 88 is HH (stands for Heil Hitler, the Nazi greeting). On the surface, these are just innocent numbers, but for Jews who are familiar with neo-Nazi dogwhistles...

Another example of a dogwhistle is one that I've had an anti-Zionist type of antisemite use with me once. She's a Muslim young woman, I won't say from which country, but one that's very hostile to Israel, and where there's no free press. One antisemitic thing she said was that none of the prophets of Islam were Jews. Just a quick reminder, the prophets of Islam include mostly Jews, like Abraham (mispronounced as Ibrahim in Arabic), the patriarch of the entire Jewish nation, Moses, who delivered the Jews from Egypt (Moussa), King David (Daoud) and Jesus (Issa). Denying their Judaism is an antisemitic act easily called out by most people. But this woman also said to me, "Go plant gharqad trees." This one most people will miss. There is a Muslim hadith (a saying attributed to Muhammad, but reported by someone else), which states: "The last hour would not come unless the Muslims will fight against the Jews and the Muslims would kill them until the Jews would hide themselves behind a stone or a tree and a stone or a tree would say: oh Muslim, oh the servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me; come and kill him; but the tree Gharqad would not say, for it is the tree of the Jews." This hadith is quoted in the founding charter of Hamas. So in this context, "Go plant gharqad trees," is telling a Jewish person to prepare themself for the extermination of Jews. It's a genocidal dogwhistle. Ironically, this dogwhistle is so common, it has actually become its own anti-Israel propaganda piece, circulated in anti-Israel circles, where they claim that Israeli Jews are ordered to plant gharqad trees.

And one more example of a dig whistle! The infamous "From the river to the sea" qualifies. On the surface, it sounds like a peaceful chant for the liberation of a people. In reality, it is the English translation of a racist and genocidal slogan, stating that ALL of the land between the river and the sea (meaning, the territories currently under Palestinian rule AND Israel) will be Arab. To a Jewish person, this is at the very least a call for an ethnic cleansing via expulsion of the Jews, but we all know that this won't happen through just expelling the Jewish population, so an Arab country covering all of Israel will only exist through the shedding of a lot of Jewish blood. It IS genocidal.

Lastly, the incrdible @tzomet-spy-pigeon made a really important addition, pointing out that OP has actually posted antisemitic dogwhistles themselves, of the anti-Zionist variety of antisemitism. So I just wanna make it clear: people who come out against one type of antisemitism (such as the white supremacist kind) are NOT exempt from being guilty of perpetuating others (like the anti-Zionist kind).

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

[danielfuckingricciardo]

Begging you all to spare a thought for everyone in the U.K. right now and to keep talking about what’s going on here.

If you didn’t know, I can give a quick TLDR but three young girls were killed in a stabbing in Southport. Ten others were injured, including eight other children. The culprit was arrested following the attack. Social media alleged that the attacker was an immigrant and a Muslim (both of which have been debunked, he is a Christian and was born in Wales) and now the fascist right wingers have crawled out of their holes to riot across the country.

Hotels housing asylum seekers have been attacked, including those in Rotherham and Tamworth. Riots have taken place across the country, in 28 locations so far, and rioters continue to plan their attacks in these key locations.

They call it a protest, it isn’t, it’s a fucking riot. They’re harassing innocent people, causing damage to property, looting and causing harm. These cunts are bringing their children along, encouraging them to incite violence and continue this hate and vitriol and it’s just fucking sickening.

And to make it all fucking worse, scum of the earth Elon fucking Musk is throwing his two pence into the situation, claiming that ‘civil war is inevitable’ and trying to wage a Twitter war with PM Keir Starmer.

I’m scared to go to work tomorrow. Riots are planned to take place in my town for at least the next few days, including near my area of work. I’m white, I’m not a target, but my heart breaks for the POC who live in my area, for my friends whom I love who are terrified of being attacked or their families being attacked. I can’t even begin to imagine how scared they must feel.

To all my fellow U.K. friends, please stay safe. Normally I would encourage peaceful counter protest but these aren’t protests, they’re riots. You can’t counter protest a riot. Going would mean putting yourself at significant risk of being harmed by these spineless racist thugs. Please keep safe and keep us in your thoughts. Thanks.

[justalittlesolarpunk]

Hey, so, if you didn’t know, there are legit racist pogroms happening in the UK, primarily targeting Muslim and South Asian communities especially refugees and immigrants. So for those of you who, like me, have the misfortune to live on rainy fascist island, and might want to help, here’s my list of advice. If any of this is unhelpful, POC please feel free to correct me as I want to be as accurate and useful as possible.

Disclaimer: this is written from my perspective as a white person with full citizenship. Asylum seekers and communities of colour don’t need my advice, and know best what they need and how to practice their own care and mutual aid. This is for people not directly targeted by the riots who want to show solidarity. So,

1) listen to those most impacted and be led by their needs and wants.

2) if there’s disorder going on in your local area, mobilise with other anti-fascists to outnumber and counterprotest the rioters so they can’t attack individuals or institutions trying to help migrants or local minority communities

3) similarly, volunteer on local cleanup and donations if places like Mosques, libraries, advice bureaus or refugee housing is targeted where you live

4) join a local mutual aid network to build cohesion and solidarity in your community and be able to respond rapidly to evolving emergency situations

5) donate money to charities or organisations that work to protect and care for immigrants, refugees, religious minorities and people of colour in the UK

6) learn street first aid, including how to help someone after an acid attack

7) write to your MP, mayor and councillors and ask them to stand up vocally against racism and to take action to stamp out fascism in your community. Arrange a meeting to discuss your concerns if possible

8) donate blood in anticipation of further violence

9) don’t be a bystander if you see individual hate incidents, there have been repeated cases of lone POC being cornered by racist mobs. Be ready to step in or seek help but don’t make stupid decisions that will just put the person (or you!) in further danger

10) make an effort to educate yourself more on other cultures and spend time with neighbours who come from a different background than you

11) learn about systemic racism and the legacy of fascism and colonialism that has made the UK the kind of place where this happens

12) this is also about your own safety, but put together a go bag and have an evacuation plan for you and your family/friends/neighbours in case of local violence

13) organise a solidarity rally in your town

14) argue with your racist relatives, have difficult conversations, hold them to account and make it crystal clear that these attitudes and behaviours are absolutely unacceptable

15) send complaints in to media outlets when they refer inaccurately to ‘protests’, ‘anti-immigration rallies’, ‘pro-British groups’ and ‘legitimate concerns’, when discussing fascist pogroms, or when they imply communities of colour organising in self-defence is equally dangerous and violent

16) check in with your friends who are more likely to be targeted and offer to help in any way that’s useful, but understand they might just want time and space to process and for you to leave them alone

17) donate money to the effort to rebuild Spellow library

18) carry a spare scarf or jumper to offer to any hijabis who might have their hijab torn off

That’s everything I can think of. Let me know if you can think of anything else or if any of these suggestions aren’t useful. Stay safe out there folks, solidarity with POC and as ever, fuck the fash.

[songofwizardry]

Ok I'm out of the UK and meant to be on an organising break so I don't even know the worst of it, because I'm off all my usual networks and chats, but here's a long post, because I'm angry: in the last few days, across the country, there have been (halal and Muslim owned) businesses burnt down and attacked including cafes (1 and 2) and a supermarket in Belfast; a Muslim cemetery was vandalised; multiple hotels housing asylum seekers or said to be housing asylum seekers were set on fire sometimes with people inside. And that's just what's on the news. The stuff coming out anecdotally, from the people I'm talking to, is even worse. And again, I'm not hearing the worst of it right now.

The rhetoric is blatant and obvious: the leaked list of targets for Wednesday evening that's going around explicitly says they won't stop coming until we make them. It explicitly targets immigration support, immigration lawyers, and asylum seeker and refugee support centres; and just because you think you live in a diverse area does not mean it’s not a target and that numbers aren’t needed. By virtue of it targeting immigration support (and by design!!!) they’re targeting areas with large Brown, Black and immigrant populations. Particularly Muslim populations.

I don’t want to fear monger, bc where communities have been showing up, the fash are being driven out. But like. I will not lie. It is terrifying to see blatant far-right, Islamophobic, explicitly anti-immigrant and anti-asylum rhetoric so openly on our streets, days on end. It makes me incandescent with rage to hear about mosques across the country issuing warnings and shutting down events, and to hear about my friends outside London whose families haven’t been able to leave their homes in days, to hear from my friends who are or support asylum seekers about how terrified they are. It infuriates me to see, even at this point, the language and reporting, because to make the news we have to step out of a mosque being targeted and offer the fash food and a tour of the mosque; because they're still talking about how much we "contribute" to this country and that's why you shouldn't target us; becaus there's still people pointing out super "reasonably" that this is a natural response of the white working class to unchecked immigration or our terrible crimes or the violence of Muslims or those fucking savages or because there's too many goddamn people crossing the channel or. Whatever new bullshit. Genuinely, this is still turning up in the reporting, and on socials, go look on twitter and you will be utterly horrified at the shit that's being said. I'm seeing it on tumblr too.

It makes me so fucking angry and yet I am unsurprised, because Nigel Farage is an MP and can still say that this is a “response to unchecked immigration”, because the shadow Welsh secretary can say there is “political justification” for the far-right action on our streets, because my friends who are asylum seekers have seen years upon years of being blamed for every ill and failure of the social safety net that the government has been responsible for. This is where we end up after years of talking about “no-go zones” in Muslim areas of cities, after “Stop the boats” (full of terrified people who are escaping unimaginably bad circumstances) becomes a reasonable political chant, after we had a prime minister whose blatant islamophobic comments were just… ignored for years, after years of newspaper front pages demonising us.

This isn’t just about the stabbings. (Tommy Robinson was in London leading a fash march before these stabbings. This has been a long time coming.) This is the result of years of this shit. So yeah, we are scared, and concerned, but also angry (maybe that’s just me; I am always angry). Look out for your friends. Check in on people, particularly if you know PoC and people targeted by Islamophobia (misplaced or otherwise, our Sikh friends get a lot of this shit as well), immigrants, and asylum seekers and refugees.

Numbers have been key to keeping the fash down. Counterprotests are happening everywhere—if you can get to one SAFELY (being the key word here—if you’re visibly going to be a target, there is no shame in staying home and staying safe) please do, don’t go alone under any circumstances, take the GBC number, don’t split off from the group, etc. Repeatedly, we have been the ones keeping each other safe. Counter-protests are being called by Stand Up To Racism (which is a SWP front), but particularly within London, BLMUK and LAFA (the London Anti-Fascist Assembly) are also coordinating responses—you can see stuff on the BLMUK instagram. Do what you can to help, but if you’re going out there, do it as a group and do it safely.

And please please push back against the anti-immigrant rhetoric, against these prevalent ideas (even) amongst “polite” middle class white liberals about Muslims who refuse to assimilate, about the “state” of “those” areas of Birmingham and Manchester and London, against the good immigrant narratives and the blame we get for everything from inflation to overcrowded classrooms to NHS underfunding, against the fucking vile way people talk about asylum seekers and people crossing the channel.

I am tired and sick to my core of the myth of “polite” British racism. I am tired of being told that things like that don’t happen here, of the shock I get anytime I describe the Islamophobia and racism that people (that I) experience. I’m actually very very tired full stop, and I don’t know how to end this paragraph.

Fuck the fash. We keep ourselves and each other safe. We need each other to keep our communities safe. Organise. And for the love of god, listen to us.

[cardboardheartss]

I would be careful about the islamophobia in an ask. A lot of ignorant muslims are bragging about not voting for Kamala online but that does not reflect many muslims. My local mosque was holding religious lectures after lecture explaining to everyone that although what is happening in Palestine is horrific, it is important for us to vote for Kamala. I spent hours at my mosque organizing these sorts of events and talking to people about the long term consequences as well as reminding people about the muslim ban and how many people came out to support us during that. Many in my community don't like Kamala's policies but they also understand that she is the FAR better option than trump. Despite this, I am endlessly frustrated with my fellow idiotic muslims who decided trump was a better option - as if that man didn't instill a Muslim ban so quickly last time?

Other than that rant, I hope you take care of yourself. This isn't my place to say but I personally think black women should just focus on supporting each other and leaving everyone else (the PCOS who supported this shit included) to deal with the consequences. Black women have consistently been the ones to always show out and it's disgusting see these election results. Take care of your mental health first, always.

Also, thanks for all the work you do! I love your tarots!

Hi! Thanks for the explanation!

That post, was only meant for the anti black pocs. I wouldn’t purposefully go around parading hate towards other races… which is why I haven’t gone around making a million posts about it today, because I mean that’s completely wrong.😉

Anon, social media and I are all disappointed in the dynamics of this so called community we all have.

And thanks for also showing support! Hopefully this will be a wake up call tbh! 🤲🏽

[olderthannetfic]

https://www.tumblr.com/olderthannetfic/740123102285086720/all-the-griping-about-ownvoices-claiming-to?source=share

Re: your response:

It's interesting because in the DS9 slash shipping fandom and particularly with Garashir, a lot of people DO write Julian Bashir, a character of color as their perfect woobie they projected on to - he probably gets that more than any other character in that fandom. And then there ended up being a backlash that people were "writing him as white," including in an actual academic paper I saw from someone who is on Tumblr, while they were willing to explore writing him as fully queer and neurodivergent headcanons in fic.

Which is interesting to me because most of the stuff that writes him as queer is stuff that just ships him with Garak or another dude, but doesn't spend a ton of time on his queer *identity*. And I'm personally fine with that; I've read enough coming-out stories and didactic identity explanations in both fic and professionally published/released original work to last me a lifetime. But if writing a COC without drawing attention to their racial/ethnic/cultural identity is "writing them as white," shouldn't writing a non-heterosexual character without drawing attention to their queer identity similarly count as "writing them as straight"?

Anyway, I go back and forth on this because I also understand how Islamophobia and general racism against MENA works, how the "good Muslim" or "good Arab" is one who is as assimilated as possible, and how it can feel with fic that has a COC but doesn't go into their background like that person is only ok with POC *up to a point*. As well as the issues with how in canon, Star Trek's diversity shows a lot of POC but has only started to recognize actual non-Western "cultural" touchstones very recently. (E.g. When they referenced literature, it was always Shakespeare or the ancient Greeks or Poe, never the Romance of the Three Kingdoms or Rumi.) I get that. At the same time, I've definitely read stuff especially by non-MENA people which wrote about "his culture" in a very exotifying way that seemed to suggest that that kind of cultural identity is only "real" if it happens in a very stereotypical way. And I also think especially with a character who is so heavily framed as British, with a British accent, played by an actor who is half-English and grew up there.... I've also seen the brainworms in fandoms from Star Wars to Bridgerton with how people can't accept European characters/actors of color as European, and I do wish people would consider how they're suggesting that English identity can only be "white" by acting like it's wrong to ever portray Bashir as English. Something I've heard plenty of British POC complain about as like an attitude in their country that actually harms them.

I think these questions are complicated, because you have racist phenomena on both ends. There definitely are racists who only accept POC if they are as un-POC as possible, if they are assimilated, and see them wearing or saying or doing things that mark them as culturally different as "threatening." But there are other racists who think the only right way to write "diverse stories" is to have them be heavily cultural and represent stereotypes - the poor, urban black American, the Arab who lives in the desert and wears a thawb and is a devout Muslim - and that POC who are not like that talking about their own lives are somehow not "authentic enough." The thing that the movie American Fiction is about.

--

Yeah. Fandom isn't nearly as bad about characters of color overall as some wank would say. Fandom fucking loves Asian characters who are the unmarked leads of Asian media (and no, I don't think it's just because they're pale or because some idiots in the 90s thought anime characters were white).

Bashir was treated in canon in a way that fandom likes. Naturally, fandom took note.

My own woobie blorbo is Rico from Miami Vice. He's much less the single perfect tear woobie than Sonny (his buddy cop partner who is white), but he still comes in for lots of whump and screen time and narrative focus. Ye Olde zine fandom was unkind to him, at least in the m/m parts (though a lot of that is because all of the old slash zines were edited by the same couple who were... like... kinning the ship that he's a rival to).

But a lot of fans who watch that show see a very pretty, very cultured man with epic buddy cop tension with his partner, nice suits, and tons of whump plots, and they're like "God damn, where is the fic???" If canon provides, the fannish interest will be there to at least some degree. (Getting enough good writers in the same fandom at the same time to launch it as a place readers will stick around is another story, unfortunately.)

My personal view, admittedly as a white girl, is that Sturgeon's Law means what we really need is a bunch of canons that dangle tasty blorbos at us and much less policing of fic. And then a solid reccing culture to sort through the bad stuff.

I've seen a lot of complaints about writing characters as "white", and they often strike me as clueless or disingenuous. I'd rather have a bunch of "Oopsie, Garak caught Bashir using the holodeck for kinky roleplay about himself" fics than people with no clue trying to inject MENA stuff that wasn't in the show and that they aren't personally competent to handle. And half the time, this complaint seems to be some sort of unintentionally racist bilge where the speaker thinks the fic is making someone too cultured or too upper class or too kinky or some other shit that has nothing to do with anything.

Honestly, I sometimes think that the real complaint is "How dare fandom sound like the upper-middle class suburbanite bookworms that so many of us are?!?!"

[random-lil-illing]

i think i've gone long enough without a pinned post - time to make one!

WELCOME TO MY BLOG !!

!! INTRODUCTION !!

hello, i'm beverly! i use they/them and he/him pronouns (i am willing to experiment with other pronouns/neopronouns/xenopronouns too!! as long as it's not she/her.) :) you can also call me: illing, everest, ayesha, meeks, star, duck, or mitchell.

i am under eighteen years old, and i would appreciate it if people over nineteen did not message me (you can interact with my posts and replies, but no private messages please! you will be ignored or blocked if you message me and are over the age of nineteen.)

i like to interact with my mutuals, but i don't often make actual connections with them or become friends - i am okay with occasional messages, though i can't promise i will respond :)

my blog is mostly an art blog, with some headcanon posts here and there, but i do sometimes reblog things and participate in tag games. i like to interact with my mutuals' posts sometimes, such as replying to their posts or adding on to them in my reblogs.

!! MY OTHER ACCOUNTS !!

my other tumblr account for reblogging only: @illings-ill-reblogs (appearance/theme of this account changes with every hyperfixation.)

my side-blog (a fan-page for whichever character(s) i am interested in): @character-obsessed-fem (theme/appearance of this account changes with every hyperfixation.)

my ao3 account: Caramel_Cannibal

my tiktok (be warned i am rarely active on here): @caramel.cannibal

!! INTERESTS !!

my interests / hyperfixations, which my blog will be mostly centered around for the time that i am into them, change all the time! each time i have a new interest, i will change it here on my pinned post :)

current interest: Sonic the Hedgehog - specifically, Shadow the Hedgehog / Maria Robotnik.

previous interest: Dead Poets Society (1989) - specifically, Stephen Meeks.

!! NOT WELCOME HERE !!

if you find yourself under any of these categories, please do not follow me as you will not like the contents of my blog, and i do not like you. i urge you to leave.

- discriminatory against any of the following groups: religions (especially jews and muslims), pocs, lgbtq+, palestinians, minorities, disabled people, neurodivergent people, homeless people, women, single parents.

- if you are a zionist, leave.

- if you are a terf, leave. (this includes supporting known terfs like JKR.)

- if you support or defend pedophilia, zoophilia/bestiality, and rape/SA (or, god forbid, belong to any of those groups), leave.

!! PLEASE STAY !!

if you find yourself under any of the following categories, then i think you will like this blog and i urge you to stay!

- if you like art, stay.

- if you like Sonic the Hedgehog, stay. (for now.)

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- if you are queer, please stay.

- if you are pro-palestine, stay.

- if you're friends with me in real life, stay! (at the risk of your own sanity, of course.)

- if you are not prejudiced against minorities or a group of people (unfairly) discriminated against, stay.

!! ADDITIONAL WARNINGS !!

- i tend to take unannounced breaks from tumblr a lot, especially throughout the school year. this is due to a variety of reasons, but usually comes down to me being focused on school work and exams and not having time to make anything for tumblr. this can be pretty annoying, and i do apologise.

- when i make headcanons for characters, i sometimes headcanons them as things that have no back-up evidence in the actual media (e.g. headcanoning a character as trans with no proof, or believing a character has a specific type of family with no proof.) this might bother some people, however i am just trying to have fun here :)

- i have a bad habit of making unecessarily long posts (especially when it comes to headcanons), and i know people may find this annoying... sorry!

!! MY ONLINE PERSONA !!

i do have an online persona if people would like someone / something to imagine when interacting with my posts :)

!! MUTUALS !!

unfortunately, i rarely interact with my mutuals unless i'm doing a tag game they tagged me in, or i'm adding something to their post :( i am a very low-contact mutual unfortunately.

!! BLINKIES !!

that's it!! i've seen a lot of people with pinned posts and i've decided it's time to make my own :)

[walks-the-ages]

Honestly? This article is 100% accurate to the various issues I myself have with some of the themes in the books!

You can love a story and still acknowledge its flaws, without ""canceling"" the work or the author; being aware of unintended, harmful messages in a work is an important step in critical thinking, and ensuring you're not internalizing those harmful messages, especially if they're common tropes in fantasy and scifi--

one of those common tropes the article talks about is how the Fell are, innately, intrinsically, and Evil Race with no redeeming qualites.

What are the Fell?

They are cannibals.

They are kidnappers.

They are rapists.

They only steal from other cultures, creating nothing of value on their own merit.

Their features, as one race, one drop in the bucket of the Three Worlds, are described as "distorted, savage"

Their most distinctive feature, their most defining trait, is that all of them are black.

Their groundling form being white skinned makes their "true" form being black all the more insidious, because while clearly unintended, that sends the message that they are all the more dangerous, because they are these savage, black monsters disguising themselves as harmless, beautiful white people, so they can trick their way into settlements to wipe out the innocent people in the city.

You cannot ignore how that reads to an audience who are a real life victim of these kinds of real life conspiracies, no matter how clearly unintended the parallel is -

- we are all products of our society at large, and that includes unconsciously absorbing these fears that we're exposed to every day, either directly from far right conspiracy theorists, or in media like this, where a race is purely evil because they're just Born That Way, and that slowly builds up over time as its in media, and is a subtle foundation for every real world prejudice you can think of; because if you've been told all your life growing up that people can be inherently bad based on who/what they are, then you're going to be a lot more susceptible to believing it in real world --

Do you believe all homeless people are lazy or dangerous?

Do you think people with psychosis or multiple personalities are dangerous serial killers?

Do you pass a Muslim man on the sidewalk and cross the street to avoid him?

Did you answer yes to any of the above? Or hesitate?

You know anyone that would immediately answer 'yes' to any of these questions?

THAT is why it is so important to think critically about the media we consume.

Acknowledging flaws in media does not mean you need to tear something to shreds and dance on its grave.

Mythcreants focused "on the negative" because they are a blog dedicated to reviewing and critiquing world building, and they have plenty of amazing articles where you can read more about the importance of avoiding these "evil race" tropes on their blog if you want more perspectives, especially from POC who are impacted every day by the prevalence of these tropes.

The Fell would have avoided this trope with one simple solution, and that would have been to show more pure Fell who are just normal people, horrified at what the corrupted Flights are doing in the area around the Reaches.

Consolation and her flight do not count, because she's the Raksura equivalent of an Orc/Elf Hybrid taking after their Elf parent and leading Orcs on the path to goodness by virtue of their noble, pure Elf blood being able to override the evil, tainted orc blood.

Here's the relevant quote from the article:

The Fell aren’t just a group that does bad things. The book is very clear that being evil is in their nature. They’re compared to parasites: feeding off of others and never creating anything for themselves. Except in this case, “feeding” means that they literally eat their enemies. They also constantly stink, which is about the most visceral way to signal that they’re bad. 

We’ve explained the problem with this trope before, but the short version is that when stories cast an entire species or race as evil, it reinforces real-life ideas about how certain people are inherently bad. It’s also just hard to believe. The Fell are so cartoonishly destructive that it’s difficult to see how they could have evolved that way, and I wouldn’t be surprised if we learn in later books that an evil god made them that way just because. 

On the bright side, the Fell aren’t obviously coded as people of color the way orcs often are, so in that way, they aren’t quite as bad as what Tolkien got up to.* But on the less bright side, their big evil plan is that they want to “breed” with the Raksura to produce powerful offspring. 

Oh boy. So now we have an evil species whose main goal is to rape the good guys. I know I said the Fell aren’t obviously POC coded, but that sounds an awful lot like what white supremacists say about anyone with darker skin than them. It also casts the heroes as not just trying to stop rape, but also being disgusted at the idea of any mixing between Fell and Raksura. Gotta keep the bloodlines pure, I guess! 

I saw others commenting on the "underpowered groundlings" topic and it only takes a few seconds of reviewing the races we meet in the whole series to realize -- "oh yeah. The Raksura and the Fell are not only the only shapeshifters we meet, they're also the only race who can fly under their own biological power other than the Dwei".

There's dozens of groundling races described and met, but not one of them have wings and can fly? really?

Just imagine for me, if the Three Worlds was as populated in the air as it was on the ground.

Imagine for me Moon meeting all these different fliers growing up but still not quite fitting in.

Traveling the world on the wing with these various races but becoming so lonely to interact with groundlings (or needing to rest in his groundling form and being left behind as the flock continues to migrate) as well and always unable to find a balance of the two

instinctively seeking out the dynamics of the Aeriat/Arbora without knowing what he's looking for. It makes seeing a court for the first time all the more emotional-- he finally, truely feels like he's found his people

The Raksura, clearly, are predators. But they're the only predators we meet who are "good"-- all other predator races are demonized as cannibal savages who can't interact with normal groundling society because they might eat the other races (including Raksura) and thus are relegated to slums and the outskirts of settlements.

I love the Books of the Raksura, so much so that I am planning on writing my own novel inspired by them (much like how Murderbot was inspired by Imperial Radch), and my deep love of the series is also what drives me to be aware of its flaws.

The writer of the article is not "rageposting"-- they're giving a well-thought out, analytical response to the first book about which tropes they spotted that made them uncomfortable, because spotting these tropes is literally part of their job.

Consorts can be taken against their will, Consorts can be Stolen like a piece of meat, instead of kidnapped like a person because in Raksuran society, Consorts are there to look pretty, be trophy husbands, and make babies; outside of Moon, (who wants to take action and be in the thick of things instead of sitting safe and sound at home) and Shade, who is afraid to have kids (because his evil tainted corrupted Fell blood would automatically mean his kids are going to be evil and tainted and corrupted by their Evil Heritage) --

-- outside of these two outliers, we never see any young Consorts who are dissatisfied at their lot in life, which has been decided for them since the day they were born purely based on their gender.

Chime is literally forced away from his friends and family, shamed and disparaged, (they don't even let him help pitch a tent!) because suddenly he's a warrior and thus lesser, incompetent, lazy, because the Warriors supposedly exist to physically protect the Colony, but we only ever see them acting like immature children who have to be rescued by Jade or Moon in most of the combat situations we see them in, and they're looked down on as lazy and childish by both the Royal Aeriat as well as the Arbora, who despite living with these people their entire lives and hundreds of generations previously are still out here genuinely believing that the Aeriat are lazy instead of realizing there's an actual, physical reason that the Aeriat need to sleep more.

Only female Warriors are ever allowed to be calm, collected, and capable of holding responsibilities, wheras males are seen as either childish, incompetent, or overaggressive

The Raksura dynamics between genders and castes are the inverse of the usual fantasy dynamics of sexism, constantly calling for women to be quiet and demure and passive, only good for making babies and being married off to form alliances -- while inversing the trope is fine and dandy, the fact that no one outside Moon ever seriously questions or outright bucks these sexist expectations for them speaks volumes; it's less that the Raksuran society is flawed, and more like those flaws are never confronted and are actively shown to be good and natural .

Even the fact that Indigo Cloud got it's name from a Stolen Consort (Cloud), which deeply freaks Moon out (you know, like it should) was retconned into a simple romance story where the equivalent of a woman in an unhappy marriage runs away with a handsome hunk who doesn't care about the political consequences of their union as long as it makes the woman happy-- and even before the characters knew the actual facts of Indigo and Cloud being a consensual Stealing, everyone was dismissive of Moon's disturbed and apprehensive reaction, dismissing his misgivings and fears as being unfounded.

There's more I can say about the issues I have with the Books of the Raksura, but I've already lingered over this post for like 2 hours now and don't want Reddit to eat it lol.

TL;DR: acknowledging flaws and harmful messages in your favorite media does not mean you hate it, acknowledging flaws in writing is an important part of critical thinking and media analysis. You can acknowledge the flaws/iffy themes in the media you love and still *love* it

[horizon-verizon]

The despair and emotion liberals expressed about Trump’s win, such a profound contrast to their cold indifference (or worse) to a year long genocide, shows so starkly the racist hierarchy of lives that, behind their sanctimonious moralising, fundamentally underpins their worldview.

I'm Black but not the descendant of chattel enslaved people, but bc I am Black/a colonial-affected and have already said what i said about the PoCs who voted fro Trump. I've come to realize that on the Black side, the jokes I've seen everywhere online about Palestine becoming a parking lot or glass or the clear-non-joke form this one Black woman about Palestine is now "done" bc 3rd party voters ruined it for themselves have the main goal of staying ahead in the capitalist race towards building equity and capital for themselves.

Here's the thing. Yes, producing money and capital for the Black community as well as supporting other Black businesses amongst themselves is very important since historically others never do. this is facts. Problem is that people are claiming that Palestinians deserve to be steamrolled and lose their homeland...when:

there are Black Palestinians, Black Muslims, mixed race Arabs and such....they don't matter? What about the Ethiopian women Israel sterilized...sound familiar? The children in West Africa, specifically Burkina Faso, the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, & Ghana, are working in cocoa factories for about 60% of the globe's chocolate supply. what about incarcerated Black American people forced to work--and definitely going to in California at the very least--as they also cannot vote while they earn false wages?

by going to McDon and Starbucks, you're essentially speedrunning the genocide that many of them weren't trying to offset i the first place, so this false sense of ungratefulness as if they were the ones who supported all along) is manipulative. It's still supporting companies that given the chance and years later, WILL have all the laws and means to go after Black people, so you're speedrunning your own demise and break down of community and use of capital. I realize that Black people have moved different and supported themselves through Jim Crow and all...why are you helping that to come sooner or guarantee its arrival? Funny, bc this is the logic they've used to argue for Kamala.

who, btw, doesn't really need the support she could have directed towards Palestinians or used to build a platform that was more aggressively anti-Republican.

some Black folks have gone out of their way to travel back to African countries and feel their "motherland" (this used to happen more often, it's slowed down now, but a sentiment is still there)

many African peoples and countries have very conservative and ult-Christian views while also facing colonial patterns of exploitation even years down their moment of independence...hello, Congo, Sudan?! Ghana, Nigeria, etc. do these populations have to be perfect in order to gain life-saving advocacy that sometimes doesn't even need you to join a protest or get out of bed?! Were they even fundraising for these Black people? I will answer, I have literally seen people say only descendant-of-chattel-enslaved-people-black-people, which with American Black people also coming from many religious Conservative backgrounds that are heavily homophobic, transphobic, sexist, etc., it shows that if they don't advocate for African black people like they refuse to do for Palestine anyway, that they simply want to play the capitalist game similar to how many Black people in history have only reached to be included in indigenous registries and tribes to obtain rights to certain lands...(yeah indigenous people have also been racist/antiBlack or engaged in such to try to protect their own identities under thee U.S. government....but all this is an example of that divisiveness that's killing everyone)

One creator said that they are leveraging their privilege to escape present genocide and complete erasure (bc Black Americans may have been literally bombed as well as killed and raped, too...but also Palestine is getting WIPED OUT without their original home...you'd think you'd find some similarity, commonality, solidarity if it's about land loss, but no). this doesn't mean that people shouldn't be looking side-eyed at every PoC Trump voter, nah, hold them to the fire (I expected nothing less from both white men and women). Which means start conversations, argue, berate, tell them about the consequences of their votes and the histories that mirror out own time. but I earnestly believe that just because Black people didn't vote for Trump, some right now expressing anger (rightly) are really helping white supremacy when they call for deportations and "jokingly" put up numbers for ICE. Biden may have fucked up for Kamala by being so late, but Kamala messed up by including Republicans...which ironically mirrors PoCs voting for Trump, right? some black people and many of Trump's PoC voters actually have something in common there.

It's so fucking crazy, bc rising xenophobia and racism basically speedrunned Germany and Italy towards fascism.

I remember thinking, like a lot of people before the elections, that the hate in the Black diaspora was twisted on both sides bec the whole point is that it's divisive.

[doorhine]

I know that not everyone on here, who lives in the US, will be of voting age next year and I hope that you’re getting (and spreading) information from reliable sources beyond this site. But I need those of you who see this to listen to these people and understand what they’re going through right now. I need you to recognize they’re not the only ones who feel this way and are fed up with how our system works. There are people who could articulate this better than I can and while I’d like to think the words of those I’m trying to uplift right now speak for themselves, I know that won’t be the case for everyone.

I’ve seen Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim people get so much hate for not wanting to vote for the man who is currently supporting their genocide, the deaths of their family members, and Islamophobia in general (including all it’s victims whether or not they are actually Muslim). I need those of you who still have a “vote blue no matter who” sentiment to understand how unreasonable and callous it is for you to expect them (and other people, especially poc who are fed up with this) to vote (again) for Biden because Trump will be “worse”. They are not stupid. They are fed up and they’re not the only ones.

A lot of people voted for Biden last time, including people in this video, (solely) for the sake of getting Trump out of office and look where that got us, both inside and outside the US. None of us want Trump in office but to act like Biden and the genocide he and his administration are supporting (and the other policies they seek to create and continue enforcing to keep this country the way it’s been since it’s inception) are the “lesser of two evils” is a horrendous and dangerous sentiment to have. Genocide is not and will never be the lesser of two evils. I can’t explain how, not below the bar, but nonexistent the bar is to have that frame of mind.

And for those of you who don’t know, I once again want to draw your attention to Claudia De la Cruz and Karina Garcia who are running for president and vice president this coming election and are actually supporting and speaking out for Palestine amongst other important causes. We have an alternative and while I know this site isn’t and shouldn’t be the place where you get all your information, I was there when people turned out for Biden as well as Bernie as a third party (who also supports Israel btw) in previous elections. I know we can and should give these candidates some traction here and elsewhere.  

The Palestinian people have asked us to uplift their voices and work with them, in whatever way we can, to stop this ongoing genocide being committed against them. And I know they have not asked us to vote for Biden who is currently doing this to them along with Israel. They’ve asked us to believe in what we’re doing and can achieve together. To have hope that there will be, not just a ceasefire, but a free and decolonized Palestine. And I feel like for those of you who are trying to do this work, but can’t extend that same belief and hope in a third party who can help this cause, when we actually have a good option beyond two people, two parties who don’t give a shit about us… I feel like you’ve already started to give up. 

Sorry I can’t be “nice” about this, but if you’ve watched the video, read all of this, truly care about what’s going on and choose not to spread awareness on these candidates and support them because your feelings were hurt… I don’t think you’re in this for the right reasons. 

Plus I know those of you who want us to "vote blue no matter who" aren't being "nice" or considerate when you call people stupid or say they're allowing fascism to rise for not wanting to vote for fascists who are also maintaining the genocide against Indigenous and Black people that's been going on since the beginning of this country amongst many other forms of oppression.

For those of you who get it and weren’t aware of these candidates, I hope you spread awareness about them and keep doing what you’re able to do to support Palestine, push for a ceasefire and ultimately decolonization. We’ve built up a lot of momentum so far and we need to keep going. 

The link I put on De la Cruz and Garcia is to their twitter page.

Here is another link to their website.

[attheexactlyrighttimeandplace]

Thank you for your solidarity with Palestine, people like you give me faith in the world.

https://www.amnestyusa.org/with-whom-are-many-u-s-police-departments-training-with-a-chronic-human-rights-violator-israel/

Here’s an article about how US cops are trained in Israel. It really opened my eyes to the connection between the occupation of Palestine & the police repression on turtle island (usamerica).

I hope you’re having a wonderful day. 💜

Hi back anon, I feel the same sense of gratitude when I meet someone who supports Palestine and its resistance. :)

I live in France, a country where NGOs working to help Palestine have been threatened with dissolution, their members have been prosecuted for relaying the message of the BDS movement, although fortunately the European Court of Human Rights has ruled an end to this practice, and reminded the French government that a boycott is a legitimate and legal means of expressing a political opinion, and that the expression of a political opinion is a fundamental freedom.

And the attitude of the mainstream media is to deny the rights of the Palestinian people: from erasing the struggle for Palestine from the consciousness of European citizens by not reporting on the news about the daily murder of Palestinian children, to choosing to qualify the Palestinian armed resistance as terrorists, and including the entire Palestinian nation in this category.

The Western discourse on Palestine is so disgustingly pro-Zionist and pro-colonialism, I feel suffocated in this country. Meeting people on social media who think like me and can point out the facts, especially that Palestine is a human rights issue, that racists are trying to hide behind false and malicious accusations of anti-Semitism and of disrespect for the victims of the genocide of the Second World War - is my oxygen.

I am not quite alone: being Arab, Muslim, Algerian (a country that lived under the most brutal colonial regime, the one created by France for 130 years before winning after a long, bloody and hard struggle its independence ) means I have a whole community that supports the same ideas as me, but outside of our community it's very lonely.

So i'm very happy too to knew that you're around.💛

Thank you for the link!:) I remember reading some similar articles when there was an increase of police brutality in France against arabs and black people. Historians, sociologists and human rights activists pointed out that the current organization of the frenc police dates back to the colonial period and was massively shaped by people who used brutality to control indigenous people, which was obviously the case too in Palestine and in USA where POC and native american are the 1st victims of the brutality.

It is therefore not surprising that the Zionists now form the American police, it is a complete circle where both parties are driven by the same racist and murderous logic.

As Corbyn said in the tweet I posted, the Zionist regime was born out of the massacre and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people: the Nakba, which is still ongoing to this day. That is why in my opinion it cannot be fixed or saved, just like the police in the United States, both cannot be reformed but must be defunded (Zionist regime survives mainly because American financial support in the form of public subsidies), and ultimately destroyed.

Have a nice day too anon!💛

[thewitchfarhan]

Hey! So this is coming from a place of genuine friendliness. I saw your post about not needing to respect others beliefs and that believing in x religion means you need to follow every rule and belief they have to a T.

This post was followed by another that advocated against policing other’s spiritual boundaries - I hope you can see the irony.

From what I understand, Abrahamic religions have not been nice you, presumably because you’re queer. I get that, trust me I do. I watched my mother become more and more Pentecostal and accept me less and less as she did so. There is no denying Abrahamic religions cause harm to queer people.

But there’s no denying my gay catholic friend either. Or my Muslim queer mentor. Or my Jewish trans masc hiking buddy. All of these people have fought with themselves to find the balance between their spiritual and queer identities.

When you cast blanket statements and put people into boxes (“I’m not going to give any respect to those who align themselves with modern religions or religious traditions that have discrimination imbedded into their doctrine. “) you are borrowing rhetoric from the same people that hurt me and you. People exist in a whole lotta gray area and tossing out anyone who’s a follower of Abrahamic religions discounts way more queer and disabled and POC and just genuinely good people than you might think.

You do not get to dictate someone else’s faith because you were hurt. We as a community (queer) need to allow each other to explore and practice faith in whatever way works for the individual. We’ve all been hurt enough - let us heal through the divine however we see fit.

Hi Anon, thank you for your ask. I can respect that this is your point of view, but it is not mine and I disagree with you strongly.

You don’t have to follow a every religion to a T to be a part of that religion, I can agree with that. However, as I said before, words have meaning and words have power.

I cannot speak on Judaism or Islam because those are not faiths I have any direct experience with, and I would never presume to speak on those faiths (hence why I didn’t include them in my post. I also never used the term Abrahamic in my original post, and this is because I have a great respect for Judaism - and also have been told/heard from many Jewish people that they do not like being grouped in with Christians and do not like the term.)

However, I was raised Catholic - and I was devoutly Catholic for many years. So when I speak about the Catholic Church it comes from a *very* informed place.

To call yourself a Catholic means something VERY specific. It is not a vague label, it is not up for interpretation, it is not up for redefinition.

Calling yourself a Christian? That can be vague and can be interpreted in an unlimited number of ways. But to call yourself a Catholic is to say that you are part of the Catholic Church - and if anyone is even peripherally familiar with The Catechism then they know how strict those beliefs are. By definition if you don’t agree with the catechism then you are not actively Catholic.

That isn’t my opinion, that is quite literally a foundational belief in Catholicism. I didn’t make that rule, they did.

I will not apologize or change my mind in stating that I’m not going to respect religions that have discrimination imbedded in their doctrine - and I don’t respect anyone who aligns themselves with such faiths. Why on earth would you want to align yourself with discrimination? What makes that any different then people aligning themselves with the Republican Party in the United States?

I’m not telling anyone *what* to believe, but I am saying how I feel about it and what my thoughts are.

Once again, I respect people’s right to believe what they want - but that doesn’t mean I respect the belief.

[the-english-student-studyblr]

Hello, I have history discourse for us this morning so buckle up.

This is specifically about representation in historical fiction and/or academia so this should be fun.

So I was writing last night (yes I know nano is over) and doing research at the same time and now I'm angry. Part of it is the anger that spawned The Book in the first place, but part of it is just generalised anger at attitudes generally. I'm going to say it very simply:

There is no excuse to not include people of colour in your historical books.

This is a pretty big issue in fiction writing, screenplay and academia too (I watched a pretty cool talk about racism and elision in medieval studies which you can watch here). The further back you go in history, the whiter it is. And it's always excused. You see it a lot, the constant "but that's just how it was back then" except that isn't how it was back then.

So just because I know the most about them, I'll focus on the Norse. People always think the ancient Norse were, well, nordic. White, blonde haired, blue eyed, big buff men etc. This is a huge misconception (and I wonder how much of it came from the education system's focus on Hitler's ideal of the "Aryan race" being "nordic") not least because the predominant hair colour in Scandinavian countries at that time was brown. x

The Norse were traders. Slave traders, sometimes, and raiders, sometimes, but they were traders - the ones we know who sailed down rivers and across seas. Their "empire" spanned from the shores of eastern Canada (Vinland, widely believed to be in the Newfoundland area) to Eastern Europe and the Middle East. And what happens when you trade with other cultures? Sometimes you settle there. There's evidence that Vikings joined the praetorian guard in the Byzantium, that they settled down in villages down the Rus. The opposite is also true. It is highly likely that some people in these places - either willingly or as slaves - were taken back to the Norse homelands. x x

This is all written down in the sagas as well. Harald Hardrada who would later go on to invade Britain in 1066, served in the praetorian/Varangian guard, as told in the Heimskringla. Ibn-Fadlan, an Arab traveller and chronicler, wrote one of the only surviving accounts of a viking burial in his travel writing, the Risalah.

So, if your viking story is only white, you're doing something very wrong, but there’s more.

The Vikings raided and traded with Spain a reasonable amount, mostly between the mid-9th century and the late 10th century CE. Slap bang in the middle of the Moorish empire in Spain which lasted from the 8th century all the way up to the late 1400s (that's over 700 years!!). It can be assumed then, that the Vikings would have taken some of them back with them, probably as slaves, maybe as servants or just people, we don't yet know. x x

For people not in the know, which is probably a lot of people tbh. The Moors were North African muslims who invaded Spain in the 8th century. Their empire later extended across Malta and part of the Mediterranean. The term 'moor' in later years could refer to north Africans, Arabs or even just European muslims, often with derogatory implications (this is partially why Othello is getting a lot of consideration at the moment, especially in critical race and literary studies).

So, to sum up, the Norse traded and raided a lot of places with a lot of different people. Loads of those people were people of colour. The inclusion of these people is a requirement of historically accurate story telling, because trading is literally the cornerstone of Viking society (the Norse in general were farmers etc, but if we have to do Vikings at least do it right smh). There is no excuse. If you think Europe is somehow some kind of pure white monoculture, you are deluded.

[iprefertheterminsane]

SHOUT OUT TO MY WRITER HOMIES WITH MUSLIM OCS/CHARACTERS;

1. WEARING A SHAWL TO BATTLE IS THE EQUIVALENT OF HAVING GIRLS FIGHT IN STILLETTOS. 

Just so you know, this is what I’m talking about;

-Is it bad-ass? Abso-fucking-lutely. Is it Practical? Not a chance in hell. Especially not if it’s silk. If it’s cotton, you are skating on thin fucking ice. That bitch will NOT stay on. It barely stays on with me just walking down the street to Walmart. Wielding axes and rifles and swords and daggers? I PROMISE you it will not do the job it’s expected to-WHICH IS TO COVER THE HAIR. (Some muslim girls dont wear them-and that’s fine. But those who DO do it to completely cover the hair in public. Is it ~Aesthetic~ to see the flyaway hairs in battle? Sure, but those aren’t usually practical either. )Consider instead; 

sport shawls 

-For one thing, it’s actually DESIGNED to be worn to atheletic activities. Archers tuck hems into the collar of their shirts so they don’t get in the way, and track runners pins (ill get to this bit later) them down into the shirts to prevent flyaway bits and to stop them from getting slapped in the face. It’s breathable, stretchy, presentable without being attention seeking. 

Bawals 

In a pinch, bawals work just as well-as long as you specify that they are COTTON. Unlike the shawl, which are rectangular, bawals are SQUARE, and thus easier to manipulate, fold and pin down. If you wear it right, they carry an equal aesthetic value to shawls, and come in plenty of pretty patterns as well. 

2. I’m not sure about the USA, but the girls I know wear this underneath the headscarf;

Does it kinda look like a beanie? It sort of works like a beanie too. Hair is slippery. It tucks in any extra hair you might miss just by wearing the headscarf, its harder to pull down and on the event the shawl DOES fall down, your hair is still not exposed. It protects the ears-which is important even on a daily basis, because pins, headphones and any other headgear that might pinch them. It comes in plenty of designs, including ones that has open backs to allow long hair and ponytails. 

3.SPEAKING OF PINS; I’M TALKING ABOUT THESE BAD BOYS;

BROOCHES 

though , i suppose most of y’all are most familiar with safety pins, right?

what’s the difference? Well, if your oc/character is an athlete, it’s actually LEAST likely they’ll be wearing SAFETY PINS. They’re cheap and super easy to buy in bulk, true, but they also SUPER easy to wear out even with the smallest amount of strenuous activity. Between the three of ‘em, I’d put the brooches as the best option to wear in battle because 1) it has a large surface area, thus hurts less when pressed on with heavy items, which includes bag straps and weapons, (pins are sharp and can poke you painfully);  and 2) more secure-the latch is covered by the gaudy jewellery above, and theyre usually smaller and tighter. Stays on the stubbornnest, even when headscarf is pulled. very roughly. I’m saying that even the cheapest brooches will allow the shawl to be ripped apart before even letting it go. 

3. They probably ponytail their hair. Because Come On, guys.

Anyway it’s been bothering me and I just thought if yall could bother knowing the difference between skin tones for POC you could bother with muslim practicalities too. Or something