#it's also hella infantilizing to asian people

[chilewithcarnage]

it's 2024 y'all (racists) cant keep running with this narrative that asian artists being anti black with their work is the result of ignorance. we're in the most advanced and connected time period in human history. y'all tryna act like mainland asian people ain't never seen or interacted with a black person in their lives therefore if they portray a black character in a racist manner or whitewash them it's 'oh it's just their style' 'oh they don't know any better'. let me ask this, if they don't know any better how come they always manage to apply specifically anti black stereotypes to black characters and give them white features in 'their style' despite the artists themselves not even being white. additionally, surely if they've never seen black people they've never seen white people either right? make this shit make sense.

[zevlogofamiserable]

Meta #3 Postcolonial issues of a modern Les Mis AU

Hey first thing’s first, I’m a white person and don’t hesitate to call me out if I say shit, really. I mean it!

Second, let’s talk about Hugo’s racism.

Hugo’s racism

Because yes, the dude was a racist. Like many big names of his time, true. Like, to be honest, most of us today still (we inherited colonialism after all), true, but he’s not just any racist, he’s like one of the pillars of French culture, a supposed defender of freedom who was EXILED for his ideas (calm down people, look at his house in Guernesey… his exile was preeeeetty chill). Truth is… if he was so successful in his time, you can imagine he wasn’t the radicalest of the radicals (like surviving in the XIXth century in France as a public figure when you have political ideas you can’t compromise… mmh… gotta have VERY good connections). But he’s presented as THE hero of freedom in schools which is part of our Republican/actually pretty conservative and status quo propaganda and like, I’ll develop on that in a later meta about Alexane Ozier-Lafontaine but it creates a cognitive dissonance when you’re taught about that great man and then you discover his discourse about Africa. 

Erh. 

Hugo’s not so political

Now, many people here discovered Les Mis with the Musical and I love the fact that the book is called “The Brick” here because fuck it’s way too long and some parts are hella boring let’s be honest for two secs. Stop wanking on Napoleon, Totor!! Stop! 

But like, the Musical in itself is, although relatively faithful in its structure, heavily disconnected from the political subtext of The Brick which makes it way more digestible and universal. The Brick itself isn’t like, again, the radicalest of the radicals. It basically says: since Napoloeon nobody was so cool/rad in the government. Society treat poor people like shit, they’re human too (except the Patron Minette anime villains, those are eeeeeevil). Even in its time, the Goncourts brothers (and they weren’t like the radicalest of the radicals themselves) were like: “Hugo’s making shit tons of money by talking about the poor, isn’t he?” And he was criticized for his lack of observation, realism, body… like, when you compare the Brick to other contemporary texts (even just Balzac) he’s pretty… symbolic in his approach. I’m no literary critic anyway. Point is…

What do we do with that shit in our alternate universe fanfictions?

So there’s a fandom around les Mis… mostly composed of non French people not so familiar with French problematic/colonial history, and they enjoy and have fun with all this and it’s great. You can be in fandoms formed around problematic stuff without being a Nazi (I mean, I’m still kindah in the Shingeki No Kyojin Fandom and we all know its author is… problematic to say the least ><). 

And there’s all the alternate universe in contemporary contexts trend around Les Mis and of course, we supposedly live in a postcolonial society so you racebend characters and it makes sense. You wanna update l’ABC to have them talk about contemporary political issues and postcolonial issues are a huge deal and I bet there are also many POC in the fandom who just want to appropriate this material and make it their own and I think it makes a lot of sense. 

But… 

I started writing this webseries with that in mind: let’s talk about modern day young leftist people politics in France and let’s racebend some characters and collaborate with the friends who’ll portray them to talk about postcolonialism in France. I had… erh good intentions I guess. 

However… a friend pointed out to me that it was out of the question for her to play a character initially written by a racist author such as Hugo as a black person talking about postcolonial issues and I also think it makes a lot of sense and I must thank her again for the discussion we had then. 

So… I found a compromise in a way. I think it would be really weird to evacuate postcolonial discussions from modern leftist discourses. It’s everywhere even though… some leftist really try to evacuate it (which will also happen in ZeVlog because I have little imagination and when I see stuff, I just project it in my writing). But… I decided to include characters from other novels written by authors who came from old French colonies (and happen to share the nationality of the people who portray them in two cases) to discuss these postcolonial issues (and not give them to Hugo’s characters)… and that’s why my Lesgle doesn’t live with Joly (it was supposed to be Joly at first because Aaliyah Xpress is a real life doctor) but with Bê, a character created by Dương Thu Hương, a Vietnamese dissident.

Bê and Lesgle’s first apparition

Bê comes from the book, Journey in Childhood (not sure if it’s available in English alas). I’ve read other books by this author to prepare this webseries and all of them have a real political weight and evoke the French colonization, but I chose this one because I really liked the main character who resists an abusive authority. I hesitated because it’s a child character and I read Asian people tend to be infantilized (?) but despite the “Childhood” in the title, Bê is a really mature and pragmatic character and I really recommend this book! Also, apparently, Bê is also the main character in Story of an Actress but the book is not translated. Well. Read some Dương Thu Hương tho, you can find some in English and she’s good!

Anyway, I’ll tell you more about the two other books I picked for this weird crossover in future metas.

Till then, tell me what you think of all this questioning. I’d like to hear your opinions. I think the issue is very complex and I didn’t even outline it properly here!