#racebending is racist

[theleechyskrunkly]

guys I love artists and shit but I CANNOT be the only one that DESPISES when artists change a characters race and say it's "inclusive".

No the fuck it isn't.

Thats fucking racist and you need to acknowledge that. Racism goes both ways. Someone racebends a White/Asian character to Black and no one bats an eye but the second somebody whitewashes a Black/tan character all hell breaks loose. Like make it make sense please 🤨.

[rotzaprachim]

Nimona is. A very good movie but also one of the contextually for-it’s-time precise movies I’ve ever seen

[dayurno]

hii thoughts on racebending characters ?

not an actual problem until characters of color get white washed. otherwise have fun

[alrightsnaps]

my favourite genre of egyptian people reacting to the cleopatra documentary is others being like “but you didn't have a problem when elizabeth taylor played cleopatra!” and them being like “actually yes, we did, y'all just never give a fuck about what we have to say as long as you make money off our culture”

[mx-paint]

We all know that claim of "blackwashing" is stupid and is lead by racism (esp since it leads down to "my favs no longer look like me so I'm going to be racist about it", which is a funny take about it since people of color have been dealing with having practically no one looking like them until real recent) but the fact apparently the term was started because of the 2009 live action of atla????

[sebastianshaw]

so in Gaiman’s run, Sprite turns all the Eternals into humans and erases their memories of having ever been Eternals at all, but they start slowly remembering and getting their powers back and 1) There’s this bit where Sersi accidentally turns a cat into a dragon by thinking about it and it just flies off. Presumably a small dragon with the mind of a cat is just still roaming around NYC to this day. Probably someone’s pet. 2) Makkari’s human form is a brown-skinned guy. Not sure what race he’s intended as, but he’s def brown. When he gets his memory back and fully becomes Makkari again, he’s white again. I have no idea wtf to make of that. 

[firedragon1321]

Listen, I get rendering characters in your own style blah blah can be fun. But I just saw a Link that looked like this-

There are very few rules in fanart. One is have fun. The other is "make sure people know this is their friendly neighborhood blorbo and not a goat".

[lizardsfromspace]

Casting Benedict Cumberbatch as Khan was the most galaxy brain racebending in Hollywood bc they really thought they'd get praise for making the character less racist by making him white, because they said it'd be problematic to cast someone who wasn't white to "play a terrorist", except Khan wasn't a terrorist before, so they invented a way for it to be problematic and thought people would say "good job" for avoiding that

Help, we took a tragic mastermind and turned him into a terrorist and then made him white to avoid the stereotypes we added to our script for no reason, why are you mad at us. Where's our kudos. We did a tie-in comic where we explain that Khan had plastic surgery to turn himself white so like, it's not even a plot hole

[nachoaveragejoe234]

especially the japanese.

black people HATE asians (just look at that incident where i'm pretty sure a few months ago in like the southern usa, some black people took a korean woman hostage and tried to claim her house belonged to them or some shit and tell me they're not racist), but MOSTLY the japanese. i wouldn't be shocked if they would support hiroshima and nagasaki and the internment camps if they lived in ww2.

and that's the only time they talk about POC countries being privileged and shit. when they africanize a japanese character. and it's also worth talking about the cultural appropriation that is inherently in those redesigns. if the character is wearing, say, a kimono, they keep the kimono, and if the character has a japanese name they keep the name. for example, sailor moon or hinata from naruto. uh... if a character is named "usagi tsukino" or "hinata hyuuga", maybe you shouldn't be stealing them to use for your political agendas. tell me how you love that the japanese were locked in internment camps in ww2 mereely for existing, already.

When people make Asian characters (usually anime characters and other canonically Asian characters) black because “shut up they can be Blasian”, but then proceed to strip the characters of any and all all Asian features, elements of their Asian culture, etc. Especially when a character is heavily inspired by/designed specifically to represent Asian culture, it seems very disrespectful.

[ileftherbackhome]

So here is the thing.

There is a Matilda musical apparently and I'm all for racebending characters but doing just the teacher and keeping the kid white just feels like....

Playing into the prominent stereotype of like the black woman helping the white main character, I forget the name of it but you get my drift?

Idk I feel like a for effort but Matilda could have been black as well.

[neechees]

That's actually really common with Native characters, whether they're racebends or not, but there's always this need of people wanting to connect any fantasy elements of the characters, to Native American spirituality or culture, even when the same isn't done for other characters with the same fantasy elements as them.

Like we can't just have a Native American vampire, they feel the need to make this vampire turn into a Native deity. We can't just have a Native werewolf, their lycanthropy HAS to be linked to Native shape-shifting for some reason (& I'll admit this one has the most potential, but every attempt I've seen has STILL been butchered & racist). We can't just have a Native American who is also a wizard, their magic is somehow always linked to them being a "Shaman". There can't just be like a Native version of Superman or other superheroes, their superhero powers always somehow come from or are contact with Native deities.

I think people think theyre being inclusive & clever when they do this, and sometimes it IS out of a genuine desire to acknowledge the characters' culture rather than to just ignore it, but most of the time the cultural & spiritual aspects are butchered & bastardized anyways, so it still misses the mark & hits straight into The Magical Indian trope & Native mysticism. At this point its a pleasant surprise & subversive when their fantasy elements AREN'T linked to Native culture/spirituality somehow. There's ways to include Native characters' cultures into their backstories without stereotyping them & I wish this was understood & that creators strived for it more

[sassydefendorflower]

I want to talk about something. I want to talk about ableism in fandom. And sexism in fandom. Oh, and racism in fandom.

Mostly though, I wanna talk about how the discussion about these things often gets derailed because people don't understand what trends and typical behaviors actually are.

Whenever a Person of Color, a woman, someone disabled, someone queer (or an intersection of any of these groups) points out that certain fandom trends are bigoted in some shape or form, half the replies seem to be "but they are my comfort character! Maybe people just like them better because they are more interesting!" or even "people are allowed to have headcanons!" - the very daft even go for a "don't bring politics into fandom" which is a personal favorite because nothing exists in a vacuum and nothing is truly apolitical. But alas~

What most of these replies seemingly fail to understand is something very, very simple: it's not about you.

You, as an individual, are just one datapoint in a fandom. You are not the trend. You do not necessarily depict the typical behavior.

When someone points out that there is racism in fandom, that doesn't mean every fan is racist or perpetuating racist ideas*. By constantly mentioning your own lack of racism, quite often, you are actively derailing the conversation away from the problems at hand.

When someone names and describes a trend, they don't mean your headcanon specifically - they mean the accumulated number of headcanons perpetuating a harmful or outdated idea.

I am not saying this to forbid anyone from writing fics about their favorite characters or to keep anyone from having fun headcanons and sharing their theories and thoughts - quite the opposite actually. A critique of a general trend is not a critique of you as an individual - and you're going to have a much better, and more productive, time online if you can internalize that. If you stop growing defensive and instead allow yourself to actually digest the message of what was pointed out.

I am saying this to encourage some critical thinking.

Allow me to offer up some examples:

Case 1: A DC blogger made the daring statement that maybe Tim and Jason were such a popular fanfic focus because they are the only two undeniably white batboys. Immediately someone replied saying "no, it's all the fun traumatic situations we can put them in!". Which is an insane statement to make, considering the same can be said for literally ANY OTHER DC Batman and Batfam character.

The original post wasn't anything groundbreaking, they didn't accuse anyone, didn't name any names... but immediately there was a justification, immediately there was a reason why people might like these characters more. No one stopped to take a second and reflect on the current trends in fanfiction, no one considered that maybe this wasn't a declaration against people who like these characters but a thesis depicting the OVERALL trend of fandom once again focusing on undeniably white (and male) characters.

(don't get me started on the racebending of white characters in media that has a big Cast of Color and the implications of that)

Case 2: A meta posted on Ao3 about ableism in the Criminal Minds fandom caught my attention. A wonderful piece, very thoughtful, analyzing certain characterization choices within the fandom through the lens of an actually autistic person. The conclusion they reached: the writing of Spencer Reid as an autistic character, while often charming and comforting, tended to be incredibly infantilizing and at worst downright ableist. They came to that conclusion while CLEARLY stating that the individual fanfic wasn't the problem, but the general fandom trend in depicting this character.

Once again, looking at the replies seemed to be a mistake: while many comments furthered the discussion, there were quite a few which completely missed the point. Some were downright hostile. Because how dare this author imply that THEY are ableist when they write their favorite character using that specific characterization.

It didn't matter that the author allowed room for personal interpretation. It didn't matter that they noted something concerning about the entire fandom - people still thought they were attacking singular people.

Case 3: I wrote a fic about abortion in the FMA(b) fandom (actually I've written a weird amount of fics about abortion in a lot of fandoms, but alas) and I got hate comments for it. Because of that I addressed the bias in fandom against pro-choice depictions of pregnancies. I pointed out that the utter lack of abortion in many omegaverse stories or even mpreg or het romances, painted the picture of an unconscious bias that hurt people for whom abortion was the only option, the best possible ending. The response on the post itself was mostly positive, but I got anon hate.

(which I can unfortunately not show you since I deleted it in the months since)

And I'm not overly broken up about it, but it also underlines my point: by pointing at a general problem, a typical behavior, a larger trend... people feel personally attacked.

This inability to discuss sexism, ableism, racism, transphobia, etc in fandom without people turning defensive and hurt... well, it damages our ability to have these conversations at all.

Earlier I said YOU are not the problem - well, i think part of this discussion is acknowledging that: sometimes YOU are in fact part of the problem. And that's not the end of the world. But you can only recognize yourself as a cog in the machine, if you can examine your own actions, your own biases, your own preferences critically and without becoming defensive.

And, again, this is not to keep you from finding comfort in your favorite characters and headcanons. This is also not to say that I am free of biases and internalized bigotries - I am also very much a part of the system. A part of the problem.

This is so you can comfortably ask yourself "but why is there no abortion in this universe?" or "why are my favorite black characters always the top in my slash ships?" or "why do I write this disabled character as childish and in need of help?" - and sometimes the answer is "because I am disabled and I want comfort", and that's fine too.

There is no one shoe fits all in fiction. There is not a single trope that captures all members of a group. There is no single stereotype that isn't also someone's comfort. No group is a monolith, no experienced all-encompasing (or entirely unique).

There is never a simple answer.

But that doesn't mean you should stop questioning your own biases, your own ideals.

Especially, if you grow defensive if someone points out that a certain trend you engage in might be racist. Or sexist. Or queerphobic. Or fucking ableist.

*this does not mean negate the general anti-blackness perpetuated by most cultures as a result of colonialism and slavery

[miss-rum-hee]

I wish I had screenshots of my Twitter thread on this one before it got suspended (and a few other ugly humanizations) because it really does encapsulate the issues I had with these....

Twitter really harassed a 16 year old into deleting their account for making my little pony characters black, did people forget that they don’t have canon races? mlp is also about being nice to each other, sucks that people in the mlp fandom don’t know that

Pretty sure the real reason why people had been harping on it was not because of the race itself, but the it pushes hard on ugliness and faults on the body/face. The excessive use of labels and flag colors that could contradict one another. And the art itself is kind of shit tbh. Something about the cheeks, neck, and teeth bother me.

Because what is wrong with wanting art to be like this

Or this

[clotpolesonly]

okay so i've been seeing some love for the show's latino!Gansey and i just gotta say, i can't relate aldfkjgh

no shade, i get that we're all desperate for minority rep, and it's really nice to get a latino character that breaks so many stereotypes (wealthy, universally respected, an academic, beloved by literally everyone but without being unduly sexualized, etc etc)

HOWEVER

i feel like people think Gansey as he's written in the books is a blank slate that they can project onto and racebending him won't/shouldn't/didn't change anything about him, but honestly i think that's a bit of lowkey racist take in and of itself? in a way?? in the sense that it plays into the white supremacist idea of whiteness being the default (aka nothing) instead of being its own something with identifiable characteristics.

book!Gansey does have a cultural identity and very strong cultural influences that play a crucial role in his characterization, and that cultural identity is WASP

(the irony is not lost on me alkdfjgh)

White Anglo Saxon Protestants, essentially the "ruling class" of the US for centuries, The Establishment™, etc. they're known primarily for being wealthy, snobbish, and repressed. they're the kind of people who like to think they're Good People but are soooo concerned with image and reputation that they'd rather perpetuate harm than admit they were ever responsible for it.

Mrs Gansey guilt tripping her son for missing her fundraiser instead of, ya know, being worried that he's not responding to any of her texts?

Gansey literally fleeing the country as a PRETEEN because his ptsd made him messy and embarrassing for the family?

his very first thought upon being fatally stung by hundreds of hornets being that he was going to interrupt and ruin the party?

that entire family luncheon where Gansey is constantly on red alert, searching for passive aggression in every single comment (and finding it), reading into every word for What They're Actually Saying Without Really Saying?

that is so WASP it should be in the dictionary next to the term!!! being presentable is more important than communicating directly, at all times, and the protestant roots mean that Suffering In Silence is a VIRTUE. it's a sin to need things and a double sin to ask for them. god forbid you impose upon another person, it's contractually required that you suffer quietly for a respectable amount of time while you drop the subtlest of hints in the direction of whoever you want help from in the hopes that they will do the good respectable charitable christian thing and offer you that help out of the goodness of their hearts, and if they don't, then you suffer some more and also nurse a lifelong grudge against them in the most passive aggressive unspoken festering way possible.

being raised in that culture informs everything about Gansey's personality and how he interacts with other people and forms relationships.

and it also informs Gansey's relationship with his wealth and his position!! Gansey's class guilt is like half of his character arc!!! and we can't pretend that class and race aren't tied together, okay, we can't get away with pretending that race doesn't play a part in people's place in society. for the Ganseys to be old money like they are, and old virginian money at that, to make them anything other than white introduces a whole HOST of complications that, frankly, the show is not engaging with.

the showrunners have made so much noise about diversifying the cast since the books were so white, and they're reeeeaaally patting themselves on the back for this, but it doesn't feel like they put any THOUGHT into how this change would actually affect the characterization!!!!

do they think that a latino in the upper echelons of the (white) (republican) virginian old money social scene wouldn't have a different experience? a different relationship with their money, and with their own heritage, and with other pocs?? that it wouldn't affect and complicate Gansey's relationship with Blue, especially with how much stronger they've leaned into Blue's connection with her cultural heritage and her political activism and how vocal she's been about intersectionality as a poor non-christian mixed race Black woman in appalachia.

Gansey is a latino man who can't speak spanish living in a mansion on a former slave plantation and Blue doesn't have anything to say about that?? Gansey doesn't have any extra layer of guilt or shame about his disconnect from his own culture?? Gansey is so full of guilt and insecurity about so many things, but there's been NO indication so far of how his race intersects with that.

for them to make this kind of huge change, i would've needed to see them really commit to it and show me that they understand the sociological implications of this decision. and they haven't done that. i know we've only gotten season 1, and hey, maybe i'm wrong and there'll be an arc about it somewhere in season 2, but so far i'm wholly disappointed. it really feels like they slipped it in there just to say that they had and then functionally ignored it aside from that one spanish-speaking scene.

what was the POINT except to pat themselves on the back??

[fastlikealambo]

rant time

black tv shows cancelled left and right, few to no black characters on fantasy/supernatural tv that are NOT leads, and anything superhero related involving people of color is dumped and barely promoted only to be reviewed bombed and then the blame is placed on black directors or audiences if the movie doesn't do well.

"you should just make something original, no more racebending characters!"

when black creatives do that, it gets cancelled.

one of my favorite authors was talking about how her book wasn't up for an award because her book "didn't say something about the world." her book was about a black queer girl with plant powers and black queer parents.

or another author who got a comment on her own page from a reader saying that she couldn't connect with black main characters, our books need to be more education and that black authors should be more like asian authors ( I kid you not, I'm gonna link it because my jaw dropped.) giving a combo of racist sentiments and leaning into the model minority myth.

why even in fantasy books are we not free from the burden of education and handholding?

issa rae is right and I'm so fucking tired.