Adeline Area

My question is, as a white fan, I don't really know when it's my place to speak up about whitewashing? Usually, I reblog/retweet/share posts written by other Black fans, but the fandom I'm in is from a very niche anime and is incredibly small, barely any popular at all in the West at large. The Black character is drawn so much paler than he is in the anime and it bothers me a lot. I want to avoid coming off as a white saviour, though, especially because I'm white while the artists who whitewash him are largely East Asian. I have always stopped supporting the artists who do whitwash him but I don't know if it's my place to call anyone out

It's always your place to speak up about whitewashing 👍🏾

To be clear- if you are informed enough, that is. If you don't know or aren't confident about what you're talking about, that's one thing. But whitewashing is probably the easiest form of fandom racism to point out. We can literally see when a character isn't as dark as they are in canon, or when their hair texture has been thinned, or their nose changed. We can TELL that the guy you drew is NOT the guy we're supposed to be seeing. I have a lesson about this in my pinned post!

Also, being a white savior is not "I'm speaking up when I see racism". That's not what that word means. Being a white savior is when you talk OVER Black people and people of color, as if you know more and better than them about their own experiences. It's treating us like we're children, like we're less intelligent, that we NEED you and your "wisdom". But both you and an East Asian artist are capable of antiblackness. Neither of you are the group in question. You don't have to be racist or condescending to them, but it is not racism or white saviorism to say "hey, this is whitewashing and that's not cool". Especially if there's no one else in the space saying anything, likely because they're afraid of rocking the boat.

And now, when I find myself making the mistake of going on Instagram, I get to see trans men themselves talking about how historically, trans men didn't do anything for the community, and so we need to step up now. Which, first of all, that isn't true, but second of all, if trans men's contributions are lesser, that makes a lot of sense if we listen to that trans woman talking about the trans men she was in community with back in the day. It's very hard to advance the trans cause if you're not alive.

This is racism.

Hii, I definitely know a few Asian artists! They draw lots of different types of people though, not just Asian (as I know them from the West lol) but if you want more specifically Asian-focused ones, I encourage you to explore Asian spaces and websites (with a translator if needed), because they really focus on Asian characters!

Jaded.draws on Instagram is super talented and draws South/Southeast Asians pretty often

Trung Le Ngyuen on Instagram, really really yummy art

Yueshenvi on Tumblr consistently posts Chinese-style drawings of characters and is very talented

Chuwenjie, or Kat Tsai is actually the one who made this viral guide!! She's a second generation Taiwanese American immigrant (like me!!) has worked on projects like Spiderman: Across the Spiderverse, I adore her and her works so much

SamDoesArts is a comedic artist/youtuber

@littlestpersimmon is a really talented artist you may be familiar with if you've found art we've reblogged on here before

@anumation is a Punjabi-Canadian game developer and artist!

@viyaura is a English/Chinese digital artist, youtuber, and art shop owner!

@south-asian-oc is a blog focused on South Asian art [the owner of the blog is white, but the blog itself is a collection of South Asian art and features South Asian artists]