Would you mind saying more about racism towards Paolo?
This is specifically in shipping contexts and particularly re: Solangelo/Will. Some of it is NSFW so I can't get super into it here. If you know racist tropes you can probably guess what they are. But most of what I've seen is combos of racist tropes + the usual minor characters being sidelined + disliked ships having the disliked party being framed as antagonistic. So a lot of things like:
Paolo is Will's evil/toxic/neglectful/etc boyfriend or ex
Paolo stole Will from Nico
Will is cheating on Nico with Paolo but it's Paolo's fault somehow???? or something?
Dealer's choice how much Paolo actually shows up in the fic itself - if he's just mentioned or backstory or actively present. Also stuff like:
Paolo speaking in broken English
Racist descriptors (I kid you not I once saw one where it described Paolo's kiss as "tasting like exotic spices" and I wanted to cry)
Other. Things. (Racist NSFW tropes). Including but not limited to "Will cheats on Nico with Paolo but Nico knows about it and is into it, specifically because it's Paolo."
Admittedly these are observations from a small microcosm (ao3 tags comprising of like 10 fics, 9 of which are tagged solangelo) and Paolo is not a very popular character (From TOA - not a huge fanbase/not many people read it, and also a minor character). So maybe what I've seen is skewed. But this is what I have seen. And it saddens me.
stormborns
tangentwithtanner
snowghoul
kaledo-art
prguitarman
theartofmadeline
areudirty
yousharknotpass
