One thing Iâve seen happens in this fandom- and honestly sometimes in real life discussions about Hudson too- is that people end up flattening all POC experiences into one universal experience.
Race absolutely matters. Racism absolutely exists. But different racial groups are stereotyped in different ways, and those stereotypes can produce completely different social expectations.
For example, Iâve seen people criticize Rachel and Jacob for joking about Hudson being unintelligent because heâs a person of color. If Hudson were Black, I would understand that criticism more, because there is a long history of anti-Black stereotypes portraying Black people as unintelligent. But Hudson is Asian. Asian men are stereotyped in almost the opposite way. Theyâre often assumed to be intelligent, studious, and academically successful. The stereotype is still racist, but itâs a different stereotype. It doesnât suddenly become an anti-Asian stereotype just because weâve replaced âAsianâ with the broader category of âPOC.â
The same thing happens constantly in fanfiction with Shane.
A lot of writers portray Shane as being afraid to fight because he knows heâll be judged more harshly than white players. I understand where that idea is coming from, but as a black person Iâve never found it particularly convincing.
If Shane were black, that analysis would make more sense to me. Black men are often stereotyped as aggressive, which means behavior that is considered acceptable from white athletes is often interpreted differently when black ones do it.
But asian men occupy a very different place in the racial imagination. Theyâre frequently stereotyped as passive, non-threatening, weak, nerdy, emasculated, etc. If racial stereotypes were influencing Shaneâs approach to hockey, I could just as easily imagine the opposite dynamic: feeling pressure to prove heâs aggressive enough to belong. Maybe heâs fighting TOO much.
But that doesnât make sense for Shane. Heâs the leagueâs golden boy. Heâs polite, media-friendly, and heavily inspired by Sidney Crosby. Heâs a superstar. Fighting is often delegated to players lower on the depth chart whose role is specifically to provide physicality. Star players generally arenât expected to be enforcers. Teams usually want their elite talent scoring goals, not sitting in the penalty box after dropping the gloves.
So Shane not fighting much doesnât strike me as evidence of racial pressure. It strikes me as evidence that heâs Shane Hollander.
Crosby is a useful comparison here. For years, people mocked him for not being physical enough (and for talking to the refs too much). They questioned his toughness and masculinity. They called him âCrybaby Crosbyâ or âCindy Crosby.â Fans edited photos of him in dresses or makeup. The criticism wasnât really about hockey. The joke was that he wasnât a âreal man.â
And thatâs a white player.
Imagine how much worse those conversations could become if the player in question were Asian.
Thatâs the kind of racial dynamic I could actually see affecting Shane, not him worrying about people thinking heâs too aggressive, but people questioning whether heâs aggressive ENOUGH.
Thereâs a good chance that if Shane fought exactly like many white players, he probably still wouldnât be viewed as tough enough. Meanwhile, if a Black player fought exactly like those same white players, he might be interpreted as more aggressive.
People often criticize Rachel for not doing much racial analysis in the books. But sometimes fandom fills that gap with racial analysis that feels disconnected from both hockey culture and the specific stereotypes that affect different racial groups.
Not every POC experience is interchangeable.
A stereotype that affects Black athletes is not automatically a stereotype that affects Asian athletes. A stereotype that affects Latino athletes is not automatically a stereotype that affects Indigenous athletes.
If weâre going to talk about race- and we should- we have to talk about the actual racial dynamics at play, not just substitute âperson of colorâ for a more specific analysis.
Sometimes no racial analysis is better than bad racial analysis.
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