Honestly, I feel like we really need to start addressing the treatment of Rahim (and to some degrees, Vahim) by white love Victor fans. The second season hasn’t even been out for a MONTH and it’s become so overwhelming to deal with the microagressive or blatantly ignorant comments towards him by the white members of the fanbase. Which is even more upsetting because this is a fandom for a show about a family of color + a mostly PoC cast.
Rahim/Vahim fans aren’t upset because their ship won’t be canon, but the way that white venji fans are going about invalidating the ship and Rahim’s character is borderline racist and we need to address it. It’s completely fine to not like the character, the ship, or even prefer him and Victor to be friends, but there’s a lot of reasons why PoC fans are exciting for the character and the relationship.
It’s so rare to see an interracial queer couple between two people of color. “Interracial couple” are almost always depicted as being white/(often light skinned)PoC, and the person of color is often never seen as the main character but as a love interest, underdeveloped, etc. Not that all of these characters fit that description, but think of popular interracial queer couples on tv: Rue/Jules, Nico/Karolina, Alec/Magnus, Eric/Adam, Santana/Britney. They fit this portrayal, and while we adore these couples and their characters it’s so invalidating to never see QPOC couples. Seeing White Venji fans try to claim that it’s more important to see an white/poc interracial couple than a QPOC couple is so ignorant.
There’s a reason why Rahim points out the lack of awareness that Benji gives to his and Victor’s relationship. It’s not to “drive a wedge” like white fans are claiming he is doing (which is portraying a person of color as antagonistic), but to illustrate that benji is both racially and economically privileged compared to Victor, and his failure to realize that is dismissive of Victor’s dilemma with his mother. In fact, there’s a whole scene where Benji “apologizes” to Victor for not giving his mother a benefit of a doubt for improving, then immediately continues that behavior until Victor calls him out for it. Benji isn’t a bad person, but his lack of willingness to recognize his privilege and see Victor is very reflective of the struggles QPOC experience in white spaces/relationships.
Love Victor is an unapologetic queer person of color story, and QPOC deserve to see theirselves in Victor, Rahim, and the relationship. And if Vahim doesn’t become canon that’s completely fine, but there shouldn’t be so much casual racism simply bc Rahim “threatens” your white favs position.
