Grayson

Tiktok user thehypegoblin faces the camera wearing a dark elf cleric cosplay. A robotic voice reads the text on the screen: "If your tits had a headphone jack what would they play?" She shoves an aux cord into her cleavage. From under the corset comes the audio "Suffocation! No breathing!" from Last Resort. She shrugs, nods, and makes a yep, that seems right face.

Cut to user casespotleson facing the camera looking inquisitive. He shoves an aux cord under his shirt collar. From under the shirt comes the audio "But you didn't have to cut me off" from Somebody That I Used to Know. He retorts, "Yes I did. Stop whining."

Charles Xavier is privileged as fuck. Yeah, he's disabled, but that didn't happen until he was a grown man. He's white, male, cishet, Christian, well-educated, and wealthy. He spent years just traveling the globe for the fun of it. Charles Xavier is the epitome of privilege. Charles Xavier has never entered a room where his voice wasn't heard. He has always had that buffer where things come easily to him because of who he is. He expects that if he asks nicely, humans will treat mutants with respect. Of course he does! No one has ever taken an aspect of his identity and used it as a reason he shouldn't be listened to! He truly believes mutants will be fine if they help humans and follow all the laws and have conversations with men like Senator Kelly.

So the way Charles handles the treatment of mutants is totally different from how Magneto handles it. Magneto is Jewish and lived with Romani people for a while (presenting as Romani, while not being Romani himself). He watched his country turn against his family for being Jewish. His wife left him when she found out he was a mutant (also he killed a whole ton of people, but w/e). His daughter was murdered because he was a mutant. He has no belief that he will be accepted. He expects that his mutation will be rejected, and he's right. He expects the hatred that he grew up with. Magneto watched his father, a WW1 vet, ask a military friend for help only to be rejected and told that he was wrong for even asking, that he would expect an Aryan to treat him like anyone else. Magneto knows what happens when you ask nicely and play by their rules: you get put in camps. He knows that the legal system made by humans doesn't work. He knows it can be abandoned at any moment.

If someone's read of the character requires that Xavier come from unquestioned privilege, I really wonder how much of the history of the character that person can really understand. Since the 60s, common wisdom, and repeated statements from various writers, has been that "Xavier is MLK and Magneto is Malcolm X". How does that at all square with this idea that Charles has to be white?

Just off the top of my head, you could have a Charles Xavier who grew up as the child of 1960s civil rights leaders who were able to make political careers from their activism, and thus experienced a great deal of relative privilege in terms of his economic status, his education, his connection to powerful people from a young age. This is someone who gets as high in the world as a Black man is allowed to get, and yet he is never allowed to be really equal. The system has worked for him, most of the time, most of his life, and so he believes that the system can be made to work for everybody. (The more I write this out, the more I am saying, "kind of a VP Harris, tbh, with the very significant gender difference.") That is his contrast with Magneto, his belief in humanity and existing human institutions: he believes that what exists can be reformed and mutants can achieve freedom by that reform. That is the core of his conflict with Magneto, not his whiteness.

And then you put that up against a Black Jewish Magneto who has seen the best and the worst of humanity in all the parts of who he is — the solidarity and the racism within American Judaism along with everything else — and who believes that what exists must be destroyed for mutants to achieve real freedom.

There are so many very interesting ways to approach that contrast, and absolutely none of them require either one of them to be white. I would actually argue that a biracial Xavier played by someone like Esposito, who was born in Denmark, lived in Rome until he was 5, attended a private Catholic college in New York, and then struggled as an actor after his divorce due to being typecast as a "thug" until he actually actively contemplated killing himself for the insurance money to provide for his kids might bring something new to the role that speaks to where a lot of people are now. We literally have the Supreme Court saying with a straight face that "racism is over and we don't need the VRA anymore," and then handing the keys to the racism bulldozer to Louisiana, you know? What does "being equal and being free" mean in a world where we get a Black President and VP but it's followed by legal maneuvers that will probably decimate Black legislative representation for generations, and we get "marriage equality" but disabled people are still locked out of marriage in many cases, plus the fact that they lost Obergefell just meant that Republicans turned their hatred onto trans people as their next target? Can you meaningfully "reform" a system like that, or must it be razed to the ground?

The essential question of the X-Men is and always has been "reform the system" vs "destroy the system," and absolutely nothing in that question requires Xavier to be white.

Clothing company Patagonia is currently sueing drag queen Pattie Gonia for "irreparable” harm to their brand.

To be clear; Pattie named herself after the region in South America.

So Pattie is asking people to politely ask Patagonia to drop the lawsuit.

I'm extending the invitation to all of you, because sueing a drag queen for 'infringement' in the current political cultural landscape is vile. Especially a drag queen who has raised millions of dollars for non-profits, uses her platform to raise awareness for climate activism, and fully aligns with Patagonia's apparent climate-conscious mission statement.

They're claiming they're sueing for $1. They're actually asking her to stop using her name, and pay over $1 million in legal fees. They're straight up harassing her.

In contrast, drag queen Jan Sport has a Jansport bag line. It's that easy to just... work with a queen.

Anyway. Be respectful(ish), but feel free to be annoying on Patagnoia's socials, asking them to 'DROP THE LAWSUIT'

Dr. Gibbitz

Dr. Amon Skagerakk Fredrickshaven

Dr. Donald Gorthian

Ronald Von Momnaldberg

Dr. Natasha Nesciantskidovich

Vicenzo de Alimamala Corningston III 

Professor Jerry Gustav Mangledink

Horace Marmingblat Wimplestein, Jr.

Dr. Chazz Fazzledopenhoffer

Vater Oorlag

Dr. Milminaman-lanilim-swinwamly

Dr. Gibbitz again (but for some reason it’s spelled “Gibbetz” in the season 2 subtitles)

Melmord Fjordslorn

Dr. Ralphus Galkinsmelter

Dr. Amomolith Chesterfield

Wilmore Unduntingiminen

Dr. Ninmiltrid Fmiltindryden

Dr. Imptnin Pmiltson

Dr. Tormindbind Mickmildididindnin

Dr. Krumpworth Chponglasia IV, Jr.

Dr. Borgermu Barret Swingdworth 

Dr. Richard Reinhold Rnawighiwowpj

Captain Slufgyflaysid

Dr. Bartholomew Grahsrihajul

Dr. Alsajahb Fifborgiltk 

Dr. Fsmilejera Irlelwoll