Hazel Levesque Deserves Better

jason: calls reyna “rey” when she’s upset and hurting so she knows he’s truly there for her because nobody else calls her that except him

me:

“The latest: We do not yet have an official “green light,” but things are moving along nicely in my estimation. The pilot script has now made it through the very highest levels of Disney execs and everybody likes it. We have met with the studio heads and streaming service execs, and we feel a lot of love and support from Disney, which I really appreciate! Our core production team (me, Becky, our show-runners and our fellow producers) have spent the last year learning to work together efficiently and effectively (through Zoom, of course). I’m delighted to say that our thinking is aligned in terms of what we want this show to be, and I remain confident we will make something great for you all to watch. Again … it just takes time. A lot of time. Imagine how complicated you think making a TV show would be. Multiply that times one hundred. It is even more complicated than that. And our process, from what I’ve been told, has been relatively easy! It’s fascinating though, and I’m learning a ton.

Right now, we are starting to plan next steps so we can give our partners at the studio and streaming service a good comprehensive picture of what this show will require. What’s the first season look like? (Hint: It will follow the plot of The Lightning Thief). What will the budget look like? (Hint: Good TV ain’t cheap. Quality-wise, this has to stand toe-to-toe with Disney+ hits like Wandavision and Mandalorian.) Who do we have in mind for directors? (Hint: I can’t give you any hints, but we are having conversations about this.) Casting? (No, we are still not there yet, but we have begun to talk about how the process will work when we do get there.) At a guess, I would say we have a couple more months of these conversations and planning meetings before we get our finalized game plan and (hopefully) get approval to move forward. I am optimistic it will happen. There is a lot of excitement and momentum, and it really helps that Disney understands just how wonderful and massive a fanbase Percy Jackson has, so thank you all for that! I will, as always, keep you posted, but if you see other information or “inside scoops” floating around social media, remember it is just clickbait. What I’ve told you above is as much as anyone knows, including me.”

Now, if we take a mosey on over to the official wiki page for Sadie, we see a few things. First of all, take a look at two of the pictures that Riordan himself okayed and allowed to be published and represent his work. From left to right we have Ridzel, Caparo, and the artist for the graphic novel, Orpheus Collar’s depiction of Sadie. 

Do we see a problem? Personally, for me, it’s glaringly obvious. Sadie looks completely white. 

This ties back into an important thing to be aware of when consuming media. While these artists might have gotten the go ahead from Riordan, Riordan’s go ahead is racist. Riordan’s depictions of Sadie as a white woman are violently racist. 

Throughout literary history, protagonists have always shared features with their mothers. This adds a nurturing element to character, one where we, as the readers, subconsciously understand and connect that the protagonist shares the same, loving traits, as their parents. We see it with in J.K. Rowling’s world-recognized work, Harry Potter, with Harry’s green eyes constantly being compared to how he looked like his mother’s. 

With Sadie, her eyes symbolize the only connection, other than a few blurry pictures, she has to her mother. Personally, I have an essay to write on Paradis Bleu and the symbolism of blue and how it shows loneliness, so I’m not going to sit here and explain that for tumblr and not for my degree. 

But what can be taken away is this: some things are done for symbolism. Some things are racist. Rick Riordan refusing to admit that Sadie Kane has a black father and therefor, because of punnet squares, will have black features, is racist. Rick Riordan forcing this image of a white woman, who bears more resemblance to a white woman than her own brother, down the faces of thousands of mixed children who are searching for representation, is racist. It is violent, it is knowing, and it is damaging. No one here is innocent. We all read the same books. We all understood and fell in love with the same books. 

We cannot excuse racism, especially the racism of a man who claims to be diverse and claims to be an ally. 

I’ve also found some video essays that relate to this topic. There are so many good TED Talks relating to this. 

Here is your answer

The first problem within this entire mess of a post is the actual author of the book itself thinking it’s okay to link Harriet Tubman and the plague that is slavery to a fictional story about Gods and Goddesses and their children to explain hard hitting historical events such as slavery and the Underground Railroad.

“Why isn’t it okay?” You ask? It isn’t okay because it downplays the history, the horror and the pain that was American Slavery into some fun story about a woman who was using a fictional maze to ‘help people out’.

The second problem, as a result of these books, is that people within this fandom or people who have read the books now thinking that it is perfectly okay to say things like “I want a book about Harriet Tubman as a Hermes kid!” As well as not being able to process real life situations outside of the fictional lense.

@halfbloodsnet​ capture-the-flag round 5: social media 

               ↳ the official CHB account on Instagram 

In a world where none of the characters died and demigods get to live their ordinary teenager lives while saving the world at the same time. 

CHB logo design credit: @romangod (x)

Imagine if you had….ADHD.

Imagine if you’ve never had any representation at ALL and then there’s a show. Maybe 40% of all the characters have ADHD in that show.

YAY!

Amazing!

Spectacular!

But all the ADHD characters are depicted as flighty, stupid, and vapid.

Wouldn’t you be pissed off? Wouldn’t you go to the author’s Twitter and ask them why?

That’s the experience of being a POC in fandom.

Rick Riordan added a LOT of POC in his books. But 90% of them play roles set up to prop up the white coded/white characters and they’re racist stereotypes.

If you want to know why Piper iand other characters of color are racist stereotypes look at @tsigililimclean post and @bunkernine and @hazelmagix and @ghost-and-gears and SO MANY MORE BLOGGERS OF COLOR.

Honestly, the fact that white fandom wants to go back to the way things were when they were freaking eleven is a sign of immense immaturity and a lack of reading comprehension.

You think us poc WANT to cancel Rick Riordan? Really? I don’t, okay? 

I wish I had the privilege of living in content incomprehension. I wish I could ignore the way my stomach dropped at 11 when I read Hazel’s image description, because I wanted gold eyes and light brown hair. I really wanted to have those features because I felt like my black hair and dark brown eyes weren’t good enough.

I became insecure about my eyes and started envying the features of my white peers.

That is the negative effect of Rick Riordan’s writing. That is the negative effect and we’re talking about ONE character.

@charlesbeckendorf has made a post about Samirah Al Abbas’ bad depiction in the Magnus Chase books. Sooo many bloggers of color have talked about this over and over and over again.

however, a lot of you aren’t that little kid anymore. you are grown enough to look back at that work and say “huh. that’s not right.” what’s worse is that it’s not like the harmful racism and stereotypes are *hidden* in the books and nobody talks about it- because thats an outright lie. LOTS of people talk about it- and those people are often poc who were forced to understand harmful stereotypes, racism, and microaggressions at an extremely young age. poc are forced to learn this stuff in regard to life because they experience racism in all they do, and you can’t learn about it when it concerns a book series?

it is incredible that anyone could hear a poc say “hey this is fucked!” and ignore that. no one is blaming you for not understanding the racism in these books when you read them as a kid. what you are being criticized for is choosing not to listen or acknowledge it, instead getting angry because “these are my favorite books”.

for a lot of poc, these book are fun too!!! they’re in this fandom for a reason!!! however there is a startling amount of harmful issues that need to be addressed, except voices from poc are often silenced and ignored. to blatantly ignore these criticisms is immature, like op said.