Soap ♠️⚪️💜

I’m an optimist, but that doesn’t make me naive. Growing up Afro-Latina in the south taught me my fair share of what the world is. Some people get fed up with fighting, I see it everyday, and I understand how life beats people down into becoming numb and accepting that this is just how the world is. I know you can’t trust people in power to do the right thing, I know marvel will always follow the money first instead of good story telling. But I don’t think that means we are “being dramatic for nothing.”

There’s a reason I gravitate so heavily towards Sam Wilson. He reflects everything I’ve ever seen on myself, my view of the world, and a hope for a better tomorrow. And why wouldn’t you try your hardest to hope things can get better?

Passion is a big thing that fuels me. And that’s not something to be ashamed of. If you are passionate about something, shouldn’t you want it to get better, shouldn’t you demand more? Why not use your voice to expect more from corporations or media pieces that you enjoy?

When we become silent, when we simply shrug it off, we end up unconsciously co-signing that poor behavior and allowing it to continue. And this can apply to anything, not just media consumption but real life movements too.

So why can’t both things be true? Why do you assume I can’t know how marvel operates while also demanding more out of them? I don’t think anyone can afford to be silent anymore when bigotry is on the rise and being far too normalized.

I am so heavy on my defense for Sam Wilson and my dislike of thunderbolts because it mirrors so much of what we see in the real world. The arts often reflect life and can feed into biases of our own perception of reality. When the art is more comfortable appeasing white audiences and allowing for dude bro fans to continue spewing “finally no more DEI”, that then does not become just a marvel issue. It simply validates the feelings of bigoted assholes who hold these racist ideals.

To conflate this to just being another Steve/tony thing, completely disregards the very real undertones of race that play into the current dilemma we find ourselves in. It’s not just a dispute between 2 characters, it becomes a broader issue that permits the racism in this fandom to show itself front and center because they believe they finally have a valid reason to hate a black character who they have waited years to discredit. When slurs are hurled at you left and right for calling out the BS for what it is; It. Is. No. Longer. Just. A. Marvel. Issue.

I guarantee you, the people who are so comfortable being openly racist online because it gives them a sense of anonymity, hold those same racist beliefs IRL. They just might be more subtle about it. But given the state of the world rn and our rapid slow fall into facism, I wouldn’t be surprised if they were comfortable being just as racist in person.