back when midnight sun was officially announced, i wrote a post talking about my experience as a white fan of the series, back when i was younger and as i’ve grown and educated myself and interacted with the fandom more and more. now that tumblr lets you pin a post, i wanted to make a new post for resources, because the original post is a lot to scroll through and i wanted the links to be more accessible + easier to find.
under the cut is links to learn about racism (both in general and specifically anti- indigenous, as that is the largest issue present in the twilight books), ways to help, and links to check out various indigenous creators that deserve your support. always open to suggestions of links to add, in any of the categories. if i have linked your post/blog/website/etc. and you do not want it linked, please let me know and i will remove it asap. updated often.
most important: the quileute tribe is currently working on their move to higher ground project. many of their lands are currently in flooding danger zones, and this project is (as the name suggests) working to move to safer areas so they can continue to thrive. if you are able, please consider donating to that project here.
great news! the quileute tribe has begun construction on the new school.(x) there are still many phases to this project however, so please continue donating to them if you are able!
please let me know if a link is incorrect, if i made any type of error, or if there is a way this can be easier to navigate!
as of november 22nd, 2020, most links have been moved to a carrd! please go there for many, many resources that aren’t below.
twilight-specific education links:
the quileute tribe’s website: (x)
the truth vs. twilight, from the burke museum: (x) (x) (x) (x) (x) (x)
for more on fandom racism, check out fandomshatepeopleofcolor on tumblr. they have a tag for twilight which is a great resource to learn more details about the racism in twilight. this post is also quite helpful.
this post from kissingcullens which lists more resources and ways to help.
further information on anti- indigenous racism in media on doesthendnlive, again on tumblr. they have a tag on twilight, and specific posts on jacob, emily, and leah.
here’s an article on anti- indigenous racism and misogyny in twilight. (this website as a whole features a lot of articles on racism in media, i believe with a focus on anti-black media.)
the “twilight” renaissance, racism, and white feminism - a video essay on the racism in twilight and its fanbase. trigger warnings included at the beginning of the video. it is captioned, if needed.
RACE THROUGH BELLA’S EYES: CONTENDING RACIAL DEPICTIONS IN NEW MOON AND ECLIPSE
an article from the nyt on the affects the series has on the tribe
post by carlislesscarf about everything that’s wrong with the books
more organizations* to donate to:
australian indigenous education foundation
black rainbow
bridging the gap
california indian legal services
changetherecord
covid19 relief fund for navajo and hopi vamilies
first nations development institute
friends of pine ridge reservation
heyday berkely roundhouse
lakota people’s law project (thanks to @leahclearwaterdefensesquad for providing this link!)
meskwaki food sovereignty initiative
national indian child welfare association
the national indigenous women’s resource center
native american food sovereignty alliance
native americans in philanthropy
native american rights fund
navajo water project
news from native california magazine
soveriegn bodies institute
wôpanâak language reclamation project
big google doc of places
*these organizations are either directed to all indigenous people in a variety of ways, or for a different specific tribe. links to help the quileute are above the cut, with the higher ground project. if you know of more, PLEASE let me know!
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One of my favorite angles of Edward Cullen is what he brings to the concept of nature vs nurture.
Like. He's the classic self-hating broody vampire. Except I don't think Edward truly hates being a vampire. He's actually mostly okay about it before he meets Bella-- at most, he resents aspects of it. We get the sense that he sees all the instinctual stuff as undignified, and both the lived experience and prospect of eternity are dull, if a bit droll.
What Edward truly hates about himself are choices he's made: his Dexter era (and disappointing Carlisle with said Dexter era), dooming Bella's prospects of a 'natural' life, leaving Bella. The fact that he hates his own choices are much more rich than if smeyer had left him at simply hating what he is (struggling with extreme propensity for slaughter), because becoming a vampire was not his choice.
And sure, vampires are rational enough that any murder they commit (purposefully or otherwise) can weigh on them in an interesting way, except that for all the Cullens talk about not wanting to be monsters, Twilight has a very whoopsy-daisy approach to vampires that eat humans. Killing people is not a choice for Twilight vampires. It is the default. The lack of a choice, giving into natural urges results in dead humans. Killing is effortless; resistance is the uphill climb.
Despite this, taking literal pains to abstain from human blood is not seen as some base courtesy in the same vein of humans refraining to hurt each other when our emotions get charged (I really deserve some praise and awe for not beating my coworkers daily!!). No, they are framed as awesome and praiseworthy for their commitment (even though their commitment to preserving human life does not extend to removing their dangerous selves from society altogether). It's something they don't have to do to be considered decent; no one ever bemoans Jasper or Carlisle for having human-eating friends, with the exception of when it endangers Bella. Eating humans is on par with having a mildly cringe political belief in the Twilightverse. "Oh, yeah, my buddy Garrett.... killed more people than my immortal supercomputer brain can count, but otherwise he's cool." Bella thinks the world of the Cullens for their efforts, but in turn she's extremely forgiving of their mistakes. Jasper attacking her is (according to her) her fault for being in his house and full of juicy delicious blood.
So is Edward to resent Carlisle for forcing this nature onto him, or appreciate him for showing him how to deny these instincts and remain a benign actor in the world? Can Edward really attribute the blood on his hands to vampirism when his most ardent dream as a human was to join the Great War? If the war lasted to past 18th birthday and he hadn't died, there's no way of knowing if any blood would have been directly on his hands the way he can count how many people he ate as a vampire. But does that matter? He'd have contributed to a war machine that killed people as impersonally and callously as the average vampire picks their victims. At least vampirism gave him the means to be more deliberate in playing God, no?
But what playing God really his motivation, or was he simply raised to believe that war=glory? It's almost definitely the latter, and he never asked to be raised that way (further complication: his own mother tried to sway him away from enlisting), so how does that stack up to the killer instincts of vampirism?
Basically I love how Edward is semi-aware that he was always doomed to be a killer, yet in the face of the ineffable forces/concepts of nature and nurture, he chooses to believe "actually I just suck as a person". #1 character of all time
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bybmlwlamnvdbtwspolaratysamslamsewoftwbtwbwywgwtmhfothewbnhcbmewbbtlicstsaatwnmrfa: before you, bella, my life was like a moonless night. very dark, but there were stars, points of light and reason… and then you shot across my sky like a meteor. suddenly everything was on fire; there was brilliancy, there was beauty. when you were gone, when the meteor had fallen over the horizon, everything went black. nothing had changed, but my eyes were blinded by the light. i couldn’t see the stars anymore. and there was no more reason, for anything.
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