i doubt that many lestat fans are following me. but if any of you are reading this, i wanna ask you to disentangle yourself and your friends from these fucked up fandom spaces. and i know, i know, most of you feel like... "my fandom space is good, no one i know is like that", but reality is... when i see fucked up anti-black posts from lestat stans, those likes are not coming from nowhere. the problem of "quiet agreement" is very very relevant, and it something that makes vocal racists braver.
if you wanna listen, again, please always listen to what black fans of the show have to say. if you noticed a pattern where black fans says that someone is doing/saying something anti-black, but your first reaction is "nah, it doesn't feel that way", you're wrong. you're being defensive. it's understandable feeling, but you need to get over it.
here's what i noticed in "quiet agreement" fan spaces and what's my advice to people who still care and wanna do better:
1) learn what anti-black microaggressions are, how they manifest, how they tend to looks like. i know that a very few people are hyperaware of social cues, dog whistles and underlying implications, that's why sometimes it needs research.
2) start paying attention to the patterns of behavior. if someone you follow always gets into fights with black fans, even if the topic "about fictional characters", it's a huge red flag. start looking into it.
3) start approaching what bipoc say in a good faith. get over your irritation that they don't like the same character you do. get over your insecurity when they talk about nebulous "white fans". racism is a real-world problem, your personal feelings is something you can work through.
4) if you feel like you're being accused unfairly, ask for elaboration. some people wouldn't wanna explain it to you, but many would.
5) stop closing your eyes during rare instances of awful behavior. if someone makes cool funny posts about your favorite character and only "sometimes" acts in racist and unhinged way, you can't simply wait out these periods of time. you need to say something to them or you need to stop interacting. there are plenty of people who post funny things without also being awful people.
6) stop giving grace to people over and over again. if it's repeated offense, no amount of excuses will fix the situation. stop supporting people like that even if they were perfectly nice to you in the past, it's not worth it. you don't want to be associated with them.
7) cut ties with bad people publicly. let your friends know why you decided to stop supporting certain people. it'll help many others to realize that they've been closing their eyes on awful things too.
snowghoul
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