I encourage everyone to read this, especially if you are white. I made this post long enough to talk about the points in decent detail, but short enough to be digestible. It is about the different ways the nonhuman communities make people of color feel unwelcome and why.
My askbox is open usually all the time, so I'm also open to answering questions about this. I want people to read. I want people to ask questions when they don't understand. I even want people to do research on their own time to learn more (and I mean actually researching and not asking ChatGPT to think for you).
Where To Begin
"Wow, this is a really long post on the police dog discourse", except this isn't a post on the police dog discourse. That topic is more of a springboard for me to segue into where exactly things go wrong and how it causes people of color to feel unsafe participating in the communities (which can suck, because nonhumanity can be very isolating with no one to talk to about it!). So if you feel as if this has been done to death and are thinking "oh boy, this again", I encourage you to continue to read the post all the way to the end. With that, this leads us to...
The Dilution of Topics
It's important to understand that when something like this comes up, POC are chiming in to explain the situation and how it affects them. It is not the time to bring in unrelated things in an attempt to use that as credentials for weighing in. I'll use the K-9/police dog example again because it's honestly such a good discourse to dissect for this. The main focus of the conversation was between black and brown people (not exclusively, because other POC included, but mainly) and those who identify as police/military dogs (therians, otherkin, whathaveyou). Not anyone else.
"As someone with a problematic (or villain) kintype--"
This isn't about you.
"I'm police or military creature from another world--"
This isn't about you.
"I acknowledge it but don't glorify it--"
This isn't about you.
What these comments do is not only watering down what our actual concerns are, but it speeds up the "internet telephone" until the conversation morphs into something different entirely. This happens all the time when people of color try to bring to light something that bothers us. Everyone wants to make it about themselves but it's not about everyone. The topic of "Glorification of these institutions that actively harm isn't good" is not the same as "What kintypes/theriotypes/etc. should people be allowed to have?", but it was turned into that very quickly because way too many people failed to realize and understand what isn't about them. Many, with a quickness, found a way to victimize themselves.
All that is without even getting into people adding exclusions that were not originally there. "This discourse is US-centric and doesn't apply to other countries" is not only incorrect but you need to educate yourself on how police brutality (and police brutality that utilizes attack animals) exists outside of the United States. This isn't even just for the dog thing. This also extends to racism in general because people love to talk about how not racist their country is (when in fact it often is).
White Privilege and Nonhuman Superiority
This section is probably going to ruffle some feathers, but if it does ruffle your feathers then it might be time to start deconstructing why exactly that is. White privilege in particular is important to point out here because it is common to assume that privilege is a "balance scale". Privilege doesn't cancel out from marginalization. You can be queer, or disabled, or neurodivergent, etc. and still benefit from white privilege. I point all of that out because the nonhuman communities have a large portion that are in one or many of these marginalized groups, and the assumption that it "cancels out" white privilege may be part of the driving force behind what's covered in this post.
An easy starting example of white people underestimating exactly how deep things can go is the entire gatekeeping discourse about defining therianthropy as "wears gear and does quadrobics". How this whole thing started with people insisting therianthropy required these performative aspects, I'm not even gonna pretend to know. What I do know is that it is a form of gatekeeping popular on photo and video-based social media websites like Instagram and TikTok that then subsequently bleeds over into other places like Tumblr and Discord group chats.
"Real therians wear gear and run around outside on all fours" makes me desperately hope for young POC to be careful. Black people especially have a disproportionately higher chance of being arrested or shot. I never want anyone to be pressured to do dangerous things from these imaginary guidelines on what makes nonhumanity "valid". It's exclusionary from both a "therianthropy doesn't require any of this" standpoint and a "you are overestimating how safe this activity is to do" standpoint. This isn't fearmongering, I'm not saying that this is never safe. I'm saying that those who are unable to safely do it may subsequently feel like that disqualifies them from identifying as a therian. Similar things can be said for other minorities other than racial ones, but that's a different topic (and I encourage anyone wanting to talk about that to make their own posts about it, rather than using this one).
The insistence that nonhumanity should have "racial colorblindness" and "be above politics/apolitical" are also very privileged takes. Identifying as nonhuman doesn't erase the fact that most of us still live in and are affected by human society (whether some want to be or not) and people of color especially do not have the freedom to completely divorce ourselves from the world because our very existence has been made political. Not only that, but culture is still important to a lot of people as well. We are not all the same just because we identify as nonhuman. We are not a monoculture. We are different and there needs to be room to celebrate that.
The aspect of "everything is for everyone" that often comes with white privilege appears in even blatant ways. I've witnessed people in the community saying that closed cultures are silly. Although slightly less common today (and by slightly I mean very slightly), at one point it was common for people to constantly appropriate North/South American indigenous cultures because their understanding of it was as shallow and stereotypical as "Pocahontas Colors of the Wind". I've even had someone say "well it's not our fault black people are so trendy" directly in a conversation about how black people regularly have our culture taken from us when we're barely even allowed to have it ourselves without being looked down on. It's gross and insensitive, and the very reason so many people of color leave these nonhuman communities. "Do whatever you want forever" exists within reason.
Identifying as nonhuman isn't an excuse to look down on humans either, especially in the misanthropic sense. Being anti-human and blaming humanity as a whole for the results of colonization (species extinction, habitat loss, climate change, etc.) goes against the marginalized people that have been harmed historically and currently and lumps them into the same category as their oppressors simply by existing.
It is Always That Deep
The last point that I'll use to close this whole post is that I can't stress enough how often us POC are told again and again and again that what we are seeing is either not real or irrational, or "just drama".
I remember the reaction to "maybe don't say you're an entity from a closed culture if you're not from that culture".
I remember the reaction to "don't use monkey/ape as a derogatory term for humans".
I remember the reaction to "don't glorify institutions that actively harm and kill us".
I remember the reaction to "please don't say dehumanization is good actually".
People will fight tooth and nail to speak over and ignore POC voices almost as a knee-jerk reaction. Then maybe if we're lucky, after they're done arguing, they'll do some research and come back later with an "oops my bad". I'm glad they learn in those cases, but that's not acceptable. Listening first is important, ask questions (respectfully) if you have to, but it should not be a fight-or-flight situation.
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sometimes I feel sort of bad about being a selkie and indigenous since, in my culture, there's nothing similar to a selkie at all, and in the past, very little acknowledgment of pinnipeds. I worry my community won't accept me, that my idea of my species is somehow invalidated by my indigeneity. I don't think that's true, though. I don't think being a selkie detracts from my indigenous identity. I think it's one of the many parts that make up me, and 'me' is indigenous. While being a selkie may not be connected to my culture, I've found ways to incorporate parts of my species into my beliefs and rituals in ways that integrate seamlessly with my indigeneity. I've found indigenous artisans from other tribes selling seal skin items, members of other tribes who want to share their stories with other indigenous groups in exchange for stories from them, and gotten to learn so much about the history of pinnipeds in indigenous groups, even if it's not my own. I don't think that's something that I should overlook when it comes to how being a selkie can work in an indigenous structure- learning about these things, speaking with these artists, has given me a newer appreciation for my species that I never had before, all thanks to indigenous people across the globe who are sharing their knowledge. In working on prayer and sacrifice I have incorporated my species, and in art I have references to my species and my indigeneity simultaneously.
I think, especially as a native who doesn't feel "native enough", it can be easy to fall for the idea that every part of your identity must inherently be culturally tied- that all you can do is research and learn, you can never do anything that diverges from it, you cannot have a complex identity unless it is some fully from within your culture with no outside ties. But, that's not true! I am myself. My species is part of myself, and 'myself' is indigenous. In practice, in blood, by community. I am an indigenous Mexican selkie :) isn't that awesome
Is it appropriate to tag reblogs of alterhumans talking about the racism they’ve faced with the alterhuman bipoc tags? I ask because I figure some folks might want to use the tag as a place to find community and not worry about racism.
Please only contribute to the poll if you are a non white alter/nonhuman
Watching the K9 / police dog therian discourse over the past few days feels like a microcosm of what I've been talking about and the way the topic has both derailed and some of the responses it has gotten have been very predictable. Everyone and their grandma wants to put in their 2 cents instead of reading or, god-forbid, doing research.
That being said though, I hope the train of us BIPOC speaking out against stuff like this doesn't stop. Even though it's kind of exhausting to do because people will either fight or "bean soup" it six ways to sunday.
I eventually want to make a long post (was gonna say "comprehensive" although idk if that's the right word) explaining the ways not only the therian community but nonhuman-identity communities in general generate unwelcome environments for non-white people. Because people expect it to be overt slur-throwing or whatever and it's not always. Privilege plays a huge part in it
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Autumn or Fox | She/It | Multiracial Indigiqueer | Disabled minor
Hi, Hi, Welcome to my little sideblog dedicated to my nonhumanity. For brevity, I am a transspecies, shapeshifting vampire with a tendency to favor some forms over others, hence this blog.
No "do not interact" — However, I would like to stray from discourse as much as possible in spite of some posts I may reblog, Wado!
Profile picture is Hurtig taken by Lasse Banksjö
Banner is Karel van Gaasbeek taken by Vkarel
hello! I just read your post about racism in alterhuman and nonhuman communities. I haven’t been in the community long myself but the amount of stuff I’ve seen of people just brushing off what is really problematic and harmful is ridiculous.
I wanted to ask, as a white Australian, what can I do to help make the alterhuman community safer or better for POC, or anything else that may help.
I often stay away from discussion like this because of either not knowing enough about the situation, or not wanting to be another white voice possibly taking away from the actual matter. but I realise that’s not really any better. I want to try to make a positive impact, even if I’m not really active or engaging in the community much (hence why I’m hiding behind anon),I still want to try.
sorry if this is a rude or insensitive ask, I thought reaching out and asking is better then doing nothing.
You're not the first person I've seen ask this and, don't get me wrong because I don't think this is a rude ask, but racism in alterhuman spaces isn't a niche "alterhuman-brand" racism, you'd have to learn in general how to spot and avoid it. It's all the same stuff you'd see outside of the communities, it's just addressed less because (in nonhuman spaces in particular) there's a "colorblind" mentality that doesn't do much good and is a form of racism in and of itself. I can't really point you to a singular source because I can't personally teach you the in's and out's of what racism and cultural appropriation are, and the damage that's done to POC both historically and currently. That's more than a singular Tumblr post can really do, since it's an extremely broad topic and moreso "historical and humanities education" territory.
Maybe that seems daunting and you're not sure where to start, but wherever you start I promise the knowledge is applicable. My advice is to start with one specific thing and research it a ton, rinse and repeat for things you encounter later on. For example, it used to be really popular among therians to call their theriotypes "totems/totem animals" or "spirit animals". From there you can research into "cultural appropriation of indigenous spiritual practices", the results won't be specific to therians but is applicable regardless.
As for what you can do actively, I'd say there's a fine line to walk because ofc it's good to call out these things when you see it, but also remember that you're white lol. Which might feel "what do you mean?", but I mean that don't feel the need to "come to the rescue" yk?
