but one of the most hurtful reactions in the wake of this has been "it was socially acceptable in 2001! no one thought it was bad then!"

so I'm calling bullshit on that. personally I was a child in 2001 and I had no idea what blackface and brownface were. however, based on what older people of colour and research have told me, I've come to the following conclusion

people of colour have been calling these acts racist for decades. maybe white people thought it was socially acceptable then, but for most people of colour, racist face paint has been bad from day one

so honestly, white people need to stop saying that this extremely racist act was socially acceptable in 2001 (and yes, even the 80s and 90s)

So I looked this up and about two minutes into the uncensored music video on youtube there is black/brownface. As important as it is that there are fat women and trans women in the video, like 99% of the dozens of women depicted in it are white. There is no excuse for either.

Sorry, but we’re going to specifically NOT recommend that song or artist, and rather recommend that our followers stay away from it.

The AssCreed fandom’s being racist trash? That doesn’t surprise me at all. Brownface and blackface are all the rage among Assassin’s Creed cosplayers, and it’s a pretty common practice among Italian cosplayers (and Italy’s pretty well known for its anti-Black racism).

If you were in the fandom back in 2012, there were plenty of white cosplayers and AssCreed fans (white, Black, and non-Black) bending backward and twisting themselves in knots to defend big name cosplayer Rick Boer (who used zwarte Piet as a defense when he got called out for it) and his light-skinned wife when they brownfaced for their Connor Kenway and Aveline de Grandpre cosplay (and as Ubisoft’s official character reps IIRC). 

At this point in the fork in the road, you’re either willing to acknowledge TheCW’s anti-latinx racism and whitewashing with regard to their version of Maggie Sawyer in Supergirl, or you’ve chosen to perform hardcore mental gymnastics in an effort to defend it. White fandom’s gonna be racist, but when it overlaps into other sections of related-fandom that is otherwise disconnected from the subject, it becomes a problem.

Renee Montoya and Maggie Sawyer are two characters who’ve interacted and spoke to each other multiple times in the comics (specifically, Gotham Central). It would disingenuous to suggest the two have nothing in common when not explicitly speaking about their sexuality or relationships (they’re lesbians, cops, and both of them have been romantically involved with Kate Kane, aka, Batwoman, at different points). They know each other and both happen to be my favorite characters. The major difference between them is that one is white and the other isn’t. Renee is (IIRC) Dominican-American, and is often recognized as a major non-white Latnix figure in comics, one who was originally introduced in Batman: The Animated Series in 1992.

Ever since Supergirl’s second season has premiered, Renee Montoya has been unfortunately conflated with Maggie as being the same character (because they’re both lesbians and cops, and therefore, interchangeable). I think this is because there was some want to turn Kara Zor-El’s sister into “Batwoman in name only” (why I don’t know), and in certain parts of [white] fandom, she’s been used as a “gotcha” of sorts to deflect from the issue of whitewashing a racebent version of Maggie Sawyer on Supergirl, because, to the surprise no one, Renee has also been misrepresented on television as well.

Case in point, when visiting the Renee Montoya tag, it’s now not uncommon to come across a posts trying to argue that folk still upset about Supergirl whitewashing Maggie Sawyer “should remember she’s white in the comics” (on the pretense that this excuses casting a white Italian woman for their non-white version of the Maggie character) and focus on “Renee missing/being mistreated in Gotham” instead, like folk can’t multi-task or haven’t spoken about both issues.

No one upset about the Supergirl issue is ignoring the fact that Maggie is white in the comic books, everyone with some basic knowledge on the character knows she’s white in the comic books. And a little digging around will reveal she was subsequently portrayed default white in other media appearances (Superman: The Animated Series, and Smallville are two major examples).

Supergirl’s version of the character, however, is not white, they made that explicit on the show. The fact that she’s white in the comic books has no bearing on a version of the character that isn’t. The show performed some modern-day brownface by casting Lima for their version of Maggie and the worst part is, they didn’t have to, they really didn’t. That’s how malicious TheCW’s racism is and Therein lies the issue with people “complaining” about Supergirl.

Supergirl’s production was deceptive about the fact that their racebent version of Maggie Sawyer miscast when they promoted Maggie as otherwise. And no, having her say “non-white” in dialog instead of being specific doesn’t cancel out how they chose to promote the character prior to her debut on the show. You had multiple Latinx-focused websites promoting the character and actress as such based on the information that was provided to them. Those were not mistakes on those website’s part.

Folk have discussed at length about Gotham’s blatant disregard for Renee Montoya in favor of Barbara Kean, her white lover, since the show debuted in 2014. They’ve criticized how she was only used as a plot device to further the stories of white characters before she disappeared; they criticized that they made her former drug addict (with the suggestions that she was abusive toward Barbra) for no reason other than manufactured drama.

That was literally a major topic of discussion when the character began reoccurring on the series and continued to be a hot topic so until Gotham’s production reported they had no intentions of bringing the character back for season two following the season one finale. Then the subject turned to why she wasn’t coming back for season two, because it certainly didn’t seem like it was a choice on the actor’s part.

Renee Montoya has been absent from Gotham for three seasons now, going on fourth. That’s three years, and showrunners haven’t demonstrated the slightest interest in bringing her or her friend, Crispus Allen, back to the show, despite the fans that want to see her return. Racism, by and large, is a huge motivator a lot of the things that happen in Gotham, esp. in regard to their non-white female characters. Instead of killing her, they chose to make her disappear and haven’t looked back on that decision. They are done with her, they are done with both of those characters now that a): Barbra Kean is dead, b): Renee is no longer required to be the “Jealous Lesbian” who covets her ex-lover once in a relationship with a straight white man.

I know some folk who’ve discussed the issue about Renee have also stopped watching Gotham on account of this. The issue is not so much put to rest, dead, or “not talked about”, as it is set aside.

There’s nothing more to say when a show has demonstrated it doesn’t want to change and is not invested in a character like Renee and never regarded her with the same level of importance as Jim Gordon, Harvey Bullock or Penguin. I figure the Renee fandom’s energy is being better spent supporting the Renee character in whatever Batman-related title/media she is currently appearing in not named “Gotham”.

Meanwhile, Supergirl’s second season has just ended and thus the issue of its racism and whitewashing with regard to their version of Maggie is still a hot topic, even for those who’ve abandoned the show already, or barely watched it to begin with.

There’s also already parts of the SG fandom hoping that, with Lima’s eventual departure, they’ll keep the Maggie character on, but actually cast a non-white Latinx actress for their non-white Latinx character. Until Supergirl shows them otherwise, like Gotham did, they’ll continue to discuss it, whether their watching it or not.