#coded racism

Are some fandom people less racist towards him because he’s half white? Maybe.

People in fandom just love to make up "problematic" stuff to justify their racism.

.... There's nothing wrong with any of this being vice versa but it just shows how people like to see the white guy being more successful and giving all of magnus friends like Luke and Raphael to him.

The thing is that white people don’t realize they need to be more aware of the choices they’re making and why they’re making them when writing non white characters and interracial relationships. It means putting in a little extra time and care and sometimes a little extra research. 

There’s a blog for this, actually, I need to go search for it and find it. It basically helps to get into the mind of a non white character or how and why they would feel a certain way or act a certain way. Why they would react to some situations differently. Etc. So it’s not like anyone is saying white people can’t write characters of color. It just means doing it more carefully and well thought out. 

And I’m never saying this kind of shit like I’m any better. I write Magnus, I often go looking for the opinions of non-white (specifically Asian) fans to get their read on him as a character. Sometimes I still realize I’m doing something wrong. It’s a little embarrassing but you fix it and you get over it. You learn something. 

So people just throwing Alec into positions of power while putting Magnus into entry level or blue collar or whatever jobs is more than a little problematic. Even if you’re writing human AUs, if you want to keep who Magnus is then part of that is being aware of his intelligence and capabilities. If you’re desperate to write struggling!designer!Magnus, okay. Then write about how his race is part of why it’s a struggle. 

Back in the day, when Shadowhunters aired, fans would accuse Harry Shum Jr. of being “homophobic” for not doing the fanservice with his co-star for their TV ship (because he saw how his Glee costars suffered from the delusional part of the fandom).

So, it doesn't matter - either way the actor of color will be accused of something.

Interestingly enough, HW’s white costar, who also did the same job to promote the show – because it wasn’t one sided fanservice on Hudson’s part – is not being criticized of that same fanservice (and he shouldn’t).

Similarly, HSJ’s white, also straight, costar, who also refused to do the fanservice, wasn’t criticized (as he shouldn’t have been).

Granted the movie just came out yesterday, the situation may change, but still. People out here watched this movie and thought that a secondary white guy is the hottest thing that should be centered above the two Asian leads.

From the moment that Rick Riordan announced that Leah Jeffries and Aryan Simhadri would play Annabeth Chase and Grover Underwood, respectively, in a new adaptation of the beloved YA novels, fandom reacted poorly. So far, much of the racist anger online has been aimed squarely at Leah Jeffries; people mass reported her TikTok account until it was banned (likely for Leah being under 13, the bottom age on the platform) and made rude comments in the vein of “You are not Annabeth” or “Percy wouldn’t want to be with her now.” All of the insults and harassment, even from people who’ve never even read a Percy Jackson book before, stem from Leah not matching up to the in-book description of main character Annabeth Chase, who’s first described as, “a pretty girl, her blonde hair curled like Cinderella’s.”

The main purpose of racial/racist gaslighting here is to stop conversations about racism in fandom.

It’s an engagement type with a goal to make fans of color and white people in fandom second guess the validity of conversations on racism in fandom. To make the people talking about it seem unhinged and manipulative just for sharing what’s actually happening to them on a regular basis.