#friegil

I may not ship Virichie as hard as I do Static X Frieda but I’m glad and appreciate it being popular cause interracial ships with black characters and ships with black characters in general get very screwed over by fandoms. Black characters get very screwed over when it comes to shipping. 

They face alot of backlash and hate. Black characters in interracial ships with white characters especially get alot of hate and backlash. In fact people will lose their absolute god damn minds when black characters are paired up with white characters. 

Ships with black characters often get the least fan content if they get any at all. They’re the least popular ship. They could be a ship that’s been canon for a long time but be the least popular ship in the fandom like Guardianbee for example. Guardianbee has been canon in Teen Titans for a very long time but its the least popular ship and has very little fan content. It doesn’t help that they’re not together in alot of media and the Teen Titans are more outside of comics so its a lack of exposure and racism. 

They will make up all kinds of excuses to to why they don’t ship ships with black characters in them. They’ll things like “They’re just friend” or “Why can’t men and women just be friends” and I totally get this as a girl who had alot of guy friends as a kid and was always asked if we liked each other but people say this alot to ships with characters of color. They say it way too much that its weird. The only one I agree with is Star and Marco. And its never said to all white ships that should just be friends. Also what’s wrong with interracial friends to lovers ? Interracial best friends to lovers is really cool. Its one of the things I like about Virichie and Static x Frieda. 

Another excuse is Familyzone, they say they’re like family or like siblings or they’ll straight up say its incest when its clearly not. They try to familyzone them when it’s never stated in canon that the characters see each other as family. Its more of a fan interpretation or headcanon. I see people trying to familyzone Virichie saying that Virgil and Richie are brothers but its never stated in the show that they see each other as brothers. Its just a fan interpretation. Just because you see them as brothers doesn’t mean we everyone else sees them as brothers. I also use to see Virgil and Richie as brothers but not anymore so I get why people do but maybe don’t say that about a interracial ship. I still see them as family but not in a incest way but in a ”they’re a important part of the family like a family friend” way.

Another excuse they say is its forced while at the same time shipping a all white ship that’s forced. I understand not liking ships that are forced but just like the they’re just friends excuse they say this alot about ships with black characters and interracial ships. And like I said before the only one I agree with is Star and Marco. People ship white characters together all willy nilly all the time but they’re not willing to do the same with black characters and characters of color.

Another excuse when it comes to black women is she too strong. The strong black women trope. The strong independent women trope is progress for white women but its not progress for black women and women of color. You’re saying that black women and women of color don’t deserve love. You’re denying their humanity. Not every black woman is strong and not every black woman can be strong.

My favorite excuse is the “They don’t like good together” Its my favorite cause its very obviously racist like they do not hear themself. It doesn’t matter if they don’t look good together its about the chemistry, how they make each other grow and how the relationship fits the characters and story and other actual shipping reasons. “They don’t look good together” is a very shallow and racist reason to not ship a interracial ship.

The next excuse(s) is a big lie and its “There’s no good well written black characters to ship” and ”there’s no good ships with black characters” The reason why its a totally lie is that there’s alot of good black characters. You just need to consume more diverse media especially diverse media that star black characters. The problem though is that when people do consume diverse media they still only focus on white characters. I see this in the Static Shock fandom with Hotstreak and to a extent Richie. So consume more diverse media and stop focusing so much on the white characters. The whole “there’s no good ships with black characters” It sounds like they’re only caring about canon ships and there’s alot of good ships with black characters that aren’t canon and there’s good ones that are canon. You’re just not looking hard enough. As a mainly canon shipper you don’t always have to ship canon ships especially if they’re not good. Talisto Talia X Mephisto from Lolirock is a good ship and a low key crack ship and its one of the most popular ships in the fandom and it has a black girl in it. People will ship random white characters together all the time but won’t do the same with black characters and characters of color. Talisto isn’t treat as a crackship, if people can ship that than you can ship ships with black characters in them. There’s alot of good black characters and alot of good ships with black characters you’re just not paying attention to them.

Besides making up excuses to why they don’t ship interracial ships with black characters they will make a all white ship to go against it. Reylo and Snowbarry are good example of this. We call them racist ships cause they were made to erase a black character from their romantic relationships whether it’s canon or heavily shipped in the fandom like Finnrey. Reylo was very much created to keep Finn away from Rey and you can tell by how racist Reylo shippers are to Finn and his actor John. Snowbarry was created before the show even aired on TV when only the trailer was out after it was announced Iris was casted as a black girl. Reylo shippers and Snowbarry shippers act the same way to Finn and Iris. And I see this in the Static Shock fandom with the ship Hotgear Hotstreak X Richie. Hotgear was very much created to go against Virichie in the same way Reylo and Snowbarry were except they’re not all that toxic and racist to Static but it’s still very much erases Static in his own story, his own fandom and is white prioritization or white favorism. 

White prioritization is when white characters are prioritize over characters of color despite the characters of color being more important like being the main character like Static. Static Shock is a black lead cartoon when it comes to diverse media you shouldn’t be shipping the only 2 white characters together unless it’s canon cause its racist to only focus on the only white characters in a diverse show. Virichie has no way or power to become canon but Hotgear was very much created to go against cause its heavily shipped in the fandom. Even if not all Hotgear shippers are racist it’s the existence of the ship that’s racist. It doesn’t need to exist. Same with Reylo and Snowbarry. You don’t have to ship Virichie but you don’t need create and ship a rival ship to go against it especially if it made to erase a black character.

This is apart of Fandom racism. Fandom racism is the rejecting of diversity in fandoms and media and the attempt to push characters of color and fans of color out of fandoms to focus on white people, white characters and white fans. Refusing to ships with black characters is apart of Fandom racism.

And it doesn’t matter what type of relationship a black character is in. It doesn’t matter if its a black man with a white girl, it doesn’t matter if its a black girl with a white guy, it doesn’t matter if its a gay, straight or bi ship. It doesn’t matter if its a black character with another person of color. It doesn’t matter if its a black character with another black character. It also doesn’t matter if it’s canon, hinted/being built up to be canon or meant to be canon or canon in past or other materials like comics. It also doesn’t matter if its some what popular, shippable and well liked, it will get hate, backlash and have the least fan content.

For the black man with white girl part I was thinking of Finnrey and Karolsen. Sure black man are paired up with white women alot in media but never in a big sci fi franchise like Star Wars. Comics do it alot too but never in comic adaptations like the Supergirl TV show. The racist backlash to Finnrey and Karolsen is why I don’t care that black men and white women are paired alot with each other but I do agree media should do other types of interracial relationships besides them. 

Finn and Rey actually were going to get together but Disney decide against, most likely cause of the racist backlash. The worst part is that Finn and Rey didn’t even get together, and racists were still threatened by a black man being with a white girl. Besides being meant to be canon, it was just a strong possibility that Finn and Rey were going together and that drive’s them crazy. To this day they’re still racist about Finn. Racist fans treated Finn and James like they were the Black brute trope. Like they were sexual threats to white women which is apart of the Black brute trope but they’re the nicest, sweetest guys in their series.

For the black girl with white guy part I was mostly thinking of Westallen but also Thorkyrie and any time a black girl is paired with a white guy. I’ve made posts about this before with Winx Club about how black women hardly get to be the love interest or get to have a love interest especially a non black love interest. And by love interest I mean the endgame love interest cause the few times they get to be a love interest they’re not the endgame love interest and the white character they were a love interest to gets with a white love interest. A very good example of this is Danny Phantom with Valerie and Danny and how he got with Sam. We call this the Disposable Black Girlfriend trope or Disposable Black love interest trope cause it happens to black men too. 

Back to Westallen remember when I said people will straight up say a interracial ship is incest. They do this to Westallen all the time just because Iris’s dad Joe took Barry in when his mom died and his dad was arrested. Barry only see’s Joe as a father figure. Barry and Iris don’t see or think of each other as siblings. They never acted as siblings. The show never states that they’re siblings just best friends. I’m against incest ships too but Westallen isn’t incest. Keep in mind that Iris has always been Barry’s love interest in the comics, y’know other material. People never had a problem with their relationship until Iris was black.

For the gay bi ships part I was thinking of Dansen and Thundergrace. The Arrowverse has alot of femslash ships but the ones with white women are the only ones that are really popular and some of them aren’t even canon. The Supergirl TV fandom likes to act like they were queerbaited and that there was no lesbian representation but they weren’t queerbaited and there is lesbian representation with Kelly and Alex but since Kelly is black they don’t care, almost as if she don’t count as representation cause she’s black. Kelly and Alex even got married at the end of the show how’s that not representation ?  Its a example of how when people say they want LGBT representation they mean white LGBT representation.

This is getting too long so its time to talk about the most important part so really listen to this part. This isn’t about shipping, this is about a pattern in fandoms in how black characters are treated. Its about how you think black characters are unworthy of being loved. Its about how if this is how you feel about and treat fictional black characters then how do you feel about and treat real black people outside of fandoms ? You probably don’t treat real black people good. If this is how you feel about and think about fictional interracial couples than how do feel and think about real interracial couples ? Probably not good. This is about how black fans and fans of color feel unsafe and unwelcome in fandoms. 

We live in a society were white people are the default cause they made themselves the default. So when white people are not the focus they get mad. Which is why ships with black characters are less popular cause fandoms are very white dominant. By always attacking black characters and ships with black characters has made black fans and fans of color feel unsafe and unwelcome in fandoms making them leave fandoms or have low interacts in fandoms causing black characters and ships with black characters to have less fan content and be less popular. Black fans are the pillars that hold up black characters and ships with black characters up besides unracist white fans. Black fans and fans of color support ships with black characters and characters of color more than white fans. They are more likely to support them than white fans. I have seem white fans shipping Virichie but the major are black fans since it’s a major black fandom. Some of the most recent Virichie fan art have been by white fans. There are Pick me POCs/ White align people of color with internalized racism that are racist to other fans of color and characters of color and its important to point them out cause they are just as hurtful and racist as racist white people.

Virichie being so popular with everyone is so important. The only time I’ve seen a whole fandom ship a interracial ship is the WordGirl fandom with Tobecky (WordGirl X Tobey). Interracial ships with black characters aren’t that popular. Gay bi slash interracial ships like Virichie are especially not popular. The closest I’ve seen be popular is Finnpoe from Star Wars. Virichie being popular is a good thing. The only problems I have with Virichie is that alot of fan content mainly alot of fanfics focuses more on Richie and his point of view of the relationship than Virgil. This is the slight White prioritization towards Richie I mention earlier. I’ve only seen one person point this problem out. There’s only a few fanfics that focus on Virgil’s point of view on the relationship. I like it when there’s fics that give both of their point of views. Like what does Virgil think of being in a relationship with Richie ? How does he feel about liking his best friend ? I also don’t like how it dominants the fan content for Static Shock especially fanfics. There’s almost no gen fanfics and the gen fics that are there are unfinished most likely abandon. Virichie has good fanfics but I don’t always read fics for shipping so it’s a bit annoying.

NOTE: Be respectful of my choices; the OTPs are not ranked, just of who I thought when making this list.

1. DC Comics: Dick Grayson aka Nightwing/Robin I + Koriand’r aka Starfire = Robstar

2. DC Comics: Garfield Logan aka Beast Boy + Rachel Roth aka Raven = Bbrae

3. DC Comics: Victor Stone aka Cyborg + Sarah Charles = Cyborah

4. DC Comics: Mal Duncan aka Guardian + Karen Beecher aka Bumblebee = Guardianbee

5. DC Comics: Harleen Quinnzel aka Harley Quinn + Pamela Isley aka Poison Ivy = Harlivy

6. DC Comics: Philippus + Hippolyta = Philyta

7. Disney’s WIR franchise: Sergeant Tamora Calhoun + Fix-it-Felix = Hero’s Cuties

8. DC Comics: Virgil Hawkins aka Static + Frieda Goren = Friegil

NOTE: Picture not mine

9. Marvel Comics: Reed Richards aka Mr. Fantastic + Sue Storm aka Invisible Woman = Reedsue

10. Marvel Comics: Ben Grimm aka The Thing + Alicia Masters = Benlicia