#implicit racism

Oliver was broke; poor as a church mouse and he had no idea what to do. He could write to Uncle Clarence but that would mean admitting Clarence had been right about Papa and Oliver wasn't quite ready to reveal the lies he told in his letters back home.

What he needed was a job. However, it seemed like this godforsaken town had only two types of work for men like him: farm work or ranch work and neither sounded favourable.

So, he headed down to the inn to beg for any work. Fortunately, the young innkeeper's daughter was at the bar and with some luck Oliver was able to persuade her to get free room and board in exchange for helping out around the inn.

Still, he needed actual money, and so he took a trip to town, calling at all the shops he saw along the way but to his disappointment, he was met with constant noes. Chestnut Ridge, it seemed wasn't made for men like him.

The MCU fandom has had a problem with misogynoir from the moment Black women were cast in the main franchise — a decision that in itself took too long considering how Thor: Ragnarok was the first MCU film to even have a Black woman onscreen in a major role without her skin tone being hidden under makeup or via CGI. It began with fans who wanted Lupita to be cast as a “strong Black woman that didn’t need a man” in Black Panther, and moved on to Shuri being written off as a Mary Sue right before the film was released. It’s now present in the way fans are able to clock the ableism in Bucky’s arm being deactivated as a shocking, fight-ending move, but not the misogynoir present in how they refuse to extend understanding towards Ayo and the Dora Milaje. It’s a contradiction MCU fans seldom seem to acknowledge: extreme empathy for white characters (even villains) runs right alongside a refusal to empathize with Black and brown characters in the same films or shows.

At the end of the day, there are two conversations we need to be having at once. We need to be talking about how the MCU has heaped ableism onto how Bucky is written, and how fandom is prepared to believe the worst about Black women characters to the point where they ignore context in a scene.

... In fandom and other “for fun” arenas, we’re told that there’s nothing serious about what we’re doing. We’re told that we’re just playing around and so writing a Black character as a big-dicked aggressor or drawing an East Asian character as a stereotype of erotic Orientalism is fine. 

Because it’s just fandom. It’s not serious. It doesn’t mean anything.

Except –It does mean more than all of us tend to think.

People think of fandom, and what we create and consume in it, as fully separated from the rest of the real world. Of course, what you’re into in fandom doesn’t have to mean it’s what you’re into in your real or offline life – and in most cases, fandom is fully a space for people to explore things they literally can’t engage with offline at any level and that’s not a bad thing at all. But we do bring our baggage into fandom with us and that means if we haven’t unlearned – or at least, started dealing with – baggage in the form of internalized bigotry we haven’t cast off… it’s coming right there with us to fandom.

Fandom should be a place where we just… do whatever. Where we’re sexy and can get off scot-free. But as Han and Choi point out by referencing Green in their study: “sexual fields are not isolated arenas, but are embedded within a larger society whose values are reflected in what is considered desirable within a given sexual field.” Aside from caring about queerness and sometimes women… fandom generally reflects what society finds desirable. ...

Think about what fandom content looks like when folks create it for characters of color? Often, we see a reliance on both sexual and nonsexual stereotypes, a lack of research into what people of color can be like in relationships and our communities, and a refusal to do and be better in fandom. ...

One thing to keep in mind is that people don’t even think about the way that racial fetishization can fuel the way they do write and draw some characters of color along stereotypes linked to their race and assumed sexuality. They don’t see it as a bad thing because it’s “just” a preference.

... The main way that creators in fandom mess up, is in the way that we have lots of fanworks where a Black/brown character is somehow significantly larger than the non-Black person that is their partner in said fanworks… even when canon doesn’t match up.

They’re drawn and written as huge and hulking in a way they truly aren’t in canon and they’re overtly made into caretakers and bodyguard figures who are strict tops. 

There are just… So many layers to this tomfoolery. 1. The idea that a character is ruined because she’s black 2. Ignoring “The Princess and the Frog” and other stories made by companies other than Disney 3. The idea that a character can only be “inclusive” if they’re white 4. Apparently Aquaman is a faithful retelling of The Little Mermaid??? 5. How many Disney characters have been ruined by PC??? 6. WHO IS THEY???? 7. WHY DID YOU USE THE AQUAMAN MOVIE IN YOUR POINT ABOUT DISNEY RUINING YOUR CHILDHOOD?!? GOOGLE ONCE UPON A TIME IF YOU WANT A LIVE ACTION WHITE ARIEL Overall, I’d rate this hot take a 6/10

The MCU fandom is gleefully hating on Ayo accusing her of ableism and other horrible things because of that scene with Bucky in 1x04 of TFATWS. They’re turning it into a social justice issue, which is... okay, let’s talk about the topic of writing for the disabled characters, and discuss it becaus it’s an important subject - without hating on the a Black female character.

But it’s qwhite interesting that Activism_TM, no one seemed to be interested in talking about how problematic Bucky’s arc was in the pilot. Let’s talk about how in the opening flashback he shot an innocent Asian man straight in the face. Let’s talk about how that episode aired just three days after the Atlanta spa shootings and in the midst of Anti Asian hate crimes in the US. Let’s talk about how cringey it was when they’d pitted an Asian old man against a Black man, with Bucky, the white guy, being the peacemaker. Let’s talk about how creepy it was to see Bucky stalking that old Asian man. Yes, Bucky has a sad back-story, we know. But it’s really hard to relate to the grief of a white serial killer (Redeemed yes. He’s a victim too, we know, no needt to spam our inbox) right after real massacre and in the midst of the anti-Asian hate crimes. But I guess it’s just me. No one wants to be an Activist_TM when it’s not about the conveniently attractive white guy.

This blatant woobification of a white character at the expense of the character of color, who gets villainized in the process, and that being turned into an Activism_TM isn’t something new. It’s always been happening in the fandom.

One of the recent examples that comes to mind, is how the TUA fandom always accuses Ben Hargreeves of “violating” Klaus’ body in those “possession” scenes in s2. Some even call Ben “r@pist”. And okay, let’s talk the problematic writing and dated tropes of that arc. But funnily enough, no one seems interested in talking about how Klaus was running a cult in that same season. How he profited off of those mentally vulnerable people and how he was having sex orgies with those brainwashed people, thus taking advantage of their bodies. But yeah, Klaus has a sad back-story, so it’s okay. (All the Hargreeves siblings have sad back-stories, but let’s ignore that)

But yeah, returning to the TFATWS fandom. It’s interesting, how the same fans that have been complaining about Sam’s arc being too “sjw” and “boring” for 4 episodes straight are now turning into “Activists_TM” because of that scene with Bucky’s arm. 

And it brings the question – would’ve they cared about that scene if Bucky was played by a Black or a Brown actor? (Would’ve the TUA fans cared about that possession scene if Klaus was Black or Brown?) Instead of answering the question, let’s remember that, according to the IMDb, Sam Wilson is the least popular character on his own show, where’ he’s the titular lead. 

Of the 303 stories AO3 for BlacKkKlansman (2018), 203 focus on Adam Drivers’ character in a relationship with a reader insert.

The number of stories with Kylo Ren and/or Rey in that fandom, I believe, outnumber the number of stories where John David Washington’s Ron Stallworth is centered. The film is based on real-life events and is about anti-racism and activism and fandom chose to make it about… Adam Driver being Romancelandia’s “tall, dark, and handsome”.

If quality of source material content matters to fandom, why is it that shows like Pose don’t have giant fanbases? Why is it that only relatively recently with The Untamed and Guardian have Chinese dramas picked up powerhouse international fandoms?

Why is it that folks aren’t seeking out and writing about existing quality source media or focusing on Black/brown celebrities? [...]

However, transformative fandom actively doesn’t engage with the characters of color in mainstream media. Transformative fandom and the folks that inhabit it do not consume things like Black Panther, Empire, Black Lightning, One Day At A Time, Kim’s Convenience, Lovecraft Country, and the Watchmen mini-series and leave it creating content for the characters of color.

These pieces of media do NOT get the same (or any) fandom response when compared to shows and films involving primarily white casts and that is important to note.

The ones that do get fandom content get the setting turned into AUs, get rewritten to focus on white characters, have their settings turned into backdrops for white characters –

But most of the western media that does numbers in terms of viewership… don’t have fandom content.