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Recently I've been encountered constant complaints about the fact that in the Witcher series, unlike the books and the video games, many characters are not white. Between them, one of the main characters, Yennefer. So I'm here to clarify I few thing more deeply.
When we encounter this phrases on the internet, we usually already have a few answers ready to be thrown at them. However, sometimes we forget to look at this complains as what they are, a dangerous manifestation of white supremacy ideals .
Internet culture is very complex, and most of us live in touch with only one side of it. We are in the progressive part of the online life, and anyone that says something a little far from our progressive ideal gets quickly called out. However, that's not true in all the internet
In many sites there are a lot of alt-right culture hidden that we rarely encounter. For instance, if you look on specific parts of reddit or 4chan, it won't be that hard to find deeply racist and misogynistic memes. One very common is about different IQs in different races.
( If you wanna learn more abt internet culture I would deeply recommend a book called killed all normies ) Many of this people are deeply connected to video games, RPG and medieval fantasy world. And even though it might sound as an unfortunate coincidence, it actually isn't.
It's very important to say firstly that I'm myself have nothing against medieval fantasy and European folklore in general, I am a big fan actually, my critique in on its use by white supremacist and fascist movements.
Both in nazi german and fascist Italy the idolizing of the past was common. While Mussoline and the fascists would constantly praise the Roman empire and talking about bringing it back to rescue Italy's glory, Hitler would praise the "aryan" race and culture.
In Nazi german a almost mystic view of european culture before the christianism was created, and a constant praise of the old european habits and cultural elements. The most in the past, the most far from non "aryan" people and there for the most pure.
We constantly talk about how Christian europe culture played a massive role in white supremacy, but the praising of the pre-Christian culture in a purist way can be as (and sometimes even more) dangerous. Many white supremacists feel a huge nostalgia towards old europe.
They see this medieval magic fantasy set video games , tv shows and books and they feel nostalgic because on their point of view this was before """white"" culture was "contaminated" by the others.
When you put non white people in this scenarios, this nostalgic sentiment and the possibility to hold on to something that is still exclusively white is broken. And then the white supremacists go mad, even the ones that barely realize that they are white supremacists.
When a poc plays Yennefer we are achieving way more than just representation. We are actually fighting against all the cultural manipulation made by white supremacists, Hitler himself, to turn medieval fantasy and european old folklore and culture in a symbol of white supremacy.
And that's why it is so important. And that's why the people that speak up against it claiming to be only searching for "historical accuracy" (yeah because there where tons of dragons in medieval Poland) they are more than just trolls. They are mostly affect by white supremacism.
Recently I saw a commentary on how if a show based in African culture and folklore had white actors it would be a scandal and many people would be complaining. Most of us just crave answering "It is not the same" but, afterall, what makes it different?
Well, the opression and lack of representation faced by poc, black and indigenous people. It is important to keep in mind that race is nothing but a social construction. It was invested to justify capitalist and colonialist interests.
Of course , it isnt that hard to realize that in a few countries people are fair skinned, while in others, brown skinned. But the division between and white and non white people is not about only that, it is about if people are or are not discriminated against bc their ethnicity
In a ideal world, where structural racism had never been created, it wouldn't matter for a european descent person to play a character in a story based in african culture and folklore, or middle eastern, or south asian.
In a alternative universe where colonialism and structural racism affected european people, it wouldn't be okay to have non european actors playing these characters. But those aren't the cases. We live in a white supremacist world . A world that praises being european.
White people are over represented in the media. Putting them in a show that should have a full black cast would be reaffirming white supremacy. While putting actors of color in shows like The Witcher fights it.
If we wanna abolish race and racism we have to take historical debt in count. We have to understand that in a world where most of the spaces are white majority, it is important to insert people of color in this spaces while creating poc spaces only.
The only day we will be able to let go of the claim of having poc spaces only is the day when white spaces only no longer exist. And that's what we are fighting for. Let's destroy and fight white supremacist, praise and support actors of color in medieval fantasy!
I was above talking about alt-right culture in internet spaces and fandoms. It is important to know that people that fight against white supremacy and alt-right in places that are full of them such as gaming communities, rpg and medieval fantasy fans can be exposed to danger.
In that book I mentioned , "kill all normies" is mentioned that many even get death threats. That's why we have to speak up about it, protect the people of color in this spaces and never banalize white supremacism! Let's make every single space in this world safe for all.
I wanna ad that I know there are tons of typos but English isnt my first language and I was talking about a complex matter hahahaha so please dont judge me 
