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Guys... we can’t keep asking Black members of our fandom to pour their hearts out and expose their still bleeding wounds in thread after thread of them trying to get us to understand why something is wrong. It’s messed up that they have to keep doing it because we don’t listen.
Many Black women have spoken at length about how racism affects their daily, offline lives *and* how instances of online racism don’t make them feel safe in this fandom. But we have tuned them out, and spoken over them, and insisted that we should all be one big happy community.
Then another incident of anti-Blackness happens, we non-Black shippers go, “Oh, I don’t think it’s racist” or “I don’t understand why you’re mad, can we debate?” and once again Black shippers must explain their generational trauma. Because we didn’t bother to understand last time
Questions I think some of us should ask ourselves:
1) When anti-Black racism in the community is called out, why is my first instinct to try to change how the people directly affected feel about/respond to it?
2) Have I done the necessary legwork to know more about this issue?
1) When anti-Black racism in the community is called out, why is my first instinct to try to change how the people directly affected feel about/respond to it?
2) Have I done the necessary legwork to know more about this issue?
3) Am I prioritizing my need for a “drama”-free fandom experience over other people’s need for a fandom experience that doesn’t smack them in the face with the same inequalities that they encounter in real life?
4) Do I conflate “political views” with “basic human rights”?
4) Do I conflate “political views” with “basic human rights”?
5) Why do I call for “fandom unity despite different opinions” instead of “fandom unity against racists”?
Some won’t like the answers to these questions, but that’s where the self-reflection and real change can begin. Black shippers have done their part. It’s time we do ours.
Some won’t like the answers to these questions, but that’s where the self-reflection and real change can begin. Black shippers have done their part. It’s time we do ours.
