The thread I should have made is about how WHITE WEEBS have the pale privilege to think their faves are white, too. They see characters with a tan and immediately assume they must be Black. But many characters who aren't pale are often stereotypes of indigenous peoples... [1/?]

...where explicitly Black characters are often straight-up blackface, stereotypes too, or fetishized. A lot of characters who aren't pale are haphazard slaps together of "othered" culture; BIPOC and Ganguro come to mind. You could be born & raised in Japan, fluent in JPN... [2/?]

...and will still be rejected as Japanese if you don't "look Japanese enough". But white fans have the privilege of seeing pale characters and saying, "That looks like me-- I'm more entitled to them than BIPOC," and will draw/cosplay/create with them as white. Meanwhile, [3/?]

...they have the audacity to tell Black anime fans that they HAVE to create with ONLY characters who AREN'T pale. Because in the whitecentric universe, dark skin = Black. My last thread came off as saying that BIPOC can't reclaim characters that aren't BIPOC. [4/?]

To fellow pale people (esp. white & EA) it is OUR responsibility to use our privilege to do everything we can to lift up that media and those creators. Reclaiming characters and demanding representation is something we should seek tirelessly to support. [5/?]

The takeaway should be that white weebs have a false sense of entitlement to pale characters and their whitecentricity blinds them from social justice issues in other countries. They consume Japanese media without criticism bc they can argue that their fave is white. BIPOC [6/7]

...can't do the same without being attacked and shat on for daring to exist. If you're pale, don't let other pale ppl forget that they're consuming JAPANESE media with its own issues, colorisms, and savior complexes. If you're pale, don't be a part of perpetuating that. [7/7]

I sincerely hope this is a step in the right direction toward righting the wrongs from my first thread. Your comments were important to me & I took a lot of time to reflect on them before making this one. It's not your job to help me unlearn and communicate against racism. [1/2]

[2/2] Your speaking up made a huge impact on me and I will continue to educate myself further. I want to be aware of the impact my words and actions can have and use them to build healthy conversations as & with the people who are responsible for having them.

P.S. - white people. I know you can't know any of this unless you're told. Esp if you're younger, you shouldn't feel ashamed for not knowing. My anger in these tweets isn't toward white people who don't know. It's toward white people who don't care.