I’m not rehashing it. It’s fucking done.
But, you know, as an aside, this is why I also get salty about how non-Black people create Black OCs without any particular reason, because “diversity” or whatever the fuck reason the kids use these days.
I cannot ignore the ways that my body is politicized without my consent. And if I can’t ignore it, pack it away and lock it with a key, then you better fucking respect it.
Like stop using Black bodies as marionettes for your race theatre and your fantasies in which unauthorized Black people do not exist.
Stop using my face to wipe away the guilt that coats yours.
So often do I see these cries for “civility” whenever this shit happens that I’ve just started laughing whenever I come across them. Because the ones that demand it don’t even really notice the glint of their own barbarism, shining hard and bright in their peripheral vision.
…Then what should a white person do?
If they only use white people in their works it’s racist. If they don’t it’s…bad?
I’m not trying to start shit, I just genuinely don’t know what to do.
There is vast and seldom-used space between creating a work that lacks representation and creating a work that has representation so flawed as to be detrimental. That space is wider than you think; representation is not a binary.
Most of the problems I keep seeing stem directly from the fact that members of this fandom could not be arsed to 1) read and promote the work of actual Black people and other POC, which would at least offer perspective they lack and 2) could not be arsed to approach representing others with consideration. Which means research, and ultimately returning to item 1.
Furthermore, the inclusion of POC characters or the creation of a POC OC does not shield white people from criticism. Nor SHOULD POC characters be used as shields or as progressive cool points, because that’s fucking disgusting and yet…common
So well put.
And yet there are still so many people TERRIFIED of using PoC in creative works because everyone always loses their shit no matter what you do. ALWAYS. Sometimes you just want to tell a story and all the research is just hurting that story because it’s turning you neurotic and causing you anxiety. Because you’re essentially scared of your audience.
OP is absolutely right of course, I will never deny that. But (and I hate this word) a creator being scated of ther potential audience because they’re trying to please evrryone – i.e. to do the stonking impossible. Out of the frying pan and into the fire indeed.
Just let us tell a story without making us freak out.
I’m going to break from my normal format to address this, in points:
And yet there are still so many people TERRIFIED of using PoC in creative works because everyone always loses their shit no matter what you do.
I assume you mean white people, when you say “people” and then use that in conjunction with the term PoC. A willingness to make that distinction would probably make it easier for white writers to begin exploring what it means to write a character of color. In fact…I daresay it is a prerequisite.
Sometimes you just want to tell a story and all the research is just hurting that story because it’s turning you neurotic and causing you anxiety. Because you’re essentially scared of your audience.
Not to be particularly sardonic, but I would say that most work written by white writers isn’t written in anticipation of a PoC audience, even when those works feature PoC. The spectre of the Angry PoC Reader (more often than not, the Angry Black Reader) has been used both simultaneously to exclude us from the literary process and to excuse sub-par, lackluster characterizations of said PoC, if the effects aren’t straight up deleterious. Carefully weigh, white writers, your responsibility against your convenience. We only (rightfully) point out when you fall heavily upon the latter.
Own your fear. Own your fear, and own it like you should the responsibility of representing parties outside of yourself correctly.
I continue to assert that just as I have conducted research about an experience that is not my own, white writers can (and have) written PoC without contributing to the real-life harmful environments that those people face. Anything short of that is a cop-out.
Because white fear isn’t really our burden to bear, even though – outside of literature – we are compelled to carry your fear on our backs and suffer the consequences of it, including and not limited to wage and housing discrimination, political disenfranchisement, reduced opportunities for career advancement, and death.
And with regard to Black people specifically, if white writers are afraid of drawing our ire because they’re actively choosing convenience over respect, then I will only say this:
That fear you experience is what I deal with every day, except I’m not the one chasing ghosts. In fact, I am afraid because I might become one.
Just let us tell a story without making us freak out.
To which I say, just let us live without using our narratives inappropriately, but alas, here we are.
Again.
*points up*
Yeah, great response that applies to many situations. If the pressure of not erasing people and not writing offensive bigoted caricatures freaks you out, well, that’s ON YOU. Figure it out. Deal with your shit. Don’t put it on the people asking to be treated with respect.
QueerAnarchism 