I’ve seen several posts circulating today about racism in multiple fandoms. The arguments and counterpoints I’ve seen are not unexpected. For background: I am writing instructor and I devote a significant portion of my classes to discussions of media representation. Why? Because I realized I was doing everything that these posts talk about: Ignoring characters of color, sidelining them for white villains or sidekicks with far less screen time, ignoring women of color entirely, etc. And all the while, like so many of you, I said, “I’m not racist.” I had in-universe explanations for why I liked this ‘ship over that one, this character more than that. I could defend and explain everything.
Racism is not who you are. It is what you do. And here’s a fact: All white people do racist things. We’ve been trained to, taught to. It’s in our culture, all around us. If you’re white, our culture has allowed most racism to be entirely invisible to us. Racism isn’t just yelled slurs and burning crosses. Often, racism is simply *not caring* about people who aren’t white. Racism is an inability to empathize with or care about the story of someone who is not white.
IF YOU’RE FEELING DEFENSIVE, PLEASE KEEP READING. I beg you. That’s exactly the feeling we have to push through. I’m going to give you a brief list of actions we can take. And I know these are important because I have to do them, all the time. Because the poison is in me, too.
If you truly believe in equality and want to be a better person, then here’s what we, as white fans, have to do:
1. BE BRAVE ENOUGH TO BE UNCOMFORTABLE. It absolutely sucks to realize you may have hurt someone, or that you might be wrong. Realizing you’ve done something racist is a stomach-churning reality check. Have the courage to face it. Don’t run from it.
2. INSTEAD OF LOOKING FOR WAYS YOU’RE NOT RACIST, LOOK FOR WAYS THAT YOU *ARE*. It’s comforting and tempting to itemize the ways in which we’re open-minded. See #1 again. Don’t let yourself be comfortable. Instead, look for what you do and ways you contribute to fandom racism. Maybe it’s reblogging or creating gif sets that leave out main characters of color. Maybe it’s forgetting to include them in your fanfiction, even when they would rightfully be there. Maybe it’s reducing them to stereotypes or caretakers for white characters. Maybe it’s ‘shipping the white leads with anyone but the POC around them. Maybe it’s accusing POC fans of “starting drama” when they discuss racism. Look at your actions and be honest with yourself.
3. PUT IN THE EFFORT TO FALL IN LOVE WITH POC CHARACTERS. Here’s the thing: It’s easy for us to fall in love with white male heroes and villains. It’s what we’ve been training for all our lives, with every movie, television show, and book we’ve ever enjoyed. Media *encourages* us to love white men. So yes, falling in love with a character of color will be harder, and it probably won’t “just happen.” So, truly look at Finn and Poe, at Cassian Andor and Bodhi. Truly look at Luke Garroway and Magnus Bane, at Luke Cage, at Iris West and James Olsen, at Michonne. Seek out ways to connect with their feelings and their stories. Look at them as full-hearted, three-dimensional human beings. Force yourself to become obsessed with them. If you do this, I would be absolutely shocked if you don’t fall in love with one of them.
4. LISTEN TO POC FANS. Yes, even if they’re angry and call you names. For my research, I spend a lot of time on blogs that talk about hating white people, hating white fans, hating white feminists. The language is furious and vitriolic. So what? They have every right to be angry. Instead of judging their anger, LISTEN to it. Try to be better. Don’t say “not all white fans,” or “not all white people.” Instead, try to be a better white person. Be a better white fan. Be a white fan who is brave enough to look at themselves and truly be an ally. Do not silence POC fans. I promise you: Listen, and you’ll realize they’re not overreacting.
5. REMEMBER THAT “ALLY” IS A VERB. Our thoughts count for nothing. It’s our actions that speak for us. Maybe you’ve read all this and you still want to insist that you’re not racist. Okay. But your actions might be. Challenge the stereotypes that exist in your head, learn to identify them as stereotypes and be willing to hold yourself and other white fans accountable.
6. REPEAT STEPS 1-5 FOREVER. We cannot cure our internalized white supremacy in a weekend. This is a forever gig. But it’s one of the most worthwhile tasks you can ever give yourself. Want to feel like you’re changing the world? Here’s where it starts.
Inevitably there’s more to add to this list. I’m always learning, but I thought it might be useful to share a few of these steps I’ve learned along the way. I love fandom. I believe profoundly in the transformative power of fanfiction, fan creations, and the friendships forged through our shared love of media.
I believe we can become BETTER PEOPLE through fandom. But it will not happen without our willingness to be transformed.
Ultimately, MTV still being on the air is good news, so why do I feel uneasy about this whole situation?
Because it is a straight-up five-alarm information catastrophe that this many people can be this taken in by a story this false and this easily disprovable. There is some high-stakes shit going on in the world right now, and it’s happening as newsrooms shrink, once-reliable search engines point us toward AI nonsense, and news aggregators have no obligation to check their facts. It’s harder and harder to tell truth from fiction, and fewer and fewer of us are bothering to try. If it’s frustrating where and how we’re getting our news on whether MTV is still on the air, it is terrifying that that’s also where and how we’re getting our news on whether we’re dropping bombs on Venezuela. Our media literacy is going to have to come up, fast, or we are cooked like the Christmas goose.
Chat, what final fantasy game should i play iv ive only played 12 (loved it) and 16 (loved it but too much talking)
Also you cant say 14 i know about the big bara cat men but im not playing an MMO in 2026
Seems like any of them besides 1, 2, 3, 5, 11, and 13
I must offer my opinions: I fucking loved 2 and I’d beat the shit out of it again. The more you use an ability the stronger it gets. Numbers go up!
3 actually has a unique and fun job system and the DS remake holds up. 5 is on my list of games to beat this year.
4 is okay and 6 is fine but I didn’t vibe with most of the characters, and I know everybody fucking loves 7 but I feel like it’s mostly PS1 nostalgia? Like, it’s fine. I liked the Materia system and you get to fight a house with legs.
8 is tricky: you must resist the temptation to grind, as the enemies scale up with you; just draw magic out of them until they run dry and then turn them into cards for the card minigame so you don’t get XP. I like the sunshine characters, the main romance plot not so much.
9 is fine to good depending on how you feel about the plot. It’s really interesting in terms of how it takes the character design elements from previous games and updates them and fleshes them out. I only ever finished the first disc but I got spoiled to hell and the storyline is surprisingly complex.
10 is probably the best one overall and I have a soft spot for X-2 that is sadly not shared by the fandom at large, but it’s a story of continuing to live your life after expecting to die young, and there are magical girl transformations with awesome outfits. That’s enough for me.
11, though. That was a fucking heroin addiction that almost made me fail out of college.
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I edited this post so I could be less of a hater.
now I am editing it again to say I loved Dissidia and Theatrythm, but neither make any sense if you haven’t played the rest.
I love Tactics enough that I have bought it on every console it has been released, including my brother knowing the Switch remake was a perfect Candlenights gift. I also beat the shit out of Tactics Advance/Advance 2 on the GBA. Too much fun. But they’re not strictly JRPGs, they’re strategy RPGs, like Fire Emblem, which I also love.
I’m still hilaritized by the person in the replies saying Crystal Chronicles. Like, yes, but only if you can play it on the original GameCube with GBAs for controllers and one to three friends. What a fantastic answer!
it baffles me when people say “i got tricked into watching this show for a ship that isn’t even canon” bro if those men had kissed, you would’ve SEEN it. i’ve seen gifs of men making out in shows i have no desire to watch. i’ve seen sex scenes from movies that nobody has ever heard of. when men kiss on screen, i am notified
Okay not only is this a bop but it single handedly raised my self confidence
My 2 year old is OBSESSED with this song. When we first started listening to it they loved it, and then began requesting it by name. Except we never told them the name of the song, because it’s called Hot Shit and we didn’t want a baby demanding, “Mama, Hot Shit!!!”
So they made up their own name, based on a toddler’s understanding of the lyrics:
Y’all may have noticed that I did end up thinking of a New Year’s resolution after all. Just the one.
The pithy version is “Embrace Cringe: Become Shameless,” and posts about it on my blog are tagged with “#a year without shame.”
Basically I feel like Puritanical culture and the endless judgment of the societal/social media panopticon, along with poisonous/toxic levels of hipster-irony, have deeply damaged the way we (I) feel about our interests, our hobbies, our politics, our lives, our very selves.
And I am going to give myself a full year to face that, examine it, and get the fuck over it.
I’m going to let myself enjoy things and stop apologizing for it or downplaying it as trash/meaningless. If I like it, it has value. Art in particular has intrinsic value as a manifestation of human expression, it doesn’t deserve to be denigrated.
Squicks are similar to disgust. But it differs from it in that a “squick” usually refers purely to the physical sensation of disgust and repulsion. It’s more or less just the reaction of the body, not a morally judgement on something.
In regards to writing and reading it means that a specific topic is not something the writer or reader is feeling comfortable with.
It is NOT the same as a trigger.
And squicks are judgement free. “I don’t like this thing and I’m not going to engage with it in any way, shape or form, but you do you! Yay you!”
I don’t know why we stopped using squick as much as we used to, but we need to bring it back big time.
