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My fandoms have skanky race issues.
I HATE that my fandoms have skanky race issues. I feel bad that they do. I want to gloss over the whole problem or try to explain them away. "Oh, well, they just couldn't get another actor for the role." "Oh, they didn't realize what they were doing." "Oh, well, someone had to die." "Oh, well, they're just portraying reality by casting that person in that role."
I'd much rather not deal with the criticism. I especially don't want to learn what to look for, because then in my next fandom, I might start noticing their skanky race issues without having them pointed out to me. I might end up making more awkward comments to people about commercials whose "humor" plays on racial stereotypes, or comment on the lack of characters of color in primary roles, or make a comment about how it was predictable that character A would bite it, because they aren't white.
I get really frustrated when race issues in media are pointed out to me. Partly because I feel like I should have noticed already, mostly because I think we could do better if we tried, and because there's a part of me that feels REALLY BAD for liking something that isn't even mostly decent about race.
I WANT my fandoms to do better. I want to know that the casting department wasn't consciously or unconsciously swayed by racial stereotypes. I want to know that the writers thought about characters they are portraying in more than two dimensions. I want to look at the next Star Whatever, and not feel like we're going backwards.
So please, fandom, do better?
I HATE that my fandoms have skanky race issues. I feel bad that they do. I want to gloss over the whole problem or try to explain them away. "Oh, well, they just couldn't get another actor for the role." "Oh, they didn't realize what they were doing." "Oh, well, someone had to die." "Oh, well, they're just portraying reality by casting that person in that role."
I'd much rather not deal with the criticism. I especially don't want to learn what to look for, because then in my next fandom, I might start noticing their skanky race issues without having them pointed out to me. I might end up making more awkward comments to people about commercials whose "humor" plays on racial stereotypes, or comment on the lack of characters of color in primary roles, or make a comment about how it was predictable that character A would bite it, because they aren't white.
I get really frustrated when race issues in media are pointed out to me. Partly because I feel like I should have noticed already, mostly because I think we could do better if we tried, and because there's a part of me that feels REALLY BAD for liking something that isn't even mostly decent about race.
I WANT my fandoms to do better. I want to know that the casting department wasn't consciously or unconsciously swayed by racial stereotypes. I want to know that the writers thought about characters they are portraying in more than two dimensions. I want to look at the next Star Whatever, and not feel like we're going backwards.
So please, fandom, do better?
