serpntines:

don’t get me wrong, i’m a firm believer in the philosophy that if you don’t like something, don’t read it. if you don’t like a ship, or a setting, or another element of the story, hopefully it’s tagged properly so you can make that choice for yourself and move on. it’s not complicated and not hard and i’m not against it.

but this isn’t a sentiment that continues on when we’re talking about racism in fiction. when a story itself is blatantly or even subtly racist, it’s not a matter of “if you don’t like it you don’t have to read it”. fanfiction doesn’t exist in a vacuum, and many of the racist tropes people use are hurtful to people of color both online and in their real lives. it’s just a fact. it’s wrong and it’s disgusting and people who write things like that deserve to be called out. it’s not a nice process, but it’s not a product of “callout culture”. it’s not “drama”. it’s the safety of people of color within fandom. it’s mutually agreed that fandom should be a safe space, and that includes people of color. we’re not going to ignore racist behavior off the internet, so how can you expect us to ignore racist behavior in our supposed “safe space”?

if it upsets you, too bad. you need to reevaluate yourself and why you’re dead-set on using racist tropes in your fiction or defending the people who do. you’re willing to go out of your way to research small and inconsequential things for your stories, so why wouldn’t you go out of your way to make sure they’re not racist?

it’s disappointing to see the amount of pushback from people who absolutely refuse to consider they might be doing something wrong, but if you’re a writer in a fandom space, please consider and reconsider your content. racism in fiction comes in all shapes and sizes. and if someone says you’ve done something wrong, please just accept it and learn and move on. no one wants to have to deal with any of this. it’s not why we’re here.