I love Finn from Star Wars. It’s not just because I not-so-secretly want John Boyega to fall wildly in love with me and marry me (but like…), but I think Finn is one of the most compelling characters in the sequel series.
Which is why I can’t get over the fact that so many people disagree with me on how amazing Finn is. Heck, I still can’t believe that folks think Finn is up there with Jar-Jar Binks as the worst character in the ~Star Wars Cinematic Universe~.
Or that many of his so-called fans wish he’d just… die.
That he’d died on the ill-advised run on that beam cannon.
This isn’t a Gundam series. That wouldn’t have ended well even if it’d been completed. Pleading to see the suicide run to its conclusion in the Lego game for The Last Jedi or wishing for there to be deleted scenes where Finn just… dies is… not a great look.
At the end of the day, Finn, like many other Black characters fandom claims to love (while lying through its teeth), needs a better fandom. He needs a fandom that’s willing to write him as he is, push back against the Rian Johnsons of the world, and give him what he deserves the most: a happy ending and people that love him.
Far too often in fandom spaces, it becomes clear that black people don’t… really matter. Not as fans and not as characters or creators. When folks claim to love Black characters, it’s important to at least double check on the “why” side of the equation. Many times, when people insist that they love a particular Black character, it’s to deflect from racist comments they’ve made about that character or another Black character.
Fandom loves Black characters except… not really.
The Star Wars fandom loves Finn, but rewrites him as a hapless coward chasing after Rey’s soft white flesh or aching to put his big black cock in Poe’s butt.
The Flash fandom loves Iris and wants her to be written better… except a whole ass MAJORITY of the fandom writes her out of the story and directly tweets her actress/the crew demanding that she be killed off.
I’ve been in fandom for a long time and honestly?
At this point, when the immediate response to “why does this fandom hate black people” is “but i like [specific black character the person never writes or talks about outside of their relationships with nonblack characters]”…
I’m starting to get tired.
I’m not saying that y’all need to actively interrogate your fellow fans but like… The fact that so many people in fandom think it’s okay to start cutting off creative works for or interest in a Black character BECAUSE their BLACK fans are intense about protecting them (because we’re generally… the main people looking out for them) should give more people pause.
Finn deserves a fandom that’ll love him.
For himself.
For his actor.
Not because of who they do/n’t ship him with.
Or because they think he’s useful/useless to the narrative.
But honestly, Finn deserves fans that don’t swear they love him mere moments after wishing he’d die in a fiery conflagration.
Stitch's Media Mix 
I’ve observed that White female fandom is absolutely obsessed with shipping white men together, often entirely forsaking poc characters, and even White women, while claiming that they love such and such characters.
I try to avoid fandom whenever possible, and avoid meta and critiques by White critics, just as a general rule, and only enter those spaces, or follow those individuals, that I know will stan for characters of color. I do this just to keep my fcking blood pressure to a minimum, not because I don’t have arguments (and also because I try not to argue too much with young people who are being horribly wrong on the internet.)
I know they’re gonna get things wrong, because people who already don’t believe they are racist, never examine any of their beliefs to check and see if they are, and White fandom is also obsessed with the appearance of not being racist. They don’t seem to actually practice anti-racism. They merely want to be seen as non-racist, while never putting in any of the work it takes to actually be non-racist, like researching racist stereotypes against characters of color, at a minimum.
Incidentally, I’m glad you’re talking about the issue of racism intersecting with fandom because almost no one else is discussing how real world racism is playing itself out in fandom. Its been difficult to find anyone writing posts or articles like this in the mainstream, (and when they do its only in relationship to what’s happening in Star Wars). The mainstream media is only now getting wind of the fact that fandom has a deep problem with racism, and that, only because White male fans are being so obvious about it.
Mainstream media isn’t even aware of the racism engaged in by White female fans, which is something that’s a lot more subtle, like drawing dark skinned characters of color lighter skinned than they are in the source material, or framing black wlm as Black brutes, who are taller, more muscular, and more violent, than their white counterparts.
I also think its being ignored because of another intersection: Misogyny and the devaluation of women’s hobbies. Since most mainstream writers of geekdom are white and male themselves, they tend to devalue and ignore fanfiction, and other types of fanworks, done by women. So a lot of women fan’s racism flies under the radar. (Of course there are female fans out there harassing Black actors too, but when it involves shipping, like with Iris West and Caitlin Snow, it s often ignored.)
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