Here’s an interesting fact that you might not have known before this very moment: I, the Stitch, am apparently responsible for the behavior of any white person I am friendly or friends with inside of fandom. It doesn’t matter if I’ve seen the behavior or not. It doesn’t matter if everyone involved is an adult or not.

I personally am responsible for handling my white friends.

Or at least that’s what one Hannibal fan made it their point to claim when tagging me into a thread that I demanded that I take responsibility for and handle a white friend whose opinions on racebent characters in the show aren’t my opinions on racebending and whose behavior in fandom isn’t something I can or do control.

Y’all, no one else is expected to be responsible for their white friends in fandom. I know this because whenever I’ve talked about the racism in one fandom space or another, people bend over backwards to say that they’re not responsible for what those white folks do. They make a point of pointing out that we’re all adults and that they’re not responsible for what their fellow fans do…

But if that’s true, then why am I the only person being made responsible for another fan’s actions?

I am a huge fan of personal responsibility in fandom.

Trying to make me responsible for someone else’s thoughts on racebending in Hannibal or how they engage with someone else over that is seriously not that.

Especially through a public twitter thread you have no intention of engaging with me on because you decided to mute it before you even sent it.

The goal of a thread like that isn’t to get me to help soothe a situation. It’s to perform for people who don’t like me and make me look like a bad guy over a situation I didn’t know existed and a person I am not responsible for.

I am not my white friends’ keeper.