This was originally posted on my Tumblr in 2018 shortly before the Black Panther film came out and three years into my time running Stitch’s Media Mix!

This is totally for funsies thanks to a darling pal on twitter, so here’s me trying my hand at a type of fandom racism bingo.

The different bingo bits read (in no particular order):

• “You’re the real racist”
• Sizekink featuring Big Black Cocks
• “I’m Black and I don’t think this is racist”
• Slavefic
• “I don’t know why, but I just don’t like [Black character]”
• “[Minor white character] is just… more interesting than [Black character]”
• Uppity
• “I’m not racist, but – ”
• Black character as convenient wingman for white slash ship
• “I’d like [White character] even if they were Black”
• Civil Rights Movement replaced by Mutant/Omega rights
• “darkwashing/blackwashing”
• “What if [Black character] was evil/died?”
• White ruler of Wakanda
• Black character exists only to do emotional labor
• “You’re why people don’t like to write/draw Black characters in fandom.”

This lowkey makes me want to do a “fandom racism drinking game” too but I think we’d all die of alcohol poisoning within a few minutes of scrolling through ao3.

2020 Index:

“You’re the real racist” – Whether it’s because they’ve decided you’re racist because it now your job to listen to and take up for PickMes who will sooner stab you in the back and say you deserve it for not being nice to them… or because they think not liking racist white folks = The Real Racism, this is an ongoing issue in fandom where somehow folks are super comfortable telling Black/brown people talking about racism sharply that they are in fact the real racists in a racist fandom space.

Sizekink featuring Big Black Cocks – Honestly, I love me some size difference in fanworks. Love me a tall and a small. But what fandom does where it uses sizekink to uncritically be like “what if this Black character had a massive penis that they used to wreck this non-black character”… that sparks the exact opposite of joy in me.

“I’m Black and I don’t think this is racist” – I abhor a PickMe POC. That’s why even back in 2018 I was making it a point to let them know that I do not care for them. Black people aren’t monolithic and we’re not all going to approve of or enjoy the same things. However, one big issue is how PickMe POC will say that… while insisting that their voices are the only ones who matter.

Slavefic – I know that slavefic in its various forms are integral to fandom and that actually people were (and still are) enslaved in places that aren’t the US. Unfortunately, next to none of the people writing it in any fandom set in the US/Europe have the range to actually engage with the horrors of ongoing slavery or historical slavery.

“I don’t know why, but I just don’t like [Black character]” – You know why. Stop fucking lying. I remember when Claire Temple started to get more screentime in the Netflix MCU series – namely her relationship with Daredevil – folks were suddenly like “i don’t know why, but I just… don’t like her” and it’s wild because it’s literally the same reasons why everyone across a wide hosts of fandoms suddenly can’t like a Black character in proximity to a white character they just love?

“[Minor white character] is just… more interesting than [Black character]” – Are they really? Full offense but if you’re out here acting like either of the white male characters in Black Panther with some plot significance are interesting… well… You’re ridiculous.

Uppity – Usually, they don’t actually say the word uppity but it’s all about how Black people don’t know our place and so they use a bunch of other coded words to frame us as smart aleck outsiders trying to disrupt fandom.

“I’m not racist, but –” – Yes you are. More than that, everything after the “but” is going to confirm that because it’s going to be racist as shit. (“I’m not racist, but I just don’t think Black Panther really needed his own movie.” or “I’m not racist, but I just don’t think Black men are attractive?”)

Black character as convenient wingman for white slash ship – Shout out to the Stucky fandom for constantly doing this back in 2018! Because Sam basically existed to hook those two fools up and lead them to the path of good loving… Annoying!

“I’d like [White character] even if they were Black” – We saw this a lot with Kylo fans who swore that race (and whiteness specifically) didn’t motivate their obsession with Kylo. They swore up and down that if Kylo was Black, they’d love him… even as they actively vilified Finn and John Boyega in ways that were only possible because of how they saw and feared his Blackness…

Civil Rights Movement replaced by Mutant/Omega rights – Unfortunately everyone knows I have strong and largely positive feelings about Omegaverse at this point, but one of my biggest issues with the fandom trope usage is how folks’ll sit there like “what if the 1960s was when we had a big omega rights movement” which neatly displaces the civil rights movement because… it’s not something that people care about in fandom.

“darkwashing/blackwashing” – When a character gets racebent and is played by a Black actor, there’s always someone out there like “this is blackwashing and it’s wrong, what if a white guy played Black panther“.

“What if [Black character] was evil/died?” – How many Black characters has fandom rewritten to be bad guys in canon/fandom? Every Black character in Teen Wolf. Sam Wilson back in the day. Nick Fury endlessly. Finn? Like… for some reason the characters folks find oh so easy to vilify are never the actual white dude villains in these series? Just the Black heroes in the way of some random ass white pairing.

White ruler of Wakanda – thankfully, that doesn’t seem to be a big thing anymore. But boy was it a huge thing back in 2018! I think it was so prevalent that I complained to one of my thesis advisors about it when I was supposed to be talking to her about my thesis!

Black character exists only to do emotional labor – I always find fandom’s insistence that Black characters mammy it up really perplexing because the thing that makes fandom go “this character should nurture this non-black character” is… that they’re Black. The characters aren’t ever particularly nurturing and sometimes they’re even younger than the character they’re supposed to be parenting.

“You’re why people don’t like to write/draw Black characters in fandom.” – Yeah, no. That’s because y’all are racist little weirdos who don’t want to put effort into creating content that welcomes your fellow fans. It’s not that hard to create content for Black characters that lets you get wild and exploratory without being racist. Y’all just don’t want to try because you want to own the “antis”.