Originally posted as a thread April 30, 2019.
There’s a really good tumblr post about the progressiveness of fic (that boils down to “the OP can go to any bookstore and some grocery stores and easily find books about Black characters that don’t center white ones/whiteness and that really doesn’t happen in fandom”)
And I’ve got to hunt it down and post a link because that’s what I’ve been saying: fic is progressive enough at some key points… But not if you’re Black in fandom and can see the active disdain and disinterest fandom has for Black characters and performers and puts in fanworks.
Like I can go to the book section of the Publix I’m in and find at least 5 books about Black characters & by Black authors where Black characters are fully fleshed out and not written via stereotypes.
I can’t go in the Black Panther tag on ao3 without having to exclude 10+ tags.
And the fact that fandom is unwilling to create careful* content about Black characters or consume it when Black creators write it, is a huge honking problem.
Fandom can’t be progressive when Black characters are literally rewritten to be close to 1920s portrayals of us.
(* I know folks like to accuse Black folks in fandom of being prudes, but careful doesn’t mean “safe for work” or without kink. Good writers can write Black characters getting good & boned without writing in racism.
Most of the folks in fandom writing Black characters… Aren’t.)
This is the post!!!
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