Seriously, it surprises me that people still don’t get that “whitewashing” doesn’t just mean “taking a character of color and turning them white,” but also applies to “focusing disproportionately on the stories of white people,” “glossing over or altering parts of a story to make it more palatable or make white people look better,” and “treating ‘white’ as the default race”
The fact that Disney churns out film after film after film after film about white people with a maximum of one film per ethnicity that showcases a group other than white people is whitewashing.
The fact that the story of “Pocahontas” (not her real name) has been substantially altered so that some of the white people in that story don’t look like such villains, with John Smith younger and Pocahontas significantly older, as well as recounting a popular myth of her saving John Smith from near-execution (a story John Smith made up to make himself look brave, the real Pocahontas told him to stop telling and hated him for using her to make himself look good, and he started to spread like wildfire after she died because she could no longer object) is whitewashing.
The fact that the characters on “How I Met Your Mother” are all white, and they supposedly live in New York City, but apparently associate exclusively with other white people (with the exception of Wayne Brady, who occasionally visits from out of town, and a recurring taxi driver) is whitewashing.
The fact that the Doctor has now been a white man a full twelve times in a row is whitewashing even though the character’s always been white, because the idea that there’s a character whose entire appearance can change in a matter of seconds, yet ends up white twelve times in a row by pure random chance, implies that white is a neutral default and other races are a deviation from that norm.
The fact that people get really angry at the suggestion that characters like Newt Scamander or Hermione Granger could be black because the books never explicitly say “they are black” is whitewashing.
Because that’s the thing. People often assume that when someone’s race isn’t explicitly specified, they’re white. People insist that Katniss Everdeen must be white because it is possible for them to rationalize that idea in their head. People think of white as “raceless” and every other color or ethnicity as “raced,” and that’s what we call “eurocentrism.“
And that’s the thing about whitewashing. It’s this idea that a “person” is white, and a “person of color” is black or asian or arab or latin@ or whatever they might be.
It’s why people call John Stewart the “Black Green Lantern” but just call Hal Jordan the “Green Lantern.” It’s why Miles Morales is called “Black Spider-man” but Peter Parker is just “Spider-man.” If you want to throw gender into the mix, it’s why Jennifer Walters is the “She-Hulk” but Bruce Banner isn’t the “He-Hulk.”
People think “character” is white and “character + black” is black. There is no default race. Community did a whole episode about how a truly raceless character would look something like this monstrosity:
But there’s the tricky part: Once you stop thinking of white characters as “character” and start thinking of them as “character + white,” it becomes really overwhelming how many characters are white.
I mean, I know there’s a kerfuffle over Disney Princesses right now, so let’s look at the list of official Disney Princesses, shall we? That is, let’s look at the list and include everyone’s race, not just the princesses of color:
- Snow White + White
- Cinderella + White
- Aurora + White
- Ariel + White
- Belle + White
- Jasmine + Arab
- Pocahontas + Native American
- Mulan + Asian
- Tiana + Black
- Rapunzel + White
- Merida + White
Soon to be added:- Anna + White
- Elsa + White
4 of those 13 women are women of color. All four of those women of color are different races than one another. At the moment, the number of white princesses is seven, but it’s about to go up to nine. All nine of those princesses are the same race as one another, despite a few of them being different nationalities, although most of them hail from Western Europe.
And a lot of people are saying “but they’re just accurately portraying the parts of the world those stories are set in!” First of all, the presence of a person of color has never been implausible in any part of the world, in any period of human history. Hell, a bunch of these movies were set after Shakespeare had born, lived, and died, but he still managed to write a play set centuries earlier featuring a black male lead in Italy.
Second, and most importantly, it’s not like they are being assigned a setting at random and have to accommodate it in their character designs. The people at Disney choose to set film after film after film in France and Germany and Denmark.
It’s not that those areas produce more or better fairy tales and folk tales than any of the other continents, it’s that the stories that come from those areas are the ones Disney considers universal.
In the eyes of Disney, there’s a Princess for Black little girls to look up to, a Princess for Native little girls to look up to, a Princess for Arab little girls to look up to, a Princess for Asian little girls to look up to, and nine princesses for all little girls to look up to. It’s no coincidence that in almost all promotional art featuring the “Princess Lineup,” Jasmine, Tiana, Mulan, and Pocahontas are all standing in the back, usually obscured by other
whitePrincesses’ dresses, while the blonde lady brigade stands in the front.And that is whitewashing.
Tag: racism
This happened in Canada; Calgary, Alberta.
Tweets by Nakawē Writer Mari.
Read more here:
Calgary man accused in Crescent Heights body dismemberment granted bail
Guys please boost this. Nakawē Writer Mari is on Twitter pleading for attention to be brought to Joey’s murder.
MORE OF THIS! ✊
This is the job of white people and nonblack poc. Watch. Let cops know you are watching. Let the person the cops are intimidating know you are watching.
This is how to use privilege for good.
If you’re white and unsure of how to react to the latest police killings and violence, take note of Broderick Greer’s tweet and the response on Twitter. It’s a straightforward, but effective way to voice support in wake of the recent shootings.
Additionally, if people — regardless of race — want to help out beyond the social media space, they can contact their congressman or donate to support Alton Sterling’s family and the families of the police officers killed in Dallas.
I’ve been thinking about the way us white fans engage in talk about fandom racism and how I’m starting to suspect it’s all wrong-
This is super important, especially the part about white folks taking on their responsibility to educate other white fans. Dealing with racism in fandom space is especially tiring for fans of color because fandom space is supposed to be recreational and fun but quickly turns into a hellscape because even within fandom we can’t escape racism. So we’re understandably tired and frustrated and angry. Sometimes we don’t have the energy to educate and we shouldn’t be expected to. But white fans who see the racism and know better can, at the very least, Google some links and info that PoC have already explained and written. None of this racism is new and there are tomes and tomes of articles and explanations that PoC have already written.
So just to add a couple points to the list:
- Don’t expect cookies, thanks, or congrats for doing the basic work of calling out racism.
- Don’t take up too much space/talk over PoC.
- If you don’t understand why something is racist, don’t claim it’s not. Listen and attempt to understand why it is.
Honestly, to me, the best way white fans can combat fandom racism is to give characters of color the respect and attention given to white characters. Include them in fanworks prominently and treat them like human beings. (And to be mindful that some things that are normal and acceptable in white dominated fandom, especially white slash fandom, come off as racist if applied to a CoC.)
Call out racism, yes. But white fans, imo, can make a bigger impact by writing fluffy fanfic and sweet fanart featuring Coc than trying to lead a charge against fandom racism. You’re the ones with the numbers, you can contribute to change in that way.
Also this! White fans who recognize the racism running rampant in fandom should definitely double their efforts to create and produce works that properly prioritize and value CoC.
To the Fandoms Helping Out:
We want to keep this event Abbie Mills specific. We are joining together to combat systemic discrimination in the media. However due to Abbie Mills’ unique place in television we want to make sure to keep this event focused on Abbie herself.
Please remember when speaking of the discrimination that Abbie faces, speak directly to her blackness, while Abbie is woman of color she faced discrimination specific to that blackness. In 3 seasons of television:
- Abbie Mills was not kissed and had no onscreen romance
- Abbie sacrificed herself thrice for the world, her partner Ichabod never did
- she was repeatedly sidelined and displaced while white women were pushed into her place (said women were then horribly written besides)
- Sleepy Hollow itself was originally promoted as diverse show making their treatment of the black actors and characters on this show that much more egregious
- the “don’t need no man trope” which is specific to black women was applied to her by the writers room: “Abbie loved Ichabod, but Ichabod was in love with Abbie.”
- Abbie also faced colorism from her own fandom as some viewers repeatedly called for her to be replaced by her light-skinned, acceptably curly haired sister
- originally Abbie was supposed to die mid-season, that’s right as far as the writer’s of Sleepy Hollow were concerned this co-lead, only black woman leading a genre show, arguably fan favorite’s death didn’t even warrant a season finale
- her final words to her partner were that “her purpose was to carry him forward and she had nothing more to do”, in an interview with one of the writers they said: “she had served her purpose”
- she existed solely for the benefit of a man
- while she started strong Abbie was diminished in every way as her S1 love interests were written out apropos of nothing to make room for story line’s that centered the conflict around her white male partner (now I like Ichabod, but their storylines needed to be equally important)
- all POC supporting cast were either killed off or slowly disappeared from the show: John Cho, Orlando Jones, Jill-Marie Jones, Amandla Stenberg,Nicholas Gonzalez.
- Nicole Beharie herself was not invited to the season 2 DVD commentary, she recently had to ask the Sleepy Hollow fox twitter account to follow her, she was told that no one wanted to see her at conventions without Tom Mison
Essentially they hired an amazing Julliard trained actress and diminished her and the character she played in every conceivable way. The simple human wastage is disgusting, the constant slights are an outrage, and the blend of racism and sexism she endured is beyond the pale. And all of it is specific to her blackness so remember that when we work this trending event.
She is not simply a WOC, but a black woman. The strong woman who doesn’t need a man trope is specific to her blackness, being a pack mule whose feelings are not considered is specific to her blackness, being considered disposable is specific to her blackness and being only considered for her usefulness to her white co-workers is specific to her blackness.
When we are tweeting we cannot forget her blackness. Some of you will feel an urge to say WOC rather than black when speaking of her. Resist this urge, that is the racism that we all internalize growing up in this world. To combat the problem it must be identified and properly. Please refer to her blackness and use the term misogynoir to talk about what happened to Abbie Mills, Nicole Beharie and her fans.
Poet
Taylor Steele captures the problem with appropriating Black slang.
In her poem “AAVE” (which stands for African-American Vernacular English) Taylor Steele explains why appropriation of Black slang is the worst.
African-American culture is being popularized on a daily basis and while Black people are judged and mistreated for using something they came up with ages ago, White people come off as cool and original when they use it.#BlackLivesMatter
NYU students who back Trump afraid to show their faces.
“They’re afraid of losing friends, being ridiculed in class, getting worse grades and are even afraid of being assaulted and physically hurt.”
good
no, not good. because if we hate them as much as Trump and his supporters hate certain groups, we are no better than they are.
yeah I am
“if you hate these bigots you’re just as bigoted as they are”
This “we’re no better than them” mentality makes the critical mistake that hate itself is the problem.
Hate is not the problem. At all. Hate can be constructive. Hate can be defensive and come from righteous outrage.
The problem is irrational hate towards innocent people.
Hating a racist is COMPLETELY fucking different from hating a race. A whole race didn’t do anything wrong. A racist did. Hating the racist is 100% proportionate, justifiable retaliation.
Trump is emboldening white nationalists.
My father, on the Merritt Parkway in Connecticut, passed a car with the iron cross on its side and a “White Power” flag. This is the second time within the span of a week or so that he or I have had to contend with literal Nazis.
Please be careful out there.
Trump is a lightning rod for what’s already been building.
The KKK and other white supremacist groups really started recruiting hard after Obama was elected. In real life, I heard stories from friends in undergrad about how their brothers and cousins were invited on fishing trips and other outings by new friends only to find out they were Klan recruiting trips. Online, Stormfront has pushed its Swarmfront program, using places like reddit and 4chan to sway people to their side.
The online component has taken many forms. Some have been overt, like the “white genocide/anti-racism is anti-white” copypasta and attempts at distinguishing white supremacy from white nationalism (and softening the image of the latter). Some have been a little more subtle–handwringing about black pride vs. white pride, questioning Black History Month, pushing false-but-common ideas about affirmative action programs, maligning Black Lives Matter, talking about “black culture” vs. “black people,” using intentionally misleading statistics in debates, etc. And some have been sneaky as hell–like white supremacists posing as business owners or workers seeking advice on consistent problems with black patrons, white supremacists posing as black people to make black people look worse or spread ideas within more manipulable segments of the black radical community that support white supremacist viewpoints but look on the surface like pro-black concepts, and so on.
This works well because we’re at a cultural period that is fertile soil for fascism. There are many reasons for this, but one thing that highlights it better than any list of points could is comparing our current cultural state to Huxley’s Point Counter Point. The book was written between the World Wars, and it was published in 1928–two years before the Nazis really started gaining power in Germany. It’s set in a London that feels eerily identical to 2016 New York. Until a character gets a telegram late in the book, it could be set in Brooklyn and the Lower East Side two weeks ago and barely a word would need to change.
In the book, there’s a character called Everard Webley, who is a fascist. Throughout, he states his views, and what’s striking is how identical they are to those of libertarians, Men’s Rights Activists, and, yes, Donald Trump. He speaks in a prospering country with a generation of youth feeling disenchanted and lost about the weak being powerful over the strong, women having power and advantage over men, and the nation no longer being great for these and other related reasons. He speaks of the leadership of the mighty and the subordination of the weak, of social Darwinism, of all these ideas that sound familiar today because of how much of a grip they’ve taken over a not-insignificant portion of our generation and those a bit older in the last few years.
Ron Paul was a sign of this wave starting. And like Trump, Ron Paul had the endorsement of David Duke and many, many white supremacist groups. But Ron Paul was not a candidate who could capture the average person who was primed and ready to accept this sort of candidate. A thin, hunching old man in wrinkled, ill-fitting suits with a high-pitched, quiet speaking voice, and who (for all his many faults) tended to choose speaking on his views above personal insults toward his opponents, was not the type of leader this portion of the electorate could really gather behind. But Trump is.
And what’s worse is that we have a generation of boys who entered this world because they started off trying to annoy people on the internet, who learned that saying bigoted things could get a rise out of people, who found their enemies in people who stood against bigotry, and who from there found themselves being convinced of bigoted ideas in earnest by those around them. The boys of our generation have been easy prey, and the boys of the next generation are even easier prey, and we thus stand on a dangerous precipice.
I don’t think people really understand how dangerous of times we really live in. Not bodily, not of property, but of our culture and society. The progress we’ve made is in danger, and I worry about how much we can really do about it.
Dear non-natives
The Plains warbonnet is not a Cherokee thing. It is not a Navajo thing. It is not an Indian thing. It is a Plains thing.
Stop calling every silly thing you draw that even vaguely resembles a native “Cherokee” or “Navajo” or “Aztec.”
Stop drawing the warbonnet everywhere as the apparently definitive native thing. It isn’t part of all of our 600+ cultures.
Same goes for the tipi, not part of every one of the 600+ indigenous cultures.
Stop thinking that if a native person doesn’t have dark, “mahogany” skin, that their heritage is invalid. Even without admixture, we actually do have varying skin tones.
Stop wearing crappy fake warbonnets.
Stop wearing redface.
Stop using us as your silly mascots. We are people.
Stop saying “spirit animal.” It’s derived from a New Age bastardization of a something that actually exists in some of our cultures.
Don’t smudge. Cleanse all you like, that’s fine, but don’t smudge.
Don’t call us “Indians.” “Native American” isn’t great either, it is not our name, but it’s slightly better than “Indian.” “Indigenous” is also fine.
Don’t use NDN/ndn. That is ours.
Step off about our hair. If you meet a long-haired native, admire it if you like, maybe even ask them about it (RESPECTFULLY), but do not touch. The same applies for someone with short hair, but additionally for those with short hair, don’t say things like “oh you’d look more native/Indian/etc if your hair was long.” We didn’t all traditionally have long, flowing hair. Believe it or not, there are actually different haircuts existing in our various cultures, and aside from that ultimately it’s a personal choice, one does not need to have long hair if they don’t want to. Doesn’t make them any less native to have short hair.
Don’t pray to our spirits/gods/energies. Native spiritualities are closed, they are not for outsiders.
Don’t say “The Native Americans believed…” Firstly, the past tense is silly, we still exist and do things. Secondly, we are NOT A MONOLITH. As I mentioned before, there are upwards of 600 different Native American cultures.
Don’t ask about someone’s “Indian name.” That’s not only insensitive, the name you are referring to in that instance is something sacred, and might not be something that person wants to share with you.
Don’t call yourself silly crap like “howling wolf” or “flying eagle.” That’s also racist and insensitive.
Regardless of whatever you might think you’re doing, or what your intentions may be, if a native person tells you that what you’re doing is disrespectful, STOP DOING IT.
You aren’t honoring us. You’re just mocking us further, demonstrating your continued ability to treat us like shit and get away with it even now, centuries after our colonization began. Your feelings are not more important than our history and survival.
To those doing your best as allies, thank you, keep doing what you do. HOWEVER, don’t let opportunities to educate others escape you. By letting them continue to be ignorant, you are failing. Spread the message.
There will be no “please.” It’s been more than 500 years, and we still are made to be invisible in our homelands. Still we are treated like less. Some even think we all died long ago.
We are still here
We will still be here
Treat us with respect.
This Is a Backup Blog 