But like I’m seeing a number of fans (not a majority of them, just some of them) react to this movie with claims of ownership like “this is ours”, “this belongs to our community”, “this is for us”, “this isn’t for you” and so on. Obviously this doesn’t apply to most of the wonderful fans, just a small but vocal minority of them, but
Y’all.
Did you actually watch the movie.
The movie in which one of the main character’s central arcs is realizing the foolishness and folly of keeping everything important to your people all to yourself and shunning the rest of the world.
The movie in which the entire point is explaining how the whole “This is OUR thing!” ideology is actually just a really shitty, selfish, cowardly, closed-minded attitude and you’re absolutely terrible for forsaking other people to perpetuate it.
Do you not see the irony here?
This post is honestly a huge heaping load of “you’re the real racist for being protective of Black Panther”.
Have you seen what fandom does to Black characters? What it’s already tried to do to the characters in Black Panther?
Stories placing a white character on the throne of Wakanda (frequently by killing off T’challa and sometimes his sister)
Slavery stories where T’challa and other Black characters are enslaved (or are “concubines”)
Bonus: “concubines” are basically glorified slaves in fandom and Wakanda wouldn’t have those either. (That one weirdo and her defenders with the concubine Bucky story idea.)
Purposefully whitewashed art (either literally replacing T’challa with a white guy or not putting any effort in to drawing the characters of Black Panther as they are)
Centering white characters (not just Ross or Klaue who were IN the movie, but Bucky, Steve, and other white Avengers) in headcanons and stories that are ostensibly about these Black characters
The cry of fandom misogynoir across the ages: “I don’t know why, but I just don’t like Nakia/Shuri/Okoye”
People literally write stories reacting in a racist way to Shuri being smarter than Tony Stark (like stories where she’s “put in her place”) in addition to posts and comments calling her a Mary Sue
Sugar daddy T’challa stories and headcanons where he exists only to do things for white characters
Gross (and frankly out of character) incest stories where Erik is in a relationship with T’challa or Shuri (which is like doubly gross…)
Using the plot of Black Panther to try and shame black people into playing nice with racists across fandom is such a bad look, my dude.
Black people get to claim Black Panther for ourselves and we get to be obnoxious about it because fandom is full of people who like to tell us that we don’t belong and that the focus of x superhero movie is really one of several white characters. We’re constantly defending ourselves and characters that look like us and with Black Panther, many black people in fandom have finally had enough.
We saw what they did/do to Rhodey, Sam, and Black characters in “predominantly white” media.
Excuse us for wanting to shut that shit down here.
Like are we supposed to bow down your mastery and great understanding of what T’challa would really want? Is he supposed to be the new MLK for Black folks in fandom? Like T’challa opened up Wakanda in order to help Black people across the diaspora – yes, that’s ACTUALLY what that was about – and you think that means we’re supposed to be anything but protective of that movie and its characters?
(Also, in the interest of full disclosure: I’ve blocked you. Preemptively. Because I highly doubt that your response is going to be a “oh wow, I didn’t know fandom was this bad… Let me delete this post” and I don’t have the spoons to deal with the nonsense you’ll probably spew despite being on Beyonce’s internet and fully capable of googling antiblackness in fandom/fandom racism in order to get just a teeny weeny glance at what we deal with in fandom. This is for both our sakes.)
Hey @stitchmediamix , looks like you got through– they deleted the original post and commented:
I’m on mobile and have no way to unblock people from this blog, but once I’m back on my laptop later,l (like in an hour) I’ll unblock them and they can get in touch if they want to.
Thank you for passing on the message!
Well that…kind of amazed me.
So I had meant to reply to this much earlier, as I was kind of in a panic watching this little opinion piece reach just shy of 200 notes. That’s more notes anything I’ve ever touched has gotten!
First thing’s first I really need to thank @stitchmediamix for taking time out of your day to reply to me with such a comprehensive, thought-out rebuke. I really appreciate the perspective and insight you gave me.
Because here’s the thing. The truth is, I really didn’t know fandom was that bad. I don’t really read comic books at all. I don’t engage with fandom stuff much in general. I don’t really follow the Marvel fandom, I haven’t read any Marvel fanfiction, hell I don’t even go on twitter. I had no idea about any of that stuff you mentioned to me!
Tumblr is a resource that’s often both a blessing and a curse for discourse like this. I don’t blame anyone at all for blocking me right off the bat after seeing a post like that. I’m certain there have been plenty of interactions and conflicts in the past that would inform that kind of judgement call.
That being said, I’m not here to make enemies with anyone, and I’m certainly not here to make a safe space for myself and just spout my opinion into the ether without rebuke. I’m not going to apologize for being uninformed, because that’s why I love discussion. To become informed through other people. I always want to have a discussion, to listen to what other people have to say, to hear opposing viewpoints with insights I never would have thought of, and to always learn, as I did today. That’s what I live for.
So I’m making this post now to say:
I’m sorry to everyone who’s seen this for saying something upsetting and racist. Yeah, racist. It was bad and incorrect.
@stitchmediamix Yep, you were completely right, and you’ve definitely changed my mind. Thanks!
So that’s all, folks. Enjoy your movie, your fandom, and everything else. Y’all have a good night.
Peace ✌️☘️
I’m honestly really glad to see this response from @lewd-plants and I appreciate that he’s like “yeah i messed up and and said this racist thing I’m gonna learn and do better”.
He’s reached out to me and I’m going to give him a bunch of (hopefully accessible) resources that he can look at for examples of fandom racism and stuff.
Thank you for admitting and acknowledging how you hecked up @lewd-plantsand I hope I/the stuff I linked you to in the masterpost can be helpful and whatnot!
Mooncustafer 