i need a hand to help me lift some kind of hope inside of me
Since I'm not in the fandom in question as well as being offline for a good deal of time, it took me a while to be alerted to the issue of the SPN-fic that spawned a new bout of racefail and meta. In short, someone wrote a story, during the earthquake in Haiti, about the two actors from Supernatural falling in love. While in Haiti. It showcased Haiti, its tragedy, and the Haitians in general as mere props for the love story of these two privileged white men, and did so while characterizing the Haitian people as broken English/French?-speaking stereotypes, portrayed as aggressive, extremely submissive and hero-struck, and freakishly giant and animalistic.
It's horrible. And I honestly don't know what to say. I can't compose my thoughts on this issue well enough to speak out aside from labeling it as horrible, as the sort of casual, ignorant racism we see every day. As someone being unable to understand the tragedy of these people or empathize with them as people. So, I won't speak. I'll share the links with you, although I'm sure some of you have seen this already.
bossymarmalade collects the most fail quotes, for those who don't want to sludge through the whole fic: i thought you were some kind of outer-space potato man
amazonziti speaks and has a whole impressive list of links: *deep breath*
jazzypom writes: On Nation Language, Jibberish, and Why The Two Are Not The Same
furiousity writes about privilege: idefk
Quote from the fic:
“You guys are kinda famous around the camp, you know. The dashing American doctor and his trusty Haitian sidekick, driving around the country in an Army jeep, healing the sick and generally making the world safe for democracy, one band aid at a time. It’s a great story.”
This is exactly the story, and it's not a great one. The great white hero and his trusty, faithful brown sidekick, just a footnote in the story of his own nation's tragedy. I could just puke.
I hate stories like this. It's difficult for me to engage in our literature and cinema because I despise stories like this, and any story which further minimizes the already ignored role of minorities and the oppressed. I can't stand reading stories in which the oppressor hero leads the impoverished, suffering, and oh-so-pathetically grateful subjugated minorities. It causes me physical pain to view these stories, and it's not because of the poor writing. It's not the story I'm angry about.
Many people like to brush away those feelings of nausea and disgust with 'oversensitivity'. Why are you getting upset over a simple story? Just read something else.
It's because I can't read anything else. It's because every book and every mainstream television show, every movie has been made by this culture, has been soaked in this culture and this time period's flaws: its misogyny, its racism, its heteronormativity and ableism. Its transphobia. Even my favorite shows or stories have it involved. It's because, when I'm finished reading, I get to live in a world in which that poisonous point of view is the norm, is enforced and encouraged. Is apologized for. It's because those stories do not exist in a vacuum and are not created in a vacuum, and those of us who are directly affected by that mindset can feel it.
Oversensitivity? It's like a blister, caused by repetitive, frequent exposure to prejudice.
It's horrible. And I honestly don't know what to say. I can't compose my thoughts on this issue well enough to speak out aside from labeling it as horrible, as the sort of casual, ignorant racism we see every day. As someone being unable to understand the tragedy of these people or empathize with them as people. So, I won't speak. I'll share the links with you, although I'm sure some of you have seen this already.
bossymarmalade collects the most fail quotes, for those who don't want to sludge through the whole fic: i thought you were some kind of outer-space potato man
amazonziti speaks and has a whole impressive list of links: *deep breath*
jazzypom writes: On Nation Language, Jibberish, and Why The Two Are Not The Same
furiousity writes about privilege: idefk
Quote from the fic:
“You guys are kinda famous around the camp, you know. The dashing American doctor and his trusty Haitian sidekick, driving around the country in an Army jeep, healing the sick and generally making the world safe for democracy, one band aid at a time. It’s a great story.”
This is exactly the story, and it's not a great one. The great white hero and his trusty, faithful brown sidekick, just a footnote in the story of his own nation's tragedy. I could just puke.
I hate stories like this. It's difficult for me to engage in our literature and cinema because I despise stories like this, and any story which further minimizes the already ignored role of minorities and the oppressed. I can't stand reading stories in which the oppressor hero leads the impoverished, suffering, and oh-so-pathetically grateful subjugated minorities. It causes me physical pain to view these stories, and it's not because of the poor writing. It's not the story I'm angry about.
Many people like to brush away those feelings of nausea and disgust with 'oversensitivity'. Why are you getting upset over a simple story? Just read something else.
It's because I can't read anything else. It's because every book and every mainstream television show, every movie has been made by this culture, has been soaked in this culture and this time period's flaws: its misogyny, its racism, its heteronormativity and ableism. Its transphobia. Even my favorite shows or stories have it involved. It's because, when I'm finished reading, I get to live in a world in which that poisonous point of view is the norm, is enforced and encouraged. Is apologized for. It's because those stories do not exist in a vacuum and are not created in a vacuum, and those of us who are directly affected by that mindset can feel it.
Oversensitivity? It's like a blister, caused by repetitive, frequent exposure to prejudice.