So basically, “why do you care about Black people?” Do I really have to ask you to take the “Black” out of that sentence to see why it’s ridiculous? Black people are like… people, and they get shat on and shut down to ridiculous degrees so I call it like I see it when these arguments cross my path. Furthermore anti-racism is the fight of ALL decent people, and antiblackness is the hinge on which white supremacy turns so it affects everyone.
Obviously that doesn’t mean I’m leading any kind of battle, running some shitty little SW blog does not make me an anti-racist leader lmao. I’m just trying not to pile on the crap that gets piled on Black people and help out when I can. What, I’m supposed to join y’all in dismissing and shutting down all conversations about racism, or stand on the sidelines to be “neutral” because it’s not my fight, or I’m a white knight? Fuck outta here.
What is the accusation here, is it that I love Black people? You wanna call me some kind of lover next? Like, don’t think you’re the first condescending assnugget who’s told me I shouldn’t side with Black people. The attempts to divide and pit Black and Asian people against each other are endemic and a lot of Asians actually fall for it because they’re stupid enough to think they’re ever going to be accepted as white lmao.
As for racism, in a world where the Reverand Jesse Jackson has talked about his internalized racism (link) I suspect that no one would be left to talk about racism or do something about it if a complete squeaky-clean record on racism is required. It… doesn’t… work like that. It’s not racists on one side and good people on the other. The actual divide is more between people who are willing to recognize the problem of racism, including within themselves, on the one hand and on the other, people who want to distance themselves from the problem to maintain their self-image of moral purity.
what in the world? I didn’t know you can’t be against racism if you aren’t black. Like what, as an asian I’m only allowed to hate my people being wronged and fuck everyone else??? We’re only allowed to care about injustice and discrimination when it happens to us? What kind of white nonsense is that? What kind of world does anon want to live in where nobody cares or extends empathy to anyone else?
I love screenshotting and deleting racially fragile anons crying in my inbox 😁
Note: Below is a series of asks I received from an anon who had sent
me asks before about John Williams’s biases. I took the liberty of
titling and formatting the asks into a post because the anon made a
valuable and original analysis that deserves a post of its own. The text
is lightly edited for typos and punctuation with notes for relevant
links, otherwise everything is in the anon’s own words. My response will
be in reblog.
“Anti” Williams anon again. Last time, I promise. Sorry I got
you dragged into this, I just hate how fandom will bend over backwards
for a white person as long as they like them and they’re not openly
racist. Before Williams it was Rian, yes fandom used to love him, and
before him Kathleen Kennedy. Before that it was George and so on. Can’t
criticize Chuck Wendig either for the same damn reason. It’s why I left
tumblr and fandom. That’s why I’m arguing through your inbox.
I no longer have a tumblr but your blog is one of the few I
still regularly check. Which was how I came across Williams anon. Both
of them it seems. I don’t blame anyone without musical training for not
knowing what a theme is, I do on the other hand very much take offense
at being called a liar by someone who’s ignorant. I would also like to
thank that other Anon for taking the time to explain what a theme is and
how it works, I was too angry last night to think of it (blogger’s note: link to the theme anon).
To conservatory anon I have only this to say. If I were at all
disposed to be friendly to you, I’d suggest you get you money back from
that place because they’ve failed you on a basic level. Doesn’t matter
if you did modern instead of classic, themes are that basic a thing that
you should have been taught. If you did classic it is doubly tragic
because your professors completely failed to mention Bach who’s The Most
in this respect as his recurring theme in his works is ‘bach.’ (Blogger’s note: Wikipedia link explaining this, omg this is so wild)
Bach is truly ridiculous when it comes to theme and is a
standard example. I also use him for my students when they say something
can’t or shouldn’t be done because it is silly. When Bach could do
this, then they can do what they want. Ah yes, my students. See anon, I
didn’t just train at a conservatory, I damn well teach at one if you
want to make this into a pissing contest of skill. I know what a theme
is.
I even use Williams’ music in my lessons because he’s done much that
is brilliant. The way he took the Imperial theme and made it part of not just
Anakin’s theme but the Love Theme in the PT (aka Across the Stars) is a
wonderful bit of work. It is not that I don’t like his works, but that
he’s shown a complete disregard for Finn musically. There are places in
TLJ where Finn’s theme had it existed should have been. Such as when Rey
talks to Chewie and says ‘tell him that’. Instead we have Rey’s theme
playing, because Finn doesn’t have one
Or when Finn picks up the tracker. Then Rey’s theme is playing,
then the scene cuts to Rey sleeping and, knowing what Williams is capable
off doing, that is where I’d expect Finn’s theme to come in. Except
nothing. Because again Finn does not have a theme. Finn’s Confession is a
wonderful piece of music, it is used again by Williams when SKB fires
on the Hosnia system. The music used in Finn’s trek across the desert is
Iconic. Williams had every opportunity and reason to use either as
themes for Finn. Both would make for great themes. The Confession piece
is almost used as Finn’s theme in TFA, but is not used consistently
enough to be called that. Especially when you take into account that it
isn’t used at all in TLJ. I’d have accepted it as Finn’s theme, bad as
the execution in TFA would have been had Williams continued to use it
for Finn in TLJ. He chose not to.
Apologies again, this got a lot longer than I had intended. I
didn’t mean to drag you back into it and if I still had a tumblr I’d
take this argument on my own blog. But those two anons are why I don’t
fuck with fandom or with white people any more than I have to. It’s
impossible to have a meaningful conversation about racist biases or
behavior without them falling apart or getting angry about it. I’ll take
bad white people who are open about their hate, over the good white
people who are too busy being “good” to have any time left to stop being racist.
But
I’ll let you get back to your regular Star Wars blogging and stop
pulling you into any more musical discussions. Thanks for running an
awesome blog and being one of the few voices that gives me hope for the
future.
Honestly, that bit of fan concept pissed me off a lot more than I thought random SW shit could.
Because everyone else has detailed explanation for their costumes and things that are relevant to their characters. But Finn? Eh, let’s just keep him as he’s looked for two episodes with some random shit slapped on him with no fucking explanation and nothing at all centering on him.
In fact, I need to go look at The Art of The Force Awakens again, because that piece looks exactly like one of he concept pieces for Finn in that book, random shit aside.
They literally could not come up with something new for Finn.
Classic fandom racism.
I mean
They basically just went with what he looked like in the TFA concept, gave him Han’s blaster rifle back for no reason as well as slapped “Poe’s Jacket” as they call it on him again, despite both items having been long lost. Then continued to slap some random shit on the character without any explanation, despite everyone else having detailed explanations for all of their changes. Not to mention actual new concepts.
But nah, racists are lazy as hell.
Heck if they were going to go for some of the old concepts, why not back before John was cast. Like the cross between Han Solo and Luke Skywalker that Finn is wearing i this.
Pretty much smacks of “eh I couldn’t leave him out,” much like Ruin Johnson’s treatment of him in TLJ. Also why the high-waisted grandpa pants, it’s not like he’s Kylo Squareboobs! 😂
Some seem to believe that calling people out on racism is some kind of horrible character assassination or social death sentence, but in most cases it isn’t. It’s just a learning experience. Below is some of the racist shit I’ve done in the SW fandom alone, for instance. My point in compiling these is not to say racism is normal or okay, still less that I am some kind of hero for owning up to these. Rather, what I’m trying to say is that racism is very common and that’s why it’s important to face and address these biases so we can avoid hurting real people. Obviously, due to the subject matter, this post contains descriptions of racism and specifically antiblack racism.
Note: I’m not including links because I deleted some of these posts, others are hard to find due to changes in my tagging system, and I don’t believe there is much value in linking and propagating them anyway. But these happened, and I have no reason to make up instances of my own racism. I could have forgotten or sanitized some things, of course, so if your recollection or sources contradict mine let me know.
I said early in my time in fandom, mid-2016-ish, that I loved Finn and Rey’s friendship but also thought they had great sex appeal so I wanted them to be friends with benefits and co-parents. @diversehighfantasy, in whose notes I put this, very politely pointed out that this tied into a stereotype that interracial couples weren’t truly romantic and their relationships were all about sex. I deleted the post and apologized to her, which she graciously accepted. This isn’t to say her politeness worked and that’s how people should approach callouts–in fact if anything her politeness didn’t work, because I felt angry and defensive in a way that had nothing to do with how she broached the issue and everything to do with the way I had built an identity around being an egalitarian and moral person. I worked through it, and got over it. I was fine. That incident really made me think, and I realized later on that I had been “missing” a fuckton of romantic subtext, nah, huge blatant neon billboard text, between Finn and Rey.
In my earliest Finn meta I had a very different and, I later realized, heavily distorted idea of Finn’s character. I thought for instance he was smiling in glee while he was shooting down Stormtroopers in the hangar scene. Later I realized on rewatching that scene to analyze it, not only was he not shooting at Stormtroopers, he was not smiling at all, just fiercely concentrating. This realization sickened me because I had to wonder how many otherwise well-meaning people who would swear they were not racist saw aggression in Black people that wasn’t there, and in situations with much higher stakes. Research confirms the existence of this bias (link), and that Black children as young as five are subjected to it (link).
I also wrote a short Finnpoe fic that I realize, in retrospect, was racist as hell. Based on the fact that Poe had shot Slip, I had Poe wake up from a nightmare where he had killed Finn instead and wrote about Finn comforting Poe about that trauma, saying Poe would have been right to kill him. Like… yaigh. I’m happy in retrospect that the fic didn’t attract much attention. If I had been called out I would have realized sooner what was wrong with it, but I did figure out from later fandom discussions that this was part of a common pattern with Finn’s own trauma being disregarded and him being enlisted to comfort Poe or Rey. My fic does seem to me like a really egregious example of this trope, though. I tried to watch out for this tendency when I wrote other fics later on, and I think they have much improved as a result.
I also reblogged and laughed about another blogger’s joke involving Adam punching John over unwanted hugging. This was ignorant and insensitive of me, obviously, and was another one of the instances that got instant pushback–deservedly so. Tbh the amount of violence Black people are regularly subjected to in places like the U.S. still boggles my mind, and as a nonblack and also otherwise very privileged person I will never comprehend the full reality of it. That doesn’t mean it was okay for me to ignore the implications of such a joke. And I did in fact feel uncomfortable and wondered if it was racist so I can’t plead ignorance, either–I just didn’t want to think too deeply about it and that was wrong of me.
That’s what I can think of at the moment. There were times I felt defensive and fragile, especially when called out by others, but again–that was my burden to work through, and it certainly wasn’t worth dismissing others’ valid points and hurts over. I was and remain perfectly fine.
you literally want finnrey but are just too racist to say it
like you made a bunch of bullshit about poe and rey who have barely interacted and acting like poe would be the person rey can talk to about kylo and her ‘feelings’ for him (also like mate poe hates kylo just as much as rey and finn does bc he freaking tortured me and it’s freaking bad to make him support rey being with kylo)
also you’re dumb if you actually think reylo is endgame bc like it’s defiantly not and literally nothing in the movies support it at all (and in fact says otherwise)
and really you’re dumb and racist as hell to say that reylo would be the love of friendship when they’re even friends at all and like that is literally finnrey like they are friends and everything like you literally want finnrey but don’t want a black man with a white woman and just rather ship her with her abuser
I need to start drinking
Lol, well they were right about one thing, Rey did talk to Poe about Kylo. But it was how he tortured them both so prob not what they imagined
And the love of friendship? Wtf? The delusion has evolved from:
1) “oh it’s an enemies ship… they hate each other but I like those ships” (ok fair enough)
2) “well they aren’t really enemies, it’s angsty and difficult but they ultimately want the same things…. on some level” (ummm what?)
3) “they are just such good friends and they really like each other. They’re only happy around each other and are so supportive” (what the fuuuuuu*k)
And I also like how friendship apparently precludes Rey and Finn having a romantic relationship but not Rey and Kylo. Gee wonder why that is…
I like how they call it Rey/Ben’s trilogy lmao like no other character matters
suddenly my head hurts… also all “settling for Finn” talk. Now he can’t even be her best friend? Are they even trying to pretend they aren’t racist anymore??
My favorite is how Finn isn’t even important to Rey, unless it’s a brotherly/sisterly way. I mean I guess TFA and even TLJ were entirely different movies than canon
I’m actually interested to see what type of fanfiction re-wrote these movies
Yet again Finn and Poe’s worth and value revolve around how willing they are to facilitate a romantic relationship between Rey and the space fascist who tortured and almost murdered all three of them.
The whole “look at all the familiar Star Wars things” vibe of the sequel trilogy so far is why I believe it would be a lot bolder if IX had no Lando, no FG Luke/Yoda/Anakin/OWK, no time travelling Han, no CGI or recast Leia, no nothing. Stop riding on the coattails of the OT once and for all. You’ve stopped? Good. Now let’s find out the how many tickets Reylo can sell on their own. Just them and the backup singers (Finn, Poe, Rose). No helping hand from GL’s creations.
Reylo and the backup singers? What’s this racist shit? If that’s your take on TLJ criticism kindly is piss the fuck off!
Well good job guys 😔😭 literally every single personal picture had disgusting racist or hateful comments blaiming her for everything. You guys are awful! Anna is the sweetest person and doesn’t deserve this. She was so interactive with fandom from her other shows and you guys decided to be assholes and run her off. She was so excited for this too
Like you can hate the costume but there is NEVER a good reason to be hateful and racist towards an actress that has no say in any of this.
Also….. people had problems with Beast Boy, Raven, and Dick Grayson as well, yet when I go to their Instagrams they have NOWHERE near the same level of hate Anna had…. I thought the whole trailer sucked to you guys? Yet you guys only constantly attacked one person…. hmm I wonder why?
If you continue to allow this war to be fought on the Empire’s terms, not yours, you’re going to lose.
It should be noted for those unfamiliar, that in this scene Saw Garrera is criticizing Mon Mothma for her refusal to allow the Rebellion to intentionally inflict civilian casualties.
And it should also be noted for those unfamiliar that Mon Mothma was part of the Republic Senate that refused to show full support to the Onderon rebels, whose cause was legitimate, refusing to send troops which invariably caused Steela Gerrera’s, Saw’s sister, death.
It should also be noted she was part of the same Republic senate who turned a blind eye to the slavery in the Outer Rim because the Hutts controlled space routes used to ship resources to the Core, and they’d not jeopardize the Republic’s access to those resources.
It should also be noted, as per Rebel Rising, the Alliance (henceforth Mon Mothma included) refused to take direct action when the Empire colonised and enslaved worlds and people, because that would affect the morality of their cause in the eyes of the Senate. Interesting that the morality of people dying and being enslaved at the hands of the Empire wasn’t taken into account, but alas.
Oh, not to mention, despite having the resources and the means, the Alliance officials refused to take direct action and declare war on the Empire because that would get the rebels branded as terrorists, yet, Saw reminded the Alliance the Empire was already branding them terrorists as well as whomever chose to oppose their regime. Those people ensalved and killed by the Empire for standing their ground and fighting for their homes, with no aid from any one, were not those civilian casualties of the Alliance refusal to take action?
But yeah, let’s demonize the black character.
@lj-writes saw was criminally underused in rouge one.
Yup, the way they mishandled him was one of the weak points of the movie. I have written before about how Jyn’s arc and the story as a whole would have been much stronger if Saw were better utilized. And now this fandom just adds insult to injury by demonizing him while letting Mothma off scot-free smh.
L.J.'s Obsessions 