diversehighfantasy:
thelastjedicritical:
actualreyofsunshine:
I’m intrigued by the fact that you genuinely think people are labeling r//yl//os as racist because they’re annoyed their ship isn’t happening, and not because of the fact that r//yl//os have consistently proven themselves to be racist time and time again.
Some pertinent examples under the cut (STRONG trigger warning for racist slurs, multiple instances of anti-blackness and repeated use of the n-word):
Weiterlesen
This is the result when people stick to R*ylo metas and stay completely in the R*ylo bubble, becoming convinced that nothing has ever happened and that it’s all just about Finnrey shippers whining bc their ship won’t be canon… (reminder: R*ylo isn’t canon at all, there is no proof whatsoever that it will be and Finnrey has never been debunked, so there is literally no reason why this should even be the case… ) people have really been attacked, John Boyega has really been attacked… every time someone mentions Finnrey on more public social media people who state they prefer R*ylo write racist comments. It’s a fact and people should stop trying to cover it up or try to explain it away… bc they’re just SUPPORTING and PROTECTING the people who make this comments…
Overtly racist comments about Finn and Finnrey are common on social media, it’s true, but I always feel like focusing on them lets too many fans off the hook.
Shippers will say these are “bad apples” (but not in the sense that a bad apple quickly causes the whole barrel to rot, in the “#notme” sense). Not using slurs is easy for most people. The Last 50 years has been an exercise in avoiding slurs and open negativity toward Black people and replacing them with benign-sounding code. Greatschools and other school rating sites were created to covertly support antiblack racial segregation. Proximity to “good schools” in real estate means few to no Black people, and even well-meaning Obama-voting white people buy into it. That’s just one real world example of everyday white supremacy that thrives without slurs. (Of course, if those schools become integrated, you’ll hear all kinds of open racism.)
Point being, the most insidious racism is not the most obvious.
The Star Wars fandom has a huuuge racial empathy gap problem (which is addressed in OP’s link). A white person who does terrible things is seen as a victim, while a Black person who’s been victimized is either vilified or ignored. When Finn was in most scenes of TFA with Rey and Kylo was in just a few, fans hyperfocused on the Kylo scenes. When Finn had his own arc in TLJ, he all but disappeared from fandom consciousness, except to say that Finn is Taken by Rose, so therefore Reylo is inevitable. As if Finn’s arc was in any way about reylo.
Just the fact that the majority of the fandom has decided that Kylo matters more than Finn, not only to Rey, but to the entire story, says just as much about racial prejudice as the slurs that everyone agrees are racist.
Yup. I stuck to the more obvious examples because I felt subtlety would be lost on the anon, given that they think racism is an “accusation” made out of a frustration that people are “losing” a ship war, when that couldn’t be further from the point.
A lot of Reylo shippers dismiss the empathy gap as if what it really is is just a “preference” and not a serious issue with how fandoms, especially white people within fandoms, perceive black characters.
The fact that the most popular sequels trilogy ships are Reylo and Kylux is a problem. The fact that people sideline Finn, a hero, a lead character, in a series of movies meant to be about his triumph, in favour of the white male villain who is accorded sympathy he doesn’t deserve, is a problem. The fact that a great deal of Reylo shippers will outright assert that the main hero of the series is a white villain, and not the black man who is committed to defeating him for having robbed him of his family and home and humanity is a problem. The fact that people straight up said, after TFA was released, that Poe isn’t a part of the main trio and that Kylo is–these are all indicative of the way fandom will go to any lengths to prioritize white men and white male characters that they find attractive, rather than characters of colour. And that is the biggest problem out of them all.
Bluntly speaking, the fact is that Kylo Ren shouldn’t be this popular in fandom. And neither should Reylo. And the fact that they are is a textbook example of the empathy gap right there.
If you need more receipts on Reylos’ Antiblack and general racist behavior, I made a collection of some of the ones I had to hand a month ago. (Wtf, it’s exactly one month. Bizarre.)
In this I haven’t even included the extreme harassment that Black Finnrey shippers were at the receiving end of when Finnrey Fridays were turning into a successful repeat event. Or the kind of harassment they always resort to whenever something Finn related turns into a success, whenever Finn and/or John becomes the center of Star Wars attention. They literally cannot handle a Black man being at the center without throwing the same kind of tantrums that their abusive white fav does and start attacking fans of color, primarily targeting Black fans.
They just have that little respect and empathy for anyone who isn’t white.
L.J.'s Obsessions 