Real life events are treated like fictional media automatically entering some meme cannon and fictional media is demanded of so much moralism and the events in fictional media are treated with so much seriousness as if whatever is being depicted..is being condoned. People talk about media literacy all of the time now but it’s actually crazy how nothing that happens in real life is sacred or free of exploitation but anything fictional has to be explicitly clear in a specific moral compass.
Hi! @jeannereames ! I sent you a message privately, but I decided I am not willing to let this go unspoken publicly because I'm actually kinda tired of this racist cycle repeating itself 🙏🏾 so I'm going to post what I messaged to you, and then I'm going to continue on with my post 🙏🏾
"Hi, I got this sent to me and I can say this publicly if you'd like, because I don't want you to treat this as a private attack or on your character, but um- as a Black user who has seen the sort of virulently racist things this person has either said or stood by over the years, and the people she's spent time with and cosigned, am I allowed to have an opinion here? Like I fully understand wanting no parts of Tumblr drama, by all means, but um... No, I can't say I'm okay with this being dismissed as drama, especially when I as a Black fan have been targeted by the sorts of things she and her peers have said. And I don't know what your life experience is, but being told "I am not a racist" doesn't work on me when I am well aware of what I experience.
If it helps, I do run a page on racial sensitivity and media comprehension about Black characters as well. And am harassed semi frequently so I do know it looks like in many forms 😅
And I want to clarify this message isn't being sent in a cruel tone, I am just a bit hurt to see the bigotry I experienced and witnessed dismissed as mean girl drama and would like to offer a differing perspective, if you are genuinely seeking it."
The TL;DR: The creator you are unknowingly (?) supporting historically agrees with white supremacist sentiments, including with a user that was boldly being racist to me. When asked to overtly disagree with said user, she did not.
There will also be commentary on some of the people around her, because I am of the belief that if one willingly chooses to kick it with racists, then they are choosing to tolerate racism... And there's a word for that kind of person! I wanted to show you that while it may describe what you experienced, I do not consider what I experienced to be "mean girl drama".
Main Situation
So, back in November I wanna say, I was running an event where we would create Black edits of Dionysus from Hades Game. It was really fun! But apparently, people had a problem with that, and I ended up being told about it. I admit it made me extremely angry because while I am used to antiblackness from the Greek Mythology space on here, they don't get to potentially ruin everyone else's fun with their bigotry. Not in the safe, pro-Black space I'm building here, not this time.
Someone in particular, who went by @/Opal0684 , decided that they wanted to misunderstand my belief of "Afro-Greeks are real and always have been, and you don't get to say we aren't allowed to depict mythological figures as such, especially when it does not overtake the endless depictions of them as white," as "Greeks are Black".
This is a common misconception, one that I am starting to believe is on purpose, as it deflects blame from their true issue, which is that I'm depicting their favorites as Black. Anywho, they decided to go on the aforementioned racist run in my notes. A run that includes the sentence "saying Afro-Greeks are impossible isn't hating on anybody, it's just historically accurate." 😐🙃
Margaret chose to reach out to me directly. A respectable act! But when I asked her to overtly confront and disagree with said racist Opal, because she has a history of agreeing with said user on her own page, she dodged it altogether. Now, a peer of hers, @/galusandmalus, at the time accused me of not showing her comments and therefore her perspective. So, this time, I will show you the full conversation and you can come to your own conclusion.
Now, idk about you, but me? If I didn't want to be seen as agreeing with my past sentiments in front of someone harmed by them, especially if I see them as bigoted and inaccurate, I would loudly disagree! Instead, after I blocked her for this and publicly showed that I would not be forgiving her, Margaret took the time to rebrand to @/starweaverblog. You can also find that evidence in this same thread.
"Mean girl drama". Suffice it to say I firmly disagree with you, Ms. Jeanne, that that's what I was experiencing here.
Next Situation
As mentioned earlier, I do not believe that people who willingly cavort with racists can avoid that they, too, are racist. We will address some of those things here.
Around that same conversation in November, I had to deal with @/gemsofgreece (another person that Margaret and other peers publicly have interacted with) on what was an incoherently racist rant talking about the "hopefully small African American Woke Community", trying to colonize Greece and its stories in a way akin to Western Imperialism". It begs the question why someone would even answer a question that begins with the ask "why are foreigners obsessed with-" 🤔 unless... why are the "foreigners" obsessed with WHAT 🤔
Now I will admit, that phrase was kind of hilarious and we did have fun with that. Anyway.
Another person trying to pull the argument that I said "Ancient Greeks were all Black" and not "Afro Greeks existed in Ancient Greece". The overt tones of fear of Great Replacement- a white supremacist belief- ring quite loud. 😐 I'm going to be real. If that phrase doesn't also sound like a hysterical line right out of a Fox News/right wing network headline to you... Idk. But to me, it speaks for itself.
Next Situation
There's both a lot and nothing to say about the casual racism of her and Galus' peer @/katerinaaqu. From witnessing her live on someone's post casually saying that "North African Diomedes' dreadlocks and dark skin haunts her" (and I do know someone- @droodlebug -who also saw her say that, live), to subtweeting about my fanfic being insulting because I dared use an Ethiopian singer's works in an AU where I made Patroclus Black, that means absolutely nothing to anyone or anything because it's FANFICTION... Like. 😐 Just racist over silly shit that could be kept in her head, digging holes for people who won't publicly defend her.
I truly believe if you just ASKED any of these folks directly- and she has been asked- "do you believe that some people in these stories can be depicted as Black", they're going to give you the runaround of how it'll only be acceptable "if" and "who". And it's not hard to tell why someone would do that. Because apparently you have to have permission and follow certain rules to draw people Black in these stories for fun. I wonder why that's not expected of white depictions? 🤔 I wonder what those rules will be? 🤔 I wonder why this energy isn't being expended under the creative pieces of everyone drawing Anglo Saxon blondes? 🤔
Last Situation
This is getting long. So! In case you feel like all of my notes here are solely directed towards my personal experiences of antiblackness, I understand. If I cited to you the creators of all the whitewashed Hades Patrocluses, we'd really be here forever, so I won't do that. Just know that it is very normalized to be antiblack in this space.
But, for proof that the culture of the space itself is not just antiblack, but racist as a whole, there are other users who have been harassed, some to the point of silence and leaving the app, for depicting any of these mythological characters as anything other than white. Dionysus-drawers like @mcsiggy seem to be a common target (Dionysus must be a favorite lmao); really all you have to do is draw a piece of that man and his wife while Not White and if they see it, here comes the microaggressive complaints.
There was also an entire anti-Asian campaign online with @/alatismeni-theitsa (yet another peer) because people had the audacity to enjoy the depiction of Hermes from Hades as Chinese or some other sort of Asian (because apparently South Asian Dionysus is cool, but THAT'S ALL!) Because I'm not of that community, I don't want to speak for them. I just wanted to let you know that while these folks seem to really hate Negroes, the smoke is available for anyone that isn't white! And once again- there's a term for that!
I'm just exhausted of the very obvious culture of white supremacy in the Greek mythology and Classics spacebeing denied. I don't know how anyone could walk into it and not notice it's a Whites Only space (except for the Approved Tokens), with anyone who does enjoy diversity pushed to the outskirts for safety. These are not connections made by happenstance; you can only be a comfortable bigot in a space where bigotry is deemed comfortable. We could at least be honest about it!
In Conclusion
I'm well aware that I will probably be called a bully for pointing out these people's acts. So be it. 🤷🏾♀️ If the violence of racism isn't harassment, why would pointing it out be? "Why do you have all this" well I wouldn't have to if people believed in Black people's pain and experiences when they said it 🤷🏾♀️
And you, Ms. Jeanne, said that you'd take perspectives as long as they weren't anonymous. I don't feel the need to call out racism anonymously! If the racism was public, the response should be. You- any of you- can always find me here and ask me questions and I will answer you outright- I literally do this every day. For free! And I know what racism looks like because I experience it. Every day. For free!
I am firmly against the idea that racists can seek out white forgiveness for their actions. That's unacceptable. While I understand where you're coming from, you do not get to make the call that Margaret isn't racist- she doesn't get to make that call! Not when you've got users of color and witnesses who could beg to differ! "Not racist" SINCE WHEN?
And while these are just racists kekeing on the internet, my genuine concern here is YOU, Ms. Jeanne, because you said that you're a professor. A teacher! Your word and your beliefs will be passed down to your students. And I worry that you might be spending time with folks that will reflect poorly upon you, or whose beliefs might slip into yours.
What gets taught to the next generation becomes normalized. And those students are gonna have peers of color. You may have students of color! You publish books! People are gonna read what you say, internalize the things that you believe! So I would like to believe you would choose to do the right thing.
As for the people I've mentioned here, if/when you see this: there's always a chance to reject what you once believed. Yes, everyone has the chance to grow! But so long as you continue to willingly choose racism- because it's been pointed out to you all!- as long as I witness it, I am going to hold you to task for it. If you want to be racist, you should not have a problem being identified as such. And if you don't want to be perceived that way, you're going to have to actually try to let go of those racist beliefs. Not seek out white validation for it to be forgotten.
"hey I was told you were allying with a known racist, I thought I'd warn you if you didn't know." "why do you even care? You're stalking me!" WELP! Once again I've seen all I need to see 👍🏾 @ahasiw-okitowin apparently she's indigenous, come get ya girl 👍🏾
From what I can see professor Reames claims to be "part-blood Miami-Peoria Indian" but it does not appear that she is registered or affiliated with either the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma or the Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma, which are the two federally recognized Miami and Peoria tribes. The Miami and Peoria are related but distinct peoples.
While many white north americans have some distant Native american ancestry, one ancestor does not an Indian make. Indigeneity is about connection to culture and community.
I'm certainly not about to play blood quantum police, but it appears to me that professor Reames is a white woman that may have some distant Native ancestry.
The minister says the situation in Cuba is "extremely tense", as a US-led blockade of oil to the country causes widespread power cuts.
Fucking sickening, heartbreaking, disgusting. Hospitals, ambulances, water pumps, so much infrastructure shut down and so many lives hurt and lost because of it, all of this at the whim of the world's most brutal empire because they can't stand to have their will resisted so close to their shores by a society that has chosen time and time again to stand proud for the dream of a better world, a world without this blood-soaked hegemony.
Master doc that contains different resources and support for many countries including Palestine, Congo, Haiti, Hawai’i, etc ((the creator is underneath the link))
Master Document
Link to the tweet: https://x.com/seaweedlagoon/status/1772449954046279818?s=46&t=s8SsfXh2OjpNRAj1OBxwqg
crazy how every time a female character gets cliche misogynistic writing we have to explain to people again that fictional characters are not real and do not choose things for themselves.
fandom feminism: how can i be a misogynist??? i literally made the female character a supportive woke ally queen in chapter 41 paragraph 17 of my yaoi??????
Complication of posts from CrippleCharacters, as well as other blogs providing advice on writing disabled characters.
This post covers the general topics - for posts on specific disabilities, please see our pinned post.
Last update: 05/12/2025
Basics and Ideas
[large text: Basics and Ideas]
- How to Start Doing Research When Writing a Disabled Character
- Facial Differences that Would Be Cool to Actually See Represented
- How to Do Historical Research
- Our "Disabled Character Ideas" Tag
- Our "Character Inspo" Tag
- Am I a Bad Person for Not Knowing Something?
- How to do Sensitivity Reading (as the reader)
How to Describe XYZ?
[large text: How to Describe XYZ?]
- Blindness Tropes: the "Blank Look"
- Describing Characters with Facial Differences as Pretty
- Difference between Fetishization and Being Seen as Beautiful
- First Description: when to mention the Facial Difference
- How Often Should You Mention Mobility Aids?
- Dialogue and Speech Disorders
- Sign Language in Dialogue
- Words for Residual Limbs (stumps)
- Describing a Limp
- Words to Use instead of "Walk" for Wheelchair Users
- How to not Describe Facial Differences as "Scary"
How to Draw XYZ?
[large text: How to Draw XYZ?]
- Tips for Drawing Characters with Facial Differences
- Annoying Tropes in Art Re:Facial Differences
- Drawing Blind Characters
- Drawing Amputees
- How to Draw (and not draw) Characters with Vitiligo
- Drawing Cane Users
- Drawing Characters with Down Syndrome
- Drawing Characters with Cleft Lip
- Drawing Burn Survivors
General
[large text: General]
- What's Off-Limits for Non-disabled Writers?
- Writing a Newly Disabled Character
- Writing a Visibly Different Character
- The Accident
- Including Disabled Communities
- Disabled Characters in Historical Fiction
- Coming up with Fictional Disabilities
- Tokenism Discussion
- Disability and Superpowers
- Curing and "Fixing" Disabled Characters
- Is It Realistic to Have Multiple Disabled Characters?
- "Jaws Effect": how media affect the real world
- Worldbuilding with Accessibility in Mind
- Worldbuilding with Disability in Mind
- How to Let Readers Figure Out the Character's Disability
- Does the Disability Need to Have a "Purpose"?
- Including Ableism in the Story
- Casual Representation vs Fetishization (with albinism as an example)
- Including Body Horror without doing an Ableism
General Tropes
[large text: General Tropes]
- "Super-Crip": Magic and Disability
- Abled Characters Pretending to be Disabled
- I Did a Trope but It's Too Late - What You Should Do - made with the mask trope in mind, but could be applied more widely
- Magical Cure - made with blindness in mind
- Including Healing Magic without Disability Erasure
- Why is the Cure Trope Bad?
- Disabled Character Recovering, but without Disability Erasure
- Doing a Scary Disability Reveal without Doing an Ableism
- Killing off a Disabled Character without Doing an Ableism
- Writing a Disabled Villain without Doing an Ableism
- What is Fetishization of Disability, and what Isn't
- Not All Sign Language Users are Mute and American
- Please Consider Making Your Signing Character Deaf
- "Sad Disabled Person"
- The Disability Backstory Reveal
Mobility Aids
[large text: Mobility Aids]
- General Overview
- Overview, but with More Options - not writing advice, educational
- More Detailed Look at Crutches and Canes
- Magic Mobility Aids
- Writing Wheelchair Users
- Writing a New Cane User
- "But Mobility Aids Wouldn't Exist in my Fantasy World"
- Basic Information on Service Animals
- Should My Non-Modern Wheelchair User use XYZ instead of a Wheelchair?
- Fidgeting with Wheelchairs
- Pet Peeves for Cane User Characters
- Wheelchair user trying to navigate Inaccessibility
- Walkers and Rollators
Other Disabilities
[large text: Other Disabilities]
- Writing Characters with Tourette's Syndrome
- Introduction to Writing Characters with Speech Disorders
- Writing Little People (characters with dwarfism)
- Dwarfism and Fantasy Stories
- Stereotypes around Characters with Dwarfism
- Writing Characters with ASPD
- Writing a Character with Russel-Silver Syndrome
- Complex Dissociative Disorders Terminology: A Basic Primer
- Portraying Psychosis + Review of Jinx from Arcane
- Difference between "Nonverbal" and "Nonspeaking"
- Stereotypes and Tropes around Characters with Gigantism
- Writing Guide for Characters with Schizophrenia - Everything Except Hallucinations
- Writing Guide for Characters with Psychosis - Hallucinations and Delusions
- Stereotypes to Avoid for Characters with OCD
Making Your Content Accessible to Disabled Readers
[large text: Making Your Content Accessible to Disabled Readers]
- Why add alt text?
- Image Descriptions Tutorial
- Writing Image Descriptions for People Who Can't Write Them
- "But how do blind people even use alt text"
- How to Tag Your Posts (Tumblr)
- ScreenReaders and Color Text (Tumblr)
- FanFiction Accessibility
Masterlist Of Black Focused Resources: Art And Writing Addition (1)
Good Skintone Coloring Tip
More Skintone Tips
Skintones And What To Do For Black Characters
Coloring Scars On Dark Skin
Skintone Sheets
How To Draw More Accurate Blush On Dark Skin
Coloring Tips On Palms
Skintone Tutorial
Lighting Dark Skin, Part One: Color and Identity
Lighting Dark Skin, Part Two: Lighting a Flat World
Skintone Coloring Tips
Coloring Skintone
Skintone And Black Features
Humanae
How To Paint Dark Skin
Naylissah
The Mightyz0
Tip For Picking Darker Skintones
How To Draw Dark Skin
Tip For Drawing Vitiligo On Dark Skin
Tips To Get Facial Features To Pop On Darker Skin
Kupa's Guide To Skintone When Using a 3D reference
How To Avoid Whitewashing Undead Characters Of Color
Lips Tutorial
Guide On Drawing Biracial Characters
Creating Black Characters
Tips On Drawing Black Lips
How I Draw Lips
Drawing Black People 101
How To Draw Black People
Important ideas to consider when creating characters who are Black and Indigenous people of color
Rendering Dark Skin
Anti-Whitewashing Tutorial For Pale & Pastel GIFs
How Not To Whitewash Screencaps
A Guide On Coloring Poc In Edits
How I draw Black Hairstyles!
Five tips On Drawing Black People’s Noses
How to Draw Black People Part 1 (Intro) | All of the Basics
Tips For Coloring Black People | How to Draw Black People
How to Draw Curly Hair | How to Draw Black People
Why Black Artists and Creators are Important
How to Draw Black People with Copics/Alcohol Based Markers
How to Draw Black People Part 5 | Nose and Lips
How to Draw Headwraps | How to Draw Black People Part 6
Whitewashing In Art And How Colors Work
Quick guide on coloring deeper skin tones
Coloring palms
Let's not have history repeat itself | Skin Tutorial 2025
[Tutorial] How to Draw Black Anime People - Part 1
What is Racial Caricature?
How To Design Black Hair
How To Critize A Black Character While Avoiding Racism\Bias
Why The Disposable Black Girlfriend Is A Problem
How the “Angry Minority” Trope Gaslights People of Color
The "Undateable" BIPOC Co-Star
Black Hair Pack! | Black Hair! 2 | Black Hair! 3 - CLIP STUDIO ASSETS
How to Render Dark Skin
Oil painting process
Dont be afraid of Dark Skin
Painting Dark Skin Tones
Anatomy: Skin
Skintones for POC companions in Dragon Age
How to draw lips for Black/Dark Skinned people
This is what colorism in media looks like
white authors….can we stop the bad POC rep in fiction
Why Black Villains Matter
The Sassy Black Woman Trope
Something that tilts me about the way online culture has developed is that it feels like no one knows how to be a proper fucking provocateur anymore. Like people have been making "edgy" art for as long as the written word has existed but there is a certain social contract that comes with putting something out into the world that you know will offend people, which is that the offense is to be expected. It annoys me to no end when someone puts something out into the world that is so obviously offensive in some way shape or form and then spends all day complaining about people trying to "cancel" them or that no one respects "free expression" or that their critics are being "puritanical" or whatever. Like I'm sorry if you're going to say something obviously provocative I don't wanna hear you whining like a little bitch baby when people are provoked. Cause like no shit my guy what did you think was going to happen????
“fandom etiquette” people when you tell them that the racism and misogyny that is intertwined in their fandom practices/communities/the media they enjoy should be critically examined and treated like a genuine issue that reinforces systemic biases and oppression rather than ignored to preserve their perception that they don’t have to take responsibility for their part in perpetuating racism + misogyny
also to be clear i don't actually think there's anything wrong with enjoying m/m. it's fine. i enjoy some of that myself. I just think any argument that "actually it's secretly feminist to like m/m" immediately falls apart under scrutiny and perhaps instead of playing defense all the time about it, it would maybe be healthier to challenge the ways that misogyny actually flourishes in m/m fan spaces and to acknowledge the fact that the attention m/m gets compared to f/f Is Perhaps A Result Of Misogyny
