Could you go into more depth about the racist tropes and zukka please?
i’ve never been super into zukka, and i don’t usually read fanfic, so my explanation likely won’t hit all the points since i’m not familiar with them. also note that while i’m a poc, i am light skinned and japanese (similar ethnicity as zuko is implied to be).
that said, the biggest points here are firstly, the common z//utara trope of the fire monarch. secondly, the dynamic between the two and the archetypes (based on racist tropes) they are often written as.
the z//utara tropes. fire monarch tropes (fire lady katara/fire prince sokka) are bad because it makes a water tribe person, someone directly negatively impacted by the fire nation monarchy, part of the fn monarchy. it also comes with moving away from the water tribe and living full time in the fn. this means that these characters are made to abandon the culture they are, in canon, very connected to, which reeks of gentrification. it’s also plain insensitive to the pain that the fire nation has caused the water tribes... no water tribe person would want to live the rest of their life in the halls of the people who gave the orders to commit genocide against their people.
the dynamic/archetypes. the dynamic between sokka and zuko is generally that zuko is the fragile and highly targeted firelord in distress, and sokka is the strong, dependable warrior who protects him. this is racist on two fronts. sokka is a dark skinned moc. many darkskinned people, especially men, are stereotyped as strong, warriorlike, uncivilized, protectors. this is harmful because it suggests that men of color are dangerous, other, and violent. only portraying sokka as the protector encourages this harmful view of men of color. this ‘strong’ stereotype also leads to a disregard for the emotional and mental wellbeing of moc. it means that sokka’s feelings are often pushed down to make room for zuko’s.
zuko is a light skinned asian man. light skinned asian men are often infantilized, and portraying zuko as a damsel in distress only fuels this stereotype. this happens to overlap with the fact that a considerable part of the fandom considers zuko to be neurodivergent/autistic coded, a group who are also constantly infantilized. when he isn’t infantilized, he is sexualized. he is a sixteen year old child from a children’s show, you should not be sexualizing him (either of them) at all.
not to mention the ‘top vs bottom’ dynamic that many people obsess over in queer pairings. disregarding the disgusting idea of sexualizing children, this also plays into the racist and homophobic dynamics: that the light skinned, feminine character plays the submissive role, and the dark skinned, masculine character plays the domineering role. queer men are not substitutes for already misogynistic heterosexual dynamics (submissive woman vs dominant man). they are not self inserts for heterosexual women (straight women imagining themselves as zuko, therefore deciding to feminize the bottom character).
there are many more layers to this, i’m sure. but this is the most of it. dark skinned men of color are not violent, dominating protectors and deserve attention and care. light skinned men of color are not helpless, dumb babies, they deserve to be listened to and respected. queer stories are not for cishet women to insert themselves into. shipping two men does not make you a gay ally, educating yourself and supporting queer people does. white people/cishet women do not clown on this post. queer poc feel free to add.
