TW: for mentions of genocide, gassing, racism, and colonization
When I beg for representation, when I beg for the fandom to pay attention to POC, when I beg the fandom to look and realize there is an issue where we brush aside canon nonwhite characters and ocs in favor of white characters and ocs….
Its not an oc vs canon issue.
It’s an issue where I spent my first three years in the fandom getting called slurs, being hated, and being told that I shouldn’t cosplay the characters I wanted because I’m brown.
It’s an issue where canon POC characters get less rep than a character that showed up once. It’s an issue where the only character that closely resembles me is written off as abusive and criminal as if that isn’t something that was held over our heads for years.
It’s not just being upset over OCs. It’s the fact that this fandom replaced China with Canada in one of the main trios and that he and Japan are completely over feminized.
It’s POC fans being reduced to “POC versions” of characters as if its not a backhanded compliment. It’s having every struggle of mine diminished because “___ faced oppression too”
Why do you only find it necessary to talk about what another group faces when it is people like me crying out for someone to listen to us?
I was thirteen when I found Hetalia. Thirteen. Imagine being thirteen, seeing Romano for the first time and though he was white, though his hair was not as dark nor as curly as yours, you still smiled and said “his eyes are brown though so we must be the same.”
Because there still isnt a character that looks like me. My version of Romano only looks like me because I made him so.
And for white fans in the fandom to ignore the clear issue - it hurts me.
Because we’re brushed off as overreacting or given excuse like “okay but its because theyre not a main character/dont have a canon personality”
since when has this fandom given a FUCK about canon?
I see OCs for Italian City states get more recognition than OCs certain parts of the fandom have basically made their own canon since those OCs are available for others to use. Cuba, China, Seychelles, Cameroon, Japan, India, and more get shit stats when it comes to fics and content and yet……Knights Templar, Hutt River, and a bunch of other characters who showed up once get more fics than them. Its not to say dont make content for them, but do you not see an issue with those rates?
This isn’t me saying be silent about what you face in your countries. I want to be informed and know what is going on because I care and want to speak up and ensure when I write Hetalia stuff, I am not being insensitive to you.
But when you only tell me what is going on in a European country or you only tell me what a white ethnic group faces when I or other people of color speak up - that’s silencing.
You are silencing us and what we are speaking about by doing that. It is not that hard to make your own post about the struggles in your countries or that your group faces without derailing a post made by a person of color just to yell at them or tell them they are wrong because “___ is oppressed too”
At that point you don’t really care about spreading education, you only care about shutting us up because we’re “too loud”.
Stop derailing posts from POC about POC experiences to give us a “gotcha” because if you truly cared about the issues you throw at us when we speak up, you would bring it up more than once and more than just to silence us.
I tried to bleach my skin when I was 13 because people made me believe I was inferior. I was taught I was less than dirt and that all I would ever be is a failed fuckup who got knocked up in high school.
I tried to bleach my fucking SKIN and if you don’t understand why that is different than the struggles other groups are facing, you need to sit down and begin to educate yourself. Because I grew up making myself sick staying inside to avoid getting tan. I sobbed endlessly over never being as pretty as the white people I saw on screen. I sobbed myself to sleep because I thought my family was going to be sent somewhere we’re not from just because I hadn’t become a citizen yet. I screamed to God in misery because realizing I am into women came with the harsh reality that people dont want to date me because of my skin.
And every day that I live, I am reminded by someone else about why they want me dead just for my skin color. Not even my sexuality or gender which do make it all the more difficult.
They want me dead because I’m brown.
My ancestors were victims of genocide and they were colonized, erased of their languages and history
So please don’t derail my posts about my experiences because every day I am reminded that I am undesirable to so many people and that people like me are currently slaves or being blasted with chemicals barely less toxic than what they used to gas them in 1916.
Make your own post and stop silencing me.
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