Aren't a lot of people of color uncomfortable with white people having OCs of color? Or is the problem not giving more visibility to OCs of fans of color?
Well, I would highly suggest finding and making community with fans of color to see these things in action. But the issue is not that they have OCs of color. The discomfort includes when white creators:
Poorly create characters of color, usually including overt racism due to lack of research or empathy (from poorly drawn skin and hair, to stereotypes, to blatant tokenism)
Poorly create those characters and then getting defensive when fans of color- especially the ones being depicted- point out the racism in their work.
Poorly create those characters not even for those who are being represented, but for the applause and approval of other white fans (this includes when they apologize for racism... And it isn't actually directed to or accepted by said fans of color. But that doesn't matter, bc that's not who they did it for to begin with.)
Tokenizes those OCs/characters of color while mistreating fans of color- so, if your "favorite character" is Black, but I either 1) never see you interact with or support anyone Black in the fan base or 2) I only ever see you argue with the Black fans (or your politics are sus, tbh), odds are, you're just tokenizing that Black character. Because you don't actually like or respect Black people, just the puppet Black character that you can control. A "good Black", if you will.
Speak over fans of color on their own experiences, and don't make space for fans of color and their own OCs (which is what you said), while simultaneously claiming ignorance to said issues (how are you 'not racist' but you don t even know what that looks like? You 'cant spot' fandom racism, so how do you know when you're not doing it?)
If you're not willing to put in the effort to depict us correctly or respectfully, don't do it at all. We're not points for your "diversity clout" or to assuage your feelings of unaddressed racism. But many white creators of OCs of Color, or even fan characters, are not considerate of or concerned by these things. It's something I hope I address enough here to bring awareness to those reading.
