Some Thoughts About Race in the SJM Universe
Obviously everyone knows the shitstorm that is going on over SJM characters in both ACOTAR and TOG.
(Frankly, I haven’t read TOG in depth so I can’t really speak for it as well, but I’m going to try)
Let me just preface this by saying three things:
First and foremost, I am a woman of color and a goddamn feminist. I know the importance of POC in mainstream media. It is not my intention to overlook or look down on issues regarding POC representation.
Secondly, I am not a visual reader (as some people may recall from my Tamlin the Yeti post). I don’t visualize characters as being of any race; that’s why I depend heavily on fanart. To me, characters are blobs of characteristics that just happen to have names.
Finally, think about the universe that ACOTAR and TOG are set in. Sarah has created such a definitive world of people who are obviously of different ethnicities. And as a writer, I can tell you that for me at least, race is the last thing on my mind when I build my characters. (Which probably has something to do with my characteristic blobs, but whatever.) Yes, it’s a current issue. Yes, our society has been predominantly white for too long. But for many people, physiognomy comes last..
There are two main race issues I’ve seen on Tumblr:
1) whitewashed fanart and fancasts
2) killing of POCs to further the adventure of the white characters
To #1: There is no excuse for this, really. But I’m 99.99999999% sure that artists will politely recognize their whitewashed art as a mistake and fix it. No need to get pissy all the goddamn time for what could be fixed in one PM.
To #2:: Strap yourselves in, because this is going to be a long, aggressive rant.
Is this an issue? Yes. Should you keep screaming bloody murder at Sarah for it 24/7? No.
This is a societal problem. It’s no secret that POC are hired in the TV industry as minor characters. Cab driver, IT person, receptionist. This is a mainstream issue. It’s one we need to fix.
But unlike those bitches in the TV industry, I don’t fully believe that Sarah meant to sideline POC, at least not in the TOG universe. Yes, everyone who died was a POC. Yes, that’s weird. But I also don’t fully believe Sarah constructed that world with the idea of killing off all the POC characters to further the journey of the white protagonist.
If anything, it shows that there is an abundance of all-white main casts.
SJM didn’t do that for ACOTAR. The Illyrians are canonically POC—they are tan. Not just suntan. Their skin is not white. Sarah has said herself that Rhys is not “pasty white.” At least four out of the seven courts of Prythian have leaders that are POC (Night, Day, Dawn, Summer). Feysand is an interracial couple. Nessian is an interracial couple. And I believe Drakon is a POC as well (and maybe Miryam)??
So yes. There are race issues. But they’re not ones we haven’t seen before. YA lit is filled with them. That doesn’t mean it’s right, but stop attacking Sarah from problems that are broadly present across the industry. There are plenty of bigger issues with bigger authors that no one seems to care about. I didn’t hear anyone complaining when books like Fangirl or The Fault in Our Stars featured all-white (or almost all-white) casts.
Stop hating on Sarah when she’s given us worlds where people are actually repsented. This is not an issue she fucking created. Stop acting like it is.
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