Nerds Against Fandom Racism

Just a group of nerds dedicated to discussing and challenging the presence of racism in popular fandoms.

[queerasfact]

Happy pride! You can find podcasts on each of these stories here: Gilgamesh; Hind and al-Zarqa', Abu Nuwas, Maryam Khatoon Molkara

[sleepynegress]

[thermocrying]

EVERYONE SEE I LOVE BOOSTERS NOW! you like weird, smart, eager satire? you like whimsy? you like practical effects? you like leftism? you like elements of sci-fi? you like fashion? you like eating pussy? IF YOU ANSWERED YES TO ANY OF THESE QUESTIONS, GO SEE THIS MOVIE.

[katestewartt]

Ncuti Gatwa SNL UK Monologue

[asneakyfox]

i think that if you aggressively complain about people on tumblr failing to tag all their posts that talk about ships or takes you don't want to see, and you yourself do not scrupulously tag every ship you talk about in your own posts, you are being, at best, a bit silly

[asneakyfox]

i'm told, although i'm going on hearsay here, that there's some objections to this on grounds that if a ship is sufficiently canon you shouldn't have to tag it, which i suppose is well enough - i don't particularly care myself since i don't really tend to tag ships either way and also don't complain about how other people tag, as a rule - but the fact remains:

i think that if you aggressively complain about people on tumblr failing to tag all their posts that talk about noncanon ships, or takes or characters you don't want to see, and you yourself do not scrupulously tag every noncanon ship, or every take or character, that you reference in your own posts, you are being, at best, a bit silly.

[asneakyfox]

i do think a lot of the time when people do this it's bad faith, often when people say "for fuck's sake why is this tagged wrong" what they really mean is "stop saying things i don't want you to say on your own blog," but they know that would sound kind of ridiculous phrased like that, so they pretend the complaint is not about the thing they don't like being said at all but about it being tagged wrong, sometimes even if it actually was tagged exactly like they're requested. (this is especially insidious when it leads to other people seeing it and thinking there's some epidemic of untagged upsetting content that is just not actually happening!)

but i've seen this from some people who seem genuinely pretty new to tumblr, and from what i'm told that's the case for a few of the people pushing back on the aforementioned grounds, so i mean this as real advice: it is a super normal and reasonable request, in tumblr culture, to say "hey mutuals, i find [X ship/trope] upsetting, and i'd appreciate if you'd tag any posts referencing it as a favor to me so i can filter them," as long as you understand that your mutuals are free to politely refuse and you are free to unfollow or even block them in return with no hard feelings on either side. in my experience people are usually very willing to accommodate this sort of request as long as it's phrased politely, or if they're not willing they'll usually say "hey, sorry, but i'm not willing to tag that or can't promise to do it consistently and it's fine with me if you want to unfollow." if you actually want to make sure the content in question on your dash is tagged, this tends to get much better results than acting like everyone ought to already know to do this and repeatedly yelling "for fuck's sake tag your [trope] shit i don't want to see it" or whatever, especially if you yourself don't actually follow the tagging rule you're demanding from others.

i'm not speaking here about what people should do. i am putting the question of "but should people universally tag noncanon ships/other stuff people might not want to see" aside entirely here. maybe they should! but regardless i'm speaking here purely in practical terms about what tends to work if you actually want to make sure the content in question is tagged on your dash. if you aren't concerned about whether the yelling or lecturing is likely to accomplish anything or not then by all means keep doing it, i'm not your boss. i'm just offering advice about what's likely to get you what you're saying you want.

if on the other hand your objection is "but i don't want to just control my own mutuals' blogs, i want to control every blog on tumblr, so that i can go into the tags and look at blogs i don't follow without fear that i'll see stuff i hate" well i can only tell you that no tag in the history of tumblr has ever worked like that, every single tag on this webbed site is full of awful takes that make my life worse for having seen them. if you don't want to see things you don't like then going into the tags is just not for you. i almost never go into any tag for exactly this reason! in this you can at least take comfort in solidarity, know that all of us here are dealing with the fact that going into the tags sucks together

[captainclickycat]

I've said this before but we talk a lot about "curating your own internet experience", and I've seen some people go "but I can't curate if other people won't do blah blah blah" when what they essentially mean is "I can't get my way all the time".

The fact is that curating is still going to sometimes involve doing things you don't want to do, or accepting that you're not going to get the exact outcome you want. Say, if you enjoy following someone but they post a lot of untagged Postman Pat stuff and you don't like Postman Pat (and let's assume for the sake of argument that they've already been asked to tag and said no, or they often forget, or something like that) you have the choice of either unfollowing them or continuing to follow but accepting that you're going to be seeing Postman Pat. There's no scenario here where you get to have it both ways, so you have to pick the way that works best for you, even if it means compromising about it.

It's the same situation with tag-surfing. You can tag-surf at your own risk and accept that you're occasionally going to stumble on bad takes and ships you hate and so on, or you can accept that tag-surfing isn't for you and find other ways to engage with fandom content. What you can't do (I mean you can technically, but it probably won't get you the result you want) is stamp your foot and demand that the tag be curated specifically for your personal tastes with a view to what you want to see.

"But if people would just--" people will not just. You can't control the behaviour of strangers on the internet. You can't even control the behaviour of people you know, although if you're on friendly terms they might be more willing to accommodate you. But you've got to come to terms with the fact that people will not just.

[nerdsagainstfandomracism]

The thing is that you can’t control anyone on the internet – not the people with the untagged bad takes not the people who’re complaining about them.

Personally agree with most of this thread up until the moment when it veered into the “curate your own experience” territory – which is a fair take in general... but also never takes into consideration the racist aspect of fandom experience.

No matter how generously you block racists and follow all the right people and actively filter the tags you will still get hit with racism in your daily fandom life. You like this character of color and you want to see some fanart or edits? You go to their tag and you get hit with several racist takes, hate meta, and bunch of unrelated fandom popular white ships and white faves. I personally remember several instances in several different fandoms when people deliberately put fanon white ship edits into the canon interracial ship edit tags. Racist edits also. When fans of color point out fandom racism we’re being called angry and unreasonable. Back in the day Black fans used to create their own tags for Black character fandoms and ships (anyone remember #shadyhollow and #rebelfinn?) and even then those specific tags were occasionally infiltrated by racists. There’s a reason why a lot of Black fans left this site and this is one of them.

Fans of color being advised not to tag surf if they don't want to see racism there and instead find other ways to engage with fandom content is one of the reasons why fans of color leave fandom.

[bangyababy]

Reasons Why Fans of Color Leave/Don’t Interact with Fandom

Casual racism that is brushed off as “an innocent mistake” or “they didn’t mean it” and then everyone pretending like it didn’t happen and moving on with their day (repeat)

Speaking over fans of color about issues that pertain to them specifically

When fans of color speak out about something that makes them uncomfortable or why that don’t interact with it (usually because of the racial/ethnic bias) they are accused of being anti’s or pro-censorship

Characters of color being used as scapegoats/bashed/plot devices 

Characters of color never getting happy endings/real development

Backlash against characters of color if they do anything other than be a white character’s side kick/best friend

Actors of characters of color being harassed for something their character did or didn’t do

White characters/actors getting all the attention/credit despite the fact that they are a side character to a POC or on the same level as the POC

Fanfic authors patting themselves on the back for writing a “realistic” character of color and it’s just a bunch of stereotypes

Being told that they should be happy they were even included when they call out the above people

White fans crying about persecution/exclusion because their fav character/trope/kink/ship isn’t loved by all 

Fan artists re-imaging characters of color as white/lightening skin tone

Everyone rushing to a white fans defense after a well deserved call out while the fan of color receives hate

Never having a safe fandom space and always having to be on guard with new people/fandoms/chats etc because they’ve been burned before

Feel free to add

[blacktabris]

- fetishization and depersonalization of characters of color (to serve the white character’s narrative)

- (re)writing characters of color as abusive and/or violent to infantilize white characters

- being asked to explain why ___ is racist when it’s been spoken about at length or could be googled

[soberscientistlife]

I did not know that.

[sleepynegress]

She didn't perform at The Cotton Club. "Baby Esther" AKA "Lil' Esther" did tour the world though and performed at various clubs, starting in Chicago and was arguably the highest paid child performer of her day.

Helen Kane sued Fleischer Studios for infringement of her act with the Betty Boop character. She lost that lawsuit because it had been proven that she had stolen her act and signature baby-voiced scatting from this child performer, Baby Esther. Baby Esther however was originally imitating Florence Mills, the most famous Broadway performer of her day, and the likely originator of both the scatting and the dancing eyes, cutesy act: Note the head shape and large eyes...

Baby Esther was called the Mini Florence Mills. So, I think the blueprint for Betty is actually Florence Mills.

Here are clippings about Esther's act and the lawsuit:

[sleepynegress]

Adding a little bit more here... A lot of history is easily obscured in the modern era, simply because we didn't have recording equipment for the people who were a part of it. However, you can still get a feel for how famous these people were by newspaper scans like this:

THAT is a photo of Florence Mills' funeral in New York. We don't have recordings of her performances, but...You can see that her passing SHUTDOWN New York streets. And those mourners are all colors, packed in for her. She was a GIANT STAR. A lot of old cartoon stars, that started out anthropomorphized, were based on minstrel performances.

Which is the reason why their eyes were often drawn big, and their forms human-animal hybrids. Betty started out as a human-like dog. That for me is further evidence that she was based on a Black Woman as is the styling of her companion admirer....with his lower lip and bowler hat placement.

The way her earliest form is drawn as well as the gestures...

...Again, note that her teeth and the way her figure is drawn and positioned are clues. In fact, one of the Fleischer's most famous ground-breaking cartoons Minnie The Moocher was animated with that same style common to that day, was done with a early form of rotoscoping from Cab Calloway, a technique that was subsequently perfected and still used:

So... AGAIN... Because I see this subject brought up a lot, when it comes to Betty Boop, and there is always either misinformation or not enough context to understand, the hows and whys given the trends in cartoons in the times. The big trend was... minstrelsy. Betty Boop was based on a Black woman and child. There is another post in the responses that obscures that a bit, but I posted the receipts above here for who those *specific* performers who inspired her creation, were.

[ghostapop]

i feel like a lot of fandoms pride themselves on being gayer than the source material but have they considered being less racist and less misogynistic than the source material as well . could be revolutionary

[patrochilles-or-bust]

Shout out to all the Black ppl that can no longer participate directly in the fandom they love because of the stresses of racism 👍🏾 you contain multitudes of value and I'm sorry that the color of your skin and the power of your voice makes people not want to acknowledge that.

[thundergrace]

Black sapphics, if you're in line for a Black wlw coming of age story STAY. IN. LINE

[vague-humanoid]

Kenya unbans groundbreaking lesbian film Rafiki in major victory for queer visibility

"This ruling encourages diverse, bold and authentic filmmaking. Rafiki walked so many stories could run.”

Kenya’s Court of Appeal has overturned its decision to ban Rafiki, the groundbreaking 2018 drama that depicts a lesbian romance between two Kenyan women.

The Kenya Film Classification Board (KFCB) banned the film in April 2018 due to its “homosexual theme and clear intent to promote lesbianism in Kenya contrary to the law”. The decision came after director Wanuri Kahiu declined to give in to demands to change the ending, which the board deemed too positive.

[lillaurenp96]

[luckydiorxoxo]

Autumn Durald Arkapaw becomes the first woman ever to win Best Cinematography at the #Oscars 

She wins for her work on ‘Sinners.’

[thewolveswithin]

Ryan Coogler wins his first Oscar ever for Sinners (Best Original Screenplay) 🏆💌 and thanks his ‘SINNERS’ cast and crew:

“All my cast and crew, please stand up! You guys are amazing! You all are winners in my book.”

[emmaharwoods]

AUTUMN DURALD ARKAPAW Best Cinematography for "Sinners" at the 98th Academy Awards — March 15, 2026

[emmaharwoods]

MICHAEL B. JORDAN Best Actor for "Sinners" at the 98th Academy Awards — March 15, 2026

[emmaharwoods]

RYAN COOGLER Best Original Screenplay for "Sinners" at the 98th Academy Awards — March 15, 2026

[sugurugetos]

SINNERS (2025) + Trivia

Ahead of the 98th Academy Awards, it has made history as the most nominated film of all time at the Oscars, with 16 nominations.