white womanhood (still) is white supremacy

dedicated to the discussion of bigotry perpetuated and excused by the phantom of the opera fandom. an archive to be used as a resource for marginalized current and future phans. moderated by a Black Person. trigger warnings for discussions of violent racism, chattel slavery and transphobia. li pale franse.

[phandombigotryarchive]

Ayo @madamefaust ? You gonna tell me why you're writing about the white ass french De Chagny's being involved in the SLAVE TRADE?

Playing into the tragic mulatto trope by making Raoul half Black for some diversity points? (See the word bastard when referred to Raoul's Blackness.) All for some fucking fanfiction?

Do you even know the implications of naming a Black/White biracial child a bastard and flat out stating that their white side was involved in the slave trade? It means that child's mother was possibly r*ped. You are implying that Raoul's mother was a victim of slavery and sexual trauma. You are playing into the tragic mulatto trope. You are anti-Black.

You decide to write Raoul as Black. Then you state that his family is involved in the slave trade in the description AND ON TOP OF THAT YOU MAKE HIM A TRAGIC MULATTO. How do you even sound? 💀 FUNNY how you only care about writing Black characters when it's to exploit and fetishize Black trauma for this lily white ass fandom. Much less, for a pharoga fic! (I know most of you pharoga shippers/writers are white. Yes that's a bad thing!)

Is you even BLACK too, madamefaust ? 🤔 And don't give me that "oh I did my research" I DO NOT CARE. IT IS NOT IN A NON-BLACK'S INTERESTS TO BE WRITING BOUT US. You don't speak for us. ESPECIALLY WHEN IT COMES TO SLAVERY LMFAOOOOO

Let me not forget the fact that she based Raoul's story off the Dumas family. Alexandere Dumas was a biracial Black and White man who wrote the Three Musketeers. His Father, Thomas Alexandre Dumas was a born into slavery in Haiti but was freed and fought in the French army under Napoleon. Do you know how disrespectful it is to base a fictional white aristocratic family off a Black family traumatized by slavery and anti-Blackness for your fanfic? Did you know that many of these BLACK PEOPLE in Haiti suffered brutal conditions under slavery by the French? That many of them died in the Haitian Revolution obtaining their freedom. How could you be so disrespectful as to base off A FICTIONAL WHITE MAN OFF A REAL LIFE BLACK ENSLAVED FAMILY?? MUCH LESS FROM HAITI OF ALL PLACES??????

Do you think slavery is a fun joke? Do you think that me and many other members of my diaspora not knowing where we come from as a result of COLONIALISM and ENSLAVEMENT is something to use as a fanfic trope? Do you think this is a fucking game to you? That making an aristocratic white french family being aligned on the slave trade cute to you?

FUCK YOU.

This is everyone who left a kudos and bookmarked. Fuck all y'all. Notice any familiar faces? 🤔

I don't expect nothing from this fandom about blocking and accountability cause y'all stay being weirdly racist + colorist with the Daroga, interacting with transphobes and all other types of heinous shit.

So I just want you all to know that hell is a hot place if you keep interacting with this person. And madamefaust? Stay the fuck away from Black people and don't forget to donate to Black Trans Women if you even have a slight bit of remorse. I know you be interacting with them transphobes around here (we can see who you reblog from. I know you've seen the call out posts).

That includes the rest of y'all in this fandom too. Since we're on the topic of anti-Blackness, non-Black people in this fandom love to make and share fanart of Black Christine, yet they call and paint Erik as abusive while they draw their Black Christine fanart. What does that tell you, when you have a Black woman in a relationship or friendship with a white man, who you view as abusive? This implies that you want Black women to be abused. You people claim to love Norm Lewis' Phantom and interact with non-white adaptations of the characters yet you paint Erik abusive and depraved. So why do you like Norm's Erik so much, huh? What does that tell you about how you see a Black Erik? You people profit off the pain and consumption of Black people under the guise of your false representation. You are anti Black and cover it under the guise of, "we welcome everyone."

You don't.

You don't make Black fans safe with interacting with @filthybonnet an anti-Black terf as well as madamefaust who thinks she's so high and mighty as to exploit Black trauma under the guise of "historical accuracy". You don't make Irani, darkskinned and Muslim fans feel safe when you fetishize the Daroga or call him slurs under the guise of calling out racism. The monkey "jokes" aren't funny. You are colorists. You make make mentally ill fans unsafe when you demonize Erik's trauma. You make fans with facial differences unsafe when you demonize Erik's face. You consistently make trans women unsafe by refusing to stop interacting with terfs. We can go on forever.

And if you just scroll past this post, knowing what goes on in this bullshit ass fandom, you're part of the problem. I bet y'all don't even care anyways.

Anyways Happy Black History month and fuck the ph*ndom.

I do not like y'all.

I better not see not one of y'all ever interact with my fics. I'll see all y'all in hell ♥️ and I do hope all y'all block me too. That's what you're good for anyways LMFAOOOOO

Better not see y'all bum asses talmbout ooh "I love Norm Lewis' Phantom. Ooh, I love Derrick Davis Phantom 🥰" while y'all support this anti-Black racist white woman. You only love Black people when they're suffering or when they're performing for you. You consume our pain and trauma and expect us to hold hands with you while you view us as subhuman. Similar to how y'all treat Erik.

Must be why you like Black Phantoms so much. Anyways.

Oh look what we have here! madamefaust putting out some performative ass shit about how she "loves" Norm Lewis whilst writing the tragic mulatto trope ft slavery on Raoul De Chagny 🤔

(I won't delete this btw, it's people like you that make this fandom impossible to navigate as a non-white person. You are a grown ass woman. I'm sure you can handle the pressure if you can write a slavery AU. I ain't listening to your non-Black crocodile tears too, so don't come into my inbox playing kumbaya cause it's not gonna work on my ass. Go read a book on anti-Blackness if you're such a librarian or better yet? Stay away from Black people all together. I know you be liking and reblogging posts featuring and from Black people too. I'm not accepting no apology neither. Go take that up with my ancestors.)

P.S: A colonized person venting out their oppression via the medium they enjoy is different from a privileged person weaponizing oppression for their own consumption and enjoyment. The historical traumatizing brutalization of Black PEOPLE is not your little plaything.

[phandombigotryarchive]

[phandombigotryarchive]

Trigger warning:

Discussions of sexual assault, transphobia, transmisogyny, chattel slavery and violent antiblackness.

Good afternoon,

It may come to many people's great happiness in this community that I am no longer interested in muling for a fandom that wants my community dead and excuses our deaths.

I am not here to hold your hand on why you should see Black people as human beings if you are unable to do so.

I'm not here to sit around here to convince you that the Black trauma that you are excusing is of real live human beings. That enslaved Black people were mothers, fathers, cousins, siblings, aunts, nephews, loved ones and by brushing off the pain that they went through, you are dehumanizing literal human beings.

This is a fandom that excuses white supremacy, discrimination of people with facial differences, transmisogyny, orientalism, the objectification of m/m ships (often involving a party of color), ableism, transmisogyny/transphobia, general anti-Blackness, colorism and we can go on for just about forever.

It protects those and their enablers and in addition to this, excuses and normalizes the use of chattel slavery as a fanfiction trope.

Think about this before you consider aligning yourself with the people in this fandom or joining it at all.

Therefore, this archive serves a reminder of what the true nature of the Phantom of Opera fandom holds and no matter how many times you block me, you cannot erase this. It serves as a resource for current marginalized fans and future fans to heed warning of the false respectable aura these bigots parade.

I would like to thank our allies for doing as much as they can for the sake of protecting themselves from this fandom. Don't worry. I saw your posts. I thank you.

To all non-Black people of color that stood by and watch this happen without a care, I'm not surprised that you would have such lack of feeling for Black fans. I would implore you to do better but that would imply that any of you actually had spines.

Anyways. Keep the Black names of actors under Phantom of the Opera out of your mouths and gifsets. I know who you are and that you're seeing this. No, posting pictures of Norm Lewis and Derrick Davis along with others will not solve anti-Blackness in a fandom that excuses chattel slavery.

Non-Blacks cannot accept "apologies" for anti-Blackness and slavery apologists.

Take your performatism somewhere else.

Blackness, being Irani and the beauty of being trans is something to be celebrated. Do not forget this even in such a bigoted, white supremacist fandom.

To all those who are affected by the phandoms bigotry, let me say this. You are not alone.

Now, I will recount these past months events of transphobia and antiblackness. for anyone who was lost within the narrative.

We begin with @transphantomweek. @cefantomeenhabitnoir noticed that i-penna and filthybonnet, both big names in the fandom were perpetrators of transmisogyny. When he called this out, they were instantly shut down, blocked and isolated from the fandom.

@cefantomeenhabitnoir has an entire Google doc dedicated to the harassment they faced and the transmisogyny perpetuated in this fandom and you can find it on his page and in my phandom bigotry callouts tag.

Kept Below is the fic that @cefantomeenhabitnoir is referring to.

See my phandom bigotry callouts tag and @cefantomeenhabitnoir 's transmisogyny/transphobia call out for more details, which is also in that tag.

Now we bring ourselves to our current situation. Madamefaust.

On February 25th, 2021, I called out madamefaust for using the tragic mulatto trope, exploiting the usage of the Dumas Family (real life victims of the Haitian-French slave trade) to racebend Raoul De Chagny as a biracial. Black-French Man in her since deleted fic, "Strange Sweet Sound".

I will explain to you why this is bad.

"Do you even know the implications of naming a Black/White biracial child a bastard and flat out stating that their white side was involved in the slave trade? It means that child’s mother was possibly raped. You are implying that Raoul’s mother was a victim of slavery and sexual trauma. You are playing into the tragic mulatto trope. You are anti-Black."

- Me in my original call-out post (which you can find on my pinned.)

The tragic mulatto trope is trope born from slavery times involving a Black/White biracial child who was the product of rape between a white and enslaved Black party (typically female). They are pitied for their Blackness.

"Lydia Maria Child introduced the literary character that we call the tragic mulatto in two short stories: "The Quadroons" (1842) and "Slavery's Pleasant Homes" (1843). She portrayed this light skinned woman as the offspring of a white slaveholder and his black female slave. This mulatto's life was indeed tragic. She was ignorant of both her mother's race and her own. She believed herself to be white and free. Her heart was pure, her manners impeccable, her language polished, and her face beautiful. Her father died; her "negro blood" discovered, she was remanded to slavery, deserted by her white lover, and died a victim of slavery and white male violence."

After I called this out, many people in the fandom blocked me and began to post very cryptic things regarding cancel culture.

Madamefaust is not exempt from participating in my harassment. Madamefaust is a pharoga writer and a large number of the people harassing me were pharoga shippers. You can find the list of names in @cefantomeenhabitnoir 's bigot call out list.

Even her literal friends and mutuals were posting things regarding the words, "you don't have to care about anything" about a Black woman calling out the literal fetishization of slavery.

Madamefaust did nothing to stop my harassment. Only posting a cryptic post "to stop" while these people still kept indirecting me.

Why didn't you tell them to disengage until the damage was already done? Why didn't you confront them personally and not in some text post? You knew what you were doing. You were watching. This fandom is small.

I hope you feel ashamed and that the shame follows you forever. You were playing with literal Black lives and the deaths of many people who were murdered. Slavery wasn't a fun game. It was endless brutalization and loss of self. Black people's lives were treated as products. Me and many people's ancestors literally had nothing.

Life as an enslaved person was either get raped by the slave master or labor until you die.

And this fandom has the nerve to excuse using that as a fanfic trope?

Now, we move on to @strength-to-try

@strength-to-try dubs themselves an "anti racism" page yet allows antiblack slave trade apologists and their defenders to interact with their posts.

When a Black woman criticizes them (me), they refer to me as a "Black Individual" and flat out state that they aren't going to block out literal

SLAVE TRADE APOLOGISTS, ANTIBLACK PEOPLE AND BLACK FETISHIZERS.

YOU ARE NOT BLACK. I CAN TELL.

You cannot "forgive" or accept apologies antiblackness if you aren't Black.

The entire reason that page exists is because I was calling out ANTIBLACKNESS AND SLAVE TRADE APOLOGISM IN PHANDOM.

FUCK YOU AND FUCK EVERYONE WHO SUPPORTS @strength-to-try and their anti-Blackness, slave trade apologism and willingness to stand with white supremacists all whilst throwing me, a Black woman under a bus.

IF YOU SUPPORT THEM, YOU ARE ANTIBLACK. YOU ARE STANDING IN LINE WITH SOMEONE WHO LETS WHITE SUPREMACIST SLAVE TRADE APOLOGIST ANTIBLACK RACISTS INTERACT WITH THEM.

TAKE IT FROM AN ACTUAL BLACK PERSON (ME!)

FUCKING LISTEN TO BLACK PEOPLE WHEN WE SAY THE SHIT YOU'RE DOING IS RACIST.

The Phantom of the Opera fandom is especially not safe for Black People and Trans Women. It houses, protects and defends WHITE SUPREMACY.

But it is also not safe for darkskinned people, Muslims and Iranis.

It is reeking with people who fetishize the Daroga, a darkskinned Irani Muslim man. They lighten his skin, barely even mention his religion unless they're trying to strip it away or demonize his home country. They write him hyperaggressive and hypersexual towards Erik. They call him a monkey. This is not love. This is racism.

They also hyper-sexualize Irani women and refuse to think critically about why Gaston Leroux describes the Little Sultana, an Irani woman as so blood thirsty and Erik (a white man's) main abuser.

You can find examples in my phandom bigotry callouts tag. Or just read any pharoga fic. It's filled with this prejudiced shit.

Also I encourage you all to stop demonizing Erik's facial difference and to educate yourself on the history of ableism regarding the discrimination of people with facial differences. You can find some of these resources under my ableism tag.

So, in all, go run your money to @cefantomeenhabitnoir for the transphobic trauma you've put him through if you have a single bit of sympathy for them. You know who you are.

I don't expect much from a fandom who condones literal anti-Blackness and slavery apologism. But if any of you do feel remorse, I encourage you to run your money to Black people. Especially darkskinned, disabled and LGBT Black people whenever you see a donation post as reparations.

Silence is violence.

Also, I have put together an artist blacklist of people who supported madamefaust's use of slavery in her fanfic, defended it or flat out refused to stop interacting with said defenders of it.

In addition to this, I have added said artists who have contributed to the racist orientalist sentiment against the Daroga and, of course transphobes/transmisogynist defenders.

You can contact @queerangelic or @cefantomeenhabitnoir for the list to know which in the fandom to avoid.

More than many of you are guilty.

For new Phantom of the Opera fans considering joining the fandom? Read my pinned and check out my phandom bigotry callouts tag.

I suggest that you do not join this hellscape fandom or get out of here while you can.

Avoid this fandom as much as possible.

And Phandom? I'll see you all in hell.

[trans-flint]

Wow so glad there's going to a Phantom-Commune week so a fandom full of social privileged centrists who have done nothing but shut down any dissent from below to preserve their own power and the status quo can do 15 seconds of research and think that 'wow the Communards are big meanies :(' and write a bunch of fic about how they're the real villains and the Versaillese were totally justified.

It's almost poetically appropriate

[phandombigotryarchive]

Don't forget that the organizer of this event is a white woman (paperandsong) who condones and perpetuates slavery apologism. She is extremely obsessed with Black people. Many of her likes and reblogs consist of Black people but she complains with a Black girl calls out the objectification of chattel slavery in madamefaust's since deleted fic.

Do you really like Black people paperandsong, or are you just fetishizing us?

Btw if you're gonna try it with you being Brazilian and the country being mostly Black.... YOU STILL AREN'T BLACK LMFAO. YOU'RE WHITE. YOU'RE STILL CAPABLE OF FETISHIZATION OF BLACK PEOPLE.

By the way, for 300 years or so, slavery was the heart of the Brazilian economy. According to historian Emilia Viotti da Costa, 40 percent of the 10 million enslaved Africans brought to the New World ended up in Brazil.

I know you know about slavery in your home country.

Why deny that genocide now? 🤔

[trans-flint]

This should not be news to anyone who has been paying attention to anything I’ve said over the past 6+ months but the depths of bigotry in this fandom have necessitated an attempt at a comprehensive document on the subject. 

Phandom is deeply transphobic. 

This is not a matter for discussion, this is a fact. 

As long as terfs are allowed to have a following, trans women are not safe here. As long as cis phans make light of our trauma for fic and block the slightest criticism, no trans person can thrive here. 

This document covers transphobia and transmisogyny exclusively, but transmisogyny and white supremacy are always hand in hand and the crossover between this list and those perpetuating racism, anti-Blackness, slavery apologism and more as shown by the incredibly important work done by @phandombigotryarchive illustrates that. 

Please heed the content warnings listed in the document. I have not included screenshots of explicit transmisogyny as it doesn’t need to be seen by even more people, but the warnings are there for a reason.

[trans-flint]

This document now includes a section covering the racism, anti-Blackness, and slavery apologism that @phandombigotryarchive has been been archiving over the past two weeks. 

For further information checked the archive’s pinned post and the ‘phandom bigotry callouts’ tag.

[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

[nyxelestia]

• Flanonization - rewriting canon to prop up white guys and push down characters of color…and then passing off this fanon creation as canon, confusing people who haven’t seen the canon yet, and/or getting large portions of the fandom to accept it as a substitute for canon and pretend the actual canon - whatever its respect for characters of color - doesn’t exist or is an actual falsehood.

• “Sea-lioning” - using passive aggressive tactics to harass fans of color (and white allies who speak up for fans and characters of color), harassing or cyberbullying their friends, and targeting any type of community that speaks up about these problems…and then crying victim when someone finally snaps and lashes back at them.

[trans-flint]

Very telling how many big names who played a role in making phandom the hostile hellscape that it is would rather Leave Phandom than take responsibility for their actions and do the absolute bare minimum to stand with marginalized phans

[phandombigotryarchive]

TW: lynching imagery

Yeah I'm gonna need you guys to block taiteilija for me

[cleftfairy]

not to be a bitch but it shouldn’t take someone literally telling you to not call people with facial d*formities ugly for you to think twice about it. people on this website really have never considered the possibility that we ACTUALLY exist and arent just a tiny minority of a minority

[cleftfairy]

actually reblog this listen to me when i say ive spent my whole life being told im ugly by doctors and adults lmfao. im sick of always being talked over or ignored about this- listen to actual disabled people when they tell you to shut the fuck up and consider the impact of what you say

[cleftfairy]

kind of a banger of a post but i know ppl are reblogging this and not actually internalizing it. just treat people w/ respect & maybe consider the impact of your words on OTHER people when you say them. like consider you’re making fun of someone you hate for valid reasons and you call one of their features ugly. think about why you’re saying that and who it might effect. criticize things that are actually important instead of throwing people like me under the bus 

[evilkaito]

i dont think whites understand how being white makes literally everything easier.

it effects everything.

being trans is easier when youre white.

being gay is easier when youre white.

being disabled is easier when youre white.

being a woman is easier when youre white.

being autistic is easier when youre white.

oppression is eased when you are white, as you get extra privileges, and your whiteness is seen as a positive characteristic that in some ways counter-balances your other forms of being a minority. whiteness controls everything.

you are automatically way more innocent in your own oppression as a gay, trans, disabled person because of your whiteness.

never forget this.

[noahsenpai]

i wanna see all my white followers reblogging this

[eliciaforever-deactivated201906]

It affects class too don’t forget! Poor and lower class white people like me have more privilege in our whiteness than Beyoncé.

[visibilityofcolor]

While aligned people of color are really the worst. This is something I’ve seen in ALL fandoms. Let me make this clear that, white aligned poc aren’t “mixed” or white passing poc–though they can be just like they can be monoracial poc. White aligned poc just means people of color who weaponize their identity of people of color to silence other poc for speaking out against fandom racism.

For example. A black blogger is speaking out against racism. Another poc: “I’m x ethnicity and I don’t think this is racist” or “I’m x and i don’t find this take racism, therefore it isn’t racist because I as a poc don’t think it is”. And the term white aligned really stands for the fact that white aligned poc use their identity to excuse or give white people leverage to be racist, or to go after other people of color.

Another red flag for a white aligned person of color, is the fact that they’ll barely mention their ethnicity, they aren’t connected to it (they may or may not be mixed or whatever–that isn’t always the case but i have seen this and no this doesn’t apply to all mixed poc, just those who fit this description) but they automatically start mentioning that they’re ‘poc’ or throw their race out there randomly to silence other people of color, mainly black people for speaking out against racism and it’s exhausting.

white aligned people of color can make things so difficult because in fandoms where racism and anti-blackness are prevalent, racist fans will ALWAYS listen to the person of color who boosts their ideals or fosters their racists perceptions on things if it means staying comfortable. and white aligned people of color will always weaponize their ethnicity to silence other poc who speak out against racism, esp white people

I think that, if you are white and you are actually attempting to decolonize your views, then please actually listen to people of color who speak out against racism rather than swarming to the token/white aligned poc who is very obviously against the one person of color speaking out against racism esp if that said poc happens to be black. 

[raydrawsdaly]

Hiya!! I love your art and inclusion of poc, so I hope it's ok to ask for advice! I've been wanting to draw certain characters I like in different ethnicities, often generally just not white; however I'm almost purely white, so I was wondering if changing it because it looks cool would be considered fetishization? I really don't want to be doing that, so if you have any thoughts its much appreciated!

Hi there! 

When changing the ethnicity of white characters or characters with an undetermined/unspecified race (ex. Musical characters who are able to be performed as any race, though are predominantly cast as white.) listen to BIFOC* and pay attention to how they would like to see the cast. 

(*black, indigenous fans of color)

Changing the race or skin tone of certain characters may convey a message you don’t mean to send. For many fans of color, they’re TIRED of the same messages being sent over and over. 

To help bring light on the situation, let’s talk about colorism in the Phantom of the Opera.

Robert Guillaume (1990), Nicholas Nkuna (2011-2012), Norm Lewis (2014),  Derrick Davis (2016-2017, 2019-2020), and Quentin Oliver Lee (2017-2019) all played the Phantom in Phantom of the Opera. Jordan Donica (2016) was the only black man to play Raoul. 

All actors for the role of Phantom, the villain, were dark skin men while Jordan Donica who played Raoul, one of the protagonists, was light skin. You’ll note Robert Guillaume was cast for the Phantom in 1990 and it took over two decades since then for a light-skinned black man to be cast as Raoul. 

Why not cast a dark-skinned Raoul? Why not cast a light-skinned Phantom? What messages are these choices conveying to an audience? Who is being affected by these messages? 

All this to say, we’ve still never had a production of Phantom of the Opera where Christine Daae, our main character, has been black. Why has it taken so long to cast a black actress as Christine? And when that time comes, what are the odds the role will be given to a dark-skinned actress? 

From Teen Vogue, 

“To be clear, Hollywood’s issue of colorism is not the fault of light-skinned actresses. They are not the ones perpetuating the belief that a black woman must have light skin and straight or curly hair to be cast as a leading lady. The fault lies with Hollywood producers and casting agents who refuse to push the boundaries and cast young, dark black women in important movie roles — including roles that were made specifically for them.  They choose to endorse an incredibly narrow selection of black women, yet at the same time, want to get accolades for achieving diversity and representation on-screen.“

All this to say, be mindful of colorism, stereotypes, and listen to how fans of color want to be represented. 

[writingwithcolor]

As a general rule, what are some absolute NOs when you're a white author? I feel like everyone knows the "basics" but what are some concepts or situations that people may not realize are racist/they shouldn't write about?

White Authors and Topics to Avoid/Tread Carefully

Tragedy exploitation, often call tragedy or disaster porn, is something not a lot of people realize is racist.

What exploiting tragedy means is basically a fixation on bad scenarios, writing about them again and again— for profit. It’s exclusively writing about a group’s pain because you believe the most worthwhile narrative is the most painful one. 

Tragedy exploitation covers:

Slavery in all ethnicities

Colonization from any and all groups (includes things like British occupation of India, Japan’s rule of the Pacific in WWII, and colonization of the Americas)

Genocide (including cultural)

Segregation (yep, like the 50s in America)

War and refugees (all modern wars and WWII, both Atlantic and Pacific included)

Undocumented immigrants (historical and modern, around the globe)

Trafficking (includes agricultural, sex,maids/spa/nails/massage…)

“Forbidden romance” (like: Nazis and Jews, slaveowners and their slaves, Japanese occupiers and Chinese prisoners, Natives and early settlers/colonizers)

Anything involving a lot of death/struggle (including: Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, high suicide/ homicide rates in PoC communities, chronic illness, poverty, etc)

Identity stories

Why do you have to write stories that focus only on the dark parts? Sure, there’s “inspiration” within them… but isn’t there just as much if not more inspiration to be had from writing about narratives that aren’t built on the suffering of PoC? 

Identity stories deserve special mention because some topics are extremely nuanced and cannot be researched. See Why do you need to tell this story right now? 

Romances also get special mention. 

Yes, interracial relationships are fine… to a point, and there are degrees of appropriateness. Jewish readers aren’t clamoring to read gentile-written WWII stories about Jewish characters, but if that’s what you want to write, and one of them has to be gentile to make your plot work, at least please make them a righteous gentile (i.e. someone who was helping) rather than an actual Nazi. Romance between modern Native people and white people are fine. 

Same with romance between a Black person and a white person – but in both those cases, not if the white person is actually a white supremacist! It’s not okay when one half’s entire philosophy revolves around killing/assimilating/owning the marginalized half. See the difference?  

The only time it’s not fine is if one half has a vested interest in killing/ assimilating/ owning the marginalized identity.

We’d also caution against lovers moving into white savior positions. They can most definitely help and defend them, of course, but if the relationship’s heavily based on saving the poor Black woman from her oppressors, there’s a problem.

Grey areas writing topics also include:

Activist/rebellion narratives when the issues are PoC centric (yes, it’s wonderful to see groups “winning”, but: 1- it perpetuates the myth the problems are over, 2- most of the things people are freeing themselves from are on the first list)

Escape narratives (what are they escaping from? Usually things on the first list)

Survival narratives (including things like survival sex work; what are they surviving, and do they get a happy ending?)

Immigrant experiences (what are they immigrating from, how legal is it, etc) 

Of course, GIANT note that if you personally experienced stuff on either list, you’re of course allowed to write about your experience. But white writers (or even any writer part of a group not directly targeted) should apply caution at best for the grey areas list, and seriously question why they want to write a story about stuff on the first list.

Important note: We realize Hidden Figures is an activism and segregation narrative written and and directed by white people. It was also adapted from a book written by a Black woman, which is where some personal experience comes in. That being said— there were a handful of white saviour moments in the film that were historically inaccurate and should not have been included.

Writing so exclusively about these stories shows, to us, that people don’t see a value in PoC narratives unless there is a disproportionate degree of suffering involved. White people get silly romcoms with two middle class individuals. Black people get starcrossed white/black lovers when interracial marriage was illegal. Why is our pain so important to you?

If the first thing you think of when you decide to start representing PoC is slavery, refugees, colonization, and general hardship/death… rethink why you first think of that, and start to work on seeing us outside of our suffering.

— WWC

P.S- we didn’t call it tragedy porn because porn isn’t exclusively built on exploitation, but that is the common name for what we are discussing here. Should you research this topic, “tragedy porn” or “disaster porn” is what will yield the most results. We just find it more accurate to say “tragedy exploitation” in this situation.

[phandombigotryarchive]

"but i have black friends!"

do your black friends know that you are arguing with a black girl on the internet for calling out a white woman (@madamefaust) for objectifying chattel slavery and putting black trauma on display for a majority non-Black fandom? and for the majority of the fandom coming to her defense?

AND PEOPLE HAVING THE NERVE TO INTERACT WITH MY POSTS WHILST INTERACTING WITH SAID PEOPLE I CALLED OUT???

allowing Black pain to be consumed over the guise of "representation" and "fun"?

"i love black actors! i love norm lewis! see, look at all the black music i listen to!"

next time your black friends hit you up, ask them what do they think about this? is using slavery and the tragic mulatto trope as a plot point in fanfic for an aristocratic white french family good representation?

objectification, fetishization and tokenism is not love.

KEEP BLACK PHANTOM CAST MEMBERS NAMES' OUT OF YOUR SLAVERY APOLOGIST WHITE SUPREMACIST MOUTHS.

oh, if you're new to the phantom fandom, check my pinned and phandom bigotry archive tag! ♥️

[seluvian]

I want to talk about one of the greatest luxuries white people enjoy, without even realizing they have this. To never have to think about racism. I'm not saying some white people don't consider their impact or their role in white supremacy. I'm saying that the luxury they have is never being required to think about racism. They don't HAVE to. They don't live with it. It doesn't have a negative effect on their lives. In fact, the racist systems this country is built on actively help white people.

People of color, especially black people, have to think about racism constantly. It's woven into the fabric of our entire lives. Every interaction with white people runs past that filter. And you'd be shocked how much racism we catch that we simply never comment on, at work, at school, even with our friends. I have a lot of white friends. And yes, they do and say racist things, or don't speak against racist things, maintaining the racist status quo with white-serving white silence. And they never have to consider those actions. They never have to consider their impact. What an incredible luxury, to exist in a world where you can decide whether racism exists, or not. What a gift to live free of that heavy burden that so many of us find chained to our backs.

White people can, and should reblog this, just mind yourselves in the notes.

[trans-flint]

Thinking about how Monleón says in A Specter is Haunting Europe that one of the biggest challenges presented by The Other around the turn of the 20th c was when it forced the logic of the ‘revolutionary bourgeoisie’ to its undeniable conclusion and revealed the hypocrisy in its resistance.   

By virtue of being a man and citizen, and despite anything he has done or had done to him, Erik has every right and privilege that had been so fiercely fought for from 1789 on. 

Nothing Erik asks for or desires in the novel is too much for those rights. He wants simply: love (une honnête femme), shelter (un appartement tranquille, avec des portes et des fenêtres ordinaires), and to walk freely and unbothered in public spaces (nous irons nous promener le dimanche). 

These are all, ostensibly, what the bourgeoisie fought revolutions for, what they executed kings for, but they cannot and will not extend those rights to Erik. 

To do so would force them to admit that The Other, the thing they push to the margins and into basements, the thing they fear and revile, the thing they cannot bear to look at, is in fact no different from them, that he’s one of them, that he has the same right to happiness and liberty that they do. 

Erik’s existence and desires force them to confront the choice between the lofty principles of liberty they claim to follow and extending fundamental human rights to The Other, or their own self-interest in their newly gained political power over others.

And they can argue that he is denied these rights bc he’s a criminal but a) he’s been denied these things since he was born, b) the concept of criminality is not a neutral one, it is defined by the dominant culture and throughout the 18th and 19th c, criminality and criminal confinement was used to keep The Other, usually the “unproductive poor”, away from ‘society’, so it’s a self-referential and ultimately meaningless analysis. 

[phandombigotryarchive]

TW: sexual assault mention

please scroll by if you are triggered by such things

Many Phantom of the Opera fans treat Erik's facial difference as something to be ridiculed, often calling him ugly and objectify his trauma in the process. Excusing his suffering by demonizing his trauma/mental illness as if simply because he is mentally ill, he deserved the discrimination he endured.

If a fandom can not view a white man as human then how could they possibly view the Daroga, a darkskinned Irani Muslim man in a humane light as well?

Stop calling him a monkey, you racists.

STOP DRAWING HIM LIGHT SKINNED. HE IS DESCRIBED AS DARK SKINNED FOR A REASON. STOP ERASING HIS IRANI FEATURES

Stop objectifying his skin color.

Stop writing him as hypersexual and hyperaggressive towards Erik in your pharoga fic.

And stop making the Daroga sexually assault Erik. You know who you are.

Stop demonizing his birthplace like France hasn't participated in awful crimes, such as the slave trade in the Caribbean.

Do some critical thinking of why you view the Little Sultana, an Irani woman as so bloodthirsty and awful too. Why does Leroux write a Irani woman as being Erik, a white man's main abuser?

Think about it.

And for the love of God, stop giving Susan Kay's racist orientalist ass your money.