the catch-22 of black characters in fandom: if a black character is morally upstanding, heroic and kind, if they embody good and noble traits with minimal or understandable flaws, the majority of fandom will decide they're too boring and vanilla to stan and ignore or bash them in favor of nonblack characters, claiming there's something untrustworthy or unbelievable about how good this character seems to be. but if a black character is messy, morally complex or fucked up on par with nonblack characters in the same story or straight-up evil like a lot of popular nonblack villains in fandom are, the majority of fandom will hyperfocus on the black character's negative traits and use them as the reason why they "can't" be interested in the black character or as a flimsy excuse for repeating antiblack stereotypes. like when it comes to black villains or even just like. 3-dimensionally flawed black characters, most folks in fandom often frame them as beyond empathy bc they're exceptionally aggressive/dishonest/unemotional etc and that makes them fundamentally unsympathetic and repulsive, even if they have favorite nonblack characters with the exact same traits. the common denominator of these arguments is blackness, and how way too many people see blackness itself as inherently beyond sympathy and inherently lacking interiority- but a lot of folks in liberal fandom spaces are unable to face that bias about themselves, so they grasp onto arbitrary character traits as the "reason" for why they think so many black characters are just unsympathetic and unlikable and uninteresting regardless of how they're depicted. it's completely valid to have archetype preferences- some folks just prefer straightforward heroic types, some folks just prefer villains or monsters, etc- but if someone who loves a whole roster of bland morally righteous nb heroes is turning up their nose at black heroes for being too boring or too perfect, or if someone who makes a whole meal outta being a monsterfucker villain stan somehow draws the line at black characters doing all the fucked up things their nb faves have done, we know the basis of that double standard is antiblackness.
black hero?? ugh they're a mary sue/they're too perfect/they're too boring/the story's tryna fool and manipulate us into thinking this character's a good person but i know they aren't!! black villain?? ugh they're so evil/irredeemable/disgusting how can anyone stan them?? they've literally killed and exploited so many people. anyway back to posting about my nonblack fave who just deserves a big hug, hatecrime mcgenocideman-
