#avatarfandompolice

[kittenfangirl20]

In my eyes fugamalefica, sonofthesaiyans, and avatarfandompolice are the unholy trinity of fandom cringe.

[tepkunset]

@avatarfandompolice​​​ is a blog that likes to misuse progressive language in attempt to make ignorant, racist posts sound more intelligent than they are. While most of their blog consists of arguing about ‘zutara,’ (which I recently learned is a ship name for Zuko and Katara from an anon), there is also a large number of posts and reblogs under the premise of being “hot takes” on how unfair it is to address racism in fandom and in media.

Avatarfandompolice is very sensitive about people pointing out that Avatar: The Last Airbender is not, in fact, flawless. That a show made by two white men featuring Asian and Indigenous characters and influences is fully capable of getting things wrong. That their western colonial views are influences all on their own, and it shows. Rather than listen to fans of colour point out things like these posts for example: [Link] [Link] [Link], avatarfandompolice has decided that such things must simply be fake, and has made multiple posts complaining it. This is not just regular ignorance, this is wilful ignorance. The dismissal of critique simply because they cannot fathom not everyone being able to handle the amount of issues they are freely educating others on, or people holding the ability to like something overall while also pointing out where it could be better.

It is my firm belief that you should never absorb media with an uncritical eye. If this was the case, if people just accepted everything given to them, then we would never see any progress. We need to be able to look back at something and say here’s what we did right, and here’s what we need to do better with.

The argument that A:TLA was made in 2012 and therefore should not be analyzed with a modern understanding of the world is downright hilarious, too. As if we aren’t taught to write literature analysis on books and plays that are centuries old in school. In particular regards to the whole cop thing... if anyone reading this seriously thinks that hate and fear of the police is just a 2020 trend, you can meet me in the pit. I was four years old when I learned how terrifying cops are. If your experiences differ, let me tell you that does not make them universal. And as for all the 20-somethings talking about it today, well, gentle reminder that as said by avatarfandompolice right here, the show aired in 2012. Little 10-year-old kids don’t have social media, (at least I hope they don’t,) and unless they grew up experiencing first-hand police terror, probably were not aware of it at that age. I do not know why avatarfandompolice insults people's ability to grow and learn. I can only guess it’s jealously from their lack of ability to do so.

Now let’s address their defences of whitewashing, which is easily the most backwards reaching I’ve seen on this issue in a while. Primarily their defence relies on four repetitive “points” —

Fake minuscule percentages to downplay the high prevalence and extremity of whitewashing in the fandom

Deflecting the addressing of whitewashing with rapid-fire fake scenarios and claims of “reverse racism” / “blackwashing”

Claiming whitewashing isn’t real because people only care about it with Katara

Claiming that calling out whitewashing in fandom is wrong because it hurts artists

I have only so much as dipped my toes into the A:TLA fandom, and even I have seen a lot of whitewashed fan art. If you do an image search for fan art, I guarantee within the first couple rows of results, there will be in the absolute least, a few examples. The idea of these artworks not substantially lightening skin is also just plain inaccurate. Just from a quick Google search, this is literally the first result for ‘Avatar The Last Airbender Katara fan art’:

Avatarfandompolice is also hyper-focused on the lightening of skin, and seems to be under the impression that this is the only component of whitewashing. I come to this conclusion because when someone pointed out the equal prevalence of depicting these characters of colour with Western European features instead of their actual eyes, noses, etc., they rip a giant turd out of their ass and scrawl the words “but stereotyping” over it. No, not all Asian peoples and Indigenous peoples look the same. The original poster made no such claim of this at all. Avatarfandompolice jumped to this conclusion all on their own... (which really says a lot in itself). It is entirely unrelated to the point. The point being the erasure of how these characters look, in favour of giving them whiter features. And guess what? This does hurt. But I’ll get to that below.

The lack of understanding of whitewashing is on full display when avatarfandompolice talks about “blackwashing”; the idea that colouring characters with darker skin is just like whitewashing. Firstly, there is no such thing as “blackwashing.” “Blackwashing,” “brownwashing,” etc. does not exist because it is a false equivalency to whitewashing. It is a false equivalency to whitewashing because white people are not even in the slightest loosing representation when a white character is re-imagined as a racial minority, whereas when racial minorities are re-imagined as white people, they are taking away from what is already very little representation for us. If we lived in a world where the statistics of representation were not so drastically disproportionate, then there would be something to talk about. But if you are really wanting to support equality, you should focus on equitably supporting those who actually need it, not white people. As for specifically depicting characters like Sokka and Katara with darker skin than what they have in the show, the same applies, (so long as it’s not racebending them as we really shouldn’t be taking representation away from each other, and the artist avatarfandompolice ridicules above has done no such thing,) because colourism also exists within nonwhite communities as well.

As for the fake questions about cosplaying, the answer is really simple: Cosplay however you want, but don’t make pretending to be a different race part of your cosplay. If you want to cosplay Katara, you can do it without painting your skin darker, aka brownface. If you want to cosplay Zuko, you can do it without editing yourself to look East Asian, aka digital yellowface. The racist history behind this is an internet search away, but I suppose that is too difficult for avatarfandompolice to do.

Avatarfandompolice has made multiple claims that people must not really care about whitewashing if they only call it out for Katara. It is laughable at best, and sad at worst, that this is the conclusion they come to, and not the fact that unfortunately Katara just happens to be subjected to more whitewashing than other characters. I assume this is from a mix of her popularity as well as being a WOC and not MOC. This is not to say that whitewashing does not exist with male characters—not in the slightest. Half the images on this “10 fan art pictures of Sokka that are just the best” list from CBR are whitewashed. Only that across fandoms, whitewashing is more prevalent in female characters, by my observations at least.

Finally—and this one pisses me off the most—avatarfandompolice claims that whitewashing is no big deal, but calling out whitewashing is too harmful to justify. How fucking dare you put the feelings of artists who can’t handle critique of their work (that they publicly share) over fans of colour, who are constantly subjected to seeing our identities and looks not being worth respecting. As if it doesn’t imprint on your mind from a very young age how only villains ever have your facial features, because they’re ugly and I guess that means you’re ugly. As if there is something wrong with you. As if respecting you is regarded as extra effort, and not just common courtesy.

Whitewashing is a form of colourism, which is a form of racism. It is the favouritism, unconscious or not, of white features and the erasure of visible characters of colour. It is not fandom drama. It is not being too lazy to focus on “real issues” because it is part of a real issue. It is yet another part of why fandom spaces are so uninviting to POC. We live in a society that favours lighter skin. Corporations make fortunes from selling products to bleach your skin, products to contour your features away or go as far as surgery, all to meet beauty standards set by and influenced by white colonizers. That does not exist in A:TLA, and that’s called refreshing escapism. But it’s hard to escape that when the fandom constantly reminds you otherwise. It is a perfect example of how the classic “just let people enjoy things” complaint is nothing but disguised racism, because it’s only ever said regarding white fans’ enjoyment, at the expense of fans of colour.

None of the characters in A:TLA are white. Redesigning them and recolouring them as if they are, be it out of accident or intent is wrong. If you get called out for it, apologize, learn from the experience and do better going forward. You’ll also improve your art this way.

Beyond excusing whitewashing, avatarfandompolice has overt racist posts as well. A Black fan said they like to headcanon Katara as being partially Black; “I swear Katara was a sister. Im convinced there ain't no way she didn't have some black in her.” Avatarfandompolice jumps in saying “She's literally an Inuit but ok” as if being an Inuk person means Katara can’t possibly also be Black. The OP never claimed Katara was not Indigenous, simply that they also saw her as Black. Black Indigenous peoples exist. Black Inuk peoples exist. It is overtly anti-Black to say otherwise. But what even is the point of talking to avatarfandompolice about that? You know, you would think in trying to put such a front up of caring about the Inuit, they would do the most basic learning of the proper grammatical use of Inuit and Inuk. (As is the case with a great many Indigenous Nations, Inuit is both the Nation and plural. Inuk is singular. “An Inuit” / “Inuits” as avatarfandompolice has used just makes their dressed-up racism all the more pathetic. It’s similar to as if you said “Chinas” instead of “Chinese”.)

But all this is nothing, nothing compared to the worst post I had the displeasure of seeing. In a single post, avatarfandompolice manages to squeeze in insult against low income people, Mexican people, Jewish people, and Black people in a mockery of financial help posts. Absolutely disgusting, childish behaviour from a place of privilege. As someone who has had no option but to make such a post before, more than once, let me fucking tell you that the embarrassment and desperation when in that situation is unparalleled. It is not done lightly. It is done when you are at the last resort of having nothing but hope that the combined generosity of others will be enough to save you and your family. And what adds a whole other level to the odiousness of avatarfandompolice’s post is that they specifically targeting low income minorities to boot. Because we’re all poor beggars, right?

All in all, for someone who prides themselves in calling others ignorant, avatarfandompolice has to be one of the most obtuse fandom blogs I have ever scrolled through. They are as vile as they are pathetic, and my sincere sympathy for anyone who has been unfortunate enough to interact with them. It has been a while since I so strongly recommend blocking someone.

[moeshamitchellapologist]

@avatarfandompolice Also, because so many damn creators off of Nickelodeon/Hollywood have turned out to be pedophiles — yeah: I am going to slightly question it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[wetspecimenclown]

you know i’m not really a part of any fandom community but i do love tapping the glass on the enclosures from time to time and watching the apes fight over peanuts I chuck over the fence

[izukillme-moved]

I've seen some bad takes over the years but yours are among the worst. You throw everything under the "racist" or "homophobic" lens, hindering your own ability for critical thinking, and then accuse others of not being able to think critically. You spend 99% of your time making fun of a bi POC. How woke is that.

oh, hello, AFP!! so proud of you!! you’re doing a great job of “ignoring me cause I just want attention”~

I want to address this one ask seriously, because trust me if I get more like this you guys are just getting satire. So here goes.

I don’t toss everything under a racist or homophobic lens. Just, you know, what’s actually racist and homophobic. We have to note these things, and doing that doesn’t make me any less of a fan of anything. 

Since this is about Avatar, let’s talk about Avatar. I love Avatar to death, I’ve written fan fiction and drawn fan art and talked about my headcanons since I was like eight. But calling out the mistakes in it so that future media doesn’t do the same... that’s critical thinking. To be able to recognise the flaws of something and still love it! It’s not “worship the original content” - which is just blindness - or “despise it and everything about it!!! down with it!!1!11!!!” Neither of that is critical thinking, it’s blindly feeling without so much as a thought to the political and social implications of the content in today’s changing world.

Um. I. Have been on Tumblr for around 2.25 years (2 years and almost 3 months). And out of those I spent two days criticising you, AFP. How... does that amount to... 99%? You did so much math (using Google too) to tear down @/romanianwolfontheloose, so let me help you the same way.

2 days is 48 hours, out of which I’ve spent a total of 10 waking hours on Tumblr, and 6 of those to reblog your content. So 6/48 is 1/8 of those 48 hours, and 1/4 of one day (24 hours), which makes it... 0.25 days. 0.25 days/2 years 3 months = 0.25/{(2 x 365) + (3 x 30, on avg.)} = 0.25/(730 + 90) = 0.25/820. Now I can’t tell you the exact answer for this off the top of my head, so let’s use Google!

(the basic percentage formula being x/100 times y) 

so there you have it! I have spent exactly 2.05% of my time talking about AFP. And if you notice, I have never ranted about how you’re mentally incompetent. I’ve never insulted you apart from “bootlicker”. I’ve never called you anything but what you are - I’ve used basic facts, critical thinking skills and logic (gasp! what a new word that must be to you!) to defeat your points.

As for the fact that you’re a bi PoC... I’m a South Asian lesbian. Just as my ethnicity and sexuality in your eyes does not “excuse me” from this, your ethnicity and sexuality DOES NOT EXCUSE YOU FROM BEING A RACIST BOOT LICKER.

Don’t come back to my inbox expecting this sort of serious response. I didn’t have much fun typing this out, but I’m excited to roast you next time!!

[swordbending]

sorry for the discourse but lmao they're blatantly contradicting themselves now

here, afp says this is what their original post was saying. this says intent doesn't matter in determining whether something has been whitewashed

here, afp says intent is what determines something has been whitewashed, meaning if the person didn't mean to whitewash, regardless of how light they've made a character's skin tone, it's not whitewashing (something I think we all can agree is bullshit)

going back to the ask afp says they agree with, it says whitewashing is more discriminatory than calling people out for it

and here we have afp's original post saying calling people out for whitewashing is more discriminatory than whitewashing itself

so either they just unfounded their entire argument or they don't know how to read skfhskfjsk @bizukos

@avatarfandompolice since some people want to have problems with my not tagging them

[avatar-fandom-anarchists]

The @avatarfandompolice have met their match. 

The Insurrection has BEGUN. 

[kittenfangirl20]

I absolutely can’t stand this blog, in fact I would put it on the same level as sonofthesaiyans when it comes to toxic fans. It all starts with the name, fandom policing like that is just gross and rather toxic. Also they aren’t actually calling out anything toxic, they are calling out all Zutara fans by pointing out anything bad that Zutara fans may have done and even then most of it isn’t calling out bad things done by Zutara fans. Calling out how there are toxic elements Kataang or pointing out that Maiko during Season 3 wasn’t the best for either of them isn’t toxic. I like Maiko, but only after they have done a lot of work with each other and learned better communication with each other. Pointing out elements in canon material that you aren’t very happy with doesn’t make you toxic, being an ass to fans over opinions like what this blog does is toxic.