I'm not trying to be rude but how is it racist to ignore Olson? It sucks but most people aren't racially motivated
i don't think people are intentionally being racist towards olson by ignoring him, but there are absolutely implicit biases in it that people really want to ignore. and while i'm at it, i'm including baker in this post because he is probably the most ignored character in this fandom and it is absolutely because he is a dark-skinned black man.
to sum it up, racism is not just "i hate this character because he's asian!" because very rarely do people come out and blatantly say that. most of the time, it is a result of more 'subtle' bias affecting how people perceive and care about a character.
it's extremely relevant to stress how baker and olson are literally main characters but they are often sidelined in favor of white characters, specifically barkovitch (who is canonically racist) and harkness (who has extremely limited screentime and is given disproportionate attention. i see people talk about him more than olson and baker which is insane). additionally, a lot of the time, in barkovitch-centric fanfiction, olson is villainized for the sake of making barkovitch look like a victim, when barkovitch is objectively the antagonistic character between the two of them. that is racist as fuck. olson was not evil for teasing barkovitch in the same way as he teased his friends. and that is the only extent to which they write him. the rest of the time, he is ignored
baker and olson are both extremely interesting, multi-faceted, likable characters, and i do genuinely believe that if they were white, they would not only be not-ignored, but they would be fan-favorites. sure, they'd be dumbed down (baker to fandom "cinnamonroll" and olson to The Funny Guy) but they are both character archetypes that are typically prioritized by fandom. however, they are both poc, and neither of them are "easily" shipped with a white guy, so the fandom, whether intentional or not, does not pay proportionate attention to them at all (which is the only reason a lot of people care about pete. i rarely see pete content outside of gavries. do not get me wrong, i love gavries, but pete has meaningful relationships with the other boys as well!)
mind you, hank olson is a character that genuinely has so many meaningful characteristics. he's hilarious. he loves his friends. he is tragic and has a deeply haunting and interesting character arc. yet no one talks about him. why? if you don't typically care about olson, would you care to explain to me why that is?
you are obviously entitled to your favorites. this is not hate towards people who like barkovitch or harkness. i couldn't care less who your favorite is. but to act like they aren't characters who are given disproportionate attention compared to the actual leads who are MOC is kind of ridiculous. i am not forcing you to make olson your favorite tlw character, but don't pretend like him being sidelined on a wide scale is not rooted in racism. it is absolutely possible to be racist without being fully aware of it. that's elementary knowledge of racism, i fear.
anyways i hope this encourages people to give hank (and art) a little bit more attention. i love seeing hank fanart ( @mouseyinaround has an absolutely adorable design for him!) and i do the best i can when writing him, but can probably count the number of people who consistently make hank-centric content on one hand. and there's even less people who don't consistently whitewash or villainize him. i know this is in reference to my post about being referred to as president of olson (and how this is not really a good thing) and would like to mention how grateful i am to be one of the first people who actively posts about stolson, because it gives me extensive control over the way it is perceived, and i am so glad that most stolson content out there is hank-centered even if the ship is super rare. on the obverse, collie, whose most popular ship is parkovitch, is usually sidelined and not given enough thought in his own pairing. he is usually centered around the white guy he is shipped with. it leaves you with the question of "what does he even get out of this?" and he is oftentimes straight up mischaracterized, and this mischaracterization is rooted in very blatant racism. i would argue the same also goes for pete in a lot of gavries content. this is old news (though, if you're asking me how olson being ignored is racist, i'm going to assume you haven't been in the fandom for a long time) but worth mentioning in relation to how the MOC in tlw are ignored in favor of the white characters, when 4 out of the 7 main characters are POC.
