How on earth did Matt contribute to racism with Gilmour? Genuinely baffled.
Matt hasn’t contribute to racism with Gilmore. But if he voiced him he would. Laura has actually touched on the topic of white people voicing characters of color in the voice acting world and how 9/10 the voice actors don’t even know they are doing it.
But the problem boils down to PoC rarely getting to voice PoC (or really white people for that matter either) and white voice actors getting all the roles regardless of the character’s race. It’s a pervasive issue in the community and if Matt (a white guy) voices Gilmore (a man of color as described by Matt) he would be contributing to that racial issue in the VA community.
Listen, when I say I'm afraid they'll "walk away", I don't mean "They'll start hating x y or z marginalized group". They won't. What I mean is "They'll cancel their show and leave social media because it is destructive to their mental health to be yelled at by anonymous hate mobs." As I'm sure you know, several CR cast and crew members have very real struggles of their own. They might not be willing to expose themselves all that vitrol. Then we have all lost a very beautiful thing
If that’s what they want to do then that’s their prerogative. Like I will be sad if that happens because I love the show but the way you were talking you made it sound like they would just walk away from being allies.
Like again I love the show but it ending isn’t that deep. Life will go on.
You need to read some actual research on the process of radicalization, because you are way off and honestly you are coming across as ignorant, hostile and... well, quite fanatical. Claiming BWF is displaying 'signs of radicalization' or whatever is paranoid and untrue. It's not at all constructive. You're making bizarre assumptions, and your opinion on this is irrational and reeks of poor critical thinking skills. And publicly smearing a kind, open hearted man as racist etc. is defamation.
You need to learn how to read because no where and I mean no where did I say he is displaying signs of radicalization. Like at no point. Me pointing out that allies have been radicalized against marginalized groups was addressing your assumption that because he’s an ally he can’t go bad. Like how many times do I have to say I don’t think he’s going down that path before it sinks into your fucking head?
Until you can learn to fucking read and display the critical thinking skills you think I am lacking stay the fuck out of our inbox.
I feel like this CR business really exemplifies something I've witnessed that really bothers me. I see POC call someone out, taking extra care to be reasonable and nuanced (because they have to be, just to get heard), and then white allies so eager to prove their ally card are the ones that are like "THIS ONE PROBLEMATIC THING BASICALLY MAKES YOU A NAZI AND YOU SHOULD BE KILLED FOR YOUR HATRED," and then the whole call out gets painted as absurd extremism by POC, when really it's the whites 1/2
that have gone to extremes and are making a reasonable complaint (“Hey, this thing isn’t ok, it bothers me because X, Y, Z, and it makes me feel unsafe/suspicious of this celebrity”) sound like an absurd cancel culture parody. I’m not for tone policing POC who are upset (no one HAS to be reasonable or polite), but I just feel like white allies need to calm down and match the tone of the POC who are actually affected by whatever is going on. 2/2
I realized I forgot to answer this.
So I completely agree with you about allies (not just white people since white people can be part of marginalized groups) matching the tone of the people they are allying with. And like I am sure there were cases of that in this conversation because it always happens like clockwork.
That being said as much as I want and need allies to do better in that regard I won’t lay the sole blame on them for situations that devolve into shit storms because again it takes TWO to tango and people’s willingness to readily lump in marginalized people’s criticism with a comparative handful of people doing to much is just an example wanting to brush aside that criticism.
Like I’ve had situations on this blog where people have gone to far as a collective when it comes to a situation but I am also careful not to ignore the valid criticisms that are coming my way.
This whole Brian situation is absolutely 100% making a mountain out of a mole hill. There's a huge difference between well intentioned criticism & just straight up harassment. Which it absolutely has become. If Brian wants to be neutral in terms of politics then why is that a bad thing? Plus if the harassment continues, who's to say Brian & everyone else won't walk away.... Permanently? If it happens we ALL lose.
“There’s a huge difference between well intentioned criticism & just straight up harassment. Which it absolutely has become.”
Hmmm has it though? Who am I supposed to trust? A community filled with people that go onto untagged posts made by marginalized group with no mention of BWF name venting about why they have a problem with what he did and dry snitching by tagging BWF and Matt Mercer? Am I supposed to trust a community who I have witnessed in this situation with my own eyes tear people to shreds who very clearly have made no denigrating comment about BWF but are just explaining their issues with what he said as a marginalized individual? Am I supposed to believe a community who decides this level of “toxicity” is what might drive them out of the community and not say the rampant bigotry (racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, fatphobia, queerphobia) that continues to exists unchecked?
OR do I believe the marginalized voices that are going to bat for those communities inside and outside the critter fandom and the people corroborating what they are saying?
Like be honest let’s say the two sides are two people yeah? Person A has a history of being upfront, honest and consistently defends marginalized people. Person B has a history of turning things into something they aren’t, isn’t very upfront and honest and pretends to care about marginalized people but doesn’t put their money where their mouth is. Which one of these people do you believe if a situation occurs?
And to answer your “If Brian wants to be neutral in terms of politics then why is that a bad thing?” I will quote Nobel Laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel:
“We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Wherever men and women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must - at that moment - become the center of the universe.”
- The Night Trilogy: Night, Dawn, the Accident
If a handful of people comparatively “misbehaving” is what gets Brian and everyone to walk away from defending and supporting marginalized people then they weren’t allies to begin with. Like *some* members in a group behave in a way you don’t like and you decide “oh well fuck your rights” to the entire group at large.
Like I’m black and queer and I have consistently run into queerphobic black people that make me feel like shit. Like my blackness isn’t enough. Like my queerness degrades my blackness. It seems like in the past two months parts of the black community have time and time again showed their ass when it comes to queer topics and yet I’m not suddenly going “well since this group are being trash none of yall deserve my support.”
why would brian have taken a break if nobody was toxic towards him im--
I’m really curious about the world you people live in...like there haven’t been people (public and private figures) that have been rightfully called out by marginalized groups when they say something messed up and then decided “oh xyz social media platform is too toxic I need a break” when all that happened was people trying to demand accountability.
Follow up, since you avoided my question entirely. I will make it clearer: You know that a) his tweet was not well received and b) the response tweets with hate (not criticism, but hate) are unavailable and have not been screenshotted. Yet people witnessing said hate have given their account of how inappropriate it was. There is a lost side to the story, so to speak. This, you disregard. "No evidence, no crime". Ignoring that the 'evidence' was deleted. This makes your opinion uninformed.
I didn’t avoid your question at all. I made it perfectly clear that I had done research into the situation with the resources available - which are not all of them because Brian wiped his twitter.Fuck I am even still trying to do research and track down people in the center of the storm.
I actually do not know that there was hate because again not only do I have the marginalized voices that I trust saying people are turning this into something its not there are random people saying the same thing. Now who am I actually going to believe?
Marginalized people that have gone to bat for themselves and other communities + the information from randoms that support it...or a fandom at large that has a history of racism, sexism, trans/homo/queerphobia when their white faves get questioned or called out for their behavior? Hmm am I supposed to believe the fandom that showed its ass in a discussion about Matt contributing to racism in the voice acting community in regards to Gilmore? Am I supposed to believe a community where I have FIRST HAND knowledge of people not even bashing BWF just explaining how they felt about what he said and why it was a problem and critters jumping on them like they personally ran BWF off of twitter?
My opinion isn’t uninformed. You just don’t like my conclusions. And I don’t really care because it is what it is. Sorry not sorry. I don’t trust predominantly white fandoms at large when it comes to this stuff because history shows they’re full of shit
Do you think your point of view is fair? Have you considered BWFs tweets in the context of his personality? Have you any reason to believe there is an intent to be homophobic, transphobic or racist? What do you think Brian's intent was? Does it seem likely that he might not, in fact, have meant that he at all sided with dangerous conservative values? I mean... I feel like you're reaching a lot y'know. He doesn't actually owe you anything other than respect, which he has always happily given.
So first off:
Second BWF is the one that claims he's an ally and has done so much for us. Ally isn't a noun its a verb so if he is gonna take on that mantle - which no one fucking forced him to then he does in fact owe me a person he claims to be an ally for something.
EDIT: The very LEAST he owes me a) not using dogwhistles bigots use and b) not making statements about ungrateful people he is an ally to when he gets called out for doing something wrong.
