Thinking about the division of "pro kink" people and people who want nuance around these things falling down such obvious racial lines.....Most of the time when I see people try to make salient critiques of mindless kink positivity with no thought towards power dynamics, it's people of color, especially Black people, critiquing a lot of white people who have simply gone full-in on saying ALL kinks are welcome and okay. I think this is hugely in part due to the fact that people of color almost always have to contend with race-based kinks invading their peace while white people are free to just ignore that raceplay is a thing.
"you can't just judge someone by their kinks" what about raceplay?
"kinks don't affect you unless you're the one engaging in it" what about raceplay?
"if you dislike seeing a kink just block or blacklist, it's not like it's hurting you" what about raceplay?
I think people refuse to ever bring it up on the "pro kink" side of things because it exposes such a glaring hole in the argument. If you are disseminating raceplay kink, you are willfully spreading racist ideas and exposing others to it. If you are engaging in this kink you are choosing to indulge your unhealthy racist beliefs about other races for your own pleasure, regardless of the mental toll that might have on you OR how it might affect your treatment of other people, especially underprivileged people, in your life. Spreading or sharing raceplay even within a kink-friendly space inherently makes that space unsafe for some people, namely people of color.
I think it's actually very easy to work out a nuanced stance on accepting Most kinks if you're willing to consider things like raceplay exist, because yeah...some kinks actually aren't okay. You cannot practice raceplay in a way that will not affect you. You cannot share content of it in a way that does not create an unsafe kink space for people of color. You NEED to understand that even within kink, some lines and boundaries need to be established, and it is not in fact anti-progressive to say this. It is in fact MORE progressive to oust raceplay weirdos from your kink spaces to protect people of color and LESS progressive to simply defend it under a "kink positive" flag.
Like not only should I, as a person of color, be free from the fetishization that is part and parcel of race-based kinks, I should not have to worry about it being disseminated in my communities or having kink positive spaces simply let it slide because it's "just a kink."
You need to actually analyze things. You cannot be wholesale "kink positive" across the board in much the same way you should not be wholesale "kink negative," because it does actually matter what the kink is, sorry. It does.
