right! in a show about horror and grief and heavy suffering, we are going to see the main characters go through horrors and grieve and suffer. when most of the main characters are black and brown, we are going to see black and brown characters go through these things. if our options are only seeing black and brown characters in light-hearted, morally undivisive media or leaving these kinds of dark, complex characters to white actors only, how do i pick?
I think the larger issue for me is the cognitive dissonance, and the implications it has down the line for complex characters of color in larger media. The complains to the writers room, and the NAACP, and going to the actors Instagram will not achieve what certain fans are hoping for it to achieve.
What it may achieve though is hesitance in an already racist arena, and reluctance to cast people of color in certain roles and shows if they'll receive backlash for portraying these characters as anything but morally, squeakily clean.
The dissonance becomes apparent when the age old arguments have been "Let people of color be complex" and "give people of color opportunities in shows", and when we have complex, evil character of color, fans can't handle it. Then it becomes "You can't portray people of color like this"
So what's end goal? To never have people of color portrayed in gothic media? do never have them do abhorrent things in a show where their white counterparts are just as bad? We understand that subject matter of the books and the show -- is the idea that black and brown people don't belong in this genre?
As a black writer, I get scared at the implications of this pushback because it inevitably hurts us more than it helps us, and people are idiots for not seeing that. Especially with white people at the helm of some of this backlash.
The outrage is also selective. And it's becoming harassment, especially towards Jacob Anderson. Going on his instragram and infantilizing him isn't the flex people think it is. It's racist.
And don't get me wrong, I don't think any show is without it's valid criticism of racism. I think TVL had problems with the marketing and a clear bias for Lestat over characters of color.
But continuing certain character stories and arcs, including the use of racialized language, isn't that. Not allowing black characters to be unappealing, or to be evil, or to be bad isn't a flex...
Being upset that Armand is being a horrendous individual when the show is a gothic horror isn't...good.
Being mad that Claudia, who's character has constantly reminded Louis if the fact that he sits under Lestat's thumb, to the point of calling him a slave twice -- to the point of contacting the NAACP and harassing the actors is concerning.
Racism and race have been an established theme in the show to begin with, the continuation of this isn't new. And characters have done incredibly racist things. I don't know, this is like saying Harper Lee shouldn't have written To Kill a Mocking Bird because character do racist things in it.
And if racism was really the issue, then the people who are upset about the show should have had the same energy from the first episode, when Anne Rice, who is notoriously racist, okayed the show. This has all been done with the blessing of a white racist woman, but now it's an issue?
They received input from black people -- the actors. And a lot of the dismissal has come off as infantilizing.
And I say this loosely, because I hate "pro/anti" bs, but I think that there are folks in the latter category who came into the fandom, and are now reconciling with the fact that they like a problematic piece of material, and instead of doing an iota of introspection, they make it everyone else's problem because "whoever likes this is a problematic person, and I can't be problematic, so I'm going to project on everyone else".
And no, I'm not a proshipper or an anti, I'm a grown woman who doesn't lean into any of those categories, but I understand that others do, and let it influence their entire personality.
It would just be better if these people stopped watching the show, because they are not mature or mentally sound enough to watch it.
tl:dr -- the pushback against complex, evil characters of color in a show with evil subject matter will eventually contribute to the removal of us from media like this, and then the cycle of complaining will start over and over again.
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