I know people don't care about actually listening to actual poc talking about actual racism in the fandom but PLEASE read this
Modern atla aus, the way a LOT of you interpret them are so, so racist, it pains me. You guys take asian characters, from a universe where canonically only asian culture (mostly) prevails, then you take away everything that makes them asian and say 'hey! I made a modern au.' As if physical features are the sole characterstic of such a diverse ethnicity.
I know y'all white people are SO used to being mollycoddled and seeing your culture and your ethnicity and what makes you you in practically every single show that exists but OTHER ETHNICITIES AREN'T. And I know there a ton of problems in the way atla represented Asians, but at least it was meaningful representation. It wasn't just taking a white characters and darkening their skin.
You guys take these asian characters and make them live in white countries and have white weddings and white school aus and white food aus and they may seem like little things to YOU (because you're so used to seeing your culture depicted in media you don't even know what it feels like when it isnt) but what this implies is that you cannot see the ethnicity asian as more than a set of physical features.
Tell me how that is not whitewashing.
You guys saw these completely non white characters and said. "Hey! What if they were white? What if they wore american fashion? What if they lived in america/canada/*insert white country here*? What if they had a christian wedding even though they're not christian? Etc etc"
You think skin tone and facial features is completely what racism is all about. You think it ends there. But that's where it just starts. Our traditions are called weird and our cultural outfits are 'exotic' and apparently even the sight of our food makes some of y'all vomit, so we all have to hide that cultural aspect of ourselves always so that we're not mocked or ostracized and it fuckin hurts so much.
How many wedding aus have you read, in general? And how many of them were christian weddings? Any Hindu weddings? Any Chinese? Any Muslim? I am willing to bet all my money there were none.
And if you think it's because fandom spaces are predominantly filled with white people, you're wrong. Poc form a vast amount of readers and writers and artists. But even they have to whitewash their content otherwise you guys will not just accept it, because "huhbuhruh, what is this? Not my culture? I donut understand. I thought everything was supposed to be relatable to me."
Oh and if your argument is "hey I don't know anything about asian culture so ill just write what I know about" fuck off. You can do some goddamn research. It takes only a few clicks. "Oh but that's too hard!!" Well if I as a young asian teen read so much about christian weddings so I could write a fic about my otp y'all can read a couple articles or watch some videos as a 20 something y/o to write it. It's not hard.And if you think that's too hard, just don't. Don't write. Sometimes it's also fun to just read the writing of poc. (You know, like most poc have been doing for white content this whole time?) Everything does not have to be for you.
Because cultural representation matters so much more than y'all think. I've seen indian actors play characters but it was so rare to find them reference their culture and it not be treated as a joke. It's painful. I saw a shred of cultural representation and y'all are too quick to take it away.
You guys should really question what you mean by a modern au. Do you mean that it be set in a relatively recent time or you mean 'american au'. You should talk to poc about what's okay and what's not. That's the only way you'll know. My inbox is personally open to anyone who wishes to know how to be respectful while representing my culture. You guys have to make an effort to not be racist. Because I know it's nothing intentional, but deeply ingrained.
And listen to poc when they talk about racism. Its sad how the most popular posts about racism are the ones written by white people. It's like imagine if a fish wrote about the struggles of terrestrial animals and what the fish wrote is the best selling book.
tl;dr the interpretation of modern aus can be racist a lot of times so please be careful and listen to poc when they tell you something's racist.
Also if you actually care about making a difference, please reblog.
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