a rift

Stop using my skin color to fluff your diversity boner, fandom.

I don’t even go here in regard to TAZ, but I read the creator’s response to all of the “backlash” yesterday and…
Wow. It is a fucking shame that even had to be written. Gracious and smart and honest as it was, it’s incredulous it came to them having to do that.
From an outsider’s perspective, it seems like yet another gross example of fans overstepping boundaries and using Representation and Diversity as their progressive superiority fodder. Which is always difficult (especially for creators belonging to certain majority groups) to argue against without coming across as assholes or dismissive. It does not allow the possibility that maybe these fans are just entitled assholes using skin color as a means to bully creators into telling their stories.
And can I just say: the fact that anyone would expect a fantasy character named Taako to be Latinx just because the name sounds like/is related to tacos is fuckin’ racist as shit. How is that an actual parameter of someone’s assumed race/culture? And that this sect of the fandom has hung that expectation (or other expectations of representation) over the creators’ heads to the point that if the creators don’t adhere to it (like the graphic novel), they feel justified hurling claims of racism and whitewashing which, from what I read, is far from the truth.
What disgusts me more in this is that the majority of these dissenting voices do not seem to belong to brown people. There is a new form of fetishization of brown flesh happening in fandom–where white fans use us and our skin color to get a stamp on their Progressive Brownie Points card. A new way to assuage their White Guilt and fluff their I’m Woke About Representation boners at the same time. They think it’s some significant act of contribution to diversity in media to headcanon characters as brown. Or gay. Or disabled.
Well. It’s not. Because it’s not their story to do that with. And it’s often really just another form of fetishization with self-centric intent on some “I love brown people! Some of my best friends are brown!” bullshit. These are people that’d rather bark at three white guys about including brown character instead of, oh, I don’t know…using that energy to look for some brown creators to support.
When earnest, the challenge of “Creators should think beyond the narrow standards” should always be presented. And fans should be able to communicate with creators their concerns and critiques about representation. But stories should ALWAYS belong to creators first. They should be able to create the kind of stories and characters they envision and determine what degree of influence their audience will have.
Concerns of predominantly white or straight or cis casts are usually valid and discussions should be had. But every story is not going to be representative of everyone. Or anyone. Sometimes, stories are just stories that people love for very personal reasons and they want to tell and share them for reasons of self fulfillment and the hope that others will enjoy it, maybe even identify with. But if certain people don’t enjoy or identify with it, it’s not necessarily the duty of the creator to change their vision in order to check off representation boxes.
Social media has made creators too accessible and given fans a stage on which their voices are too loud. Tumblr and Twitter can be great tools to connect creators and community, and produce some wonderful discussions that should and need to be had. But creators also have to set some firm and impassible boundaries of how much interaction fans have with them and how much influence they will have on their creation. Arguing for representation and diversity isn’t always done with the best intentions or communicated with the most effective voice.
I give it to any creator–even the ones who fuck up–who bare themselves with an admission of guilt and a true desire to do better through listening to their fans. But sometimes, the fans aren’t right. Sometimes it’s the fans that should check themselves and feel guilty.