The Argument

I am a black nerd, which is to say I am Black and I also tend to engage in media generally associated with dedicated and energetic fanbases. The two are not mutually exclusive.

My idea of a good weekend is ordering a pizza and marathoning whatever the new hotness is on Crunchyroll with intermediate bouts of video games and maybe a fantasy novel on the sly. That is my fun.  That is my jam. That has always been my jam. That will probably always be my jam.

But I am also black and fully aware that at least a reason why Trump won the white house was his overt appeals to white grievance.  Let me say it explicitly. DONALD TRUMP IS A RACIST, MADE APPEALS TO RACIST SENTIMENT, AND CONTINUES TO MAKE APPEALS TO RACIST SENTIMENT!

He did that.



But more than that from where I sit Trump is incompetent and the reason why the electorate and yes even Republican leadership is willing to dismiss that incompetence because of that  racism. For a lot of them, it's a feature, not a bug.


People are willing to ignore everything about Donald Trump BECAUSE he reassures white racists, or sexists "or whatever" else that yes they are firmly in control of the country. And since they won the White House and the congress and are well on their way to a Supreme Court majority, yeah they kind of do. Life sucks get a helmet.

That is my reality. That that is the world I live in. That is the nail in my brain. That is my life. I don't like it but it is what it is.

...

Damn near every week I have hear some new controversy about ehem a "fan movement". And regardless whatever the spark was this time they all boil down to being mad about the same thing. And that same thing is directly related to all the crap I just described.

"I A MIDDLE-CLASS STRAIGHT WHITE GUY DON'T SOLEY CONTROL THE DIRECTION OF THE MEDIA LANDSCAPE!!!!"

I am just about sick of all that noise.

I know other groups of people have it worse off than me, a black dude from the burbs. but I've had to put up with a lot of shit over the years from media that otherwise, I'm pre-disposed to loooooooove.



(To anybody who comes at me saying I want to destroy Star Wars and hate it. Shut up! I love Star Wars, and I will probably die loving Star Wars.)

I also want to be clear. I kind of sucks when your favorite show or movie series, or comic book series veers off in a direction you can't stand and you have to give it up. And it's not out of bounds to criticize cast and crew when that happens.

But all of these fan movements have the same central complaint, that these pieces of fiction are trying to appeal more to people who aren't them and that criticism almost always immediately devolves into racist and sexist harassment as people start crying "SJWs (anybody concerned about issues race, class, sexuality or gender) ruin everything".

And it's not cool. It's not alright. And it's going to keep happening. Because that's where we are right now.

That is my reality. That that is the world I live in. That is the nail in my brain. That is my life. I don't like it but it is what it is.