Blackness and Playing by THE RULES
Recently, an incident occurred on Tumblr that was brought to my attention mostly due to the egregious reactionaryism that defined it and how it exemplified a certain bloodlust that is only ever truly perpetrated upon POC (but especially Black) fandom creators. It highlights the way that Black creators have to walk on eggshells; how no amount of identity politicking can ever save you if you’re not following The Rules™ that prudish, pearl-clutching, authoritarian-brained fancops have arbitrarily designed just to keep you in your place. Generally speaking, I use names in my articles but for this one I’ll make an exception because the harassment is particularly awful and I don’t want to even come close to touching that fence.
Nevertheless, this is in regards to a certain Tumblr fic that was, debatably, tasteless. In the Arcane fandom, the author wrote Viktor (I know nothing about these characters) as a serial killer scientist who was in the business of harvesting organs and utilizing them for experiments, you know, normal white man stuff. He saw everyone within the narrative as potentially disposable and so when the author, a Black trans man, included the character of Mel, a Black woman, in the chapters as a potential victim (keep in mind that she was only a potential victim and never actually died within the narrative) it became a problem. Why? Well, because historically, Black women have faced a plethora of medical abuse in not just the United States but worldwide and the inclusion of such a thing in a fic could be considered tasteless (much like utilizing the Holocaust as a setting for Omegaverse might be considered tasteless) and Tumblerites like to pretend random posts are serious so they can play morality police and judge other people through “literature.”
At first, nobody knew that the author was Black or a trans man (which would translate into having had the coming-of-age experiences of a woman, by the way), but as soon as that revelation pinged onto their radar, the harassment exploded. What was a trickle turned into a massive waterfall of hate as commenters utilized racial slurs, told him that his “ass is going to hell,” and that “it doesn’t matter” if he’s Black or that was “even worse.” Even worse, because he should have known better. When the author discussed their own lived experiences of growing up a Black woman dehumanized and considered an object as though only good for parts (a solid artist statement), those explanations were ignored, pushed aside as though he had never even presented them as a vulnerable part of his artistic experience. Any appeal to good faith was wasted, as these people, these cops, aren’t interested in good faith or art. They’re interested in the performance and the power of being right. These are the people who would turn in their own neighbor to the Gestapo without any thought that perhaps they were going to be next. Tumblr user cyberzerosworld stated, “honestly, the fact you are a [B]lack MAN makes me wanna shit on you more” without a single shred of situational awareness along with everyone else who blindly followed the pattern of harassing this poor creator for the possibility that the side character in his Tumblr fanfic might end up with her organs harvested like plenty of other nonBlack characters within the narrative including the “romantic” interest of the serial killing character.
These Police State BrainRotted children ended up mimicking censors of ages past, dredging up the words of infamous racist Republican senator Jesse Helms or Rudy Giuliani when they railed against the likes of Robert Mapplethorpe or art considered “modern” by minority creators. User myfroggy blithely commented, “You’re garbage just like the utter scum you call ‘art’.” while user petitenekos wrote, “[…] instead of writing slop like this you need a journal and a therapist to work through whatever you got to think this [serial killer] [alternate universe] is fine”. The amount of people who flooded in to claim that the author was actively damaging or harming people with a Tumblr fanfiction was mind-boggling, their “activism” on behalf of Black women a mindless frothing yappery on Tumblr tearing down a Black trans man for some obscure posts in the online void while the world descends into fascism around them. Wow, surely this will solve the global racism problem. Good work, everyone!
We must point out, nevertheless, that the identity of our author here is paramount to the extent of the harassment seen against him. Should he have been considered white, he may not have experienced as much, considering that his “reveal” post seemed to open the flood gates when it came to violent reactions and open disdain, slurs, and demands that he end his own life. Ideological purity and the demand that Black or POC artists stay in line or risk community disavowal is a potent force in online spaces and one that serves to further silence BIPOC narratives that might challenge the boundaries of what The Rules™ allow. White people have been “allowed” to do this for centuries, unbidden by any kind of strict codes or manifestations of communal ideological purity. We (that is, normal white folks, barring supremacists) have no racial loyalty to each other and can put our middle fingers up toward whatever rules we please—in fact, ignoring rules is usually what makes the most compelling art and what is art if it does not have a direction or a statement that might cause conversation or controversy? By manifesting controversy, our Tumblr author has successfully created a boundary-crossing piece that can now be elevated into the lore of a miniature fandom zeitgeist. His race and status as a trans man has revealed that commenters feel far more secure in their harassment of a minority who is unlikely to have communal backing due to ideological impurity rather than, say, a white person who is likely to keep their communal backing or at least most of it due to the general acceptance of “white” art as existing beyond identity. This has just confirmed what has been proven time and time again—it is nigh impossible to extricate your identity from your literary voice should you choose to connect them as a minority creator and that, in turn, will severely limit your ability to push across certain boundaries and create meaningful, cathartic, or just plain tasteless (we love that shit!) art.
It’s hard to lose your community or your identity or the support that you may or may not get for them. I can’t relate, not only am I white, I’m abrasive and incendiary and my porn has swastikas in it. I’ve been orphaned from many an online community for art crime and eventually I just find the other outcasts: those who revel in their leather, boots, and uniforms, and those who seek a deep and meaningful examination of ethics and morality through the shared lens of the eroticism of “evil.” There’s nothing wrong with touching evil through eroticism and pulling it apart through the veil of fiction to see what viscera lies beneath—the hot-blooded squirming guts of what we fear most. Our Tumblr author presumably fears the notion of objectification, of experimentation, of their body valued only through its vivisection. I fear Nazis, fascism, and betrayal. It is human to transform what we fear, to reach toward it and pull back its putrid flesh in a way that renders it compelling and yet toothless.
To our Tumblr author we must implore: You are human and you are normal and we see you. Please do not stop creating. Please do not stop seeking, tearing, dissecting. You deserve to touch the inside of fear if you want to.