What Happens Next: A Gallimaufry

melancholic romantic comic cynic. bi & genderqueer. fantasy writer. sysrae on ao3.

Anonymous asked: I'm black and my friends say am racist to my own race because I hate to see black rappers in movies. I feel when black rappers are in movies they pander to all the negative black stereotypes they are, so as to clearly display their "blackness". I hate that wholeheartedly. I like black actors who play characters without trying to shove a stereotype down the viewer's throat. My friends call me racist a lot, even as a joke I don"t like the label. Does my attitude have an element of racism?

I’ll be honest: as a white woman, I don’t feel qualified to give a definitive answer on this. I might feel more comfortable if I had a modicum of first-hand experience with black friends, media and communities, but I though I was raised in a multicultural environment, the racial balance of the places in Australia where I grew up - or at least, my experience of diversity while living in those places - while populated by other POC, was very absent of black people. And as much as this is an important issue, and one I try to educate myself about, I feel the risk of my giving you a bad or poorly-formed verdict on the basis of my own privilege would be too high. There’s lots of awesome POC bloggers on tumblr with a better handle on this stuff than me - like blackamazon, ktempestguerrillamamamedicine and karnythia, for starters - who I’d recommend you ask instead.

Sorry for not being able to give a straight answer. I’m sure someone else can advise you! :)