Being non-white, and the Night Vale fandom.

fantasticallyperfectass:

I’m going to make this brief.

Being white and being in the Night Vale fandom means:

• You won’t cringe every time you see a whitewashed Carlos and remember how you wished you were white, once upon a time, so that you could have a better life.
• You won’t want to break something every time you see people cosplaying the Apache tracker, because it reminds you how this sort of cultural appropriation is a very real thing that negatively affects you.
• You won’t feel the urge to toss your laptop out a dang window whenever you see someone brown-facing or red-facing for cosplay, because you are reminded that to that person, your skin color (something you can be shot/denied jobs/beaten for) is a costume, and nothing more.
• You won’t hope bitterly that the winning T-Shirt design doesn’t feature a white Cecil, because you are starving for some non-othered, non-stereotypical representation in the media.
• You won’t bite your lip and roll your eyes every time you see some white person trying to tell you that doing brown-face/black-face is NOT racist.
• You won’t get anon hate deathwishing you and your family for a post you didn’t even make.

Please, understand, I am not trying to guilt anyone with this post. I do not shame anyone for their personal headcanons, so please stop acting like I’m the thought police out to get you. But if you are white, you cannot understand what it is like to navigate through a society filled with media that tells you that white is the best, white is the norm, white is the default, and that you are not. Because you are white, you have media constantly reaffirming that it is okay, normal, and even superior to be whatever you are, as long as you are white.

Here comes this radio drama, with a potential to be filled with representation for me and other people of color, non-othered and non-stereotypical representation – just straight up people of color in the media. Of course I am going to latch onto it. Of course I am going to dislike white!Cecil. Can you understand that?

I’m not asking people to change their headcanon, or be guilty for having a white headcanon, or for being white.

I am asking you to understand what it is like for me, a native Latino trans* kid, navigating through media where all I’m given is scraps… if even.