Something we desperately need to get away from in media studies and fan studies in particular is the idea of content analysis vs. social dynamics. Racism is absolutely a MASSIVE problem in the Star Wars fandom; but the second you break it down into ship content or-

-purely the fictional analysis, you're losing what makes anti-racist analysis actually *important*. People! The critical problems involve the treatment of people like John Boyega and Kelly Marie Tran by the fandom, with fictional depictions of their characters as an element.

If you're starting at the fiction and trying to backtrace it from there you're going to force things to fit your argument when it's not that simple. Case in point, "all Reylos are white racists" "actually I'm Black and ship Reylo because X" "you're just a freak of color"

You have to start with the actual people *in* fandom. And people fall down on this in part because people.... suck. And "people suck" makes a bad thesis, but also, fandom has traded on the idea of being this Safe, Wonderful Place for so long that admitting otherwise hurts.

But like... the people who loved the villains in Harry Potter were never as much of a problem, or as openly racist, as the people who adored Hermione and would VICIOUSLY go after anybody who headcanoned her as Black. Those weren't the same people!

Trying to make them the same people is starting with content - "redeeming fascists seems weird and prioritizes whiteness" - and retroactively puts a bunch of different things into the same box.

The reason I'm still stuck on "Harry Potter as alt-right pipeline" is /precisely/ because these were diametrically opposite parts of the fandom. The racists in HP fandom were good old liberal "but you'd complain if I made Parvati white" freedom of speech racists.

They didn't see themselves as Death Eaters, wouldn't be caught DEAD supporting Trump or Boris Johnson. If you started with their content, you'd find a lot of Ron/Hermione or Harry/Hermione good wholesome stuff, maybe some Wolfstar angst.

And this is the problem with antishipping and the purity stuff in general, isn't it? People cannot conceive of the fact that the most racist, most bigoted and nastiest people in fandom are usually the people writing the nicest, sweetest fic.

Even outside of fanfiction, the "content without context" thing is how you get shows and movies that are Super Amazingly Diverse Wow and white allies will eat them up...

and then you have to have the awkward conversation about how no people of color were actually involved.

It doesn't always make those shows/movies bad! But it's sometimes really, really noticeable when you watch the credits and it's just.....blindingly white.

Avatar: The Last Airbender and Kipo: Age of Wonderbeasts are two where this isn't mentioned enough.

(It's not Zero, that's an exaggeration, but it's a /very small number/ considering the promotion and word of mouth around the shows themselves.)

And, counterpoint, movies like Mirror Mirror which are outwardly white but are productions led and carried by people of color who cast white faces to appeal to a wider audience!