Finn, the empathy gap, and how is this still a thing?!

[ljwrites]

stitchmediamix and diversehighfantasy, two of the most insightful commentators on fandom racism, were having a Twitter conversation on the racial empathy gap until, in a development so meta it feels like surrealist parody,(1) someone felt the need to add one of those "actually I'm not racist because..." replies.(2) In this case they evidently lost empathy for Finn when he "started firing on his own side."

Stitch has the post-game of this exchange, including responses that are on other threads and/or deleted later on, so refer to that thread for an analysis on why this bit of idiotic derailment is so indicative of fandom's problem with racism.

Here's my considerably less sophisticated take:

First of all, the idea that The First Order was Finn's "side" after they at minimum abducted him as a child, brainwashed, and enslaved him to become cannon fodder? That he still owes them their loyalty despite everything? It's repugnant on its face and I am positive it wouldn't be such a common argument if Finn weren't for SOME reason implicitly thought to be duty-bound to be loyal to those who mistreat him.

Second and even more hilariously, these same people who place such a high value on loyalty are often the same ones who stan Kylo Ren and/or Hux. You know, those paragons of loyalty who murdered their actual fathers. If Finn turning his back on his abusers and abductors turns off that empathy switch while Kylo's actual patricide doesn't get in the way of feeling for him,(3) then maybe you have different standards of morality for different people and need to interrogate that a lil bit.(4)

1. This is done time and again in deadly earnest, of course. It's like white fragility: the playbook.
2. This woman is an author. Be afraid. Be very afraid. This is the second white woman author I've seen be racist toward Finn but I have a feeling she won't be the last.
3. Ditto on making up bullshit reasons why Han and Leia were abusive parents who never deserved their son's love. I mean have your headcanons and AUs all you like, but calling other people on being wrong because they don't conform to your own idiosyncratic headcanons makes you a jerk. Brendol Hux actually was an abusive piece of shit and I'm not shedding any tears for the way he went (except maybe tears of laughter at how the fascist waste of skin blew up like a balloon lmaoooo), but if Hux didn't owe any duty of loyalty to his abuser then neither did Finn.
4.I know that this field has been hopelessly fouled up by both fandom antis and racism denialists, but this does not mean you cannot like Kylo or whomever. It doesn't mean you can't create content for him, or ship him. That doesn't make you a bad person. But if you turn around from there and attempt to make hypocritical fucking arguments to cover up the mistreatment of Finn by fandom then yeah, people are going to comment on that so deal with it.

Comments

[minoanmiss]

I am so glad I know you.

My icon side-eyes those who inspired this rant.

[lb_lee]

I admit, when I told LJ about you, I was kinda imagining myself squishing your icons together and going, "NOW KEEEEEES." But in a platonic way.

[ljwrites]

Platonic kissing is the BEST.

[ljwrites]

The sentiment is very much mutual!

These "I can't relate to Finn because Reasons" sentiments are so common in SW fandom it's hard to keep track of these fools, ugh.

[minoanmiss]

And it's so fucking transparent. They said that about Uhura, they said that about David back in NUMB3RS, they say that over and over about the Black characters. Ugh.

[ljwrites]

I think my "favorite" was the one where someone said Valkyrie (of Thor: Ragnarok) is unrelatable to women because the character is basically a man.

[minoanmiss]

Of COURSE they did.

triple facepalm

[goodbyebird]

*nods along*

[ljwrites]

Icon mirroring! (Yours is much better, I just cropped a screenshot XD)

[isabellerecs]

^^^^This, all this! Thank you for putting these feelings into concise words because that this point all I've got are gasping outraged noises.

[ljwrites]

They make me... so... mad...

[loopy777]

Okay, here me out:

We get the mouse to do a Tales of the Jedi movie based on the Ulic Qel-Droma story. So we can give all these people the pretty boy dark-side-redemption they want, along with love triangle and ANGST and capes.

But then we cast a black dude as Ulic.

And we watch their heads explode.

[ljwrites]

Prepare for reams of meta about how Ulic is a violent murderer who never deserved redemption and how his drugging was no excuse for his actions. I mean, people already make up reasons to call Finn obsessive, stalkerish, abusive etc. etc. An actual villain played by a Black guy will get no sympathy whatsoever.

Also, I saw the words "Beast Wars" on the wiki page and all I could think was "Transformers crossover!"

[loopy777]

Yes, Star Wars has done that, too.

[ljwrites]

I am speechless, and also wish they'd make a Hux/Starkiller Base one ASAP.

[lb_lee]

Wait, Hux actually got character development? I thought he was the equivalent of That Guy who's only in a thing for like five minutes, does nothing of significance, and develops a massive following for reasons.

[ljwrites]

You're totally right movie-wise, but I'm one of those nerds who consume the extra materials and Hux stans build a lot of their mythos around his extended appearances. I don't think he ever had his own novel but he showed up in others, and in one of them, Phasma (two guesses who it's about), he is revealed to have poisoned his father with a beetle that Phasma supplied him with resulting in the aforementioned horrilarious death.

[lb_lee]

Goddammit star wars, shit like this is why I wrote Frankenstein's Nostalgia Monster. Though I guess death by beetle trumps poison in the ear!