The Mc fought in the civil war on the union army, came back to his whole family dead, decided to sell his families ranch where slaves worked on it, "freed" the slaves, and it ends on a cliffhanger with a man riding up on his horse to him saying that that's his ranch and telling the mc that he is his slave and calling the Mc master.
the setting is set during the civil war which if you live in america you'll know why the author writing this is problematic for them to use it for a slave/master storyline, and gives white savior. even with the suppose research they've done.
Another small detail is that the black background characters are featureless while their white counterparts are not. Which is a form of dehumanization.
anything's possible, so maybe this creator will turn out to have done their research and not be insensitive or ignorant, but I'm already skeptical due to the choice of character backgrounds. like of all the kinds of people and stories you could tell about this time period in this place, why are these the ones chosen? what's the appeal of their dynamic? why choose this setting and time period for that? if the creator hasn't done their due diligence, those questions will have very unflattering answers.
as it stands, it looks like a very deliberate choice to write around the existence of Black people who lived during that time even though their presence is integral to the livelihoods of the MCs. maybe the author thought they'd avoid the backlash they're now getting by doing that, but that's still an expression of racism, by ignoring that Black people are also people who want their stories and experiences told and treated with respect. and if the author didn't want to include Black people, which they're ultimately not obligated to do, they would have been better off choosing another topic and setting to write about, because like it or not, when writing about American history, you'll have to grapple with the racial dynamics of this country one way or another, to say nothing of the civil war era (even postwar) where the crux of the conflict was "what are we going to do with Black people (are they even people?)". to then make the only Black people in the story be faceless mobs seemingly only with the intention of making the white MC look good and ethical, just rubs salt in that wound. if the author wanted an interracial cowboy romance with this particular dynamic, they had other options for time and setting (and not to mention that those power and racial dynamics are present in other times as well).
every choice a creator makes in their story reflects their knowledge and interests, which are not free from bias. intentional or not, I see a lot of opportunity for missteps here.
I liked these threads for more background info - https://x.com/SPLover1863/status/2069382347972063697
https://x.com/SPLover1863/status/2069512321475465603
Haven’t read the first chapter yet obviously. Can someone explain how this is racist before I decide to read or not? I keep seeing master/slave and white savior comments but how? Like does the MC say something racist or demeaning? Is the story itself about racism as a whole is there something inherently racist in and of itself about the story? Again, haven’t read it and didn’t even read the summary. I know nothing of the story. Like it only has 1 chapter and everyone is claiming how awful this is so I’m just wondering why you guys feel that way and if I even wanna take the time to read it. Idk