We should not give them the benefit of the doubt.
She apologised because westerners cancelled her works which means more cancelled works in the future, aka less money since their chapters are more expensive in English speaking countries.
We need to cancel them so they understand the gravity of their actions
Idk, maybe I'm a little naive, but I don't think it was done out of genuine malice. I think it came from ignorance. The author probably wanted to write a cowboy romance and picked this time period because it added drama and angst, without really understanding that slavery and colonization aren't settings you can just gloss over in favor of smut. If you're choosing one of the darkest periods in history as your setting, that's the responsibility that comes with it.
That said, they're also a grown ass adult, so I'm not going to baby them either. They made a poor creative decision, people criticized it, and to their credit, they listened and apologized instead of doubling down. That's more than a lot of creators do.
She could have written it with out the slavery part , you know like Brooke mountain something like that
True... Brokeback mountain save me... Save me Brokeback mountain...
Yes
If the people on your side are saying things like "be glad your country got colonized," "we need to bring back lynching," throwing around racial slurs, or literally have Hitler pfps, please take that as a sign to step back for a minute and reflect.
Again, when fiction reinforces stereotypes, shows the author's lack of understanding of the topic, and attracts people who use it to justify racist views, it's no longer "just fiction."
Slavery isn't just another historical setting. It's one of the darkest moments in human history, and its legacy is still affecting millions of people today. That's exactly why it's important to portray it with care. If you're going to use it as the backdrop for a romance, you have a responsibility to understand what you're drawing from instead of reducing it to tropes or aesthetic.
People act like fiction and reality are completely separate, but they're not. Stories can and have shaped how people understand history, who they empathize with, and what they see as normal. That's why propaganda works. That's why stereotypes persist. And that's why media has always been studied as something that influences culture. When harmful narratives get repeated often enough, they stop being "just fiction" and start affecting how people think and talk about real groups of people.
Props to Jaxx for acknowledging their mistakes and apologizing. Hopefully they don't end up walking back that apology because of that crowd.