Hi guys, it’s again, your fav blackie coming back. This is gonna be a yap session because….I enjoy yapping, especially when it makes me think in depth. After all….I’m indeed a psycho. Now, I gave an opinion a few days ago, and while I mostly stand by my review, someone in my comments responded, and it made me think from a new perspective.
Now, to give a summary, I essentially said that I don’t think Jaxx intended to be racist, and that opinion still stands. I gave reasons why I felt other people thought it was going to be racist and how it may come off as racist. That point also stands. Now, there was this talking point that was going crazy in the comments where people were comparing rape in yaoi vs racism/slavery, and people were making the argument of ‘you read rape in yaoi but draw the line at slavery,’ and my initial stance was that it was not comparable and it was ignorant, and I would like to tweak that comment I made.
I believe I may have jumped the gun a bit because of my own experiences, as well as what I deemed was what. Both rape and racism are terrible, no matter what. And I will say that rape and racism are indeed LOOSELY comparable. Now, before anyone tries to murder me, give me a chance…..plssssss :) Both rape and racism involve psychological abuse, a sense of torture, and the act of belittling someone, have been around for centuries, and dare I say, rape has been around since the beginning of time.
When I think of racism and slavery, I think of the more extreme events, but rape has had its extremeities, too. It truthfully depends on the circumstances because people who do rape others have just as much of the capability to brutalize you, murder you, or do anything to further humiliate you. If you look at both comparisons, they both have their similarities, but are not the same; don’t confuse them.
What I will say the topic truthfully depends on your own point of view and what you’ve yourself endured. In my head, I was viewing this mostly from my perspective of my experiences out of events that happen in everyday life for me, such as rude glares when you walk in a store, people making comments under their breath. You having to make sure that you’re extremely careful with how you interact with other races, etc.
Typically, and this is where I admit I was wrong, I view rape mostly as a one time expirence people dealt with because more times than not, rape is a one time expirence. To be clear, sexual assault or sexual coercion are different than rape, just under the same umbrella, but those instances happen more often than rape does for an individual. So I would naturally, with this mindset, think racism is worse because it’s a constant compared to rape for an individual. I didn’t take into consideration of the fact that there’s human trafficking, marital rape, etc., in which rape is a constant for those people.
Things on my part definitely could’ve been worded better. I also have to take into consideration that I don’t read dark fiction only because the guy is hot or to goon to it like a lot of people do. I love psychological themes and to analyze things as well, so when I say you can enjoy reading fiction with rape in it while also not excusing the actions of the character, I’m looking at it from how I read, not a majority of people who use the ‘it’s just fiction ’ excuse.
Now, as far as this book goes, I would like to add more to my opinion. When it comes to is this book is racist or not, my answer is still - it wasn’t intended to be, but we will never know. When I say I don’t think Jaxx would have been able to give the story justice, I was more so looking at it from the perspective of, I want the nitty gritty if you’re going to do a story like this. I love dark themes because, as you can tell, I enjoy to yap as well as give other opinions others may not consider because I love psychology, as well as analyze stories and the characters in them. But I have to keep in mind, as well as others, that this is a historical fiction; it’s not supposed to be accurate if they don’t intend it to be that way.
I can understand the comments saying that nothing is wrong with this book because in one chapter, we have nothing that is actually wrong because it's fiction. It’s all under speculation of what could have possibly happened had this book continued. For example, my perspective on it was written in ignorance because I didn’t fully take into consideration that it’s a historical fiction.
The only problem I had was when the MC gave slaves money and told them to return to their families. My issue with that was that most slaves couldn’t read, most of them lost their families and had no way or resources to find them, and more of them were scared to leave their masters because they had very few skills and didn’t know what life would be outside of slavery. That was my only problem, but realistically, it's a historical fiction; it’s rare if it’s going to be accurate, and again, as I said last time, I don’t think slavery was going to be the big talking point of the manga. I personally would’ve just wanted more realism to it because that’s what I like.
I think all these perspectives are valid because not only is it a matter of point of view, but we have only one chapter and ignorance to go off of. Ignorance isn’t a bad thing; it just means you’re not well-versed in something, which is understandable. I can’t be mad, and I think lots of people shouldn’t be mad because they cancelled it. Now, if the book kept going and it was becoming racist or didn’t improve their work, I could then see it being a problem people were up in arms about. The story was just ignorance, depending on the perspective, gone wrong, but nothing was blatantly racist about this if I’m being honest. What was given was fair because in that time period, people spoke that way regarding black people and how they viewed themselves.
I’m not directly sure who the predominant group of people was that were upset about this yaoi. I would like to assume it was fellow black people, but no tea, no shade, other races will be more upset about something than the actual group that’s affected.
Now, I would have liked to see what would’ve become of this book…..of course I would’ve because again I like dark topics. I would’ve given it a fair chance. I don’t think it should’ve got cancelled until we got more context to the book. I think the issue is that Jaxx came in very strong, and they should’ve either, as I said before, consulted a black person in the sense of how to open up with the story in a way so that it is palatable.
I think if maybe once we got to the third chapter and it had that how slave master line it would’ve been more acceptable (i use that loosely) in the sense of ‘okay ill be patient before I draw a conclusion on what kind of story this will be’. Or I would’ve kept going so that people could see more of what the story would’ve been. I’m not losing my mind that it’s cancelled, and I still commend Jaxx for trying something new and cancelled it because they felt it was the best outcome, or it wasn’t in their depth to continue.
K…..I think I’m done yapping, hoped you enjoyeddddd byeeeeee.
Hi guys, it’s again, your fav blackie coming back. This is gonna be a yap session because….I enjoy yapping, especially when it makes me think in depth. After all….I’m indeed a psycho. Now, I gave an opinion a few days ago, and while I mostly stand by my review, someone in my comments responded, and it made me think from a new perspective.
Now, to give a summary, I essentially said that I don’t think Jaxx intended to be racist, and that opinion still stands. I gave reasons why I felt other people thought it was going to be racist and how it may come off as racist. That point also stands. Now, there was this talking point that was going crazy in the comments where people were comparing rape in yaoi vs racism/slavery, and people were making the argument of ‘you read rape in yaoi but draw the line at slavery,’ and my initial stance was that it was not comparable and it was ignorant, and I would like to tweak that comment I made.
I believe I may have jumped the gun a bit because of my own experiences, as well as what I deemed was what. Both rape and racism are terrible, no matter what. And I will say that rape and racism are indeed LOOSELY comparable. Now, before anyone tries to murder me, give me a chance…..plssssss :) Both rape and racism involve psychological abuse, a sense of torture, and the act of belittling someone, have been around for centuries, and dare I say, rape has been around since the beginning of time.
When I think of racism and slavery, I think of the more extreme events, but rape has had its extremeities, too. It truthfully depends on the circumstances because people who do rape others have just as much of the capability to brutalize you, murder you, or do anything to further humiliate you. If you look at both comparisons, they both have their similarities, but are not the same; don’t confuse them.
What I will say the topic truthfully depends on your own point of view and what you’ve yourself endured. In my head, I was viewing this mostly from my perspective of my experiences out of events that happen in everyday life for me, such as rude glares when you walk in a store, people making comments under their breath. You having to make sure that you’re extremely careful with how you interact with other races, etc.
Typically, and this is where I admit I was wrong, I view rape mostly as a one time expirence people dealt with because more times than not, rape is a one time expirence. To be clear, sexual assault or sexual coercion are different than rape, just under the same umbrella, but those instances happen more often than rape does for an individual. So I would naturally, with this mindset, think racism is worse because it’s a constant compared to rape for an individual. I didn’t take into consideration of the fact that there’s human trafficking, marital rape, etc., in which rape is a constant for those people.
Things on my part definitely could’ve been worded better. I also have to take into consideration that I don’t read dark fiction only because the guy is hot or to goon to it like a lot of people do. I love psychological themes and to analyze things as well, so when I say you can enjoy reading fiction with rape in it while also not excusing the actions of the character, I’m looking at it from how I read, not a majority of people who use the ‘it’s just fiction ’ excuse.
Now, as far as this book goes, I would like to add more to my opinion. When it comes to is this book is racist or not, my answer is still - it wasn’t intended to be, but we will never know. When I say I don’t think Jaxx would have been able to give the story justice, I was more so looking at it from the perspective of, I want the nitty gritty if you’re going to do a story like this. I love dark themes because, as you can tell, I enjoy to yap as well as give other opinions others may not consider because I love psychology, as well as analyze stories and the characters in them. But I have to keep in mind, as well as others, that this is a historical fiction; it’s not supposed to be accurate if they don’t intend it to be that way.
I can understand the comments saying that nothing is wrong with this book because in one chapter, we have nothing that is actually wrong because it's fiction. It’s all under speculation of what could have possibly happened had this book continued. For example, my perspective on it was written in ignorance because I didn’t fully take into consideration that it’s a historical fiction.
The only problem I had was when the MC gave slaves money and told them to return to their families. My issue with that was that most slaves couldn’t read, most of them lost their families and had no way or resources to find them, and more of them were scared to leave their masters because they had very few skills and didn’t know what life would be outside of slavery. That was my only problem, but realistically, it's a historical fiction; it’s rare if it’s going to be accurate, and again, as I said last time, I don’t think slavery was going to be the big talking point of the manga. I personally would’ve just wanted more realism to it because that’s what I like.
I think all these perspectives are valid because not only is it a matter of point of view, but we have only one chapter and ignorance to go off of. Ignorance isn’t a bad thing; it just means you’re not well-versed in something, which is understandable. I can’t be mad, and I think lots of people shouldn’t be mad because they cancelled it. Now, if the book kept going and it was becoming racist or didn’t improve their work, I could then see it being a problem people were up in arms about. The story was just ignorance, depending on the perspective, gone wrong, but nothing was blatantly racist about this if I’m being honest. What was given was fair because in that time period, people spoke that way regarding black people and how they viewed themselves.
I’m not directly sure who the predominant group of people was that were upset about this yaoi. I would like to assume it was fellow black people, but no tea, no shade, other races will be more upset about something than the actual group that’s affected.
Now, I would have liked to see what would’ve become of this book…..of course I would’ve because again I like dark topics. I would’ve given it a fair chance. I don’t think it should’ve got cancelled until we got more context to the book. I think the issue is that Jaxx came in very strong, and they should’ve either, as I said before, consulted a black person in the sense of how to open up with the story in a way so that it is palatable.
I think if maybe once we got to the third chapter and it had that how slave master line it would’ve been more acceptable (i use that loosely) in the sense of ‘okay ill be patient before I draw a conclusion on what kind of story this will be’. Or I would’ve kept going so that people could see more of what the story would’ve been. I’m not losing my mind that it’s cancelled, and I still commend Jaxx for trying something new and cancelled it because they felt it was the best outcome, or it wasn’t in their depth to continue.
K…..I think I’m done yapping, hoped you enjoyeddddd byeeeeee.