marsxxi

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.

Hey guys, so this is just my opinion, and me not being biased, and yes....I'm indeed black, let's carry on. Read it all before you decide to try and execute me in the comments. I would like to say I don't think Jaxx intended to be racist, and I don't think this manga was intended to come off as racist. I think that they wanted to do a story in which the period itself was briefly a factor of the manga. I can totally see how this comes off as racist yaoi slop. I think that while it wasn't intended to be racist, it is written in ignorance and in a way of 'oh the main guy so humble for letting the slaves go' and the love interest is a 'humble slave master' it's giving that slaves they had weither they looked after then or inherited them due to their 'humbleness' if you will, we must completely glamorize and glorify them because they aren't bad like the brutal instances of slavery we know about and even don't know about in history.

I think Jaxx jumped the gun and should've gotten fellow black individuals' opinions on this before they published this. I think if they did this and actually put more care into how they wrote this, I think it wouldn't have gotten nearly as much backlash as it got. With a topic like this, you have to be extremely careful or simply not write it at all. Jaxx could've easily just written about the time period and left slavery out of it completely, or loosely have it added (such as slavery is abolished or currently the civil war is ongoing). I doubt Jaxx was going to heavily talk about slavery in itself, and it was going to be a book about a man who sets slaves free and is a slave owner. It comes off condescending and watered down, so we can digest this so we don't feel disgusted reading it.

This was extremely risque and as much as I want to commend them for taking such a huge risk, I also think it's incredibly stupid because I could've altered this plot to where it wouldn't have nearly been offensive, and it could've still been yaoi with maybe a similar and dare I say a more interesting plot. It could've been a rivalry between two generals or commanders in the Civil War who fall for each other, but they are on opposing sides because idk they have a father who they are scared to disappoint, so they have to be for slavery but they don't actually have that view. Hell...it could've been about two generals on the same side that are scared to be gay because they know, on top of being abolitionists, they would get murdered for being gay. Or cowboys who trade goods....anything would've been better than this.

BTW, not saying this actually should've been written.....but I'm just saying.....there were better storylines if you were gonna do this kind of political story of this multitude. All this to say....regardless, I don't think Jaxx was going to be able to give this type of history justice anyways, because I doubt Jaxx did their due diligence in learning enough history to do this manga. (I see comments saying in Korean they aren't even taught about slavery.) Respectfully, I'm not losing sleep that the story is cancelled, and neither should you. I think the criticism they got was fair, and I don't think it needs to be written, especially after they cancelled it.

The thing is, it would look so bad on Jaxx if they came back after they said the book was cancelled and they came back to finish it, and not only that, they didn't improve the story. It's a big slap in the face to black people. Also, those who are comparing people, I guess loving manga with rape to slavery (drawing the line at slavery), are actually insane and incredibly ignorant. Not only did people during slavery rape black people, but they ate them, lynched them, used their skin as decorations, made them have sex in front of others to emasculate/humiliate each other.....the list goes on. I have nuance to enjoy a book while not justifying or ignoring the actions of the characters in the book, but we are not about to compare fucking slavery that lasted over 200 years, to rape in yaoi. It is not remotely the same. Not downplaying rape, obviously, but I want you to genuinely hear how fucking insane this sounds. 'You can read rape in yaoi, but you draw the line at slavery?' Yes, bitch I do, *imagine I can add a meme, and it's Cardi B in court meme gesturing to her eyes* like are some off yall deadass?