- Racism & Antiblackness in the Vtubing Community
- Here Are some Ways to Spot White Supremacist and Antiblack Rhetoric
- What to do when you see it
- In Conclusion
Good morning, evening and timezones to you all. The Vtubing community has been in an uproar lately. Though, when isn’t it? But we’re just going to dive into the issue.
Racism & Antiblackness in the Vtubing Community
Unfortunately, a lot of nonblack vtubers love to refer it as “just drama”. But is it just drama when you’re the party that feels like anytime you open your mouth to point out something racist, everyone, including some of your own, are jumping down your throat telling you that you’re overreacting? You’re being too mean? You’re harassing that poor nonblack vtuber? And that, in some cases, you should be grateful that the ‘community’ even acknowledges you at all? Luckily there’s a name for that phenomenon. It’s called, Antiblackness.
This isn’t to say there AREN’T troublesome black vtubers or black vtubers who do bad things. But majority of the toxicity aimed at us tends to stem from someone shining a light on the bigotry under the surface of the cutesy “I’m just a vtuber” scene. Whether it’s because someone was asking a critical question or pointing out how something doesn’t make them feel safe as a black vtuber, it’s always a case of nonblack fans and other nonblack vtubers jumping to aggression and harassment of said vtuber and any vtuber who supports them for daring to speak up against their Oshi or friend. I myself have seen several vtubers get slurs and death threats thrown at them simply for speaking up in general or even daring to say that “hey, this isn’t right.” It’s extremely jarring and discouraging. But as someone who’s been in the scene for 4+ years, one thing I’ve noticed, is the usage of Black Vtuber as the middlemen to finding your audience. You can’t exactly say “Hey! I want an audience of racists, homophobes and a sprinkling of misogynists!” out in the wild as a vtuber. Not a great career start. However, if you never say anything, intentionally, rile up the black vtubers and make it seem like they’re harassing you when they’re not, you don’t have to say all of that. They’ll come running like a scattering of cockroaches to defend their fair maiden from the bad black people.
And Black Vtubers will have to sit there hearing how the vtuber in question is “based” or is told “you’re not doing anything wrong; it’s those [SLURS] that are the issue!” “Don’t bother with those [SLURS]! They’re the ones ruining vtubing!” “It was better when Vtubing wasn’t filled with monkey-tubers.” Or other nonsense and verbal abuse filled with both slurs and insults.
Almost all of these quotes are almost verbatim from either ‘fellow’ vtubers or ‘fans’. Which leads to the realisation that these types of folks aren’t coming from nowhere, they’ve always been here. Fostered by the community’s virulent lack of coherency and dedicated stance of holding on to “no politics! we’re just here to have fun and vtube” rhetoric by the balls. I am reminded of a quote I saw floating around the internet.
“If you welcome sheep and wolves, then all you’re going to get are wolves.”
And it tends to ring through. If you welcome both the marginalized and the oppressors. Only the oppressors will show up. Why would the marginalized want to show to a space that’s been proven to not be safe for them? Though, the Vtubing space isn’t all unsafe. There of course nonblack Vtubers that have and are standing up for us in the community, and if spotted I think they should be supported.
Something to also take note of as well. The Vtubing Scene is anime adjacent, which means that there’s a crossover between anime fans and vtubing fans. The reason I bring this up, is because both scenes share an issue. Yes. They have a Nazi and alt-right problem too, which crosses over into the Vtubing Scene. No, it’s not just the folks that cross over from the anime scene that are problematic. A lot of vtubing issues are home grown.
Here Are some Ways to Spot White Supremacist and Antiblack Rhetoric
Before we get into specific dog whistles, here’s a basic definition on what dog whistles are;
“In politics, a dog whistle is the use of coded or suggestive language in political messages to garner attention or support from a particular group without provoking opposition.”
As quoted by Wikipedia.
There’s a lot, and I mean a LOT of white supremacists on the internet. Some are in plain sight and proudly state it. Others a bit harder to root out, instead using something called dog whistles, wording or symbols, to signal to each other that they’re alike and align on the same things (racism, misogyny, homophobia etc.). So, here’s a list of how you can spot some of them. Please keep in mind this is very rudimentary list. And I also recommend further research into it because the information helps more than you think. And once you see it, it becomes a bit obvious how veracious it is on the Internet.
- The “14 words” – You ever seen a social media user with the numbers “1488” in their username somewhere? Yes, that is a dog whistle, specifically from the Nazi era. It relates specifically to Hitler’s “last directive” to “protect Aryan life”. Coupled with the number “88” to create “1488”, you get a glaring white supremacist dog whistle that signals to other white supremacists and antisemites that they absolutely loved Hitler and his deeds and messages and ideals.
- Right Wing Rhetoric – Anything along the lines of “we’re getting invaded” or “[Insert Place, usually America or Europe]’s culture is under attack. What they mean is that there’s too many brown people in their city, to put it very simply.
- Anything about “The Great Replacement Theory” – The rhetoric is for some reason, a very popular one among white supremacists. They seem to wholeheartedly believe that Black and POC people are somehow replacing/outbreeding them.
- “Woke/DEI” – You knew this one was coming. You see it all over Twitter and the internet. Though DEI is less used in the vtubing, it’s still prevalent. Woke is the much-preferred term of derision. A complete warping of a term that used to mean you were “awake” and aware of how abusive and shitty the government was to black people.
What to do when you see it
Shit happens in the community. And sometimes it’s aimed at the Black Vtubers in an effort to rile us up and make us out to be the community of aggression (a racist stereotype mind you), when Black Vtubers aren’t even the ones doing the harassing. And quote retweeting/reskeeting them just leads to them finding their audience and the white knights who’ll defend them from the big bad black people. I think, instead, we can do a few things that will protect us a bit and ensure that we don’t feel the brunt of the harassment.
- Don’t bring attention to it – From everything I’ve seen, quote retweeting/reskeeting is known to just boost them on the algorithm and push their posts to more people. Don’t quote, don’t comment. Screenshot if you have to and/or strike out the name, username and profile picture.
- Focus on Support – Talking about it on your profile also boosts them and exposes them to their audience. That audience and those type of people are always trying find their people. Stop giving them further opportunity to do so. Instead, focus on uplifting BIPOC vtubers into the algorithm. There’s way more of us than you think, and throwing positivity on the timeline, whether on Twitter, Bluesky or elsewhere, is always appreciated.
- Do NOT engage – Do not, for the love of all things vtubers, engage mainly. The reason for that is because no matter if you want to have a civil conversation; someone’s going to turn it into something bigger than it is. They want outrage, they want any scrap of attention so they can turn around and say, “these people are harassing us!” and outrage farm. Please don’t give them the chance. Instead, starve them of the attention they desperately crave. Remember that the formula is to blow up at the expense of Black/POC Vtubers and in this day and age, attention is currency. Don’t give them attention. Or at least the type of attention they want.
In Conclusion
We need to stick together. Unfortunately, not every vtuber is going to see our struggles as their own. We need to come together to lift each other up, police our own and ensure we truly got us. Cause nobody else will. So instead of spending your time screaming from the rooftops that no you aren’t trying to harass white vtubers, maybe we can try and focus on uplifting our fellow BIPOC brethren. I also heavily encourage everyone to look up dog whistles and what they are, because unfortunately, the Vtubing space is chock full of white supremacy ideology that is becoming dangerously more popular by the day, which attracts more white supremacists. And despite my earlier statements, ducking our heads in the sand and pretending it doesn’t exist is not going to make it go away. Hiding behind the “This isn’t a political space, we’ve come to escape” isn’t good either, especially when real life insists on labelling people’s lives as political for existing.
White supremacy must be fought, until Vtubing can be brought back from the clutches of those who’d tarnish it.
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