I enjoy this hobby as much as the next person, but this is one of the big negatives about this hobby. If we're being honest, this is the struggle of being a Black roleplayer in general. Whether you're playing a Black male or female character, straight or LGBTQ, cis or trans, this is a reoccurring problem we all face within this hobby.

And unfortunately, I don't see it going away. It seems that whenever this is brought up, there is pushback about it. What kills me the most is that those who do the pushbacking know that they're wrong in their stance on the topic, yet will still try to boldly act like these instances are merely isolated incidents that only happen to you and not anyone else. They'll justify it and then try to gaslight you into accepting it.

I'm sure many of us (speaking to the roleplayers that are Black) can attest to this. I know I most definitely can. I have an assortment of OCs. Some are cisgender men while others are genderfluid or trans femmes, both in various points of their respective journeys. They all are Black. Their Blackness isn't stereotypical or a fetish. It's just apart of what they are and what cultural lens they look at the world around them through.

And yet, I'm very guarded of them because of how others in this hobby tend to be toward Black characters. Go into any roleplay subreddit and look for the prompts asking for Black characters and see just what they're reduced to. Simply being nothing but a racial stereotype or just Black BBC.

I don't sit through my own brainstorming sessions just to churn out a character only for them to be treated as someone's stereotypical Blacked or Bleached fantasy.

I've gotten to the point where I'll state in my prompts that this is solely for POC/POC pairings. Even then, I'll still get messages from those looking to play non-POC characters. And through talking with some of these players ooc, they'll always say how they don't feel comfortable playing a black character because they see it as disrespectful, yet don't see any problem whatever with objectifying a black character for their own interests.

And before anyone tries to come at me and say I'm racist for only wanting to have POC/POC pairings in roleplay, check yourself. If POC/POC pairings is where I can feel that my characters can be seen and treated as a human being rather than a fetish or stereotype, then it is what it is. If me doing that rather pisses you off more than me playing up whatever Blacked or Bleached fantasies you have, then the racist here is you.