Totals Time!

It's been a year of records and record-breaking. Of reaching new fandom spaces and building new community ties. It's been wild. And absolutely fantastic.

When we closed the auction signup window we had 981 offers —nearly 150 more than we'd ever had before. When we re-opened it for 4 more hours, hoping to find another 19 folks (because we wondered what an auction with 1000 offers would look like) you all came through in spades, boosting the auction everywhere and bringing back 100 new offers in 15 new fandoms, bringing us to 1081 offers this year - a 33% increase over our previous record.

And you all weren't done breaking records. Shattering them.

This is the first year that any of our supported nonprofit orgs has received a 5-digit sum. And? TWO of them did.

So. Are you ready to see what our community has done? Are you ready for the numbers?

This year

thanks to all of you

FTH raised…

$67,931.28

The breakdown of donations to orgs looks like this -

This brings our eight-year total to

$307,439.14

Huge thanks to our 797 creators offering 1081 auctions in more than 400 different fandoms and subfandoms, and to everyone who bid! And to our 17 fan crafters who brought in $4,127 of that total —60% more than our previous crafting record!

So, what's next?

Contact deadlines:

Creators, be sure you contact your bidders by April 1, and bidders, on your end please respond to their communication by April 15!

Bidders need to provide their creator with a workable prompt by June 30 (unless you've worked out a different timeline together) to ensure they have plenty of time to finish their fanwork.

Once the fanwork is posted, let us know via our form (can you believe FOURTEEN creators have already finished??) and if you’re posting it on AO3 be sure to add it to the Fandom Trumps Hate 2024 collection. If you’re writing a fic for FTH and need help from our Regiment of Fan Laborers, email us! As always, the deadline for completed fanworks is December 31.

We hope that for at least some people, your involvement in FTH will lead to continued action throughout the year. Sign up for our organizations’ email lists, check out their volunteer opportunities, and help boost their signals on social media!

And if you’d like to run your own fanworks auction for a good cause, we can help get you started!

We have a packet of organizational materials we’ve been sharing with other auction organizers since 2017; we’re planning to spend the month of April overhauling and updating these materials to incorporate many of the improvements we’ve implemented since then. If you’re thinking about organizing an auction or fanworks exchange in your fandom to raise money for a good cause, we would love to share those materials with you. Contact us at fandomtrumpshate at gmail.com and we can send you our auction playbook, as well as answer any questions you have about our process.

Your mods (@porcupine-girl, @captainbunnicula, @tiltedsyllogism, @anyawen, @renjunbabygirl, @trickybonmot, and @a-still-small-vox) are going to be going into post-auction hibernation mode (or, for most of us, post-auction deal-with-all-this-other-stuff mode) for a little while. So if you email us, don’t panic if we don’t get back to you immediately! We will start actively monitoring the inbox again by April 15 at the latest.

✨ I'M SO PROUD OF US ✨

Friends, Romans, Countrymen ...

No, wait. That's tomorrow. Today is Pi Day! Let us show you our donation pie chart!

With roughly 40% of donation proofs received, and about half of those processed (we're plowing through!) the donations to our various supported orgs looks like this:

Interestingly, although MECA is getting the lion's share, we've received heart-felt thank you notes from a handful of other orgs with much smaller slices of the pie who have noticed the uptick in donations and their attribution in honor of Fandom Trumps Hate. Our pooled donations to small orgs DO make a difference!

If you've not made your donations yet and wanted to select an org or two that wasn't getting as much attention as the others, our Environmental orgs are collectively only just receiving 10%, and our Voting/Democracy orgs just 8%. Remember that donations for your winning bids are due by March 19, and 2nd chance offers are due by March 24.

Things Google has done in the past two weeks to fuck with FTH:

And I think there's been more. Google needs to get its shit together.

if you need me I'll be gnawing at google's ankles in retaliation for my lost code. 😡

at this point put "stuck us in email jail" as the free space on the bingo card.

High bidders (& creators, too): sit tight!

Bidders: We're working on getting the high bidder list sorted and all the emails sent - if you don't get a high bidder email by 8AM EST Monday morning, please email us and let us know! UPDATE: Due to gmail sending limits, these emails will not all go out until Monday night/Tuesday morning EDT. We apologize for the delay. We will post here when all emails have been sent.

Once you get this email, please read the instructions, as the process has changed, and then make your donations and submit the proof.

Once we recieve this, we will email both the creator and the high bidder to put the two of you in touch with each other.

Please hold back on contacting creators until you get this email!

Creators whose auctions got at least one bid: You should have received an email today about next steps. If you did not get one and your auction got a bid, let us know! Please do not contact any bidders until you've heard from us that their donation was processed.

We know it's frustrating to hold off, especially if you have contact info for your creator/bidder, but in terms of keeping the stream of information organized and under control so that nothing gets lost in the shuffle, the larger the auction gets the more important this is. So thank you so much for helping us with this!

I am one (1) minor inconvenience away from fist fighting a global tech conglomerate. :)

the comments on this tiktok… the unity… the commitment to the bit…. women are so sexy

The immediate unspoken agreement to gaslight every man who sees this is truly incredible

FTH 2022 Wrap-Up

In its first five years, beginning shortly after the 2016 election in the US, the FTH auction raised a total of $138,000. Our first year and 2020 were big; some of the non-election years, not quite as much. Out of those five years, our fundraising record was $32,732 in 2020. And we were pretty happy with that, because every cent was going to help amazing nonprofits that are doing difficult and important work.

But this year. This year.

…

This was the year that all of you blew it out of the water.

…

This year, the total amount raised was…

…

Get ready for it…

…

Are you ready?

…

I’m not sure you are…

.

.

.

[Image ID: Glittery pink text reading “$53,355.78”]

You read that right. Over 1.5x and $20,000 more than our previous record!

This brings our six-year total to an astounding $192,146!

From the amazing fandom ambassadors who helped us spread the word about FTH in their fandoms, to the 626 creators who signed up to offer fanworks (in over 400 different fandoms and subfandoms!) to the hundreds of bidders, to the 30 people who donated a total of $4000 in honor of ROFL, in addition to or instead of donating in exchange for specific fanworks… you all made this happen. We’ve never had a year like this before. But we hope we’ll have some more like it in the future.

We hope all of you amazing, wonderful people will stick around for future years, to help us keep helping those organizations who are fighting the good fight.

Because yes, we will most certainly be back again next year!

In the meantime, your FTH mods are going to enjoy a couple of celebratory drinks, and a couple of long naps, and then get back to refueling for next year (and catching up on all the non-FTH stuff we’ve been neglecting for the past few months.)

But if you don’t want to wait that long—if you’re feeling energized and inspired by what the fandom community can accomplish, if you’re upset by what you see on the news or outside your window and you want to do more to help, right now—here are some things you can do:

1) Stay connected to our supported organizations.

Every organization on our list has an annual operating budget under $10 million. Several of them operate on less than $1 million per year. We picked them not only because they do amazing work, but because every additional dollar really matters to them. So we encourage you to keep donating throughout the year, if and when you can. Some of these organizations also need the help of volunteers, either to contact political representatives or to show up and assist with the work on the ground. If you have the wherewithal, consider doing these things! If you can’t volunteer or donate beyond FTH, get on their mailing list or follow them on social media and signal-boost their work whenever you can.

2) Organize your own auction or fanworks-for-donations exchange.

FTH is a huge operation in many ways, but we’re still limited — in some ways, we’re limited because we’re huge. Single fandom auctions are faster and easier to organize, and are much more streamlined. FTH is also focused almost exclusively on the US — and even here, there are hundreds of worthy organizations that don’t make our list.

If there’s a cause that’s important to you or your fandom, and if you think you could get a couple dozen creators to sign on to raise money for a good cause, let us know: we can help you get started! We have a package of materials we’ve shared with the organizers of dozens of other smaller events, and we are happy to share them with you — just drop us an email at fandomtrumpshate at gmail. We also have a brand-new channel in our organizational discord where organizers of auctions and fanwork exchanges can swap ideas and advice.

We also hope you’ll keep up with the vast wealth of wonderful fanworks that will come from this auction (some of which have been posted already!) We’ve created an Ao3 collection for FTH 2022 fanworks (you can also check out the FTH parent collection, which has the collections for every individual year) and you can follow @fth2022fanworks, where we’ll be reblogging completed fanworks as they come in.

Below the cut you’ll find exactly how much we raised for each organization.

We’ll see you all next year, when hopefully we can keep breaking records together!

Keep reading

Ummm byee

So I kind of hate that Putin is trying to restrict the flow of information into Russia so that he can control the narrative, so for my Russian friends, here is my guide on

How to get around internet censorship and maintain internet privacy

This will be an extremely long post 😅

Priorities

Alternative Front-Ends A frontend is the the part of a website which the user interacts with directly. To browse the contents of websites, you usually have to visit them. However, many people have made alternative privacy-respecting frontends to popular websites that allow you to see the site’s content without actually visiting the website. This helps avoid tracking, data-collection, and even countries’ attempts to ban websites. Twitter is banned in Russia right now, but using all an alternative frontend to Twitter works (according to my Russian friend).

Google Translate

Imgur

Instagram

Medium

Reddit

TikTok

Twitter

Wikipedia

YouTube

YouTube Music

If anyone knows of one of these for Tumblr please let me know. I found this site called Tumgir but it looks sketchy and unlike the rest of the ones I listed, it’s not open-source. So visit with caution, but I’m mentioning it because it might be better than nothing.

There are also these browser extensions that automatically redirect site links to the available alternatives:

Mozilla Firefox

Google Chrome

iPhone (iOS 15+) Safari

Android

Messaging / Communication

Matrix is a federated and decentralized End-to-End Encrypted (E2EE) messaging with many platforms, the most popular of which is Element. It’s like Discord, but worse. It’s getting better over time though! You can even use a a throwaway email to sign-up.

If you’re Russian you likely already know about Telegram, but MAKE SURE you’re aware that only Secret Chats are End-to-End Encrypted. So don’t say anything that would get you in trouble outside of a Secret Chat.

End Notes

China is way better at internet censorship. They’ve had years to build the infrastructure to control the flow of information online. And yet, the Chinese people still manage to “climb the wall” and find ways around this. Russia is new to this game and doesn’t have the resources China does. So I really doubt it’ll be that hard to get around their attempts to block websites. Have faith! And feel free to DM me for more info cause this post just scratches the surface for things you can do tbh.

introducing the fandom COVID memorial

We are one week out from the beginning of browsing period. While everyone waits for that, we want to introduce you to another project we have put together.

This past year has been unimaginably difficult for many of us: as individuals, as members of families and communities, and as global citizens overwhelmed by the scale of suffering and loss. One of the things that has been hardest and cruelest about COVID is the fact that it has denied us the opportunity to gather together to grieve the people it has taken from us. There’s a reason so many FTH creators struggled to finish their fanworks this past year: we are all living under the cloud of mass tragedy, with very little outlet to express or even recognize it.

And so, as a small step toward filling that gap, we have put together a fandom COVID memorial. It’s a dreamwidth comm where anyone in fandom can post about their losses during the pandemic. There are three tags on the site – 1)  in memoriam: a fandom friend 2)  in memoriam: someone important to me and 3) I survived COVID but it was/is still awful – and we welcome any post that falls within the purview of one of these tags.

You do have to be a member to post – but membership is open and unmonitored, and setting up a DW account is free (and only takes a few minutes.) We have also created a small library of visual tokens of mourning, gathered from various cultures and traditions, which you can leave as a response to others’ postings if you want to mark that you have been there but don’t want to write words of your own.

This memorial site is not related to the auction in any direct, concrete way. There is no fundraising component and nothing about the site is tied to our annual calendar. But to us, the spirit behind it is the same. FTH is, at its root, about fans coming together to show care for one another, and for we are hopeful that this memorial site will offer people a space to do that for one another.

Visit the memorial here.

Thanks to an excellent suggestion, we are adding a fourth tag to the memorial site: “things that I have lost to quarantine.” Whether or not your losses of the last year are directly fandom-related, we hope you will feel welcome to share your grief and your stories.

When you finally find the name of the song thats been stuck in your head

Do you little fucks know how long it took me to find this image I had to look up seductive apples my family is questioning my mental health don’t fucking talk to me

DONT FALL FOR THIS

If you see someone using this image to “prove” that the attack on capitol was orchestrated by antifa, don’t believe it. the man with the short hair is Matthew Heimbach. He is a neo-nazi, and planned the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville. Click here for his wiki article.  He was posted on the Philly antifa website to announce him as a nazi.

Here is the second fake photo.

This man was NOT a pro-BLM protestor. Here is the full version of the picture on the right. 

This man is Jake Angeli. He is a QAnon influencer, also called the “Q Shaman.” Q (Qanon) is a far-right conspiracy theory. You can read more about it here.

Here are some links about him:

Jake Angeli interview by BreAnna J. Frank

Business Insider article: “ A well-known QAnon influencer dubbed the ‘Q Shaman’ played a highly visible role in the Capitol siege “

None election with left destiel

LEFT ELECTION WITH LEFT DESTIEL BABY

good morning

can we get a 

F U C K Y E A H

🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

Is Destiel Canon Yet ?

11/5/2020: Yes.

someone help me find that image of 4 cats being held up in front of a brightly coloured background. the cats look calm being held but each have their own personality

nvm i found it

The Race Problem on Supernatural

Because someone had to talk about it.

The supernatural world is a white one. Period.

Even the people killed in the cold open are most often white people. 

Don't get me wrong, white people are extremely talented actors/directors/casters. I absolutely loved each individual performance and I respect the show. That's not where this meta is going. 

My arguments are..... Why is no character of color close enough to the boys to be considered family? Why are most characters of color monsters? This show has had the rare gift of longevity and now that it's almost over, we can see what they've done with it. And it's pretty garish. 

Supernatural is a world where verrrrrrrrry few people of color have lived in for 15 years....... that's weird. 

The boys are national travelers, they're constantly working in America, driving from American state to American state. I know people of color are minorities, but we're not mystical creatures that only come out of the shadows during an eclipse. We're your coworker, we're your neighbor, we're your friend, we're your lover, we're your teacher, we're your classmate, your cousin, your teammate, we're alive and we're here. In America. Shocker, I know. What American has looked around their place of employment or school and only seen white people? Most don't because the country has been built using enslaved immigrant labor, and after people of color were granted civil rights we didn't just leave the land we helped create. By then, it was all we knew for generations. Why would we go? So we're here. Hey. Y'all dragged us to this party, we helped make it popping, and now don't ignore us the whole night and pretend we aren't here.

Speaking of popping, how about we talk about a character who was so good that the mere mention of his name still gets us heated.

Kevin Tran. 

Six seasons passed before we were blessed with Kevin Tran. 

Kevin is consistently enslaved, tortured, and killed for shock value. It's almost comical how bad his life has gotten since he met the Winchesters. They even brought him back in season 15 just to make it even worse for him. But, I'll tell you what. He's one good character. He is divinely touched, he adores his mother, he works hard to complete personal goals, and he's a hilarious millennial. Plus, he sassed Jack the Ripper. He's a legend. He's Kevin freaking Solo. What's not to love? To repay him for his iconic involvement, the writers gave him a very generic Asian name, drowned him in family/academic/musical stereotypes, and he existed to be in service of others against his will in a way not dissimilar to cosmic slavery. He wasn't even released in death (when he was murdered to serve someone else's agenda). His constantly changing endgame includes haunting the bunker, chaining his ghost to his mother, and ultimately being damned by Chuck, freed from Hell, and doomed to wander the earth to become the next thing the boys would feel compelled to kill. 

We waited over six seasons for him. 

And he was EVERYTHING. 

Immeditaly a fan favorite. We all cried when he died. And Osric Chau did a STELLAR fucking job despite Jared and Jensen doing racist fake Asian accents in the season 8 gag reel like it's all good. (What y'all thought I forgot) Here's the proof at "3:40".

https://youtu.be/7fx0D7-kp-g

Why haven't we cast any more Asian actors/actresses for character arcs? They're amazingly talented, incredible, and gorgeous people. Their work is just as compelling as their white counterparts. Supernatural wouldn't get cancelled if they had hired many more. But they didn't. Why?

Why do Middle Eastern actors STILL only get offered roles as killer gods and monsters? Why were there only two Native roles written in 15 years and why we're they both one off characters who suffered for being Native. The Native's character's existence is then "explained" by one white character who walked into their space and stayed there so that the Winchesters had a connection to the case?

Why can I count the black actors that recieved a character arc that spanned more than four episodes (on a show with over 300+ episodes) ON ONE HAND? Black actors have the most roles earned by people of color on Supernatural to begin with. That number shouldn't be this low.

Casting decisions like this creates a world within the show. The Wonderful Universe of Supernatural.  A place full of monsters and hunters and magic and justice and fate and badassery. Oof. Who wouldn't want to live there, swinging machetes with the Winchesters?

Apparently, not people of color. Because where are they?

While supporting this show for 15ish years, people of color have been continuously told through these casting decisions that they don't belong in the Supernatural world. I can see racism living large on the WB/CW in 2005-2012 because it was the norm. We were used to watching shows with a completely white lead cast while they made fun of POC, queer people, and the neurodivergent BECAUSE THATS ALL THAT WAS OUT THERE.

Nowadays, as we walk into a new decade in 2020, we are learning to open our hearts and correct the mistakes of the past by doing many things including... ceasing racist activity. 

Casting directors are now removing the unspoken ban against hiring actors of color. It's been proven that the "multicultural shows/movies aren't lucrative" angle Hollywood has been pushing since film was invented  is a total crock of shit. Hollywood just didn't want to pay us or look at us. Hollywood wanted to create "perfect" fantasy worlds where white people had all the speaking parts and everyone else nodded, smiled, and carried their bags. But that doesn't reflect the real world or the real people watching their content. So, this has to change as soon as possible.

The fact that very little change has happened in the casting/hiring room on Supernatural is telling. Over the last decade the Internet blossomed with empathy for the first time. There was an American social justice boom and a broadening world view. We we're all learning to become more inclusive people TOGETHER. But, apparently Supernatural didn't get the memo and that tells you a lot about the people running the show.

Stop hoping the best for one second and honestly admit that There Is Intention Here. Casting is a long, arduous process supervised by an entire team. That casting team is usually comprised of white people -- because they have systematically held that role since film's inception. Let's just say they tend to feel more emotionally connected to actors who look like them, which in turn hires more white actors and lands more POC headshots in the trashcan. I'm not knocking them for having empathy for someone who reminds them of their little cousin. But, to pretend there is not a racially charged element there is just ignorance. Because the entire playbill shouldn't have one skin tone.

Now, I'm not pouting and begging and whining, but jesus. The government shouldn't have to force you through Affirmative Action to look at a person of color's application and consider them for employment. I don't know why one would prefer a prodominantly white workplace for any reason other than they like the "aesthetic" or because they believe "white people do better work". If you feel forced to include POC in your space, you're racist, bud.

We should all have an equal shot because we have equal talent. We have had several actors of color on Supernatural that have Broadway lead levels of talent on their resume. You're telling me they had to die in four episodes when this show aired for an eternity in TV years with infinite possibilities, meanwhile we recycle Crowley's and Lucifer's tired basic plot over and over until we've beaten the dead horse to dust?

"All the people of color who interviewed and auditioned must have all fell short against their white counterparts during the process." What? That makes no sense. White people do wonderful work, but so does everyone else. We didn't ALL bomb our interview except for a handful of people. This doesn't add up. Why doesn't it? A cast and crew that looks like that tells us that we're not good enough to pay, we were never good enough to work with, and the world they created for Supernatural is not for us. It's TV for white people to enjoy. IN THIS DAY AND AGE THATS FUCKING NUTS.

Supernatural lived cavalier with no expiration date in sight for over 13 years. In all that time, they couldn't see any LASTING talent in Hispanic/Asian/Native/Black/Middle Eastern people? Look at Bollywood, look at Telemundo, look at K-Dramas, look at B.E.T. and tell me to my face that no one on those shows has enough talent to be on Supernatural and live to be a reoccurring character. Because Supernatural HAD THE SPACE for them, they just refused to give it up. If they can't see how wrong this is, then they must struggle to see people of color as capable, as trustworthy, as hardworking, and as talented as they are. Which is their problem. Not ours. 

I say all of this because, today, my heart sang. 

Misha recently did a plug for his cook book on TV Guide and he HUGGED A YOUNG BLACK WOMAN who was working beside him as an equal and a friend

Now, he's hugged black people like this before obviously. Misha loves all people regardless of race and so do the boys. His charity work helps people from all walks of life judgement free and he's a Huge inspiration. No shade there at all. I'M NOT CALLING OUR BOYS RACIST.

I used to have a Tumblr dedicated to them in 2010-2017, so I've done my time. I've seen most everything in the fandom. I took a two year break for work and then got back into it for the final season.

It has been forever since I've seen Misha or the boys openly show love and affection to anyone who looks like me that didn't pay them to do so (i.e. fan conventions that they're paid to attend, meet ups with the casts of actually diverse CW shows that forced them to mingle, and a podcast with Aisha Tyler that was actually really amazing).

Yes, yes, Misha slow danced for two seconds in the season 14 gag reel with Gigi Jackman, and it was adorable, but that wasn't THIS. 

They were so adorable.

I'm on mobile so my Tumblr isn't doing what it should, but please take the time to look at it!!!! Tell me your heart didn't grow three sizes. So pure! They're connecting. They're talking. They're working and eating together. They're treating each other like friends not just someone they have to stand next to with a fake smile once in a blue moon. I can't stress enough how little I've seen this happen -- how LITTLE I've seen J2M interact with people of color like this in their day to day life. My little fangirl heart exploded when I saw this. 

This was just a short book plug on youtube, but watching him interact with her, I felt for the first time like I might actually belong in the same room as them. Like I could walk in and crack a joke and a smile and they'd smile back. That they wouldn't make me feel othered -- as if I belonged to a group of people him and J2 couldn't see themselves being affectionately close to simply because of the way I look. I'm not saying they give that energy off. They don't. but I'm just saying... I see so little of this that just seeing this video triggered how much of an outsider I felt like in the fandom because I'm black.

Much of that blame falls back on the casting team and the Powers That Be. J2M works a lot, I know that. Their coworkers are their best friends. So, in turn, cutting POC from the show keeps POC from interacting with the cast. It keeps POC out of the crew. It keeps POC out of the world of Supernatural. This paints Supernatural as a world where people of color are rarely friends and definitely not family. 

Now, I'm not saying that black people had no good human representation. Not at all. But let's look at it. Shall we?

Cassie: was great for an episode! She was incredibly gorgeous, responsible, educated, and headstrong. I mean her plot centered around her suffering because of her blackness and using Dean for a nostalgia bang, but....well... her plot centered around her suffering because of her blackness and using Dean for a nostalgia bang. That's her story. During this time there was an EXTREME amount of colorism in the casting room, which means only lightskinned actresses were considered for the role of a character with lines. This was one of four black roles this season, and many of them REQUIRED the actress to be lightskinned/biracial. Many talented dark actresses were removed from the casting room. I'm not saying Megalyn didn't do a wonderful job, but I am saying other actresses were not allowed to compete for this role due to the amount of melanin in their skin.

Henricksen: was dope! Super badass FBI Director. Smart, calculated, and determined. And a snack. I mean, yeah, he was seen as an enemy up until the episode he died... and later became a ghost who's endgame was being chained to Lilith for the express purpose of killing the boys before disappearing forever, so he was clearly his face was never supposed to be trusted. And... oh. Okay. That's literally it. I love how he treated our main characters while he was on air. Really put a great taste in your mouth.

Tasha Banes and her twins Max & Alicia: They we're perfectly written characters. I have no issues with their plot, they were treated humanely and all had a chance to show themselves as real people separate from their blackness. They were FRIENDS NOT FOES. These three are good witch characters that struggled openly with their moral compass when separated from the people they love. Wow! Interesting, funny, they will make you laugh they will make you cry. I love them. Yes, they killed off Tasha and Alicia pretty quick but at least Max is alive and they were GRIEVED. I give them an A for that.

But, same issue as Cassie. To be on Supernatural as often as they were, the characters had to be biracial. Many black actors and actresses were again excluded from Supernatural's casting room. They were our representation, and they were a few shades darker than the white guy sitting down next to him. Chances are, that was the intention. I'm not saying Kendrick and Kara didn't do a great job, I'm reminding you that they had very little competition for the role because SPN was literally only hiring lightskins. I love them IRL as much as on screen. Kendrick is actually WOKE AF on social media. Please follow him.

Rufus: was incredible! Grumpy, adorable, fussy, old hunter. He was amazing, he kicked ass, his character arc had nothing to do with his blackness at all. But, remember he was Bobby's BEST friend! Not SAM & DEAN'S best friend. They just use his cabin. But to Bobby, he was truly a GREAT friend! He was tustworthy, hard working, and fought like a warrior. Until, of course he died -- in a completely preventable way FOR the Winchesters/Bobby to close a hunt. Bobby did grieve him on screen though, which further pressed that Rufus was an actual person who really really meant something to Bobby. Their Weekend at Bobby's and Safe House episodes also allowed Steven Williams to deliver iconic lines like "You gotta help me hide a body" and "It's officially none of your damn business ma'am". Bobby's grief humanized the both of them and noted that in SPN he could have a lifelong friendship with a black man that was near and dear to his heart. The boys however... struggled to care about Rufus unless it effected Bobby's ability to help them in his work.

Sadly, in the afterlife, Rufus finally gained the power to become a Magical Negro™ who's true endgame purpose was revealed: to help Bobby escape a reaper even though Rufus.. himself.. couldn't escape.. death. He was a mental projection I guess we weren't clear on it. But he definitely had Magical Negro™ tendencies until Safe House in season 11 which was honestly great but it didn't contain endgame material because it was a flashback. His official last lines were dedicated to helping Bobby while he died which is when the Magical Negro™ moment stuck the landing and ended his character arc.  

Look at that beautiful melanin though 🥰 Supernatural needs more of him. Iconic character overall. Thank you, Steven.

Missouri Mosely: was the mother the boys deserved, but never got because she only got 1 1/2 episodes. It's problematic that she was so maternal to Sam and Dean for so many reasons that I don't want to get into right now. Sadly, she was scripted as a Magical Negro™ for the Winchesters in season 1. Then, she showed up one more time in season 14 to hug Dean and die. Unfortunately, Missouri passed the Magical Negro™ gene to her granddaughter. Still, that woman was PURE gold. She will be missed by some of us even though she was barely grieved on screen.

I must note that Loretta Divine is aN ABSOLUTE LEGEND in black Hollywood and has been acting for over 50 years. Why was her role so tiny? She has starred on BROADWAY consistently since 1975. She is a profound actress with a beautiful voice and an insanely impressive resume. I consider Loretta Divine's appearance in Supernatural as a CELEBRITY CAMEO and they wasted so much talent by limiting her like this -- sorry, I'm getting heated. 

Patience: If Wayward sisters was picked up, this may have been remedied. But it wasnt. So, this is Patience. She ruined her relationship with her father and tanked her scholastic future to help the Winchesters twice. And in doing so, she became a......... Guess what? (I said "Magical Negro™" several times, which may have made you uncomfortable. Don't think Magical Negros™ are a thing? Here is a video essay on the trope that has existed in film for generations, but was only first named by Spike Lee forty years ago and two light hearted sketches about the awful racist film trope from Key & Peele  and another from Astronomy Club because we tend to laugh to keep from crying. It is really disgusting and tragic that black people are reduced to stereotypes like this in film) 

This list goes on and on, stereotype after stereotype, punitive character after punitive character, until we get Billie. 🙏

We suffered through terrible black supernatural villians since Supernatural's start. From evil sociopathic Gordon, to the satan worshipping Uriel, to the apocalypse-happy Raphael black villains on this show have been incredibly shitty with little to no backstory giving them a reason to be as crazy as they are. They died so that they could be struck down to serve the white maverick plot that the formula of Supernatural thrives off of.

We even had AU!Michael (who was dreamy AF ❤️ and WOKE AF 👏 on social media. please follow him too). But he was still just as apocalypse-happy as Raphael, if not more so because he was incredibly ambitious. He wasn't afraid to torture Sam and Dean's son and mother though, so we LITERALLY CANNOT LIKE HIM. Then of course we replaced him with Jensen because of s5 literary symmetry and all that. I have no qualms about that one piece of good writing. But still. We lost my boy Christian. Who also has a long resume much like Loretta Divine and lots of lead stage experience and movie experience before Supernatural.

But Billie. Billie was everything. 

Billie was the Holy Grail. The one reoccurring character of color who is still alive, triumphed over death when Castiel stabbed her in the back, and who's endgame does NOT spell Magical Negro™ in any way. She has helped the Winchesters, but not because she wanted to serve their cause. She has her own moral code that, her own set of cosmic subjects, she NEVER bends to pressure, she is all-knowing, she is powerful in her own right and works for herself and the balance of the universe. And that's so inspiring. She is dark skinned and natural haired and her face is BEAT TO THE GODS. She's not a love interest or an enemy. She's HER OWN CHARACTER.

I mean, she's definitely not human and not anybody's friend either. But I'll take it. 

In conclusion, it's honestly too late to consider Supernatural to be a place where people of all colors are treated with an equal amount of jobs, tenderness, and humanity. But.... every once and a while, Misha, the Winchesters, J2, and millions of other people take the time out of their day to hug a person of color and treat them with love and friendship. 

Knowing that it's happening at all, makes me not feel so alone. 

Even if I don't always see it because of how limited the opportunities for them to interact is. 

hey! while we’re reblogging the Black characters & characters of color that we in fandom have chosen to love, it’s also important to acknowledge that, uh.......there are some REAL fckn issues with how those characters are written/treated!