a serious question about roleplay.
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hello! i'd like to preface this by saying that this an actual serious question i've been thinking about for weeks now. i'd appreciate if you took the time to answer with the same level of seriousness as well. feel free to comment down below or pm me your thoughts. this is also a safe space! i won't judge you for your thoughts or opinions. i'm just really interested in what other people and what other POC think.
how do you feel about white people roleplaying Black faceclaims? think about your answer for a little bit. i still don't know how i feel myself. now, how do you feel about white people roleplaying BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color)? is your answer different from the first question? how do you feel about people in general roleplaying as another race that isn't theres? for example, an asian person roleplaying as a Black faceclaim. or a hispanic person roleplaying as an asian faceclaim.
i'm honestly starting to feel a little uncomfortable with the thought. i'm not korean, but i am asian. i've been roleplaying in the kpop roleplay community for several years now, and i've had different faceclaims with different backgrounds in the kpop industry. it never really hit me how weird this concept is until this year, when i started to think more critically about roleplaying in general. i think oc/fl twitter has really made me analyze the line between OOC and IC because it's sooooo OOC there. and i have no issue with that because i'm pretty OOC as well, even if i say it's just part of my character.
i've seen that people will bash white people to no end (valid because some white people are sick. emphasis on some.) just because they're white and in the kpop roleplay space. it started to make me think about what we have to say about roleplaying these races that aren't ours...putting on korean faces because it's the aesthetic and borderline izing them. isn't it weird? this concept...i don't really know how to feel about it anymore. roleplaying, to me, started out as simply writing and wanting to write with other people. it's so different nowadays. sometimes i just feel like i'm catfishing? does anyone feel the same? especially to those who are also on fl twitter? i've never felt this way before when i roleplayed on facebook or instagram, but those were at times when i was much younger and didn't think so much about my actions. now, i just feel like it's really weird to present yourself online as a faceclaim from a different race––not matter if you're white or a POC.
please do let me know your thoughts if you're reading this.
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