itsgonnabeacoldwinter-soldier:

coldtomyflash:

The issue isn’t that it’s bad to be white (though there’s a lot of sociological factors that, when you start digging into, allow you to realize that Whiteness as a social construct is very damaging and has been and is still being used to do great harm in the world). 

The issue more specifically here is that Wentworth Miller (who acts Leonard Snart) isn’t white. He’s biracial and mixed race. His heritage isn’t necessarily that simple once you start looking into it (from wikipedia: “his father is of African-American, Jamaican, German, and English ancestry; his mother is of Russian, French, Dutch, Syrian, and Lebanese ancestry”), and he’s been outspoken before about being a man of color. 

Aka… not a white man.

I know the character has been “implied” to be white by the narrative because his sister and father are white, but most fans have tried to respect the actor’s actual heritage by writing him as mixed race in fan works and writing Leonard’s mother as a black woman. And the implication that he’s white is erasure from the show writers and also a shitty thing for them to do.

Building on that, it’s just… pretty racist to ignore his actual heritage and race to say he’s a white man, knowing he’s not. For a fan who genuinely doesn’t know that he’s not white, it’s not a huge deal if they screw up about it once. Then it’s just a matter of someone saying “oh actually he’s mixed race” and that fan going “oh okay, my bad” and fixing their mistake moving forward, maybe apologizing if necessary and looking some stuff up. But for the producer and a head writer of the show to erase his heritage is just a really shitty move. 

It also just feels rude and dismissive. For the producer to not know the race of his main actors is rude. Especially if he’s going on record to talk about diversifying the show.

A quick Google of Wentworth Miller’s name will show you his race, a YouTube search will yield videos of him speaking about being a man of color and how much that has influenced him and how proud he is of his heritage.

For a producer to speak about someone, by name, and to not have even put in the effort it take to type their name into the Google bar… Well it shows a lack of respect, a lack of forethought, and a lack of character.

Besides, the producers should know Wentworth, they are very aware that with him come the ratings and have had no problem using him as bait to lure us back time and time again. He isn’t just some walk on that no one knows, even then this would be disrespectful but I digress.

To clump together a proud gay man of color as “just another white guy” is rude. There is nothing wrong with being white… but Wentworth Miller is not white. Sorry @coldtomyflash didn’t mean to hijack