Opinion: This Is Why We Write — To Fight

Things absolutely, unequivocally, unquestioningly are pretty darn bad right now. One might even say they are the worst of times.

Across the world things are collapsing. Fascism is marching strong. Multiple genocides are happening daily. Marginalized people face more and more threats to their rights and lives. It’s a dire situation that is exhausting as well as depressing and terrifying for so many.

Right now, the marginalized people of the United States have to face the fact that 71+ million people essentially looked them in the eyes and said, “I don’t care about you” as they voted to return of the previous president and his hateful rhetoric & mission to the White House. Sure there was 66+ million who voted to bring Kamala Harris into office to save us some of the grief and pain, but it wasn’t enough. Because, for various reasons, too many others chose to sit out the fight entirely, leaving us to this fate.

This is a website where we write about comic books, movies, games, and other various hobby fandom stuff. In a way, writing about that stuff as the world continues burning around us could feel “silly” or “useless” or “missing the point.”

Except, that’s not the case.

I say that as one of the marginalized that woke up on Wednesday November 6th, 2024 feeling depressed, angry, and lost. My mother is White and my father is Black, making me mixed race or biracial (as I prefer to refer to myself). Someone who is right smack dab in the middle of the types of people that the (mostly White) Republican masses hate with a passion. I’m also bisexual and polyamorous, two more check marks on their bingo list of hatred.

Not to mention, naturally, I support every other marginalized group in existence and their right to life and the pursuit of happiness in whatever form that takes for them. So to the right, red flags a plenty there.

So why keep writing?

Because that’s who I am, and what I do. The arts are important especially in the face of such horrific things. Without the arts we lose a giant chunk of ourselves. Expression is how we deal with these moments in time. So much of the art that stood the test of decades came from people living in times of great strife, their very lives often on the line.

To stop writing, to stop enjoying the things in life, is to surrender to the oppressive force trying to break us.

The next four years (at least) will not be easy. I won’t even try to pretend that they will be. There will be loss, there will be pain, and there will be devastation.  The plans that this evil group of fascists wants to (try to) bring down upon us is so vile and offensive it’s almost staggering. Yet, just like last time, we do still have power left to push back and fight. To protect those that we can, to stand together to try and minimize what evil they unleash upon us.

Part of that power is through creation.

Yes, writing about silly things like comic books might seem asinine on the surface, but it means something. It’s a way to keep boosting the work of people who often are very much in the crosshairs of this administration. Many of them rely on these works to have a modicum of a livelihood to get through the day. Just as importantly, it gives people a momentary bit of escape, to read about the things they love, and try to hold onto that in the darker times.

In all honesty, yes I (and those alongside me at this site) get paid for our work. One could say that for us that is also a motivator to keep doing it, but many of us wrote well before we worked here and were getting paid to do so. We write because it’s a passion and we have a message to put out there.

Whether it’s about silly fandom stuff as a whole, or how that stuff affects the world.

One of my goals when I came here was to bring a spotlight to comics that feature characters from marginalized groups and those from creators within marginalized communities. To make sure that they get the props and boost that they deserve. Also to keep showing that comics are more than just the White heterosexual cisgender characters and creators that often get the marketing push.

At the end of the day this “silly” hobby is a powerful one. Because through it we can see better worlds, share visions, speak power to truth, and push back at the evil that surrounds us.

Till they take the proverbial pen (or in this case laptop) out of my hands, I’m going to keep writing my truths and my feelings.

We’re just getting started.