Racebending Revenge Challenge

Challenge
Name:	Racebending Revenge Challenge
Date(s):	July 2011 to Present
Moderator(s):	Dhobi ki Kutti, wistfuljane, glass_icarus, troisroyaumes, dharmavati, Lihai, snowynight, arobynsung, phi
Founder:	Dark Agenda
Type:	Ficathon
Fandom:	Multifandom
Associated Community:	Dark Agenda
URL:	Challenge Collection on Ao3, Challenge Fanworks and Resources on dreamwidth
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The Racebending Revenge Challenge is a Ficathon organized in 2010 as part of the fandom response to the whitewashed live-action movie based on Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Announcement

The Racebending Revenge Challenge was announced in the Dark Agenda dreamwidth community on June 4, 2010

Four weeks from today, on the 2nd of July, 2010, a live action movie will be opening that replaced the entirely chromatic cast of its animated TV version with all white main leads except for a brown villain. The show is Avatar: the Last Airbender, and racebending has been a fandom-motivated protest against it that has led to a wider organisation against whitewashing in Western media.

In support of the cause, we would like to announce a challenge ficathon:

Re-write one or more white characters in the fandom(s) of your choice as chromatic/non-white/PoC, in a story of at least 500 words, with some acknowledgment of how the racial difference would make a difference to the story being told.

The focus on how changing a character's race created fundamental differences between the canonical character and the reenvisioned one was an integral part of the challenge.

Some critics of the chromatic recasting meme pointed out that racial identity was integral to the characters because whiteness was not in fact a blank slate. We agree. We want to know how a man called Sherlock Holmes in Victorian England would function if his skin was the colour of soot, or what Latino Dean and Sam Winchester would do to convince people to trust them, and if Buffy the Vampire Slayer can be Asian and still save the world (a lot).

The Challenge announcement garnered four pages of comments, with responses ranging from general ideas such as "something from DC comics", or "Leverage, I think. Unless it ends up being Torchwood or West Wing...," to more specific scenarios such as "Spuffy with Buffy as Latina and Spike as half-Indian," and "biracial Harry Potter where Lily Evans was the daughter of Chinese immigrants" and direct recastings such as "Michelle Yeoh as Batwoman," and "Iron Man apb John Cho."

In support of the Challenge, the Dark Agenda community also posted additional resources for creators including instructions on how to create an Ao3 account, a Brainstorming and Fanart Collaboration post, and a beta request post

Challenge Fanworks

The Challenge Masterlist on dreamwidth was last updated on May 19, 2013 and links to 48 fanworks and 7 Recs posts. As of June 19, 2021 the Racebending Revenge AO3 Collection features 38 fanworks. The majority were posted in 2010 and 2011, but new works were also added to the collection in 2013, 2016, 2020 and 2021. The most frequently racebent fandom in the collection is Supernatural

Sample Fanworks

• Sitting Left of the Dealer by BlackEyedGirl, Leverage, Gen, Rated T. Mostly they only talk about race when Hardison's using it as a distraction. It's a method that doesn't work all of the time, even though Hardison's more careful than anyone thinks about choosing when to use it. He definitely wouldn't have tried it here. [For the Racebending Revenge challenge, rewriting Nate as black]
• Five Things People Might Have Read On The Psychic Paper (If Things Were Slightly Different) by Gray Bard, Doctor Who, Gen, Rated G. Imagine, if you will, that the Eleventh Doctor was played by Paterson Joseph but otherwise identical. What might people see on his psychic paper?
• By Sun and Candlelight by Deastar, Sherlock Holmes (2009), Sherlock Holmes/John Watson, G. "If this is in regard to Clark's comment, Holmes, I urge you to give it not a moment's thought more – I assure you that I have not," I lied. In which John Watson is racebent as black.
• Trembling on with steady aim by Gloss, Captain America, Gen, Rated T. Bucky is Nisei. This is his war.
• Promise of the पुरवाई by Dhobi ki Kutti, Mary Poppins, Gen, Rated G. In which Mary Poppins is racebent as Desi.
• Lost Symphony by shirozora, Supernatural, Dean/Cassie, Sam/Jessica, pre Dean/Castiel, Rated T. Mary Ahn Winchester died on the ceiling of the nursery on November 2, 1983.