The J2 Haiti Fic

On June 14, 2010, gatorgrrrl posted a story called Caught Between the Earth and Sky to the Supernatural and J-Squared Big Bang Challenge! Livejournal community. The fanfic quickly became notorious as "The J2 Haiti Fic" because it used the real world event of the 2010 Haiti earthquake and its aftermath as a premise. The story is an Alternate Universe fanfiction centering on J2, the popular real-person slash pairing of actors Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki from the show Supernatural. 
As is the practice for the challenge, the community post linked to a story Master Post on the author's Livejournal, and to an art post on the artist's journal. The art manips for the story were created by mementis.
Original Summary:
Discussion about the story quickly spread in fandom beyond the community and J2/Supernatural RPF spaces. It received strong and widespread criticism for racism based on its characterizations and use of Haiti as a backdrop for a romance between white men, and ignited discussions around topics including white privilege, racial stereotyping and the portrayal of POC in fanworks, fandom racism, dogpiling and abuse, and whether intent matters when discussing the harmful impact of a fanwork.
==Immediate Response==
The early response to the story occurred on the community post, which does not allow anonymous commentswendy, June 2, 2010, a word about anonymous comments, accessed August 9, 2010, in gatorgrrrl's journal posts, where anonymous commenting was allowedThis is my personal recollection of how now-deleted posts appeared on June 14, and shortly after. facetofcathy, and at spnpermanon, both in the fic discussion post thread for the story and in threads on the main discussion post. All of those posts are now deleted or no longer public.
Some of the first commenters on the story posts were making generally supportive comments of the sort fest fans and participants often leave on each other's posts, and were interested due to having read gatorgrrrl's previous J2 fic, In Harm's Way. Some very few of them were complimentary comments from people who had read the story. The very first responses in the spnpermanon discussion thread were also fairly positive about the story. 
===The Art Post===
The early comments on the art post are also complimentary of the art and of the artist as well as the story.mementis, June 14, 2010 spn_j2_bigbang art post: Caught Between the Earth and Sky | gatorgrrrl, accessed August 9, 2011 (dead link)
Within a very short time however, fans began to leave comments in all of these places expressing criticism of the story, the setting, various plot points, and also of the art which originally included a photo of an unnamed Haitian woman, a survivor of the quake, and other photos of the aftermath. The very first negative comment to the art post suggested that a warning for the use of the photo of a survivor was appropriate.brihana24, June 14, 2010 Comment on the art post in mementis' journal, accessed August 9, 2011 (dead link) Shortly thereafter, the photo of the Haitian woman was removed from the art and an edited version was substituted.
By June 16, the art post had been changed to only link to the now-modified pieces and the artist had added an apology to the post:
As of February 2012, the art is no longer available at the artist's website although her master art post remains. The first chapter header below is the altered version of the original, with the "silhouette of a pregnant woman against the backdrop of a ruined cathedral in Port-au-Prince" removed.
File:Caught Between the Earth and Sky Cover.jpg|Cover. Artist's description: A re-colored photograph of a group of people at the edge of a tent city, next to a large tree, all in silhouette from a distance against sunlight - this photograph was used throughout the different graphic pieces as a theme, so it is repeated; (2) an evening photograph of a man walking down a street in ruins following the aftermath of the earthquake - the picture is taken from behind him.
File:Caught Between the Earth and Sky Header1b.jpg|Altered version of Header #1. Artist description: Contains variants of both of the elements in mentioned in the cover above, mixed with stock photography of a field medical tent at night and an army jeep, overlaid in part by a portrait photograph of JA.
File:Caught Between the Earth and Sky cbes-Header2.jpg|Header #2. Artist description: Smaller variant of element (1) mentioned in the cover, stock photography including part of a UN medical vehicle, an overlay of a small portrait photograph of a woman (rendered as a partially obscured "printed" photograph - the source for this is a portrait photograph of a woman against a backdrop of a tent city in Haiti), an overlay of JA (rendered as a small "printed" photograph - this is actually drawn from an SPN screencap of Dean) and an overlay of a portrait photograph of JP (actually an SPN screencap of Sam).
File:Caught Between the Earth and Sky cbes-Header3.jpg|Header #3. Artist description: Smaller variant of element (1) mentioned in the cover, stock photography of a plane on a tarmac with passengers loading, an altered partial stock photograph of the back and shoulder of a man covered in a tattoo, an overlay of a profile photograph of JA (originally an SPN screencap of Dean I believe, but I am unsure), and another of a portrait photo of JP (originally an SPN screencap of Sam).
File:Gatorgrrrl Caught Between the Earth and Sky cbes-Header4.jpg|Header #4. Artist description: Smaller variant of element (1) mentioned in the cover, heavily altered stock photography of a brick building facade in a city setting, and a modified version of a photograph of JA and JP at a public appearance.
===The Story Posts===
Some hours after the story was posted and after many comments, both anonymous and by logged-in users, expressed extremely high levels of criticism of the story, gatorgrrrl edited the master post in her own journal to include an apology. At, or shortly after that time, she set the comments to the post to disabled, which on Livejournal at the time, had the effect of hiding all comments from view. The story was still available to readers. 
On July 14th, gatorgrrrl apologized in the comments:
At some time on the 15th of July, gatorgrrrl added the following note to the post on the Big Bang community, "A/N: Please note that some readers have found offense in both the setting and characterizations in this story."
On the 16th of July, gatorgrrrl removed the post from the Big Bang community, removed the story from public view and issued a second apology, which said in part:Note that this quote is copied from secondary sources and may have minor differences in punctuation from the original
The apology post is no longer public. The author made no further public comment about the story directly.
==Wider Fandom Discussion==
===Branching Off The Anon Meme===
One of the earliest posts about the story was by fan author-critic schmevil, expressing concern about the story based on the summary and author's notes alone, saying, "Anyone read the story? This strikes me as an intensely problematic and unwise premise."schmevil, June 14, 2011, J2 story set in post-earthquake Haiti, accessed August 9, 2011; WebCite.
Not long after, Indo-Trinidadian blogger bossymarmalade posted a set of excerpts from the story with very little commentary.bossymarmalade, June 14, 2011 i thought you were some kind of outer-space potato man, accessed August 9, 2011 This post, one of the most widely read and cited posts in the ensuing discussion, attracted over 400 comments. The livejournal posts of the original story were removed from public access approximately 48 hours after posting, and although a full PDF of the story remained in circulation afterward, many of the people involved in discussing it only ever read these excerpts. 
The excerpts focused on the portion of the story that took place in Haiti as well as some of the later scenes set in the US. The bulk of them are descriptions of Haitian characters and their dialogue, with a particular focus on the character of Abraham Joseph, an Original Character who is a black Haitian man who works with Jensen in Haiti.
There are also excerpts that show the way the story looked at Haiti and Haitian people through the eyes of the white characters.
The final segment is a scene where Jared and Jensen discuss the large black cat that they have named after Abraham Joseph.
===Virality on Livejournal & Dreamwidth===
Afro-American blogger amazonziti began a list of links to posts about the story on June 14. It became the central resource for people tracking the conversation, trying to explain it to new people just encountering the discussion and also a discussion of some of the issues around the story and the behaviour of various posters and commenters. 
The posts are:
* *deep breath* on LivejournalWebCite for *deep breath* on Livejournal.
* The J2 Fail Post, cont'd which was posted on June 20th after the original post exceeded the Livejournal post size limit.WebCite for The J2 Fail Post, cont'd on Livejournal.
* *deep breath*WebCite for *deep breath* on Dreamwidth and The J2 Fail Post, cont'd on DreamwidthWebCite for The J2 Fail Post, cont'd on Dreamwidth.
==Criticism of the Fic Content==
===Setting===
A great deal of the criticism from the moment the story was posted and on through to the discussion moving into the collective fannish mythos has focused almost exclusively on the setting of the story. The story takes place initially in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake which struck Haiti on January 12, 2010. The story was posted only six months later. 
For many fans, the most immediately obvious issue with the story is a moral argument against setting fanfic, and in particular sexually explicit fanfic with white protagonists, against a backdrop of a real-world tragedy, especially one which mostly affected black people.
Afro-American blogger amazonziti (formerly Kendra A.), in what would become the first post of the links list, said:
The first two comments to bossymarmalade's post of excerpts compared the story to a J2 story from 2007, Nisay,WebCite for the story Nisay. that was set in Cambodia, albeit well after the genocide of the Khmer Rouge.la_vie_noire, June 14, 2010 comment in bossymarmalade's journal, accessed August 9, 2011skywardprodigal, June 14, 2010 comment in bossymarmalade's journal, accessed August 9, 2011 
Many people zeroed in on a sentence in gatorgrrrl's notes about how she came to write the story. Solvent quotes the notes, "The Haiti earthquake was still in the news and the more I saw about it, the more I wanted to use it until it seemed like the best idea ever."solvent, June 15, 2010 perhaps the most depressing sentence I've read in years, accessed August 9, 2011
A great many fans saw this as an inability to recognize the seriousness or even the reality of the setting and its appropriate use. Many people commented about how poor was the depiction of Haiti, its culture and its people in the story.
An anonymous commenter to the post of excerpts said:
And july_july_july wrote, quoting some more of the author's notes:
Another story that was brought up often in the discussion was tevere's Generation Kill story set in East Timor, Sixteen Days in SeptemberSixteen Days in September, accessed August 9, 2011; webCite. Unlike the story set in Cambodia, this story was often used as an example of how fanfic, even slash fanfic can be set in these kinds of times and places without the problematic results of the Haiti fic. 
Tevere posted Fanfic as a VehicleWebCite for Fanfic as a Vehicle post. to discuss her story, the Haiti story and the "interesting part of the discussion around this story is the ongoing conversation on whether or not fanfiction -- as opposed to original fiction -- is ever an appropriate vehicle for the exploration of real-life natural or man-made tragedies, particularly in non-white and post-colonial settings."
===Racist Depictions of Haiti and Haitian people===
While discussing the setting of the story and its appropriateness and acuracy, fans were also talking about particulars of the way the setting and Haitian characters were depicted. Bossymarmalade focused on the physical descriptions of Abraham Joseph and the forms and content of the dialogue by multiple Haitian characters who appeared in the story.
However, many fans responded that they could not see the racism in these depictions, and required further explanation. Several fans have commented that they read the story or the excerpts and didn't see anything wrong with the depictions of Haiti or of the Haitian characters until they found posts or comments drawing arrows at the offensive content.
Poisontaster, in responding to the general tenor of the discussion wrote, "Racism is not just using the N-bomb or thinking that interracial marriage is unnatural. Sometimes it's taking the stories of brown people (and their history and culture and tragedies) and putting it on like a shiny necklace. Sometimes it's envisioning or re-envisioning a world that has no brown people in it, or where they can only occupy subservient, unimportant roles (you know, like those pesky women). It's the ability to not think in terms of color and to not see it when you just 'accidentally' or 'coincidentally' co-opt, erase or otherwise keep the brown people to the back. "poisontaster, June 15, 2010 But Trust Me On the Sunscreen, accessed August 9, 2011; WebCite.
===Haitian Languages As "Gibber/Jabber"===
Two of the excerpts in bossymarmalade's post referred to Haitian characters as gibbering or jabbering in Creole. Many of the commenters discussed this as offensive terminology as well as the problematic references in the story to Jensen's scholastic French being of no use to him in Haiti.
Jazzypom took the topic a lot farther in an essay about the colonialist and imperialist history of language in places like Haiti and tied these ideas into how the story handled language:
===Comparison Of Abraham To An Animal===
Another flashpoint for many critics of the story is near the end, when Jared adopts a black cat that they name after Abraham, the Haitian nurse in the story:
In the opening paragraphs of the story, Abraham is described as follows: "It was hard to believe sometimes that Abraham was a nurse. Six foot five if an inch. Nearly 300 pounds. Hands the size of Frisbees. Amazingly calm under pressure, though if pushed, had a temper like a solar flare."
Further down the page Jensen muses: "Abraham’s exposure to American culture consisted mainly of VHS tapes of old westerns, which he kept in a locked trunk in his tent back at the camp for safekeeping. He’d shown them all to Jensen that first day, grinning like he was a cat and all that was left of the canary was the aftertaste."
The physical similarity between the cat and Abraham, the naming of a cat after Abraham, along with the fact that Abraham's English was broken, "Abraham looked back and forth between them, a quizzical look on his face. “What you talking about?”....Abraham laughed. “You two funny.” Page 84. left some fans feeling that the character was being treated with a fundamental lack of respect.
==="Why didn't anyone stop her?"===
Several critics wondered why none of the author's or artist's beta readers or friends stopped her.
The wondering extended also to the Big Bang moderators, even though few Big Bang Challenges vet or moderate the fan fiction or artwork content:
Further on down the thread someone suggested that future Big Bangs change their rules to say: "Don't appropriate modern disasters for your backdrop." minim_calibre's comment in july-july-july's here's the story, morning glory post dated June 15, 2010.]
Other fans began discussing ways in which challenge communities could adopt anti-oppression policies which would allow moderators and betas to call out work, force the author to remove or modify their work to be less offensive, and ban repeat offenders. And while there might be drawbacks to having a more restrictive set of rules for challenges, the tradeoffs would be worth it. 
==Other Perspectives & Related Discussions==
===Dogpiling Or Abuse===
Many fans, during the various conversations in June 2010 and since that time, have made the argument that the criticisms levelled at the story and the author and artist amounted to dogpiling or bullying. One anonymous commenter on amazonziti's list of meta posts took her to task for compiling the list and as they saw it:
Some felt that the critical posts were going way beyond dogpiling. When people began claiming that the author had received death threats,Some critics believed that there were no death threats, quoting the Internet adage "Screencaps or it didn't happen." See july_july-july's and lookninjas' comments in *deep breath* post dated June 19, 2010. See also amazonziti's and muccamukk's discussion in The J2 Fail post, cont dated June 21, 2010; WebCite. many critics distanced themselves, saying they were not responsible for other people's misbehavior and that they did not condone death threats to the author.See bl_nt's and hackthis' comments in in hackthis' post Goddamm that was racist, dated June 16, 2010; WebCite. In response, some fans claimed that even if the alleged death threats were coming from only a small minority, when those threats were combined with the unrelenting torrent of criticism, it formed a pattern of abuse: "Now imagine receiving literally thousands of angry comments, some telling you to commit suicide, some threatening you. I think the sheer numbers, born of the the me-too-ism that led to the current unpleasant situation, has now passed into abuse. Cyberbullying someone for a mistake (as opposed to ill-intent) is NOT the way to go."shezam's comment in hackthis' post Goddamm that was racist, dated June 16, 2010; WebCite.
However, other fans argued that spreading the word about the incident was not about dogpiling or even about the author of the fic in question - it was about ensuring that something similar didn't happen again and making fandom well aware of why this kind of fanwork was not okay, something that remarkably few fans who came into contact with the J2 Haiti Fic seemed to have realised.
See also: the related debate around personal attacks on the author.
===Misogynistic Insults Toward Author & The Tone Argument===
In addition to the characterization by some fans of the criticisms of the story in general as dogpiling or bullying, several fans were particularly disturbed by misogynistic insults made in some of the original comments on the story posts and in other places. 
Some of these comments being referred to contained gendered slurs and a general misogynistic tone. Bossymarmalade posted a screenshotpast instances in which I professed to like you were fraudulent. Posted 18 Jun 2010. Accessed 8 Jan 2020. of one such comment that included an immediate rebuke from another commenter. 
Bossymarmalade went on to discuss the general nature of the conversations fans were having that focused on these insults and why it was unhelpful:
The attention focused on the gendered insults is contrasted with a second screencapped comment thread from the early discussion that begins with one anonymous fan's angry comment containing a gendered insult that includes the line, "...you're a thoughtless piece of garbage that thinks dead PoC make for a good white boy sexytiems backdrop...". The anonymous response is, "Well they do."
Bossymarmalade discussed the contrasting tones in the exchange: "Perfectly calm. No explicit gendered insult or wish of violence. Offhand, cool, innocuous even. I wince a bit when I read the angry first example, but it's this second polite one that hits me deep inside."
The comments to the post contained a discussion about balancing the need to "call out" misogyny and sexism without derailing the original conversation. Onelittlesleep said, in referring to a locked post of her own on the topic:
In amazonziti's second roundup post, they addressed the fact that misogynistic comments had sparked off a debate about tone, derailing the discussion, and the fact that many commenters were linking to the vid 'How To Tell Someone They Sound Racist' by New York hip-hop blogger Jay Smooth as a response.
===Personal Attacks===
Other fans expressed concern over the debate's shift from the merits (or lack of) of the story into discussion of the merits of the author and artist.
In counterargument, one anon at spnpermanon summed up the reasons why fans who were calling out the racism of the fic (and by extension, the author's racist actions) were uninterested in discussing or worrying about the author's possible hurt feelings.
amazonziti responded to this sentiment in their first roundup post with wholehearted agreement:
When amazonziti created their second roundup post, they added an "addendum" that an anon they had been debating with requested, reading, I do not support personal attacks on the author of the fic. However, they followed this up with a caveat that discussed the absence of any evidence of supposed dogpiling on the author.
===Opinions on the Story's Removal===
A few fans felt uncomfortable with the removal of the story on the grounds that removing a controversial work from public view often hampers the ability to debate the issues. 
Others pointed out that even flawed works have merit:
===Discouraging People From Writing About POC===
A frequent argument against calling out racially problematic writing is that is creates a climate of fear, a desire to avoid being seen as "failing" and it runs the risk of reducing the overall amount of literature and art that includes people of color. (See also Race and Fandom for more detailed discussion.)
In counterpoint, one fan did not shy away from this possibility. Nigerian blogger 2-perseph ended her "Open Letter To Gatorgrrrl" with: 
==="Unintentional" Racism?===
Similar counter-arguments and concerns were raised in the J2 Haiti debate as with other Racefail debates. One of the more contested issues was whether the author's intent to insult/harm mattered, or whether it only mattered that the outcome was harmful - regardless of intent. 
Another expressed worry that the rhetoric of some of the critics held even unintentional acts of racism equal with the worst hate crimes:
However, in their first round-up post about the discussion, amazonziti outlined in no uncertain terms why they didn't care to discuss whether or not the author "meant" to cause hurt with her fanwork:
===A Final Quote===
==Meta/Further Reading==
* The Pitfalls of Romance as a Genre, by yourlibrarian (June 2010)
* The Supernatural RPF that was too controversial for fandom! by idknewaccount on r/HobbyDrama
==Notes==
==References==
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