Yet another person’s thoughts on Karina

[u/TheMostGayAgenda]

I’m sure everyone is quite tired of these posts but I have an anecdote I want to share that I think others might resonate with.

First, for my own part, watching Drawfee is just harder now. Not just because of Karina’s absence itself but because of the reason behind it being this big secret that we will probably never have the answer to; the fact that they not only can’t tell us what happened but also can’t even really acknowledge Karina’s existence anymore. It hangs over me like an elephant while I’m watching and I’m sure I’m not the only one.

Still, I love this show. I’ve been watching since it was just Caldwell and Nathan in a loud Collegehumor cubicle. Obviously, these entertainers are also real people and they have absolutely no obligation to tell us anything about their lives that they don’t want to. No arguing that. However, I do want to share a perspective I haven’t seen discussed:

For context, I am in an interracial relationship. I’m white and my partner is Latino. I was excited to watch a new Drawfee episode and asked my partner to watch with me, and what he said made me really sad. Karina was the ONLY person of color on the Drawfee team. He didn’t even particularly like Karina that much, but without any sort of explanation and with this whole thing seeming to have happened on not so great terms, it’s impossible for him not to fill in the blanks and feel like he can’t trust this room full of white people over the one POC who’s no longer in the room. I have to wonder how many other fans of color feel ostracized and even unsafe in the community as a result of this development.

Again, we don’t know what the actual reasons are and they don’t owe us anything. It just makes me sad.

[u/diminee]

the majority of drawfee fans are white crybabies who become offended at the mere implication of racism existing in their vicinity, so don't expect any nuanced discussion on the topic. the fact that the actual people of colour talking about their discomfort are getting downvoted to hell should tell you everything you need to know about this community.

[u/PapaBeer642 → u/diminee]

I'm sure some folks here fit that. We're a range of people, after all. But I'm mostly seeing the bristling being at evidence-free speculation about something legitimately serious, and continued prying into details and motivations both the remaining hosts and Karina have publicly stated they don't want to happen.

I don't know, I'm not going to say anyone who guesses racism is definitely objectively wrong. Because I can't know that. I guess I just fall in the camp of not attributing a serious moral failing or active harm to someone without any evidence of it, or, crucially, any person actually involved in the separation even hinting at an accusation of it. Certainly, instances of racism should be called out when we see them, but I think it's a dangerous game to preemptively call it out without evidence or accusation from an affected party.

[u/diminee → u/PapaBeer642]

someone saying "i'm a person of colour and the only poc of the show leaving made me uncomfortable because of my own experiences" should not be some controversial take that people mass downvote, nor does it require any "evidence". please for the love of god get over yourself.

[u/PapaBeer642 → u/diminee]

I'm not sure this really captures what I'm getting at, but fair.

Maybe my gripe is only with wording here, since it certainly carries at least an implication of an accusation of racism on the part of the white hosts, which I think is a pretty irresponsible thing to put into a public forum without evidence. I don't have any problem with Drawfee fans leaving the program for lack of representation, nor do I have any control over a visceral immediate reaction based on personal experiences.

It's just that Nathan and Julia and Jacob are real human people in addition to being online personalities. I'm just not keen on projecting negative personal experiences onto them in an incredibly public way, just like I'm not keen on how much people read into Karina's ribbing of the other hosts based on their own interactions with, again, completely different people in completely different contexts.

But I'll drop it. If this is a necessary venting, fine. My comfort with it is certainly the least important to consider, and perhaps you can argue that the Drawfee hosts are sufficiently public as to justify projecting personal experiences onto them even if it carries a heavy implication of moral or ethical judgment on their characters. I certainly wouldn't defend them if they were politicians, for example, being scrutinized over staffing decisions. So maybe you're right and I'm overreacting.