I find it extremely weird (and quite frankly, gross) how quick and insistent so many people are to deny any aspects of racism. Racism, sexism, homophobia, etc. is inarguably prevelant in and impactful in nearly every single aspect of life. I remember rolling my eyes and angrily scrolling past far too many tweets and reddit posts complaining about 5cream being "too woke" for anyone to claim otherwise.
Saying "but Jenna was received well!" is missing the point by such a massive margin that I hope anyone who says such a thing pauses the next time they claim to speak up against racism and does some self-reflecting. It is not lost on me that Sam and Mindy received the most hate and criticism when they were explicitly taking on (or in a racist's mind, replacing) the role of a formerly white actor. Jenna receiving far less criticism and hate is not entirely off the back of her acting ability. It also is in part because she was more well known than either Melissa or Jasmin and especially because she was not cast as "the new" anything. Sam was set up to be disliked and viewed under an overly scrutinized lens on the basis of taking on the role of the new final girl in place of Sidney. And same for Mindy filling in for Randy and Kirby's archetype. And even doubly so for Melissa once it was revealed (blonde and white) Samara Weaving was at one point in consideration for the part. Jenna/Tara never had to face that.
To be entirely honest, I was put off by quite a lot of comments made on this board as well. Certainly not to the extent of the vitriolic barely disguised hatred on twitter/reddit/etc. but there were definitely uncomfortable comments made regarding Mindy and especially Sam. I particularly remember in the lead up to 6, how many members here essentially said they were fine with anyone dying...except for Gale and Kirby, who coincidentally or not, happened to be the only white returning characters. The amount of people desiring Kirby to come in and essentially take back the film/meta expert role from Mindy never sat well with me, either. I was honestly dreading that ending up happening, especially as this franchise has been notoriously white until 5 came out. I said a few things here and there in rebuttal but never wanted to cause a stir against the general notion prior to 6 releasing that most fans were ambivelant or negative towards Sam and Mindy. I think it's ridiculously problematic and flat out wrong to state their race has nothing to do with it. Having one exception in Tara does not absolve any racism being a factor in how characters are received. Thinking so just tells me how little a grasp people have on how invasive racism and other forms of prejudice are in practically everything.
