Diversity in Fanfiction
Raceswapping/bending
Raceswapping or Racebending is when a fanfiction author changes a character's race, usually from white into a different race. Raceswapping can be found in every fandom, but is mostly present in fandoms where the majority of characters are white. There are many reasons for changing a character's race: relating personal experience to a favorite character, questioning how race is treated in-universe, recontextualizing the treatment of a character. Changing a character's race from white allows authors to create the diversity lacking in their source works or "fix" the negative treatment of people of color in the source -- perhaps why race swapping is popular in Harry Potter fanfiction.
For the young women of color writing and reading fanfiction, raceswapping is a way to make the diverse narratives lacking in popular media. Raceswapping a character, like depicting Hermione as Black, allows a marginialized girl to create and engage with a positive representation of herself.
