another drabble

[kindkit]

From a prompt by wishfulaces, who asked for an X-Men: First Class fic about Charles Xavier and privileged liberalism.

Title: Declarations
Fandom: X-Men: First Class
Characters: Charles, Erik
Rating: All ages
Warnings: None needed
Word count: 100
Summary: Daring to tell the truth.


"I'm a Jew," Erik says.

It's such a random announcement, coming from a shivering man whose wet hair drips onto a borrowed coat, that Charles almost laughs. But then, if Erik's faint accent is European, he probably had a bad time during the war.

"All right," Charles says gently. "I don't actually care, you know."

"Some of your best friends are Jews?"

"Well, yes, as it -"

Erik raises an eyebrow. Charles shuts up, as subject to Erik's mysterious force as the submarine was.

"No. Not really," Charles admits.

Erik nods, and Charles knows he has somehow earned something worth having.

Comments

[st_aurafina]

Oh, wow, it's so fascinating to see Charles at the start of a very, very steep learning curve. He's so keen not to hurt people, but he's clueless about so many things.

Yay!

[kindkit]

Thank you. One of the key things about Charles, I think, is that he's willing to learn, and it's a quality that goes a long way to redeeming his character. He doesn't always succeed--I think part of the reason his and Erik's connection fails so catastrophically is because Charles, at this stage, isn't really able to take in Erik's experiences--but he's not the type who'll resent having his privilege pointed out.

[lilacsigil]

Oh, Charles. At least when something contradicts his experience, he listens. He doesn't always go out to find it, but he listens.

I've been quite surprised at the meta that class Erik as "a white guy" just the same as Charles, when his status is really a lot more complicated than that and the movie was quite clear about it. He does, sometimes, have the ability to pass, but it's not a given.

[kindkit]

I've been quite surprised at the meta that class Erik as "a white guy" just the same as Charles, when his status is really a lot more complicated than that

. . . yeah. I mean, seriously, how much historical ignorance do you have to have to treat as unimportant the fact that Erik was on the receiving end of racial persecution--active state-sponsored persecution and genocide--for the first thirteen years of his life? And anti-semitism didn't suddely end after the war, so I'm sure he experienced some in his later years too. Including once he arrived in the US--I imagine some of the CIA weren't delighted at the thought of working with a Jew.

Erik does have the ability to "pass," so yes he's got white-skin privilege post-1945, but even so.