Because of their status as minorities within Western media fandoms, nonwhite fans are seen [by fan studies researchers] to interrupt normative operations of such structures only in specific contexts when they make themselves visible. What I mean by this assertion is that race is only seen to be a relevant factor for theorizations about Western fandom communities when it is seen to be specifically interpolated by the presence of a significant character or issue that explicitly foregrounds the operations of nonwhite racial identity. In this construction, because whiteness is not considered a racialized identity with specific effects, its operations on fandom structures can be presented as normative.
Rukmini Pande. Squee from the margins: Fandom and race. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2018. Kindle edition, location 183.