#diversity also means dark skin and white skin in the same ethnicity

[gilbirda]

Sorry but for some reason my comments never show up when replying to a post akdskhdak but anyways this isn't a fanon thing but a good thing to note for people not into dc to know perhaps? That while some comics have Damian light skinned and blue eyes (cough whitewashed him), that he is very much half Arabic and is more commonly accepted to be darker/obvi not Caucasian skinned with green eyes, specially in current comics. Iv seen a few twin danny and damian fics with him him being White

I mean.... you are not wrong. Comic artists whitewashing their POC characters? Never seen before (sarcasm).

Fun fact, the Al Ghuls are not Arabic. Ra's origins are remade every time, (I've read something about a Chinese tribe???), and where the League base is changes all the time as well, and lazy writers will just say "somewhere in East Asia" and forget about it 😬

But the Arabic naming is a choice and not because of ethnicity. Just to lay it out there in the world.

Talia's mother, Melisande, was mixed Chinese and Arabic ancestry. So at most Damian is 1/8 Arabic.

That being said, and this is my personal crusade, making the division between white/not-white is very harmful. There are oppressed ethnicities that are very much light skinned and that doesn't mean they are "caucasian white" or "american" (and that's another whole can of worms, referring the US people as "american" is very wrong too).

Like i have a very dark skinned grandfather and my mother is white as milk and im brown skinned. Same ethnicity, but does my mother's skin color immediately make her less "minority"?

Hm. Food for thought.

[fels-fantasy-hoard]

One of my friends and players just brought something up to me that I think is a discussion that should be had and that is:

Should white people make ocs that are poc in ttrpgs

She sent me two ticktocks here and here where two poc talk about how it makes them uncomfortable when white people play as poc in ttrpgs and she was freaking out because her oc from the last 3-4 years in our campaign is mix raced. My friend is also mix raced but white passing and she was afraid she was offending people.

So, I just wanna give my perspective from observing this same discussion in other writing communities - because it is essentially the same discussion of whether or not white people can write poc in novels, video game, movies, etc because it all comes down to aesthetic appropriation.

Now, if any poc would like to add their own thoughts and experiences with this please do, your voices are much more important than mine - a white person - so I'm going to put my thoughts under a cut. I'm basically going to talk about my own observations within the fantasy genre as a whole when it comes to ethnicity and race and the patterns I've seen and how that translates into the ttrpg medium. Cheers :D

So, the main problem I've seen brought up when white people try to be inclusive by adding poc in their stories is that their inclusion stops at aesthetics. A poc is still written with the mindset of a white person. Changing the ethnicity of a character changes nothing about them and - many times - their ethnicity isn't even clear. They are south Asian but of which country? Which region? South Asians are an incredibly diverse ethnic group just like Afrians or Central/South Americans. If you can swap the ethnicity of a character without changing anything about them, then you aren't actually making good representation, you are doing the bare minimum of preventing an all white cast. It's 2023, we should hold ourselves and each other to higher standards.

Now, when it comes to fantasy stories, there is a bit of a problem. The worlds within fantasy settings become so much smaller because humans often share the setting with nonhumans such as elves, dwarves, gnomes, etc. This means humans are often turned into a european monolith - or something very close to it - while other real world ethnicities are shoved onto fantasy lineages (often times still flavors of european).

I dont think I need to point out why this is a problem. Humans continue using the aesthetics of nonwhite ethnicities but completely divorced of their culture and context. This is the definition of appropriation. I can think of dozens of fantasy stories from various mediums where there would be no change if a poc was white because their ethnicity has no impact on their characterization - as seen with various video game characters who's skin becomes lighter and lighter through every installment or has dark skinned concept art and a light skinned final product.

You want your fantasy setting to be a mixing pot of cultures and ethnicities? Ok, look at the US and how all of these different cultures remain intact even after generations. Yes, there is a level of assimilation but even fourth gen Mexican immigrants are still influenced their culture. Mix raced people have their own unique struggles and cultural experiences. Every country in the world has their own unique mixing pot of cultures and ethnicities. No country is a monolith as that would require committing cultural and/or ethnic genocide to everyone who does not fit the predestined mold.

A setting can have a mixing pot of cultures without racism or prejudice. You can have a human civilization that isn't a monolith. Don't be afraid to research different cultures to represent them with respect. Not only will it make your setting feel more immersive, it will give you a deeper understanding and respect for people irl.

It's always boggled my mind when people say irl race doesn't matter in fantasy then immediately turn around with fantasy racism like... seriously? The beauty of humanity is how diverse our cultures are and yet you'd rather dismiss this beauty over using the violence of prejudice and racism as cheap conflict in your story.

If you actually want to be inclusive in your fantasy stories, do research. Talk to poc of the ethnicity you are trying to represent.

If you are a player wanting to make an oc that is a different ethnicity than you - consider why? Does the character's physical appearance actually matter to their story? Are you willing to put in the work to represent this character's culture and respect the irl culture and people you are drawing from? Is this even your story to tell? If your answer to any of these questions is no, then maybe you should rethink some things.

I don't have the answer on whether or not white people should be allowed to make their oc a person of color but I think this question is indicative of a much larger problem within the fantasy genre of aesthetic appropriation and surface level representation of poc. I don't have any answers - other than put more effort into representing different ethnicities and cultures which its whole own can of worms- but its a conversation that should be had.

I would love to hear other people's thoughts and feel free to correct me or add your own experiences with this. I want to learn so I can write better representation in my stories and understand different perspectives better. Cheers :D

[artemis-entreri]

Artemis Entreri is not a white guy... but not for the reason you might believe

[[ Foreword: As a BIPOC, I care a lot about proper ethnic and racial representation. During my early days in this fandom, I’ve encountered people who felt that properly representing a character’s skin color was unimportant, and these people attempted to silence my views on the matter. Nonetheless, I’m the one responsible for specifying Artemis Entreri’s skin color as dusky brown in the FR Wiki (my attempted edits of his article on Wikipedia.org to include his skin color have been repeatedly deleted). I’ve written numerous posts regarding Artemis’ status as a fantasy POC, even when his own creator seems to have forgotten the fact (i.e. as seen here). I’ve worked on my art skill for the sole purpose of depicting Artemis better, and in the process of doing so I’ve studied the theory behind depicting different skin colors accurately. I still have a long way to go, but what I’ve learned has helped me to see and understand much differently from before.

Recently, I saw a forum post about fan castings for a hypothetical live-action Drizzt show/movie. This kind of thing is pretty common, but I’m always perturbed when I see that most commenters suggest white actors for Artemis. Thankfully, more people these days understand the importance of proper representation and diversity in media and their suggestions come from a place of ignorance rather than bigotry. I couldn’t stop thinking about my most recent experience though, so I decided to re-check my sources and reassess everything that I thought I knew.

There’s a widespread belief that the Realms’ Calimshan is the equivalent of the real world Middle East. I subscribed to this belief until recently, and used it as a basis for arguing why Artemis is a POC. However, as it turns out, Calimshan is not the equivalent of real world Middle East. Ed Greenwood doesn’t draw direct parallels between Realmsian locations and real world locations, but Calimshan’s closest analogue is Al-Andalus: the Muslim-ruled area of the Iberian Peninsula. Due to its geographical location, that would mean that the people of Al-Andalus would look similar to modern-day Spanish and Portugese people, in other words, mostly white.

That being said, it does NOT mean that Artemis and native Calishites are not people of color. They still would be, but not because Calimshan is the equivalent of the Middle East. Calishites are brown-skinned because they descend from a line of people adapted to living in a desert environment. 

So then, where does the belief that Artemis is white come from? Unfortunately, it’s due to some of Todd Lockwood’s illustrations, or rather, untrained and/or unthinking examination of his illustrations. One of the few things that I agree with Salvatore about is with regards to Todd Lockwood’s illustrations as the go-to visualization of Artemis. However, it is also these depictions that seem to throw a lot of people off about Artemis’ intended skin color. 

Why is it that other people see differently? I think the first reason is that in most cases, people see what they want to see, they see an affirmation of what they’ve assumed to be the case. Historically, the bulk of Salvatore’s readers have been white. However, for those readers who aren’t white, who also aren’t of a similar ethnicity to Artemis, might look at those covers and assume he’s white because they live in the US, or because they assume that he’s the same ethnicity as his creator. Most of Lockwood’s covers are on a varied palette that makes it difficult to isolate the exact skin color of the characters. A lot of people don’t know color theory, and they don’t think about skin colors from the perspective of how to illustrate it accurately. They’d look at Artemis from the cover of Servant of the Shard:

And perhaps they’d think, oh, his face is in the shadow of his hood, and he’s in a cave, so dark on top of dark would mean that his actual skin color is very light. However, this line of thought is faulty, because if the above illustration was made to be accurate to the situation, then all we’d see of Artemis’ face would be a few highlights from Crenshinibon’s glow. Furthermore, the fiery breath in the throat of Hephaestus, the dragon in the background, should be so bright that it’d create a backlight so strong that Artemis’s features would be even more strongly hidden in shadow, causing an effect like this:

Crenshinibon could very well illuminate his face, but it would do so by splashing it with its own greenish hue. Here’s a very rough illustration of what I mean:

As you can see, that isn’t depicted in Lockwood’s painting, which leads me to believe that Lockwood’s chose to basically install an artificial white light source so that we can see Artemis’ face clearly. It looks very much like he intended it so that he could paint Artemis as though he were in natural light. 

What people often don’t think about is that what sets different skin colors apart is how they react to light. Painting a very tan white person might start with the usage of the same palette as for painting a naturally brown-skinned person, but assuming proper application of the undertones, shadows and highlights, the difference becomes clear. The dusky brown skin of a desert native would be layered with a mix of darker reds and yellows, compared to the pink/lighter reds and yellows for white skin. This is the case with Artemis’ face on the cover of Servant of the Shard. Furthermore, the shadows on his face are dark, desaturated browns, flirting with gray but not quite there. If Lockwood were depicting a white character, he’d sooner use shades of blue and even orange than gray, as it is a lot easier to play with the versatility of depicting white skin. Any artist worth their salt would know that using grays to shade a color painting is very bad as it muddies the colors, so even approaching gray is to be avoided unless absolutely necessary. It isn’t necessary to tread that dangerous line to depict white skin.

It is most clear on the cover of Promise of the Witch-King that Artemis is not white. In this rendition of that cover art, while the background is lightened more than the foreground, the foreground is nonetheless lightened. As such, we are basically looking at Artemis in bright light:

Even here, in my opinion, he is clearly not white. A white man in bright light would not have shadows in shades of dark desaturated browns. His highlights are also more yellowish than pinkish, which is what is done for depicting dusky brown skin:

Although what has been discussed holds true to Entreri’s depiction on the cover of Road of the Patriarch, yet again it’s something that can fall to the misconception of, “Oh, it’s sunset, which means it’s dark, and he looks dark, so he would not look dark if it weren’t sunset.” 

WRONG. Consider this video of an actual brown-skinned man at sunset, and note how the shadows on his face are unsaturated dark browns, and the highlights yellowish (the picture is a preview if you don’t want to look at the video):

What I’ve covered also applies to Artemis’ depiction on the cover of Starless Night, so I won’t repeat it again. 

Some might believe that Artemis is painted with desaturated shadows (grays) because of the absorption of the shade turning him grayish. However, I don’t believe Lockwood chose to depict that, as Artemis’ skin is too vivid even with the grayish-brown shadows. Salvatore specifically wrote:

Lockwood was at that time no stranger to illustrating supernatural skin types, he certainly could’ve made Artemis’ skin look like that of a corpse’s if he wanted to. It looks very likely however that there was a conscious decision was made not to. 

What I haven’t discussed is that some will pick up what looks like a very dark red on Artemis’ cheeks and nose on the Servant of the Shard cover. He could be flushed from exertion, anger, heat from the breath of Hephaestus, or perhaps it’s just a color choice to make his features pop more. However, even there, he’s no white guy with his face flushed, which if we look closely, would actually be more of a pink despite the phrase, “red-faced with anger”:

Meanwhile, Artemis’ “red” is more of a brown:

Thanks for coming to my TED Talk. ]]

[mosesdumpin]

It's kinda disheartening at times, although it definitely feels like... a stupid gripe to have. As much as I try, its not always easy to take situations (scenarios? cultural pivot points? whatever) without directly comparing it to situations that are not as personally relevant but obviously facing a more severe version or more pressing negatives.

Without sitting down to think about it too much (again, not the point of this musing) an easy comparison would be how dark your skin is allowed to be while also being a western sex symbol (this even... horrifyingly... translates to the global south and east asia) along with the elevation of "white" features vs the more representative features in a cultural/ethnic group.

The above is obviously a more damaging and wide reaching problem than the one I am presenting here, but since I am quite white and skirting on mostly scots-irish features in a german/ashkenazim body type, the above issue only indirectly chafes my experiences.

I know that overall personal hygiene is almost universally (source: I am so horny for a counter example tbh) considered a desirable physical trait, with exceptions tending to be for CONTEXT around why someone isn't appearing hygienic. That isn't really what the gripe is about (I am not going to say "white men should be allowed to be sloppy and also expect immediate physical validation" lol)

Its just... tbh most white men I have consistently hung around were not someone who could be posted on twitter to hunt for a mob of sweaty gifs. I nearly called them "ugly," quotations and all, there but fucking hell, they arent. And I don't mean their personality made them more attractive, or even the nebulous "how they carry" themselves. I mean like... physically they were interesting, distinct, and attractive.

For example, the first guy that comes to mind was the incredibly skinny and average heighted kid I was close with in the later years of high school. When I say skinny, I don't mean slim. I mean skeletal, even though he wasn't unhealthy or anything. His skin was worn tight around his features, his muscles more function over flash, his movements highlighted by features that seemed longer by the visible joints and bone.

He had large eyes, but they weren't bulging. A crooked hairline, and even in those young years his crown was thinning. The classic thin white boy lips, and angular features. We were all awkward, but his stumbling coming-of-age screamed eternal. He didn't have the height that other boys with similar body types could lean on, and wasn't inclined to strenuous physical activity like sports or weight lifting (not lazy, mind you)

I remember him, along with a surprisingly diverse group of friends he and I belonged to, because he felt the anger and despair that comes with thinking you just simply weren't born the right way to get the kind of love you deserve. It manifested exactly how a funny jokester on twitter might lay out - a bitterness towards women and more physically acceptable men that stretched far outside what was reasonable without tracing the problem any further than that.

Now me. I am strikingly average. Not in the "all white men look the same" kind of way, but in a bell curve kind of way. I was average weight, average height, average face shape, etc. Looking at my individual features might paint a more novel picture but somehow putting them all together gives me god damn chameleon powers. I will note that these judgements come from YEARS of self-assessment both internally and with external validation, and is not meant to be self-deprecation NOR am I implying that this is the conclusion people will always make when they look at me.

My point is actually that people have yet to be compelled to look at me without some non-physical stimulus. With adjustments and realizations, this suits me quite well tbh. I will never be eye-grabbing, but I can play any social role a white man can play with just a little prep time, and I've had to work on who I am internally in order to be remembered.

I bring up my friend and myself because I considered us both in the same boat, when I know he did not. I was just close enough to the general acceptance of physical attractiveness to not be a problem, but far enough away to make him feel isolated. That he was the only "ugly" one in the room.

I will skip some of the obvious problematic lessons this boy had to learn. You can probably guess some of them. These days, however, he wears his hair wavy-messy in a way that doesn't cover up his bald spot since it seems to just affect his crown, but changes it from a problem to a quirk. He is still skinny, and pale (did I mention that?) and frankly doesn't really look much different to me after all these years besides the hair. HOWEVER, the awkwardness that prophesized to be eternal did leave him at some point, and now when he moves all the tight skin and telltale bones and joints seem intentional. He moves his arms, hands and fingers deliberately and slowly but most of all, he moves them at the same time. It generates a grace that doesn't come from your typical sources of agility like sports, yoga, dancing, etc. He simply accepted his body in a very subtle and (to me) impressive way.

this isn't going to be a "he loved himself for who he was" story.

He aged a bit, got some laugh lines and forehead creases. His pronounced skull is now defined as sharp and handsome. Of course, he didn't physically change. He adapted and adjusted. How he got there from the MRA-incel adjacent angsty 19 year old I left him to be is a mystery, but he isn't far off from my own personal ideological vagary of egalitarian compassion. Its not something it happens often and knowing him and feeling the same bitterness its hard... sometimes... to remember that what awful man he COULD have been is the unexpected abberant... and not a reasonable response from a kid that was stoked through progressive lefts calling every bad person ugly or creepy on twitter as a clapback or being told he has to earn love, somehow, through means that are a mystery to him from some chode who clearly landed upper management at their father's lawfirm with the Chris Hemsworth face.

Obviously the less-than-ideal white men aren't destined for the worst outcome, and its not what I'd call an excuse since clearly there is a path out. I will eat my PC if that path was exclusively internal and without some kind of validation though, and with how we treat people... why be surprised? You helped make this hell casserole. Stop putting shit in the casserole.

[m3ta11icaa]

South Asians: a minority group not talked about enough

Racism against South Asians is a worldwide issue. South Asians are regularly stereotyped as ‘curry munchers’, nerds, gluttons, and terrorists, which are harmful stereotypes to put on people. These stereotypes originate from the 7/11 and 9/11 attacks. As well as that, people stereotype them as ‘African’ mainly because of their dark skin.  I myself have been called the n-word even though I am Indian. South Asians even face racism from individuals from their own continent. The SAALT has recorded over 400 hate crimes against South Asians. Hate crimes against them are not talked about as much as hate crimes against those of East or South East Asian descent. Reports of racism against them are shrugged off and not acknowledged as much as reports of racism against people from other minority groups. When people talk about Asians, they never mean South Asians. South Asians are also Asian. They deserve as much respect and acknowledgment as other minority groups. 

Additionally, the South Asian ‘aesthetic’ has become increasingly popular on social media. On all prevalent social media platforms, our culture is used to garner views and is then discarded. People put on South Asian clothes, do South Asian makeup, wear ‘traditional ethnic Indian wedding dresses’, and eat Indian food, and thousands of millions of South Asians flock to the comment section, feeling proud that their culture is being ‘acknowledged’. This is how desperate we are for attention. South Asians get little to no coverage in the media; the minimal coverage they get is just stereotypes, so seeing girls appropriate their culture makes them think that because white people are ‘appreciating’ their culture, it is beautiful. South Asian culture is beautiful, whether white people appreciate it or not. We do not need acknowledgment from the media to tell us if we should appreciate our culture. Our culture is not your ‘aesthetic’; it is not for you to play dress up with and then discard. It is our symbol, our heritage, and our uniqueness. Our rich heritage has been developing over millennia, we don’t need some white person to wear Indian dresses and ‘acknowledge our culture’ to tell us that we are beautiful. Wearing South Asian clothes is slowly becoming ‘trendy’ and that is ironic because these same people have been discriminating against us for so long. We have been struggling with the perpetuation of stereotypes, marginalization, and discrimination for so long and to see our culture be abused for prom and views is infuriating.

K-Pop is one of the main appropriators of our culture. Several K-Pop bands and artists have implemented South Asian culture (and that too inaccurately) into their music videos. They use tikkas, South Asian clothes, and jewelry and do stereotypical moves. If you’re going to appropriate my culture, at least do it right. On top of that, they even have the audacity to mock Indian culture while doing so. At least respect my culture if you’re going to pretend to appreciate it. A very famous band you might have heard of, BlackPink, appropriated and disrespected South Asian culture. In their music video, How You Like That, Lisa had the idol of the god Ganesha AT HER FEET and wore traditional Indian jewelry. There was also a clip of Jennie doing a stereotypical Indian dance move. When they were called out for this, the company had to apologize on their behalf because their apology was half-assed. 

Racism against South Asians needs to be acknowledged. We are Asians too, and we should be treated with the same appreciation and respect as other racial or ethnic minorities. Our culture is beautiful and we are not terrorists. We don't allow a white person to judge whether or not we are beautiful. We should be grateful for our rich heritage. A South Asian should be proud to be part of such a beautiful, unique, and diverse culture.

[i-just-like-commenting]

After re-reading all the Second Age material in the Appendices

I’ve got what I call the three Really Valid Complaints about “Rings of Power” (based on reviews and plot summaries and clips, as I do not have Amazon Prime), plus one that is very Not Valid:

1) They’re collapsing what little we know of the history. While the nitty-gritty of Numenorean history is nowhere laid out like it is for Gondor and other Third Age nations, and the creators don’t have rights to the Akallabeth, it does have a timeline and a list of rulers (male and female, since they practiced absolute primogeniture). Miriel and Pharazon are rulers from the very end of the Second Age, 2000 years after the first appearance of Sauron and 1000+ years after the forging of the rings. Elendil’s presence indicates that this is near the end of the Second Age. Which means they’ve collapsed the timeline so that all the major events of the Second Age are going to happen in a single generation, completely eliminating the millennium of Sauron’s domination of Middle Earth. Plus they’ve depicted Numenor as isolationist when by its downfall they were a colonialist empire (ala what Tolkien was living in). The Numenoreans took down Sauron because they saw him as competition.

2) Durin III and Durin IV should not be living at the same time. Durin III was one of the dwarves given a ring of power, good catch on the writers, but “Durin” is more of a title given to dwarven rulers who closely resemble their primordial ancestor, not just a name you give your kid. If they weren’t collapsing the timeline, and early seasons covered the forging of the rings while a time skip left later seasons with Numenor and Sauron’s downfalls, they could have saved an actor switch by having the same person play Durin III and Durin IV centuries apart as part of the dwarves’ reincarnation beliefs.

3) Galadriel is depicted like her First Age self, not her Second Age self. By the time Sauron appeared, she was married, building Lothlorien, and probably already the mother of Celebrian. Her daughter, for what it’s worth, is a total cipher and would have been a much better character to use here as not only could you make up what she’s like but also she’d have a romance with a character general audiences know, i.e. Elrond, with a connection to the films as Arwen’s mom.

What is not a Really Valid Complaint is the diversity casting. While Tolkien generally leans towards over-representing white-looking people in his books, the Harfoots are in fact dark-skinned, as are many peoples around Middle Earth, and there’s no real reason not to think that this might carry over to elves and certainly to dwarves who are mostly described by beard-color not skin-color. If you look to Silmarillion the three houses of men who founded Numenor are coded as Mediterranean, Central Asian, and Nordic, but without that it’s still not absurd to think that a country founded by three ethnicities might, just might, be diverse. Whether the representation is good or sufficient is an entirely different issue and as I haven’t seen the show I can’t comment on that level of detail.

“But Tolkien intended--” No. Tolkien has been dead for over fifty years, he’s not around to give you that information. He had internalized biases which even he admitted to. But the man was also anti-Nazi and anti-Apartheid, critical in his works of imperialism and “race purity,” and a devout Catholic who believed everyone was equally a child of God. He is not your white supremacist ally even if his writings betray the deep cultural and racial biases held by many of his time. Maybe he did imagine most of his characters appearing white, but we’re not beholden to that and nobody is betraying his vision by diversification. It may be messing up in other ways, but not in this.

[cupcakestreets]

Dude. The devs have said the cookies are meant to represent actual human diversity. The black cookies are still fucking black even if they dont have a "specific ethnicity/race" like what the fuck are you talking about?! If mint choco or cocoa or millenial tree or any of the cookies who are very clearly black/have darker skintones are made paler in fanart, thats still fucking whitewashing!!! Because a lot of the cookies are dark skinned!!!! Please fucking think about what you say before you post please

Bro I was waiting on this type of ask and yes while I agree cookies like Mint Choco, and the other brown dough can be viewed as black characters. However I'm referring to the cookies with purple, black, or orange dough. Let's say Purple Yam Cookie is humanized: would you headcanon him as a Black man? Or maybe Samoan man? What type of skin tone would you give him? But if you do that some random user will come up to you and say "Hey this is actually racist because it follows the Angry Black man/Savage native stereotype!" Which... Is absolutely bad. We are using a sterotype to define a character.

Other cookie example; I've seen people humanize Licorice with dark brown skin, how I actually would headcanon them having paler skin. Like that skinny white nerd troupe who don't get enough sun. And while I use white to describe them I would actually say they're korean ethnicity wise. Same with cookies like: Gingerbrave, Parfiat cookie, and the K-pop cookies. I would also equate them to koreans. "NOW WAIT" you say "There are such things as tanned and dark skinned koreans!" And yes but Google Korea and look at the population as a whole! Kids need to realize PALE DOES NOT EQUAL WHITE. Also just because their eyes aren't slanted it does not mean they aren't Asian! Like there are so many different humanization headcanons we can give these cookies and we do not have to agree on them all

And I know what you are referring to when you say "Devsisters confirmed" it's that translated post of an interview with the dev team and that line can actually be interpreted in many different ways. I have a friend who is learning Koreon and if it matters they do have a Korean background, they told me translating things from Korean to English is... complicated. It's why the Squid Game dub is bad. The translation is off a bit. This one line can mean something completely different depending and how it's translated and what context is given. When they said the cookies "represent human diversity" they could also mean the cookies parallel in diversity like humans do. And I do not disagree with the original translation, that's just how I read it. You're allowed to disagree with me it's just I actually hate that we are using cookies to call out racism which we shouldn't? Just because my humanization headcanon does not match yours does not mean I'm racist. I swear to FUCKING GOD each time a western white CHILD speaks over me about POC controversy I just wanna give up. Not every POC may feel the same way I do but they do know they have a voice in on the matter.

I just think it's just a bad idea to call anyone out for the humanization of any cookie because that cookie is not a human person. That cookie is not a black person. He was baked with brown dough. Do not call someone racist because they colored a cookie with paler skin. Especially if it's a Japanese, Korean, or anyone from the East because they do not think the same thing as the West. Kids actually need to do research on whitewashing in media because you are not Woke TM when you go HEY THEY'RE ORIGINAL SKINTONE- No. That is dough. This is not whitewashing. This is a disagreement on another person's headcanon... You come to my inbox saying THINK BEFORE I POST which I do. I always fucking do. I think about my intentions with my post, what I want to say, and how can I say this to where the MAJORITY not everyone... The majority, can understand what I mean and what type of person I am. I think the racial politics of the west are ruining my favorite media and I fucking hate it. I've said my piece. If there is more on this topic anyone wants to speak about that isn't already in the post, go ahead. I need us to discuss that coloring over someone else's art to "fix" is never okay, accusing people of racism is never okay. It does not fix anything. We can't fix everything. So please build your own internet experience, do not shy away from someone because their opinions differ from yours... Can't we all get along!!??

[thevalleyisjolly]

Hi there! If you feel up to it, would you be willing to expand a bit more on the idea of white creators creating poc characters who are ‘internally white’, especially in a post-racialized or racism-free setting & how to avoid it? It’s something I’m very concerned about but I haven’t encountered a lot of info about it outside of stories set in real world settings. Thanks & have a good day!

Hey, thanks for asking, anon!  It’s a pretty nuanced topic, and different people will have different takes on it.  I’ll share my thoughts on it, but do keep in mind that other people of colour may have different thoughts on the matter, and this is by no means definitive!  These are things I’ve observed through research, trial and error, my own experiences, or just learning from other writers.

The first thing I guess I want to clarify is that I personally am not opposed to a society without racism in fiction.  It’s exhausting and frankly boring when the only stories that characters of colour get are about racism!  So it’s a relief sometimes to just get to see characters of colour exist in a story without dealing with racism.  That being said, I feel like a lot of the time when creators establish their settings as “post-racial,” they avoid racism but they also avoid race altogether.  Not aesthetically -they may have a few or even many characters with dark skin- but the way the characters act and talk and relate to the world are “race-less” (which tends to end up as default white American/British or whatever place the creator comes from).  Which I have complicated thoughts on, but the most obvious thing that springs to mind is how such an approach implies (deliberately or not) that racism is all there is to the way POC navigate the world.  It’s definitely a significant factor, particularly for POC in Western countries, but it’s not the only thing!  There’s so much more to our experiences than just racial discrimination, and it’s a shame that a lot of “post-racial” or “racism-free” settings seem to overlook that in their eagerness to not have racism (or race) in their stories.

A quick go-to question I ask when I look at characters of colour written/played by white creators is: if this was a story or transcript I was reading, with no art or actors or what have you, would I be able to tell that this character is a character of colour?  How does the creator signal to the audience that this is a character of colour?  A lot of the time, this signal stops after the physical description - “X has dark skin” and then that’s all!  (We will not discuss the issue of racial stereotypes in depth, but it should be clear that those are absolutely the wrong way to indicate a character of colour).

This expands to a wider issue of using dark skin as a be-all-end-all indication of diversity, which is what I mean by “aesthetic” characters of colour (I used the term “internally white” originally but upon further reflection, it has some very loaded implications, many of which I’m personally familiar with, so I apologize for the usage).  Yes, the character may not “look” white, but how do they interact with the world?  Where do they come from?  What is their background, their family?  A note: this can be challenging with diaspora stories in the real world and people being disconnected (forcibly or otherwise) from their heritage (in which case, those are definitely stories that outsiders should not tell).  So let’s look at fantasy.  Even the most original writer in the world bases their world building off existing things in the real world.  So what cultures are you basing your races off of?  If you have a dark skinned character in your fantasy story, what are the real world inspirations and equivalents that you drew from, and how do you acknowledge that in a respectful, non-stereotyped way?

(Gonna quickly digress here and say that there are already so many stories about characters of colour disconnected from their heritage because ‘They didn’t grow up around other people from that culture’ or ‘They moved somewhere else and grew up in that dominant culture’ or ‘It just wasn’t important to them growing up’ and so on.  These are valid stories, and important to many people!  But when told by (usually) white creators, they’re also used, intentionally or not, as a sort of cop-out to avoid having to research or think about the character’s ethnicity and how that influences who they are.  So another point of advice: avoid always situating characters outside of their heritage.  Once or twice explored with enough nuance and it can be an interesting narrative, all the time and it starts being a problem)

Another thing I want to clarify at this point is that it’s a contentious issue about whether creators should tell stories that aren’t theirs, and different people will have different opinions.  For me personally, I definitely don’t think it’s inherently bad for creators to have diverse characters in their work, and no creator can live every experience there is.  That being said, there are caveats for how such characters are handled.  For me personally, I follow a few rules of thumb which are:

Is this story one that is appropriate for this creator to tell?  Some experiences are unique and lived with a meaningful or complex history and context behind them and the people to whom those experiences belong do not want outsiders to tell those stories.

To what extent is the creator telling this story?  Is it something mentioned as part of the narrative but not significantly explored or developed upon?  Does it form a core part of the story or character?  There are some stories that translate across cultures and it’s (tentatively) ok to explore more in depth, like immigration or intergenerational differences.  There are some stories that don’t, and shouldn’t be explored in detail (or even at all) by people outside those cultures.

How is the creator approaching this story and the people who live it?  To what extent have they done their research?  What discussions have they had with sensitivity consultants/readers?  What kind of respect are they bringing to their work?  Do they default to stereotypes and folk knowledge when they reach the limits of their research?  How do they respond to feedback or criticism when audiences point things that they will inevitably get wrong?

Going back to the “race-less” point, I think that creators need to be careful that they’re (respectfully) portraying characters of colour as obvious persons of colour.  With a very definite ‘no’ on stereotyping, of course, so that’s where the research comes in (which should comprise of more than a ten minute Google search).  If your setting is in the real world, what is the background your character comes from and how might that influence the way they act or talk or see the world?  If your setting is in a fantasy world, same question!  Obviously, avoid depicting things which are closed/exclusive to that culture (such as religious beliefs, practices, etc) and again, avoid stereotyping (which I cannot stress enough), but think about how characters might live their lives and experience the world differently based on the culture or the background they come from.

As an example of a POC character written/played well by a white person, I personally like Jackson Wei and Cindy Wong from Dimension 20’s The Unsleeping City, an urban fantasy D&D campaign.  Jackson and Cindy are NPCs played by the DM, Brennan Lee Mulligan, who did a good job acknowledging their ethnicity without resorting to stereotypes and while giving them their own unique characters and personalities.  The first time he acted as Cindy, I leapt up from my chair because she was exactly like so many old Chinese aunties and grandmothers I’ve met.  The way Jackson and Cindy speak and act and think is very Chinese (without being stereotyped), but at the same time, there’s more to their characters than being Chinese, they have unique and important roles in the story that have nothing to do with their ethnicity.  So it’s obvious that they’re people of colour, that they’re Chinese, but at the same time, the DM isn’t overstepping and trying to tell stories that aren’t his to tell.  All while not having the characters face any racism, as so many “post-racialized” settings aim for, because there are quite enough stories about that!

There a couple factors that contribute to the positive example I gave above.  The DM is particularly conscientious about representation and doing his research (not to say that he never messes up, but he puts in a lot more effort than the average creator), and the show also works with a lot of sensitivity consultants.  Which takes me to the next point - the best way to portray characters of colour in your story is to interact with people from that community.  Make some new friends, reach out to people!  Consume media by creators of colour!  In my experience so far, the most authentic Chinese characters have almost universally been created/written/played by Chinese creators.  Read books, listen to podcasts, watch shows created by people of colour.  Apart from supporting marginalized creators, you also start to pick up how people from that culture or heritage see themselves and the world, what kind of stories they have to tell, and just as importantly, what kind of stories they want being told or shared.  In other words, the best way to portray an authentic character of colour that is more than just the colour of their skin is to learn from actual people of colour (without, of course, treating them just as a resource and, of course, with proper credit and acknowledgement).

Most importantly, this isn’t easy, and you will absolutely make mistakes.  I think the most important thing to keep in mind is that you will mess up.  No matter how well researched you are, how much respect you have for other cultures, how earnestly you want to do this right, you will at some point do something that makes your POC audience uncomfortable or even offends them.  Then, your responsibility comes with your response.  Yes, you’ve done something wrong.  How do you respond to the people who are hurt or disappointed?  Do you ignore them, or double down on your words, or try to defend yourself?  Just as importantly, what are you planning to do about it in the future?  If you have a second chance, what are you going to do differently?  You will make mistakes at some point.  So what are you going to do about them?  That, I think, is an even more important question than “How can I do this right?”  You may or may not portray something accurately, but when you get something wrong, how are you going to respond?

Essentially, it all comes down to your responsibility as a creator.  As a creator, you have a responsibility to do your due diligence in research, to remain respectful to your work and to your audience, and to be careful and conscientious about how you choose to create things.  It’s not about getting things absolutely perfect or being the most socially conscious creator out there, it’s about recognizing your responsibilities as a creator with a platform, no matter how big or small, and taking responsibility for your work. 

In summary:

Research, research, research

Avoid the obvious no-no’s (stereotypes, tokenization, fetishization, straight up stealing from other cultures, etc) and think critically about what creative choices you’re making and why

Do what you’re doing now, and reach out to people (who have put themselves out there as a resource).  There are tons of resources out there by people of colour, reach out when you’re not sure about something or would like some advice!

Responsibility, responsibility, responsibility

Thank you for reaching out!  Good luck with your work!

[mcustorm]

In Defense of a Black Cyclops

In case my username didn’t make it clear, the single most anticipated visual project for me is the MCU’s interpretation of the X-Men, which hasn’t even been announced yet [officially]. And ladies and gents, I have found your Cyclops:

Good ol’ Alfred Enoch, who we all know from Harry Potter and How to Get Away With Murder. If you’re not familiar with HTGAWM, know that his character goes from the de facto leader of the ragtag (murderers) and most cherished protege of Viola Davis’ Professor X to taking more of a grimdark turn after his girlfriend’s death. Sound at least somewhat familiar?

Enoch also embodies the physicality of the character well, seeing as to how he’s “slim”, 6′4(!!), black, and notoriously lanky. Wait, one of these isn’t like the others.

In general I hate fancasting. Everyone generally picks from the same pool of about 30 actors (Peeps, neither Taron nor Daniel is a good Wolverine choice. Argue with your mother!), and most all of it is based on physicality, except when it absolutely should be (like say, choosing a ~5′10 dark-skinned black woman for Storm).

And I think there’s some malarkey afoot. I think there needs to be some serious consideration on part of fancasters and actual casting agents alike to rethink race when it comes to the [white] X-Men, especially since they’re the X-Men of all teams. So I’ll make the case for a black Cyclops: 

1. There is no quota on Black X-Men: There’s a bug in your ear that’s been whispering lies to you for years, it says something to the effect of “We need a black person on the team for diversity. How bout Storm?” And you’ve gotten complacent. Storm does not have to be the only black person on your X-Men roster.

2. The X-Men represent diversity: Iceman is gay, Cyclops and Prof. X are disabled (sorta), there are plenty of women, oh and everybody except Storm is white. Of the A-List X-Men, there is only *one* POC character. I’d argue that an MCU X-Men needs to champion diversity like never before.

3. The X-Men represent minority struggle while being mostly white: There’s a cognitive dissonance in the metaphor that has always been there, and for the most part, nobody cares. To appeal to the white readers of the 60′s, the X-Men were all initially white. That way, the message of the mutants could be related to the audience with a familiar face. We don’t need to approach the problem that way in 202?

4. Just because that’s the way it’s always been, doesn’t mean that’s the way it should be: The first line of defense. Sorry, that will never be a good justification for literally any idea. It’s time for some more critical thinking.

5. We don’t all want to be Bishop: So say you’re white and you have a kid who for his birthday having a costume party. You’ve bought some X-Men costumes and you want each kid to pick one. 9 white kids and one black kid show up to your house. As the kids deliberate who gets what costume, be it Cyke or Wolvie or whatever, you yell at everybody to “STOP!”, point to the one black kid and tell him “You’re gonna be Bishop. That’s it, end of story!” 

We don’t all want to be Bishop. The black child could have the best Cyclops interpretation within him, but you’ll never know if you don’t let him try. And that’s no different from the Black actors of Hollywood. There’s no reason why all of the black talent should *have* to compete for the role of Bishop or Storm, which I’ve discussed, while Joe Schmo can walk up and audition for literally anybody he wants.          

Jharrel Jerome is 23 and has an Emmy to his name. He needs to be in the MCU in some capacity, period. Stephan James is another. How bout Damson Idris. Ashton Sanders. But no, no, let’s fancast Dacre Montgomery or Ansel or Joe Keery again as [Human Torch, Wolverine, Iceman, Angel, I’ve literally seen it all.]

6. Nobody wants to see the B-team if it comes down to it. The next line of defense from your racebending naysayers after “That’s the way it’s always been!” is “Well, what about Psylocke, Bishop, Forge and Jubilee?” who are otherwise known as B-tier X-Men. The problem is, we’ve got limited time and limited spots.

So since the X-Men is all about wonky metaphors that make half sense, let me give you another: Let’s say somebody approaches you and says “Hey buddy, I got two free concert tickets for ya! You can either see Michael Jackson Sings the Blues, or you can go see Justin Timberlake. Free of charge!”

Now, are you used to MJ singing the blues? No! Do you have a problem with going to see Justin Timberlake? No, he’s fine on a Wednesday! He had that one little diddy we liked that one time. We’d love to see him eventually! But are you gonna say, “fuck that, I’m going to see MJ Sings the Blues” regardless? Hell yes, because that’s still Michael Jackson. He’s gonna give the same amazing performance he always does, it’s just gonna be the blues. And speaking of blues...

7. Black is not Blue, Brown is not Blue: Raise your hand if you’ve ever heard this one: “I don’t care if you’re black, white, purple, or green, I’m going to treat you all the same!” I will not say all have this intention, but some fancasters have noticed that the racial diversity is kinda low within the A-List X-Men, so they oh-so-generously give the following roles to a black or brown person: Iceman, Nightcrawler, Beast. 

Notice the pattern? It’s a microaggression, and it’s bullshit. What these fancasters are implicitly telling you is that, yes the actors will be black or brown, but when the action starts we can ignore that. They’ll be blue by then. In other words, you in fact do care if they’re purple or green. Nobody will cry foul if Dev Patel gets to play Nightcrawler (because that’s a common one I see), but should Anna Diop be Starfire or Michael B. Jordan be Human Torch, I bet there’d be backlash. Oh wait. If that’s you, please stop acting like you actually value diversity. You don’t want to see black or brown skin, period. Unless of course, it’s Storm (refer to point #1).

But wait, there’s more! When brown characters get whitewashed in these movies, it’s crickets! So eventually it’s revealed implicitly that proclaimers of point #4 only care about it one way.

8. Professor X should not be black if you’re not willing to change anyone else: The next line of defense is that some people say the professor should be black, if anybody HAS to be racebent. Something something MLK Jr., Civil Rights or some shit. Number one, I’m not reducing Professor X to being a magical negro for 9 white people (and Storm!) who for all intents and purposes get to have all the action. Number 2, the Professor X/MLK/Magneto/Malcolm X comparison is an oversimplifying disservice to ALL FOUR of those people. I hate that line whenever I see it, please watch a documentary my friends. 

9. The Candidates for Racebending: For me, the A-List X-Men are Cyclops, Jean Grey, Iceman, Angel, Beast, Wolverine, Storm, Gambit, Rogue, Colossus, Nightcrawler, and Kitty Pryde. Now, who should be exempt from the racebending? Storm, she’s our designated minority. Gambit, he’s Cajun and they’re white (generally speaking, that’s a fun bit of research). Wolverine, Colossus, and Nightcrawler, because their nationality/ethnicity was the whole point of the Giant-Size premise in the first place. Angel, because his character embodies a privileged white male. Beast and Iceman, I don’t care one way or another (Point #7).

That leaves Cyclops, Rogue, Jean Grey, and Kitty Pryde. Now Jean Grey is a redhead, and we all know that every time a redhead is racebent people sharpen their pitchforks (Mary Jane, Wally West, Iris West), so I will cede the ground on Jean if only so that my ginger friends can get their rep. Kitty Pryde is Jewish, but Jews of color exist. Rogue is from the South. And Cyclops is, well, just Cyclops. That makes those three characters good options for more diversity. But allow me to make the case for Cyclops, specifically.

10. It’s not just diversity for diversity’s sake: If you had to pick who the main character of the X-Men is supposed to be, most would say Cyclops. And so in a series that highlights racial discrimination in society, it makes sense that our main character be black. While changing Cyclops’ skin color should not change who he is as a character, it *should* recontextualize it. Now, as an eventual increasingly radical leader of the X-Men, Cyclops would evoke real life figures such as Colin Kaepernick or, shall I say, Martin Luther King, Jr.

Not that most X-Men fans and writers truly think about what it means to be black anyways. Storm’s minority status is almost always put through the lens of her being a mutant and not her being a black woman. In other words, you can’t argue that making a character black will fundamentally change his or her character when you haven’t even analyzed the racial context of the black character(s) you already have. Another concept that the MCU X-Men should tackle: intersectionality.

11. Representation matters: I have to say it: Chadwick Boseman’s Black Panther hit different. And now he is tragically gone. At the end of the day, the MCU moving forward is down its most prominent black male superhero. Which has implications beyond just the movies themselves.

The women are in good hands. Shuri, Okoye, and Nakia are badasses in Wakanda, Valkyrie is ruling Asgard, Storm is almost assuredly on the way, RiRi Williams has already been cast, and Monica Rambeau is here and she’s not even at her most glorious yet. That doesn’t even include variable Δ, or the number of characters who can and will be racebent. And I’ll note again that to me, Gamora doesn’t count, because she’s green (#7 really pisses me off because it’s so blatant. I hate it). Of course from a behind the camera perspective we love black women getting work.

The men are a completely different story. Imma just go out and say it, I can’t stand Falcon and War Machine [in the MCU] because they’re not characters, they’re just two of a slew of MCU minority sidekicks who have essentially been at the beck and call of Captain America and Iron Man, respectively. You cannot tell Falcon’s story without mentioning Cap. The reverse is not true. There’s a whole essay that could be and have been written on “Minorities in the MCU, pre-Black Panther”. Remember, there’s a reason BP made so much noise in the first place.

So excluding those two we have, let’s see, M’Baku, Blade, and Fury who aren’t exactly the most superheroic superheroes, Eli Bradley is proooobably coming, I doubt Miles Morales is coming (because he’s just Peter Parker in the MCU), Luke Cage(?) Bishop(??), Sunspot(???), Blue Marvel(????). Not only are they not A-List, I would not put money on any of them being in the MCU any time soon.

Cyclops is thee Captain America of the X-Men. He’s the frontman. He’s the poster boy. He’s the “boy scout”, which in other words means he’s the hero, if there has to be one. It would mean a lot right now, and specifically *right now*, if he were to be black. The MCU needs it. It NEEDS it.

12. The X-Men is the Summers Story: I’ll even make the case that if just one character needs to racebent, then it should be Cyclops, because that of course implies that other related characters need to be black because half of the X-Men universe is in fact a part of the Summers family. 

So now Cable is black. Corsair is black. Havok is black. And one of the most central stories in the X-Men mythos, the Summers family drama, is now a black family drama set in space or the future or where the fuck ever. The concept is boundary pushing. When white families have drama in the media, it gets to be Game of Thrones or Star Wars, while when black families have drama in the media, it has to be black people arguing in a kitchen or living room about their various earthly traumas (I’m @’ing you, Mr. Perry). I mean, that’s all fine and good often times, but I want my black family drama in space, dammit.

And again, this is the X-Men, the series that’s all about *minorities* and their struggle, so again, why not?

Oh, and I’ll even throw out a Havok fancast for you: How bout Jharrel Jerome?

[edwinas]

Thank you for replying again and I saw the photos for Mr Malcolm's List!! Definitely very interested in it and I can't wait for it to come out. Sidenote but I hate how this fandom's treatment of Charithra has made me become anxious every time she shows up in a new magazine/does a panel or any interview. She showed up alongside Nicola and Simone for the new Netflix panel for Bridgerton specifically and she even got a spot at an FYSEE panel on how far Asian representation has gotten which I really love, but I can't even dare to go to other fans' accounts now because I just know people will be like "why doesn't Simone speak about this???" I hate how just generally, it's come to the point where apparently we can only let one of them reap all the benefits of their roles while the other one apparently has to "wait their turn". I know some fans will quickly retract from this and try to excuse their whining but that's literally how some of them come off. It's like "we already have one dark-skinned Indian actress who's hot and ready to speak up about rep, let her have all the spotlight! We don't need more than one!". Even when they try to mean well about Simone and her success it comes off as extremely gross, and it's also detrimental to her own image if you think that you, as a fan, are doing her any favors in insulting Charithra and saying that Simone should've gotten her interviews when Simone herself wants to support the fact that both of them are in this show. Like you're not doing them any favors by sticking to the "one actor of color who gets fame and attention in a show that is still very white is enough" logic, you're just sticking to an already racist scheme within the industry. If you want to complain about Simone not getting enough interviews to your liking then why not go after her white costars? Why do all of them get attention by default while Simone and Charithra apparently have to be placed in some fake "tug of war" with how much they get according to the fandom? Sorry for the rambling

No need to apologise, love getting these asks and I appreciate you taking the time to write them! I'm so excited for Mr Malcolm's List!!!

Gosh same, I can't even fully enjoy what Charithra says/does because I try to guess how she'll be misunderstood... It has also started affecting how I view Simone content.

What's baffling is this "wait your turn" mentality is a PILLAR of fandom racism. Every time there's a white female lead, she's lauded for being "revolutionary" (hint: she isn't). Woc are silenced and told to wait their turn and that this white character will open doors for them. Same with "there can only be one person of x ethnicity at the table," used to limit diverse rep (reminiscent of Bridgerton).

These fans think they're doing this for Simone but they don't see her as a real person, just an extension of Kate and their ship. Because if they cared about her, they'd know she'd be appalled by their gatekeeping & harassment. She wants more representation (which includes Charithra), not to monopolise it.

No one is stealing Simone's interviews, not her white co-stars, especially not Charithra. I believe Simone did more interviews than the rest of the cast any way? If fans need to blame someone, blame her management. But it's much easier to blame someone they can put a face on and "righteously" be terrible to because Edwina got in the way of their ship and was mean to Kate.  Why can't they be normal and separate the actress from her character.... 

Bonus points if they realise they hold brown and white characters to vastly different standards.

[cant-think-of-anything]

I think part of the reason that there’s such a dissonance between what kind of character Matthew is ~supposed~ to have and what kind of poor traits shine through, especially in his treatment of Alastair, is not just because of CC’s poor handling of alcoholism (and, in my opinion, mental health issues and depression) but also because: Our first introduction to these characters happened a long ways before some major changes to TLH.

Namely… Alastair and Cordelia were basically white in CC’s original planning. There’s just no way around that. Their flower cards, where they’re not just whitewashed but purely white, prove that (and they STILL haven’t been updated, by the way.)

Also, Alastair’s hair: in CoG it was dyed blond, and CC wrote it off implicitly as a racism thing when she decided he was Persian (which I guess happened after the short story where we met Alastair and before TLH) , which would have been fine it if it was an arc written better. Except, I don’t think she realized that it would make Matthew’s comments about Alastair inherently and obviously racist, being a white author. And I doubt that it will be dealt with and named or even acknowledged outright in the final TLH installment.

Kind of the same thing with Cordelia. I’m not saying POC can’t have like red hair because obviously POC don’t come in a prepackaged set of five or six traits that are all configured randomly, but something has always rubbed me the wrong way about the way that CC writes the majority of her POC and especially WOC as exotic. I mean, Kamala as a character is to me a special favorite (even though CC did her dirty and didn’t do a good job portraying her character or intersectional identity) but I rolled my eyes so hard when she had lighter brown or “amber” eyes in canon or officially commissioned art. With Cordelia, I know CC once said she uses henna to redden her hair which is great for her, and I guess I have less of a bone to pick with that because it’s semi(?) realistic, but still. Also the fact that so much of her description as a beautiful person comes from her hair. Again that’s cool, and women of color should be loved wholly including being loved for the parts of them that they freely change (such as Cordelia’s hair) but… the proportion of the fixation on her hair as what makes her lovely rubs me the wrong way sometimes. I feel like it’s sometimes an out from CC making the ~scandalous~ decision that a woman of color can be beautiful because of the traits she is born with. Idk it’s just for me I had this long standing repulsion towards my colorings and my facial structure and white girls would tell me I was whiny about it and then I finally began to piece together things like “Eurocentric beauty standards.”

Going on a tangent slightly, but something else that bothered me was when Anna insulted Cordelia after buying her those dresses and everyone kinda treating it as a compliment? And just cause Cordelia, a fictional teenager, didn’t get mad about it doesn’t mean readers of color can’t see the underlying racism behind “Cordelia looks MUCH better in these dresses which are SUITED for her skin tone.”

I think that narrative could have been handled much better: if it was Cordelia picking out her own clothes as an act of maturity and self-realization and ownership, if Cordelia herself said (in a different way lol) “Damn right I can wear lavender ruffles if I want to and crimp my hair but I’m not going to let white fashion prevent me from outshining everyone because dark skinned women INVENTED jewel tones.” And I think some people will argue that Cordelia’s context makes this too self aware of a development but I would say that it would have been a powerful part of her development outside of her relationships, especially considering that she’s supposed to be a main protagonist. Full arcs for the win baby!

But even aside from all that what bothered me about Anna’s dresses was the fact that it was a white woman showing the “truth” or the “right way” or “saving” a woman of color, a trope which I don’t think CC intended but committed nonetheless. I think from a white author POV the thinking was “Anna is such a free bohemian who lives true to herself and she’s going to help Cordelia become that way too,” which irks me because I feel like that just worked against CC in terms of POC rep and also because that same ideology is used in an attempt to make Anna’s treatment of Kamala justified even though Anna as an out person, with racial and economic privilege and the support of an extensive and powerful family network, pressured and tormented Kamala into coming out.

I have a lot of thoughts on that relationship, mainly: it shouldn’t have been dragged out this long because from the beginning, Every Exquisite Thing, it was clear they were looking for different things. And if CC had left it at that and let them go on their separate ways after a week of knowing each other that would have been fine: Kamala can’t do an out and proud relationship and Anna doesn’t want secrecy, so they’ll develop on their own. And then later Kamala’s pursuit of Anna in the actual TLH books was I think meant to be a thing about “the lengths you’ll go for true love” but it felt forced. Honestly… It just feels icky. like this woman of color is just so hung up on this white woman who abuses her repeatedly and can’t handle her own misogyny and internalizations. And I hate that because both had such awesome potential! To me it’s less that I dislike Anna ( I’d need a whole other post to explain that) and more that I dislike CC for wanting so bad to claim sapphic rep but not wanting to put in the effort to portray it effectively- and pretty much all that entails is writing the relationship without acting like it exists in a pseudo-vacuum where the history and realities of interracial relationships and queerphobia don’t exist in the way we obviously recognize and experience.

And characters like Cordelia and Alastair are amazing and have so much potential; I think the true origin of the problems with their portrayal is that they weren’t really intended as POC or even queer representation in the first place. I don’t know if Cassie would have taken a different approach to her characterization had she known Alastair would be a brown gay man when she first introduced him, but I hope it would have at least made her more conscientious of the inherent application of colonialism and racism in her storytelling from that point onward.

I want to finally add that I’m not saying any portrayal of racism is bad. I’m saying that the racism in the story is not part of a conscious framework that critiques racism appropriately. I think CC wrote the beginnings of the narrative, decided she was going to develop the diversity point content, and then either didn’t look back at the older content to analyze it and the other (white characters) through a new lens of race and outsiderness and queer personhood, or she looked at it and didn’t know what to do with it, or looked at it and didn’t care.

Sorry this got so long! Thanks for listening.

- A.

I feel like CC handled everything poorly in regards to characters who had a lot of potential.

The fact that Cordelia and Alastair are both originally white and it's so obvious in the way every bit of racism is handled by the characters. Matthew's comments in CLS are very important and they should've been handled with the same severity that Alastair's words were. CC changing the characters to POC was a big decision and when she did so she should've went back and actually read her own material. I can assure you that it will not be handled in CHOT, my expectations for CC recognizing the importance and gravity in the words she writes regarding racism or any of her "implied racism" bullshit have gone to the ground.

Because while golden eyes are obviously so easy to write when discussing discrimination obviously racism is out of the question /j

THAT'S EXACTLY IT, women of color in these books are so pathetically rare that on the rare occurrence that she does write them they should all be given these features that aren't as common in POC and written as more beautiful because of those features. I read CHOG after I became more appreciative of my ethnic features but if I had read this a year or so ago? Or even if I had read it after just feeling insecure in general? It would've been awful. The implication is that the lighter features in POC are the most beautiful, with Cordelia's red hair being put on a higher pedestal than her dark eyes and Kamala's eyes being focused on more than her hair (because I literally went back and counted the numbers to prove it and it's exactly what happens.)

I'm sure Cordelia's hair is stunning, but it's the way that when she's described (or more accurately being sexualized) it is just her hair and body that is shown, not the color of her skin or the color of her eyes.

God the pastel thing pisses me off so much. It's not even that Anna tells Cordelia that she would look better in darker colors it's that she says it suits her skin tone. Implying that anyone with brown skin should be barred from wearing pastels. And Kamala? In the few times she is described, she's wearing dark colors or champagne gold, never light blue or purple or pink WHICH HONESTLY SUITS HER PERSONALITY. It's also the way that the dresses Anna sent her are described to be more revealing- it's weird. Anna barely knew her when she started dictating everything that Cordelia could put on her body.

“Damn right I can wear lavender ruffles if I want to and crimp my hair but I’m not going to let white fashion prevent me from outshining everyone because dark skinned women INVENTED jewel tones.”

I literally would have loved that. It recognizes that she doesn't need to follow these "rules" on what to wear but still shows her choosing what she wants to wear without making all the darker skinned readers feel like they can't wear a certain color.

I think what some people fail to realize is that these books are also aimed at upper elementary and middle school and a middle schooler with dark skin reading something like that? In a book with characters they love? It's going to be so harmful

Someone else mentioned that CC said Kamanna's relationship was complicated because Kamala didn't defend Anna: Defend her FROM WHAT? Literally what is there to threaten Anna?

These books are filled with tokenism and then praised for it. The idea of Kamala X Anna has so much potential but they're portrayed in such a toxic way. Throughout the last through books Kamala puts herself through so much guilt and regret and turmoil just for Anna to literally use her, blame her, and cast her aside. And it's so fucking annoying because it pushes this idea that this woman of color who was terrified and in an extremely vulnerable position is in the wrong for choosing her safety and presents them as guilty and shameful for doing such a thing.

I would disagree, the portrayal of racism is bad, because it is used at random points in the story and never brought up again, if you interduce racism take it seriously it's not the kind of thing you're meant to half-ass in a book thousands of people will read

I agree on everything else though, so much of these books are incredibly harmful and they are presented to a young audience so it's overall just a gross situation

Thank you for the ask though! I loved answering this, if you ever have anything else you're more than welcome to come back <3

[fandomblr]

Let’s talk about racism in Tolkien’s Legendarium

Trigger warnings: racism, (obviously) anti-blackness, possible anti-black caricatures, racism towards Asian people.

I feel like something that I don’t see addressed in the Tolkien fandom are instances of racism in his work. Now, Tolkien himself was allegedly pretty anti-racist during both war and peacetime, BUT ultimately he was still a British white man that lived in the 1920’s and his writing does show some (although very possibly unintended) racism towards Black and brown people. Note that I am a pale Latino and thus I cannot speak for BIPOC, however, I will be using my readings from HoME (The Lays of Beleriand and The Shaping of Middle-Earth) to show very valid instances of where Tolkien’s racism has been argued for, and I’ll link some research about these criticisms. I strongly encourage BIPOC to add on or correct me on this post, since I do have have a lot of white privilege from being light-skinned.

The first instance of racism in Tolkien legendarium are the race of orcs. And before I go any further, let me show a passage from the Lay of Leithian (taken from The Lays of Beleriand) in which Beren, Finrod and his men are disguising themselves as orcs in order to pass through Angband:

“They smeared their hands and faces fair with pigment black,” which shows us first of all that the color of the orcs skin is ultimately dark/black, at least of the orcs here in Angband during the first age. This also implies Blackface being done by Beren, Finrod and his men here, and while it was used as a survival tactic to pass through Angband without being killed/enthralled/tortured, it’s still pretty darn racist. Black people have also spoken about how orcs have been written (intentionally or unintentionally, we probably will never know) as anti-black caricatures, and this is one article discussing this by a Black person that I found eye-opening.

Another instance of the orcs being racist caricatures is in that in a private letter Tolkien describes them as “squat, broad, flat-nosed, sallow-skinned, with wide mouths and slant eyes: in fact degraded and repulsive versions of the (to Europeans) least lovely Mongol-types." Obviously, this is clearly racism towards Asian people, and journalists have even written about how orcs look like the worst depictions of the Japanese drawn by American and British illustrators during WW2. The same article above also speaks about the Haradrim and Easterlings in the LOTR movies clearly having inspiration from Eastern and non-Western cultures.

Next, another probably more well-known racist issue in The Silmarillion fandom is Maeglin, (Meglin here in HoME’s The Shaping of Middle Earth) who is described as ‘swart,’ aka meaning dark-skinned, and so was his father, Eöl:

Obviously this is racist because Maeglin is CLEARLY a villain of color in this scenario, (he is the cause of the fall of Gondolin plus he basically tries to rape his cousin Idril and kill her child) in a world where other “good” characters are either described as white or whose race is simply not stated. If there were more EXPLICITLY elves of color in the Silm this wouldn’t be as much of a problem, but Maeglin here is one of the few elves (besides his father, who was clearly also a villain) whose skin color we know about, and what color is that? Swart, aka brown. What’s even worse is the fact that Eöl pretty much coerced Aredhel (who we can assume to be white since she’s known as the “White lady of the Noldor” and her skin was described as pale) into marrying him and having his child, which just perpetuates the racist stereotype of men of color being dangerous to white women. Tolkien, sweetie, this definitely reeks of racism.

Next are the men of the East of Beleriand, of who we get a pretty clear description of in The Annals of Beleriand from HoME The Shaping of Middle-Earth:

Here these men aredescribed as having lots of body and facial hair (which is a trait that can be seen in people of color) and their skins are “sallow or dark.” This is probably the least incriminating piece of evidence on this post because as you can tell, not all the men of the East were evil. Bor and his sons specifically were not, and they were loyal to the Sons of Fëanor. However, Ulfang (Ulfand in HoME) betrays the Fëanorians and ultimately is responsible for the tragedy of the Nirnaeth. And even worse, Bor and his sons are even slain by him (although Ulfang did pay his treachery with his life) here in this version. And as a whole, the Easterlings are described as more being on Morgoth’s side than on the elves, and like I said earlier, they draw a lot of non-western inspiration that can identify them as people of color, especially from the cinematic trilogy. Although these men are ultimately supposed to earn redemption during the Dagor Dagorath (aka the end of time when Melkor comes back from the void and the last battle is fought) this doesn’t erase the fact that Tolkien chose to villanize an entire group of Eastern people who we can assume to be people of color. The fact that they are called men from the ‘East’ while Aman/Valinor/the Gray Havens are considered the ‘West’ just shows you how eurocentric Tolkien’s works are by themselves, but that’s another topic for a different post. At the end of the day, lots (if not most of) these men were men of color that were portrayed as treacherous, unfaithful and even “accursed” in the case of Uldor, Ulfang’s son. All traits which demonize people of color in Tolkien’s legendarium.

Now here is the question that’s worth all three silmarils: was Tolkien aware of his racism as he should have been as an allegedly “anti-racist” that was born in South Africa? I’m afraid I don’t know the answer to that, and as a person with white privilege I don’t think I’d be qualified to answer this question regardless. This is why again, I’m encouraging BIPOC Tolkien fans to come forward (as long as they want to and are comfortable of course, since this is a triggering topic) and share their criticisms on Tolkien and how he portrays race in his legendarium, add on to what I found and correct me if they think I added something wrong. The thing is, even if Tolkien was intentionally racist, the man died in 1973, and sadly Christopher passed away last January. So it’s up to us as the Tolkien fandom to not only recognize but also address and challenge these racist concepts in his work, and make sure we are creating an environment that’s safe for fans of color and marginalized ethnic groups like myself. One of the things I love about our fandom is the diversity in fanart, since I’ve seen lots of elves drawn as POC and I really want to keep seeing this, but we also have to take into consideration how racism plays into LOTR and all of Tolkien’s works so we can be mindful consumers of it.

[womenofwonder]

RWBY characters races for AUs set in our world.

How I’m going to do this: three things. The first, the city they live in Remnant. This is the least important because that leaves us with only five…maybe six places compared to our world’s hundreds of countries.

The second will be the original of their names, which they’ll have to keep in the AUs, meaning that they need some culture background for them.

The third will be their fairy tale origins.

So to start, Ruby Rose:

She lives in Vale, which is similar to France (I’ll explain why in another post maybe), but technically grew up in patch, a small island off the coast of Vale. I have no idea about Patch’s culture as we hardly ever see it, so I’m going to skip this one. We also don’t know if either Summer or Taiyang was originally from Vale.

We know Taiyang is Chinese from his name, so I’m going to say she’s half Chinese. I also wrote a western au once and really love the idea of Taiyang being an Asian Redneck…so I think I’m going to say Ruby is very, very southern just because that would be adorable.

But if you don’t want that idea I generally see Taiyang being either Asian-American or Asian-French, or Asian-British if your doing a HP AU. Summer is harder to pin down, but Red Riding Hood was originally an Italian fable, so I’m going to have her be Italian or Italian-American.

Weiss:

Weiss is German, although making her simply white America/British would work. I could see her being Russian too in some AU because Atlas fits well as Russia. For American works, Pennsylvania has quite the German population and coal mines, so that works pretty well for her.

Blake is really complicated. From Remment Australia which is culturally SEA (south East Asian), has an English name but parents with a Hindu-inspired names, but neither looking vaguely Indian. I’m going to assume her family are immigrants (as they are in cannon I think) to Australia, maybe even changed their name to help them fit in. Immigrants from where? Well, India is an option, but I like to think Malaysia. They have a large Indian and Chinese population, and I like to think Blake is a mixture of Chinese, Malay, and Indian ethnicities, from Malaysia and immigrated to Australia. And if you think this is crazy or unrealistic, you haven’t seen anything yet. The sheer mix of cultures I’ve seen growing up as an ex-pat is insane. This isn’t too crazy.

For Yang, we already have Taiyang as an Asian red-neck. Or at least I do. Raven and Qrow are going to be a little harder to pin down, but I’m think bandits getting replaced by mafia. Which mafia? I don’t know, take you’re pick. Branwen is Welsh, but I can’t think of a Welsh mafia. Coming from Mistral I would see them as being Triad, not Yakuza because Raven’s gang is famous for being less than coordinated.

If you need a logical reason for Yang having blonde hair, Taiyang could be only half Chinese, half blonde (blonde is race right?).

Either way I see Raven operating in an American city like New York or Detroit.

This would mean Yang is fully Chinese ethnically.

JNPR:

Jaune’s name and inspiration are all French. However his mother does come from Mistral (I think), so I do see him being half Chinese, but nationally French. It’s also funny to imagine him with a French accent.

Pyrrha: she’s Greek or maybe Greek-American with her parents being recent immigrants. Argus seems to Remnent-Greece and her name and fairy tale are greek.

Nora: she should be Scandinavian. I feel like in a MCU AU she’s Thor’s daughter. But she also grew up as a street rat in Mistral, which is hard to fit in our world. Therefore I’m going to have her in America, the great melting pot (and also America seems to be more like Mistral than any other Remnent king with our state system), and she going to ethically Scandinavian but knowing nothing of her culture due to her upbringing.

Ren: obviously Chinese, but I might have him be American-Chinese to fit his story nicely in with Nora’s.

Others:

Coco: we’re all ignoring that she’s based off Coco Channel, so let’s make her a LA girl

Velvet: Australia, because of the accent. Or maybe English because that is her story origin

Fox: he’s difficult, because tribes are pretty rare in modern AUs. But his story could work for various things. He’s one of the few black characters so he could come from practically any African tribe (I’m currently going with Hausa because it’s one of the few I know anything about). His name is based off ‘the fox and the hound’ which is a rare American story, so he could also be from a Native American tribe if you want the AU to be more American-based.

Yatsuhashi: Japanese, this one is thankfully easy.

Sun: Chinese. He comes from a tribe as well, but I can’t think of any nomadic Chinese tribes except the Uyghurs. Making Sun a Uyghur doesn’t make much sense but it will serve to piss off certain people on the internet. And now this is going to be taken down, isn’t it? Oh wait, this is tumbrl. This is anarchy. It won’t. Forgot why I liked this place for a second.

Scarlet: sorry for the rambling there. Anyway, Scarlet is definitely English. “I hope I don’t get sand in my shoes.”

Sage: well, he’s black, but other then that we have nothing to go one. He’s also from Mistral but that doesn’t really work? If Mistral is America as well as China I guess we can make him African American. Or whatever else works best for the AU. He might be Indian too now that I think of it. Or even Maori. Really options are limitless here.

Neptune: Yeah, so probably just American, but does have both a French last name and an Italian first name. So probably ethically American (aka white mutt). Also he lives near a port, I think I’m gonna gone with him being from Tacoma Washington because I am.

Flynt: African American

Neon: Japanese-American because of her meme (it started as part of Japanese pop song on YouTube, the latter of which is America summed up in one invention)

Oscar: Hispanic-American, he just looks it. And I’m guessing he lives in Kansas for obvious reasons. His last name isn’t Hispanic but their could be a lot of reasons for that. Or he could be Native American (Pawnee, Cheyenne, and Osage are all Native American tribes in Kansas).

Penny: well if she’s still a robot she probably stays white, but if you want her human in this AU she might end up being half black as Pietro is, although she also could just be adopted. I guess the later makes more sense, huh? I figure she’s American, with her dad working with a ‘well meaning’ but ultimately corrupt government. Probably living in DC, as that has both the government and the poverty issues.

Emerald: oohh, boy. This is hard. Sustrai is Basque, and Aladdin is a French addition to an Arabian story, she herself is dark skinned with anime features that are super unhelpful for this sorta thing.

I have three ideas. Brazilian, mostly as there’s no South American themed RWBY characters I can think of, and it’s diverse enough that someone looking like Emerald would fit. Secondly, for American centered stories she’s just an orphan with no idea of her ethnicity. Or she could be African, Indian, Pacific Islander, or Hispanic or some mixture between those four. It’s honestly really hard to tell. In my fanfic she’s from Suriname and ethnically 1/4 Indian, 1/2 Creole, and 1/4 Javanese.

Ilia: Sioux (Native American). Ilia means a lot of things in a lot of different languages, and Amitola mean rainbow in Sioux, so I decided to just stick with that.

Mercury: American, white mutt American. I’m guessing New York or Philli for where he grew up, it seems like a place where he’d be comfortable

Neo: the new novel reveals her father lived in vale (btw I haven’t read it, I’m just getting this off the internet) and her mother was a assassin who’s origins aren’t known. She doesn’t really have a fairy tale. So I’m going to go with British or French (thank RWBY thoughts for the first one) although in an American AU she works as just a white American.

Robyn: depends on what Atlas is in this AU, but probably German or American.

Qrow: I already mentioned he’s probably Chinese due to being from Mistral. It’s a bit weird to think of him as Asian, but not as weird as it to think of Raven as white, so I’ll take it. Although I do like the idea of him being American Irish, that’s fun.

Winter: whatever Atlas is in this AU, German or American, although British and Russian would work well too.

Maria: Mexican

Salem: If you want a AU where she’s just a normal person then New England or Italian for her story origin

Watts: British

Tyrian: uh…I have no idea, but he looks white. And he kinda has a British accent? I want him to be southern for the accent tho. Probably just another crazy American

Cinder: her fairy tale is French but her origin is Chinese. Also, Cinderella doesn’t really have an origin, it’s an ancient story with every culture having at least one Cinderella story. So I’m going to say Chinese.

Hazel: American, from the Midwest. He’s darkish so maybe he’s a POC? Part Native American or Hispanic? Idk or really care I can’t stand Hazel

Roman Torchwick: American-Italian, he runs/works for the mafia

Ozpin: American because of the whole wizard-of-Oz-thing or French, because he seems to have come from Vale.

Glynda: American or French for the same reasons Ozpin is

Oobleck: Jewish American (because Dr. Seuss was)

Professor Port: Russian, due to his fairy tale, or English, due to his style

Taiyang: already said he’s a red-neck Asian.

Raven: depending on whether you want her to be white or not, either Chinese or Irish American, like I already said.

Cordovin: Karen

Ironwood: again, depends on Atlas in the AU. Either American or German…maybe Russian

Clover: Irish-American (or German, obviously the ace-ops depend on where Atlas is. I’m just going to do the rest of them assuming Atlas is American because Germany isn’t that diverse)

Harriet: African-American, I guess. It kinda messes with the story because Harriet is supposed to be privileged, which doesn’t really work in this AU, but she’s also obviously black.

Elm: Just normal American, maybe greek-American because of the Aesop fable themes

Vine: Tibetan based on his design

Marrow: either African-American or Pakistani/Indian-American. (I’m personally going for Pakistani)

Klein: english. All butlers are English. It’s a rule.

Pietro: African-American

Johanna: Pakistani or Indian American

Fiona: Jewish-American (kinda random but while she’s obviously white she also needs to be a minority for the Faunus thing to work)

May: normal upper glass American/German

Ghira: Half Malay, Half Indian, from Malaysia but immigrated to Australia later in life

Kali: half Chinese, half Indian, but also from Malaysia

Adam: much like Fiona I’m going to assume he’s Jewish due to him being white but still needing to be a minority. German or American, again, depending on where Atlas is. Or he could be Chinese, even though it doesn’t work with his name, due to the theory that he was trafficked much like Cinder. I’m going with ethically Jewish though

Sienna Khan: Indian

Huh, I actually finished that. I’m pretty sure I was accidentally racist multiple times and apologize in advance,

I’m exhausted and starving and not thinking straight. But anyway, here it is. Your very messy guide to modern RWBY AUs. I swear this was insane to sort out.

[lotuslate]

Hey since you're white and an amazing artist, as a Chinese person I want to say be careful with your skin tones. Chinese literature can be really colorist and ethnonationalist. There are a variety of skin tones for Chinese people, but I've seen this really weird trend of people racebending classical Chinese characters in ways that erase this diversity. Instead of studying how actual Chinese ethnic minorities look, white artists will often just darken skin without doing anything to cultural or actually diverse - I think darker people of color doing this is fine, but as a white person you need to think about how this comes off as possibly performative - is this your culture to make more diverse and if you're trying to do that are you putting any thought into it? I actually love your art but please think on this

Hi! Thank you so much for bringing this into my attention, I absolutely agree with you, I have also noticed this trend when it comes to white artists darkening skin tones just for the sake of being performative, and I understand completely how I can also be perceived in that same manner as a white artist. You are absolutely right when it comes to questioning what thought am I putting behind my decisions as an artist, I would like to explain my thought process; my intention is not to racebend these characters, although I do understand that it may come off that way when the skin tone maybe looks too dark - the thought I've put into them having tan skin comes from how I've perceived them as characters with their own background and circumstances, for example I do perceive Wei Wuxian to have tan skin due to the fact that he grew up near a lake and spent a lot of time playing outside as well as swimming, etc, so therefore, personally, it would make sense to portray him with a darker skintone (here for example) however, there are other parts in the book in which he's facing a lot of struggle and is in a very unhealthy state in which case then I would portray him in a paler tone (like here). And it's the same with other characters such as XieLian and Yushi Huang, I believe it would make sense for them to have tan skin due to their circumstances (for XieLian being that he has wandered for many many years which means he has probably spent copious amount of time under the sun, and for Yushi Huang, she is someone that thoroughly enjoys agriculture as well as helping farmers with their labour therefore I also see her as someone who spends a lot of time under the sun).

I don't like to randomly pick and choose which characters should have specific skintones, (as you said, as a white artist this is definitely something not in my right to be doing in the first place) rather I try to take into account and think of their circumstances and what would make most sense when it comes to illustrating them. For example, I portray Lan Wangji with a pale skintone because he is someone who has grown up in the mountains, and Gusu is a place that is more often than not shrouded in cold and snow. However, with that said, I also understand how it can be perceived as racebending, so from now on I will try to stick to more tan-looking tones. I tried to look back to my process and I'm realizing that when I start rendering, I really enjoy vibrant colours, and that affects the skin tone as well to look different than what I originally intended. So from now on I will be paying closer attention to how I render the skin as well!

You are in every right to question me about this, and please always feel free to do so. I'd very much rather receive helpful commentary when it comes to improving the ways I create and consume art, rather than perpetuate willful ignorance in a fandom space.

[duchezss]

Buckle in folks cause I’m about to put more effort into this than an english assignment Presenting Why Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous is actually an amazing show

Now what defines the term amazing you might ask? I’m talking about a show that goes above and beyond in plot, characters, storytelling, and overall experience. Nowadays most adult shows don’t meet my standards much less a kids show so if that gives you an idea how good this show is stop right now and go watch it if you haven’t. Spoilers ahead ofc but as an aspiring film major I will be diving into just about everything I love and this is gonna get long. 

For your convince I will start with a simple bullet point list and then extend on them below, so if you only wanna see the big points and not my thoughts behind them this first parts for you. 

Black mc 

Diverse main cast (4/6 are poc) 

Actual plot lines and a lot of suspense 

Very dark for a kids show 

Complex characters that develop 

Fits in with the main Jurassic World series beautifully 

Body language and facial expressions are top tier 

Have genuine relationships (platonically and/or romantically) between all of the main 6

Phenomenal camera angles and use of special effects 

Great with details 

Amazing VA’s 

Continuity 

So the nose dives begins 

Black mc: To some people this might not matter that much but holy cow this is so important and such a big step. The people complaining are just weird middle aged white people, like do you know how big of an impact a black mc can have on young black children. It’s so important and it makes them feel happy because someone actually looks like them. Clear evidence of this was Into The Spider Verse (which is also an amazing movie oml). Come to think of it the only black mc I think I’ve ever seen in an animated kids show is probably Static Shock (also an amazing show ily). Somehow representation has got swept under the rug in this day and age which is ironic really, but this show does an amazing job with tackling that and I love it. 

Diverse main cast: I can’t think of any recent kids movies/tv shows, live action or animated, that have this much representation. In animation is also very easy for the show runners to make a character poc and then have a white VA, but jwcc is quite the opposite. Honestly the characters look so much like their VA’s that something tells me the animation team based the characters off them and not the other way around. Not only that but their names actually match with their ethnicities. So for reference or just anyone that doesn’t know, Ben and Brooklynn are white, Sammy is hispanic, Darius is black, Kenji is asian, and Yazmina is middle eastern. Sammy’s last name is Gutierrez, Yazmina’s is Fadoula, Kenji’s is Kon and Darius’s Bowman. Gutierrez is a common last name in Mexico and Latin America in general. Fadoula is found throughout upper Africa and the Middle East, Kon is rare name of Japense origin, and Bowman is a common last name among black folks in the US. So not only do they have a poc cast, voiced by poc people, but all the characters have realistic names. Not to mention they are very good on skin tone in the show, personally I think Yaz should’ve been just a bit darker but hey I’ll take it and run. 

Actual plot lines: This seem like stating the obvious but work with me here. Most kids and even adult shows have a very episodic format, there’s nothing wrong with that per say but having a plot and conflict build up and having little things matter is much more satisfying in my opinion. Most kids shows have some conflict but its very PG which is also fine that’s what it’s meant for. But every once in a while you’ll find a show that had plot wise beyond it’s years and those are the golden ones. Easily and rightfully the most famous is Avatar the Last Airbender or ATLA. This show to this day is still one my favorites and truly nothing will ever top it, but in my years of watching kids shows after it jwcc might just be second. We can argue all day about what’s the best and it’s truly a matter of opinion, but to me atla and jwcc just achieve such a level of complexity that 99% of kids and even adult shows don’t reach. 

Very dark: While this might not be exactly the best for kids it’s great for an olderish audience. Honestly it having a much darker element makes the show enjoyable for all ages while still keeping it chill enough so that children may watch. But come to think of it it’s hard not to make a show about dinosaurs dark, the show runners do a wonderful job at keeping it intense and exciting, but still kid friendly, and to me thats incredibly impressive. Not to mention since the show isn’t afraid to go dark they can do more (such as ben’s “death”, the hunters etc) which makes it go from good to great. Reminds me a lot of atla and I know I keep mentioning atla but know that is the biggest compliment ever. atla is easily the best animated/kids show of all time so the fact that a bring it up so much is huge. There have been shows in the past that have tried to replicate what atla (such as voltron..) and it just hasn’t worked. I think this show nails the boundary between too dark and not dark enough. 

Complex characters: Oh yes. If there’s one thing I love more than an ensemble cast it’s a cast that grows and develops as the series progresses. Sure the main 6 might start off as typical character tropes (Darius the super fan, Yaz the loner, Sammy the extrovert, Ben the underdog, Kenji the arrogant, and Brooklynn the influencer.) but they become so much more than that. I’d say at least half of them are completely different people between the 1st episode and the latest one. An easy example being Ben and Kenji. Ben started off as a naive, timid, and terrified person and has become confident, independent, and brave. Kenji started off as arrogant, selfish, and apathetic person and became compassionate, driven, and concerned. All of them have had some sort of change even if it’s not super dramatic and that’s important. It makes the storytelling better because they grow as they go. 

Fits in with JP/JW beautifully: In terms of shows connecting to movies this has gotta be some clone wars level s-tier stuff. Personally I have never watched clone wars but my sister has and she always raves about how well this show connects to the movies, and from what I’ve seen I completely agree. A youtube channel by the name of Silverscreen Edits actually put together the scenes from every time they overlap, mainly in S1 but also the cold open from Fallen Kingdom. I’d advise you to watch it because it’s just incredible. The show runners nail ever detail of these scenes and it truly feels like you’re watching the same scene from a different perspective. The set up is beautiful and I cannot rave enough about how amazing it is, my favorite easily being the dome scene because of all the small details. Not to mention this show actually connect JW and FK because it shows us that the cold open was 6 months later while the rest was 3 years later. Quite honestly I had no idea these two scenes were that far apart from each other, I thought the opening was from a years or two later not 6 months, so this show really connected the dots between these two movies and made them flow together much nicer. And I love all the countless references too old and new JP/JW movies. Overall this show is a great addition to the franchise. 

Body language and facial expressions: You might be thinking to yourself, hmph that is a really odd point to make, let me tell you it’s not and I’ll explain why. When analyzing films I usually tend to stick to live action because one of my favorite parts of films is how characters react to things, and we animation we really don’t get that. Most of the time even if shows get this complex they won’t use both the way jwcc. What impressed me so much was how amazing they are at this, the animation team seriously needs more praise. Jwcc is great at facial expressions which I will say other animated shows know how to do as well, but they are also so amazing at body language which is rare rare when it comes to animation. It’s because it’s so hard and often times it just doesn’t fit, but they do an amazing job with this and it makes the characters feel so life-like. When a character is sad or closed off their shoulders hunch, when they feel scared they stiffen up and cover their ears (which is another detail I love so much, I never realized till this show that hardly anyone ever covers their ears and it makes a lot of sense because these dinos are very loud) and when they feel hopeless their shoulder sag and their head drops, do you see what I mean? You can quite literally tell what these kids are feeling and thinking without them saying anything that is so impressive and it makes the show that much better. It makes it easy to analyze and if it wasn’t clear around I love to do so. 

Genuine relationships between all of main cast: I will not budge at this point at all, gonna say it right now if you disagree argue with the wall. I might have some bias on this but one, if not my favorite, part of any media is an ensemble cast. It’s something I actively seek out, and when I say ensemble cast I don’t mean a trio, I mean a full cast, my favorite being 6 but 4 or 5 will do. So when I found out this show had 6 main characters I was immediately interested. Not only because I love ensemble casts but I also wanted to see how they handled it. Ensemble cast are so rare because they are extremely hard to do and do well. I will even criticize atla on this. At one point they had 6 main characters and they never elaborated on more than a handful of the duos and just focused on the group as whole. But this is typical and easiest to do without giving up individual character development so I get that. But jesus christ jwcc does a phenomenal job with this, and I mean phenomenal. Out of the 15 different duos you can get between 6 characters then have elaborated on 11 of them, and it could easily be more this is just from memory. I might make a post elaborating on this specifically because it’s just amazing. This time they take to flesh out these relationships truly makes them feel like a unit and a family, instead of just a group of people all working towards the same goal. This is easily the most impressive and rewarding of any of the points on this list in my opinion. (coming from #1 squad lover right here)

Camera angles and special effects: This shows downfall for some was that it had strange animation, honestly it never bothered me and since I’ve watched dragon prince and rwby, it’s clear that bad animation never stops me from watching a show. But I think people just won’t give it a chance, because when you do you’ll see it’s actually very good. To me the coolest part of the animation is the dinos. They look incredible and so so similar to the cgi used in JW. That’s hard to do so more claps for the animation team I love y’all. They also have to work around the PG side of this show and do a great job at implying what happens but never actually showing what happens. This is all angles, not to mention they do a great job at showcasing the park and the scenery so that magic from the movies really translates to the show. Finally my favorite scene of the show from an avid slow mo lover has got to me when Ben falls of the monorail (idk why it is cause he’s literally my fav and I was so upset) The scene is just beautiful and the set up before hand makes it that much more heart breaking. The use of slow mo is amazing I literally cannot rave about this scene enough. It builds so much suspense and they used just the right amount, to much and the scene would move to slow, and to little the scene would be to fast. I need more great scenes like this in S4 (idk if I want the angst that comes with it too I’ll get back to you)

Details: To me details, in any show in general, is what makes it go from great to fantastic. An example of this is Harry Potter, something that hooked me into this franchise was how much small details mattered and it’s the same with jwcc. There are so many throw away lines that end up coming back and all us are hitting ourselves for missing it. Such as Ben saying early on he knows where the tracker beam is and when he “dies” and the crew can’t find it it shows how important he was. Those are details I love to see. Or the three dinos, one of which Sammy released, coming back all season. Of course toro as well and he always kept his burns. Not to mention the animation team always kept Ben’s scar in and I think that’s an important detail because he shaped who he is. Keep up the good work animation and writing team because I love what you’re doing with this (also I’m 90% sure the compass is another one of these details I’m calling it rn) 

Amazing VA’s: Honestly VA’s in general do not get enough credit and they really should. But these 6 are pretty amazing let me tell you. If I’m not mistaken Ryan Potter (Kenji’s VA) is the only one with a notable history of voice acting as he played the title character in Big Hero 6. (fun fact I had no idea and when I found this out I quite literally screamed). But the others have also done things as well, most of it being live action though, and voice acting is much different. Honestly I just need to make a post about the various roles they’ve had cause looking into this has been an experience. Anyway all of them do such an incredible job with this ahh. I think the times where you can really tell how different they all are is when they lash out. This happens quite often and honestly it’s expected, I mean they’re 6 teenagers in a stressful environment of course they’ll last out. But all of them have such a different way of doing it, Darius is hopeless, Kenji is nervous, Yaz is emotional, Ben is harsh, Brooklynn is stern, and Sammy is level headed. Usually everyone lashes out the same way so the fact that they’re so different in just one aspect shows you how good they are. Each character is so individual and all of them have different goals and morals which is not only realistic but it makes way for conflict which is always interesting. 

Continuity: Now this could arguable go with details but it’s slightly different so I’m making this a separate point. Continuity to put it simple it basically not have the show be episodic. Honestly that completely what I expected from this show because that how most kids shows are. In this show the plot not only progress each episode but so do the characters and their trauma. Most of the time the plot will progress but anything bad that has happened to the characters will not show and is hardly talked about (COUGH VOLTRON). To me it’s something that has to be addressed because if the characters don’t grow what was the point of it. And they’ve shown that characters grow based on the events that happen and I love that. Another thing about continuity is when show runners stick a pin in something and actually go back to it (COUGH RWBY). Jwcc is amazing at this and make a point to bring back just about everything that gets sidelined in the first place. It’s so impressive and make the show that much more enjoyable. There have been countless times where I get so caught up with the pins that shows just leave there and it makes me so mad, but jwcc is good at for the most part because of course some things will slip through. But they always get back to the important things. 

The conclusion: Overall this show is phenomenal and if my essay hasn’t convinced you I’m not sure what will. The show is amazing at storytelling and plot and the lovable main cast makes it that much better. It is so much better than a good chunk of kids shows and honestly part of me wishes it was rated PG-13 cause I really wanna see that. But they do an amazing job and keep it kid friendly enough while still discussing mature topics. It’s the next atla to me and something that many kids shows now days try to be and fail. It’s impressive and complex and truly one of the best shows I’ve ever watched. Film major mara out, and if you actually read all of this ily mwah. 

[alatismeni-theitsa]

The obsession with putting Greeks into race boxes happens in the UK too. According to some reports on ethnicities from councils across the UK, roughly half of Greek-Cypriots don't call themselves "white", they write down "Other" in the ethnicities box on forms. Not to sound pretentious, but they speak from their experience of not being treated as "white" and having racial slurs thrown at them in their life-time. My neighbourhood used to be so racist to my Cypriot family in the 80s and 90s, they would yell racist slurs at us and throw stones at us. I was bullied in school just for looking Arabian/South Asian! (I got so angry once, I threw my school dinner tray loaded with hot baked beans at the bullies, vengeance is sweet!) These days, I'm asked if my Egyptian best friend and I are sisters because we look so alike! I say she is my sister from another mother: we love food, cooking, Christmas, anime&manga, and Halloumi...close enough!

Yes, I 100% understand that! I wouldn't put the "blame" on the light skinned people who don't identify as White if they felt othered by (socially) Whites in their country their whole life. And my "solution" was not necessarily a fit for everyone. I am well aware of the slurs Greeks hear and the behavior they come against in other countries and that makes it more difficult for light skinned ones to put themselves in the Whites box. But of course one doesn't have to out themselves in a box because reality is much more complicated.

I am sorry about the malakes you had to deal with in the UK!! They deserved the fasolada in the face 😂 You don't sound pretentious at all, you just share your experience and the reality of an amount of Greeks in the UK!

In Greece there are only "White", "Black" and "Asian" (Like East Asian) categories, with darker "Caucasians" like North South Asians and Arabs being in the "White" category. So Greeks here already identify "racially" with Arabs, Middle Easterners and many South Asians and we recognize the diversity within our "race" (which is the White one, if we speak broadly).

We find it racist to call people "Brown" and the other options are "Afro-" (I see Black also carries negative connotations in Greece lately but correct me if I'm wrong) or "Asian" for us, so naturally these ethnicities don't fit there. So the "white" box remains and it's not a weird an option for us. We may just add "dark" if the person has a darker skin tone. I mentioned this because you said that you look similar to your Egyptian friend, and I wanted to share the local viewpoint, which matches your situation.

But generally we avoid boxes based on phenotype, unless the difference is very obvious and/or it makes life more difficult for the person. At the same time we know that we are not that different from the average person in the UK (many Greeks told me that they hear they look "too white" to be Greek) so our "race" includes them, too.

I love that some racist Brits would hate that idea of being grouped together with Turks, Egyptians, Iranians, Pakistanis and North Indians in Greece 🤩 These Brits are the same ones who accept that not all Black people look the same and then short-circuit if you ask them to admit that not all White people look the same. And like Black doesn't mean necessarily "extra extra dark", White doesn't mean "extra extra pasty" either.

We avoid categories for middle tones like Brown because it invites people to look into semantics and the discussion ends up being more racist xD "Look, I am not Brown, my skin is one tone lighter than this Brown person!" Or something like "of course she is Brown. Yes she doesn't even tan but look at her crooked nose and her dark hair!" Or some people will call others Brown when their skin tone difference is two tones or less 🤦

Aaaanyways, sorry for the wall of text xD I wish you well and I hope you share more of your experiences or just generally swim by occasionally!