#don't know much about black or east asian cultures so i didn't write much for those

[twinkthrasher]

Posting some of my Redacted HCs because I love sharing my opinions!!!! :333

Angel is Saudi Arabian, probably born and raised for a few years in Saudi before moving to the states. Despite being raised in a VERY ethnic family, they still turned out very American.

Babe is Mexican, was born and raised in the states with parents who immigrated young. They struggle to connect with their culture, and doesn't speak a whole lot of Spanish but they do like to practice with SH and Darlin.

Sweetheart is Dominican, born and raised, moved to the states near adulthood. Still struggles with english a bit and prefers Spanish when conversing with Milo and Darlin. They have a heavy Dominican accent!!

Darlin' is Mexican, born and raised in Mexico before moving to the states as a teen. Learned english relatively fast with the help of Milo, Asher, and David. Has an accent, but not as heavy as Sweetheart's, it's barely noticeable.

Lovely is Black, and grew up on the west coast. They used to live right on the ocean and loved to surf.

Freelancer is Filipino, born and raised. Lived in the Philippines right up until D.A.M.N. They're the first and only of their family to leave the Philippines.

Dear is Indian, despite their family having lived in the states for generations, their connection with their culture has always been strong. They LOVE attending family events.

Cutie is mixed Black/White, was born in America, and a predominantly white family.

Honey is Brazilian, born and raised in the states but is relatively in touch with their culture. Their parents are the only ones of their family to immigrate, so Honey goes to Brazil quite often. Took Guy to Brazil once and he loved it.

David is Taiwanese.

Asher is mixed White/Vietnamese.

Milo is Nuyorican, his family had already been in New York for a few generations before he was born, his generation wasn't very involved in the traditions growing up— so he's a little more American than Puerto Rican in terms of culture, but he still speaks spanish like a champ, him and Sweetheart typically speak spanish to eachother.

Sam is my beautiful white princess, contrary to popular belief— i think he's from the midwest region of the states, NOT the southern states. I'm right ur wrong... signed, a southerner :3

notice how many of them are hispanic RAAHHHH💥💥 I HEART PROJECTING ONTO CHARACTERS💥💥💥💥

[thesushisuke]

I thought about diversity in media. Books, Movies, Comics, whatever.

I create a lot of stories and OCs. I don't share a lot of them online but they are there, running around in my head. Most of my characters are very german, like me.

Lately, diversity in Media has become more and more talked about. And more and more media gets critizised for it - either not having much diversity or having forced diversity or diverse characters that just feel wrong because they are portrayed badly. This has me thinking about why so many of my characters are just white europeans or do not really have an ethicity (because fantasy) but are white. Some asians where in the mix but it took me years to even have one black OC.

It's because I'm german.

Look, black people for example have been living in America for multiple generations now. There are black Americans living there with their own culture, own struggles and own history in that country.

And then there is Germany and I don't think I have to tell you why a few generations back, non-german people where not really living in germany. (The entire country was run by racist people that commitied genocide, if you need a reminder.)

Of course that isn't the case anymore and non-german people are immigrating to germany again. We also had big waves of refugees coming here.

But it's still like one or two generations only. There are more Asian people than Black people, and also more asian people that grew up in germany, but still not a lot. Most black people I see on the streets didn't live here for very long yet, and depending on where you live, you don't see a lot of them (Big cities like Berlin obviously have more non-german people living there than smaller ones). And I feel like people from other countries tend to stick together, probably because people where raised so diffrently. Especially people from islamic countries don't really seem mix with germans and stay amongst each other.

So of course young me did not really think about drawing a dark skinned person, because I never really got to know them. I barely created a few east asian ones because there where more of them where I grew up, but I didn't really get to know them either.

And when I did make a black character, I felt really unsure what to do with them. I know one black person, and they are mixed and grew up in germany without the black parent, so they know not more about other peoples culture than I do. If I ever create a comic about my character, I wouldn't feel confident writing her without getting something wrong.

Big Studios, like Disney for example, can and should hire a diverse cast of ceators to make their movies, so that they can be diverse and accurate. But a book written by one person, spcifically if it's a hobby project, might be not as diverse because their live isn't as diverse. That's probably also why manga and anime aren't really diverse, because the culture in japan isn't really either. And in the end, we are inspired by our own life.

I want to make my art more diverse, and this was just going trough my head while thinking about it.

[thefirstknife]

I like your analysis! It would be very cool if all of them were fully mixed, although I still think Clovis was written to give off entirely different vibes - those of a white colonialist man who didn't like women, especially women of colour very much; despite marrying one, which is also very common among those type of white men who fetishise women of colour despite thinking less of them. Lusia specifically mentions that Clovis apparently considered her "stupid":

"You are not a robot. You're not even a total-replacement prosthetic. You are a body, and a body is the same thing as a person, and a person deserves respect. Basic transhuman hermeneutics." She winks at your surprise. "Did Clovis convince you I was stupid?"

Though we have no direct evidence either way. I'm only looking at Clovis from the writing perspective and his ideals of genetic purity which is a very historically white idea. He was a very bad man with very awful ideas so my line of thinking is that Bungie wouldn't really put him into heavily ostracised minority groups (black and Muslim). That meta reason aside, I think it would otherwise be very interesting if the whole family was so visibly mixed: it would perfectly show just how interconnected and diverse the Golden Age was.

Also, given how Ana wasn't genetically altered but has no visibly black features and is instead east Asian (highly implied to be mixed Korean due to both of her VAs), it's not very likely that Clovis II was black (and through that, Clovis I too since he made his son into a genetic copy). However, it should be noted that mixed people don't always look perfectly mixed so anything is possible. Genetics are weird (especially since Clovis II was genetically altered).

But the rest of the Brays are 100% people of colour and there's so much diversity among them. I especially love how the members that contributed the most scientifically are women of colour that Clovis initially had no faith in. Elsie, Willa and Ana were absolutely brilliant, and as we can see, Lusia was a brilliant mind as well.

Lusia (grandma Bray) is very interesting too because she's obviously Surinamese and even mentions native languages, but her maiden last name, Lin, is distinctly East and South East Asian in origin. Which makes me think she was also mixed herself.

But since we don't know the exact appearances of the Bray men, we can't tell anything for certain just yet. I do like the idea of Alton also having been black, though if he is Shiro, then he would have to have been Japanese (perhaps mixed too?). I also have huge Alton feels, I want to know more about him desperately.

Also yeah, Islam is definitely canon! There are so many Muslim-coded characters through either names or design (female NPCs in the Tower cover their hair). Not to mention that like, the whole Tower has architecture and design inspired by the Islamic world which is mostly apparent around the Bazaar area (and like, the word "bazaar" itself is of Middle Eastern origin).

I really enjoy this topic and love seeing the cultural diversity and how Bungie made sure that there's people from all over the world existing in the setting.

UMM??? EXCUSE ME??? Was anybody going to tell me that Elsie (and possibly the whole Bray family) were Muslim?? Because she uh, definitely said “inshallah” to her mom!!!

Like, based on all the info, the Brays are Black Carribean Muslims??? I’m losing my mind.