#part of me wonders if you are actually an RR crit who wants to be like 'see?? there ARE extremely ignorant people who oppose us!'

[oh-hush-its-perfect]

Wait a minute; you seriously think that dreadlocks are a racist characteriture? I know people tend to grasp for straws when looking to cry “racist!”, but this? Take your own advice and do some actual research before you virtue signal.

WOO this reply turned out way longer than I expected it to! But since I'm chosing to interpret Anon's question as earnest and their complaint as sincere (though I am giving them far too much credit), I figured we might as well do a deep-dive. The sentences that are in bold are the main ideas, and the sentences in large font are the wider takeaway.

Actually, it ended up being so long, I made an audio recording in case y'all have ADHD or dyslexia! The audio's not great and I mess up a lot while talking and I do have a speech impediment, but I hope it's helpful.

Again, I want to emphasize the fact that I don't think RR is a racist. He's just a guy with some unaddressed biases. Also, it's worth noting that I am not black, and someone who is could probably make a better argument (Black Riordanverse fans— if you feel comfortable, reblog with your own opinions please!)

That being said, yes, when you make non-human villains with features associated with black people, you are effectively dehumanizing and villainizing black people.

When writing books, especially high fantasy books (though RR's works are decidedly not high fantasy), people must draw upon real-world cultures for inspiration.

This can put authors in a moral conundrum. They can either a) take inspiration a single culture or continent, making the story deeply rooted in the ideas and elements of one people, or b) they can take inspiration from multiple places in the real world and make divisions as we do in the real world. For choice (a), take small-scale fantasy stories that take place in Medieval Europe, or stories like Raya (I mispronounce her name in the audio; please excuse me) and the Last Dragon, which nearly exclusively draws upon South-East Asian experience and appearance. For choice (b), take stories that involve massive battles and multiple cultures, like Star Wars. The risk that comes with choice (a) is that you can end up with a homogeneous people, and that necessitates the exclusion of other ethnicities. The risk that comes with choice (b) is that you can racially code your fantasy races/species.

Racial coding is a technique used either consciously or subconsciously by writers when creating fictional races. It occurs when authors draw upon real-world appearances and cultures to portray fictional appearances and cultures.

For example, the trope of the "Bazaar of the Bizarre" is widely prominent throughout media. It depicts a bustling marketplace, often full of oddities for purchase and theives. This trope is highly inspired by real life bazaars and souks and the like, and the correlation made in media between these marketplaces and debauchery instills in the audience a feeling of distrust towards these establishments and the racial groups with which they are associated. You watch a movie where a guy gets robbed on an alien desert planet while traditional Indian music plays, and then you pass a couple of guys listening to traditional Indian music, and you hold your wallet a little tighter.

Or maybe there's a fictional race that has medium-toned skin purple skin, small and slanted eyes, and straight black hair. Okay, we can tell from that description that these people are meant to be visually similar to Asian people. These characters are racially-coded. And say that this fictional race is also known for bad teeth and addition problems. These are negative stereotypes associated with Chinese people, and since we already see a visual correlation between Asians and these fictional purple people, that negative stereotype is reinforced. That's called negative racial coding.

Now back to Rick Riordan.

The Giants described in the Heroes of Olympus books almost all have non-human skin tones and hair described as being "braided," or, in Polybotes's case, "wild." "Braided" could mean cornrows or box-braids. Polybotes's "wild" hair is easily interpreted as an Afro or other natural black hairstyle. For Enceladus, no words were minced; he explicitly has "dreadlocks, braided with human bones."

There is no question about it; the HoO Giants have their hair in styles traditionally associated with black people.

So we visually correlate the giants with black people. Now that that's established, let's look at their behavior.

The giants are cunning. They are downright, unquestionably evil. They can be manipulative, or they can be brutish, but they are all destructive. Most importantly, they are inhuman.

The Giants' inhumanity is not just in their appearance (with their dragon legs and all) but in their treatment of humans. Enceladus in particular is a great case study; he is preparing to eat Tristan McLean if Piper does not comply with his commands. Cannibalism is a practice particularly associated with native African tribes, and it remains as a nasty stereotype that implies a lack of humanism in Africans.

I want to draw attention, too, to the fact that not only does Enceladus have dreadlocks; his dreadlocks have human bones in them. This little detail ties together (literally) the features Enceladus bears that relate to blackness and the absence of his compassion for humanity. His African hair is closely associated with his inhumane nature.

The effect here is that features that imply blackness are correlated to evil and savagery.

"Oh, but Jules!" you may say. "What about Orion? Orion is the only giant to be explicitly described as human-colored (the color of wheat-toast) and he doesn't even have braided hair like the other giants! His hair is short, and straight, and swept back!"

Oh, yeah. Let's talk about Orion, the exception that proves the rule. Orion isn't black coded. And that might have something to do with the fact that Orion is supposed to be physically attractive and human-like.

When your only handsome giant who could "pass for human" is the only one who doesn't have braids and who explicitly has a real human skin tone is white, and the rest are barbarous and black-coded, you have a problem.

(Concession— Periboia is described as blond, which may imply that her human half is white. We don't really know, because RR, like most white authors, has a habit of only describing a character's skin tone when they aren't white. However, the fact that she is a muscular, physically large woman, may be seen as enough to dehumanize her.)

And all of this is ignoring that a couple of the giants are explicitly described as dark-skinned black.

Like, "coal black." And HoO isn't the only series where RR does this; his Muspelheim giants are depicted the same way— though, to his credit, he does go out of his way to say that the "black one," Surt, is very sexy.

Now, let's talk about intention. I do not believe that RR set out to make black-coded antagonists. I think it just came naturally to him, and that's also worth examining.

This is a common trope— so common that RR probably didn't question it. In fact, he was probably heralding back to the "great" authors of old.

Like I said in my original post, RR was not exactly the first author to make his villains with black features. There's an expansive history on the subject, and a lot of it can be traced back to J. R. R. Tolkien and his orcs. Here's a little excerpt from a novel written by Johnathan Coe (admittedly, another white author), The Rotter's Club:

"Surely he must have noticed that Tolkien’s villainous Orcs were made to appear unmistakably negroid. And did it not strike him as significant that the reinforcements who come to the aid of Sauron, the Dark Lord are themselves dark skinned, hail from unspecified tropical islands from the south, and are often mounted on elephants?"

Worth noting here that Tolkien's dwarves were also Jewish-coded, though that's somewhat off topic (unless we wanna start talking about Rowling again, who herself made Jewish-coded goblins).

Anyway, Anon, I am not "grasping at straws." And I have, in fact, done my research. The point of my original post was not to "virtue signal" but to bring awareness. In fact, I was actually defending Rick Riordan in that original post. Because, at the end of the day, this is a trap any author can fall into.

TLDR; Racial coding happens when a fictional species is given features that allude to a real-world ethnicity. Negative racial coding occurs when those features accompany negative stereotypes about that same real-world ethnicity. Rick Riordan (probably inadvertently) does this while writing the Giants in his Heroes of Olympus series. His Giants have hairstyles akin to black hairstyles, and are sometimes described as having black skin. Since the Giants are portrayed as ugly, evil savages, the subconscious message is that black people may be ugly, evil savages. This is a mistake a lot of authors make, though; it's not solely RR's vice.

[hueninqkais]

rr crit. masterpost

seen rick riordan criticism and ever wondered what the big deal was? maybe you saw some people talking about how much they disliked a certain aspect of his books and just thought that at least he gave us this diversity in the first place. 

either way, this post is for you! i’ve compiled a list of meta and explanations from across tumblr that actually come from people who are able to speak on his representation in novels and this will help shed some light on why specific parts of rick riordan’s books are criticised!

preface: i’ll clarify that i am not trying to hate on rick riordan and i’m not making this as a post to start drama or to complain! i’ve always loved his books since i was young and read pretty much all his series! but there is really no excuse for a privileged white man to mess up this badly :/

but as humans in an everchanging society, we’re witnesses to change and to growth!! and our perception of media can affect how we empathise and treat the plight of others who are less fortunate in mainstream society. even if you don’t seen the problem in these criticisms or aren’t affected, please do not speak over those who are!! i’ll put the list under the tag <3

poc representation

medusa + middle eastern representation by @moontheapollocamper ↳ you might remember medusa from the first book in the percy jackson series, this piece covers what was problematic about how she was written and what stereotypes she enforced.

brazilian representation by @ellakay69 ↳ this is a very detailed and easy to understand post on why paolo’s character in trials of apollo is a terrible example of brazilian representation

on samirah’s arranged engagement in the books by @kubo ↳ perpetuating a harmful stereotype when many have been harmed is incredibly problematic

on the dehumanisation of poc and the dismissal of their experiences by @mustwealwaysbepredictable ↳ an important post to read as it breaks down the issues with riordan’s casual and problematic depiction of certain poc

paolo’s character in trials of apollo by @fan-dot ↳ another good post to help understand why paolo was thoughtlessly characterised just to fill a representation slot

poc characters and their families by @ellakay69 ↳ op made some excellent points here on how the poc families and their experiences are treated

adultification of black girls by @literateleah there have been many professional studies done on how black girls are always portrayed as more mature, and ‘adult’ and hazel fell into this category

physical appearance 

riordan’s portrayal of acne by @skatersuki ↳ a quick summary on why rick’s descriptions of acne were hurtful especially since his books are meant to cater to young teenagers who might be going through the same experiences

the depictions of piper and hazel by @howelljenkins ↳ would definitely recommend if you want to understand how piper and hazel’s coloured eyes (something glorified in fanarts) is problematic

on mixed race sadie by @goth-hazel ↳ this is an incredibly broad issue but it should be understood and this post is a good start!

lgtbq+ representation

riordan’s portrayal of reyna as an ace woman by @michaelyew ↳ breaks down the stereotypes that riordan made reyna’s character enforce and why this representation of asexuality is problematic nico’s coming out by @earthlyruins a brief but important take on why nico’s coming out was probably one of the worst ways to portray the coming out of a character onto impressionable young people

there’s a lot more to unpack here and i’ll continue to edit this post and add links!

problematic plotlines

why rick riordan’s ‘world war two was caused by the big three’ is a terrible storyline by @jewishpercy ↳ this was a well written and an eye opening text post for me because it was something i had never considered before and it definitely helped me understand why this particular point was actually quite gross :/ on the topic of rr saying that children of hades were nazis by @luke-x-percy ↳ good points are made here and this post points out the disgusting insensitivity that riordan portrayed when he brought the holocaust into mythology

serious events brushed by riordan by @hazellpjo ↳ you can see how serious issues were used for plot points by riordan when they really shouldn’t have been

how mallory’s death was incredibly insensitive by @sapphic-ace-reyna ↳ again, another piece that helped me understand something that i had never thought about and well written!

other opinions to give you something to think about

stereotypes pushed by riordan’s books by @canarhys on the topic of poc names and nicknames by @rowansdamisch the problems with riordan’s characters in heroes of olympus by @housemartius what to consider when these criticisms are brought up by @knuffled on the portrayal of mixed race sadie by @howelljenkins a overall criticism of the mythology in the pjo books by the @theatomicboom on buff girls in media by @macsi sadie and uh the age difference by @spoopy-elliot