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creatingblackcharacters · 2 months ago

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No, That’s Not ‘How Color Works’. - Whitewashing

Whitewashing, as defined by Merriam-Webster:

"to alter (something) in a way that favors, features, or caters to white people: such as a) to portray (the past) in a way that increases the prominence, relevance, or impact of white people and minimizes or misrepresents that of nonwhite people and B) to alter (an original story) by casting a white performer in a role based on a nonwhite person or fictional character"

In fandom context, we know it to include:

Making someone’s skin lighter

Making someone’s hair a thinner texture

Changing someone’s nose to be thinner

Shrinking their lips

Changing the character in their entirety to be someone else

The Normalization of Whitewashing

Remember how I mentioned last lesson that despite the nature of poorly drawn Black characters, most audiences are not turned off enough to discourage the action in professional works? Similar idea with whitewashing. Not the same- unlike the Ambiguously Brown Character, which claims to have plausible deniability, overt whitewashing is usually enough to make fans speak up! But that’s the key word here- overt! It has to be “bad enough” to make enough people speak up, but as we’ve seen many a time, “bad enough” seems to have a much higher threshold for nonblack viewership (sometimes the limit doesn’t exist!)

Some visual examples

This is a link to my personal thread on a Netflix show I was watching- Worst Ex Ever. Now, while the show itself was quite enlightening, there was something I could not get over. I thought I was going crazy. And that was that no matter how dark the person of color would be in real life, the animated portions would draw this light pinkish-brown. Every. Single. Time. It's like they couldn't fathom scrolling down the color wheel. And this is a Netflix original! Netflix has plenty of money for someone to have caught this in creation. But... it was produced. And put out. And they're making more of it.

I asked all of the Dragon Age fans about the series, and uh… I didn’t know things were this bad, guys! Apparently this is a man of color, but it doesn't seem like the creators want you to know that 🤣. Jokes aside, as I’ve discussed before, the noticeable whitewashing- and that was one of many racist things I was told- was not enough to prevent sales... so why would they stop? I can only hope this new game, with all the updates, is enough to turn the tide. But the series has gone on for a while now, that if they’d chosen to do ye same olde… there clearly would not be a lack of financial support to prevent it.

Colorism as a Tool

Even when actors of color are cast, colorism often plays a role in normalizing whitewashing to audiences, even to Black audiences! People think “oh well at least they’re Black!” as if that is the only important part. It is not.

While Aaron Pierre, the actor cast for John Stewart of Green Lantern fame, is a GORGEOUS, STUNNING man, he is not the dark-skinned man that John Stewart is supposed to be and should not have been cast! To me, this is overt colorism, but clearly for many people this is not “enough” to warrant concern or even prevent the casting itself- including the studio behind the movie! Black fans have plead for years for the character of Storm to be played by a dark-skinned, preferably African, woman, and it has never happened.

It naturally happens in fan spaces as well, which is another indicator that colorism as a tool for whitewashing is quite effective for audiences. If I see one more Zendaya fan cast for Kida from Atlantis, I will scream. It’s been happening for years, and I don’t think any of the people who just want to see her and Tom on screen either understand or care that Kida is a dark-skinned character. Zendaya doesn’t look anything like Kida- it doesn’t matter if she’s Black too! Just because someone is Black does not mean they can play every single Black character! I’ve even seen people fancast Emilia Clarke of Game of Thrones fame, to which… I don’t have the words. I can’t fathom what would cause these decisions other than racism.

The Common Excuses

I must be honest. I don’t really feel like re-iterating how certain things are not okay and how to fix them, because I’ve already discussed these things in massive detail. So I’m just going to direct the excuses I regularly hear to my lessons, where you can read up on them.

“Their hair/eyes are like that because they’re biracial so-”

Relevant Lessons: 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 8, 9, 10

There is nothing wrong with having biracial characters with a range of features. I am not saying that! Because yeah, genetics do happen!

But I mentioned this in my last lesson, and I will re-emphasize here, that using biracial identity as a way to whitewash is a sinister form of racism. The intention here- the real intention- is the issue here! The idea that somehow this character can only look the way you want them to look by "diluting" their Blackness… I don’t know how you can explain yourselves out of that one.

You don’t get to use us as an excuse for diversity while still trying to maintain your preference for Eurocentric beauty standards. Black biracial people don’t always look light skinned, thin-haired and ambiguous, and even the ones that do don’t deserve to be treated as your fetish for pretend antiracism. If you just want to draw a white person with a tan, do that. But don’t change a character’s entire look just so you can work in some whiteness. If you want to claim that canon Black character’s mother was white, then I guess they inherited some of her personality because their features should not change.

“It’s my style/It’s the color-”

Relevant Lessons: 3, 4, 10

I hate all excuses for whitewashing, but I’ve grown to despise, hate, abhor and loathe this one the most as I’ve become an artist. I wish there were stronger words to describe just how much I hate the “style” and “color” excuse.

Are style and use of color oft intertwined? Absolutely. I’m not saying they aren’t. But out of everything, there are two things I want artists to understand:

1. Style does not cancel out racism! No style forces you to choose ashy greys and to change peoples’ features. That’s you! If you look at something, and it looks offensive, you change the style. You grow as an artist!

2. “Everyone who is brown will look ashy so I just-” if you recognize that your Black characters look strange in comparison to your nonblack characters, then it’s time to try something else! I don’t understand this sudden need for “realism” when it comes to color and lighting, but not when it comes to hair, for example. No one cares about realism when giving every and all Black characters wavy tresses they probably wouldn’t have, but suddenly milquetoast watercolor attempts at brown and off-putting lighting is “how it works”. That’s not fair.

The color picker is an available tool! I use it often!

Dead giveaway of purposeful whitewashing: if someone gets the outfit color palette right via color picking, but the skin color is multiple shades lighter. That means they were looking at that character and chose not to proceed.

Dead giveaway of purposeful whitewashing: if the white characters in the show are completely correct in their palettes. Again, that means they cared enough to look at everyone else… and not the Black characters.

If you use the color picker and the color picked is… disrespectful, you do not have to use that! You can simply choose a better color that is still similar to the brown that ought to be depicted!

“It’s the lighting-”

Relevant Lessons: 4, 5

If your white characters do not shine like snow in the sunlight because of your lighting, then your lighting does not make your Black characters suddenly light tan.

If your Black characters look bad in your lighting of choice- for example, putting a very dark-skinned character in electric white lighting can be ghastly- try changing the intensity or the color of the lighting. DON’T change your character’s skin color!

I'm going to show you some pictures of South Sudanese model Nyakim Gatwech. Pay attention to the choices of light, color, and makeup.

Look how BEAUTIFUL she is! Look at the choices of intensity and color of light, and how they make her look different in each image.

Now look at this image in comparison:

In this image, whoever did her makeup and took this picture did not take into consideration her skin tone. She's also under this really intense lighting. This is an example of "increasing the lighting does NOT make an image "better"". She didn't need to have lighter skin or "more lighting" to look good. She needed BETTER lighting, lighting that worked with HER.

To see this as an example in drawn art, @dsm7 makes an excellent argument for proper lighting and color, why it is an issue to use it as an excuse, and how to solve that problem.

‼️DISCLAIMER FOR NEXT EXAMPLE‼️

Okay. I am about to show y’all a fan-created example from my personal experience. It is a TEACHING EXPERIENCE ONLY. I am not including the artist’s name in this image. It happened a couple years ago, and it’s over- they’ve chosen to be who they are despite me kindly confronting them about it. The only reason I’m including it at all is because I feel like it would be remiss to have such a clear-cut, multi-level example, and not teach with it. That said, no, I am not telling anyone to act out towards them. Again, that is not what I’m telling you to do. The last thing I need is a literal lynch mob of angry nonblack viewership for trying to teach you all, and y’all sitting there watching it happen to me. Every example of whitewashing is not going to be so obvious, but I hope you learn how to spot the examples in the art you see and share.

I'm obviously a Hades fan, particularly of Patroclus- despite my disdain for the lack of effort in his canon character design. So I've seen a lot of things. That said:

“Well it’s just MY design of them-”

Relevant Lessons: ALL

The sepia coloring did not do this. The lighting did not do this. The design is the exact same as the Hades version, even down to the shape of the hair curling in the back. The only thing that is different… is the man himself.

Y'all. Y'all! You CANNOT take a pre-existing Black character and say “oh well this is my design of them” …and the design is of a whole white person. Because if the rest of the fit is the same, and the only thing that changed is the Blackness… Racism. If you’re going to “make up your own design”, then do that!

“Blackwashing”

Speaking of: I’m sure someone edgy out there thinks they’re so smart as they retort to the screen: “but if that’s not okay, then why is Blackwashing okay?” To which I say- shut up. 😐

The “definition” by fandom: making a nonblack character Black, usually an anime character, but characters in general.

Funny enough, the actual definition in the dictionary (or closest to) is “to defame”, in contrast with whitewash (as in whitewashing history). Maybe racist fans ARE using it correctly when they say you’re blackwashing their characters, when they mean you’re making them “less likable because they’re Black now”. 🤔

Anyway: Blackwashing is not real for the same reason reverse racism is not real.

Me painting these characters brown is not going to take away from the fact that there are far more of you in media than there is of me. Me saying that I ‘headcanon a character as Black with 4C hair’ is not going to make the studio go “oh! Well they must be Black with 4C hair now!” Me saying “oh I think I’d like this character better if they were Black” as a beta tester (less overtly, obviously, because I’m not racist!) will never make a studio change that character. Black viewers have minimal value in comparison to the power of the white viewer’s dollar. I could draw white characters Black every single day of every single game media… and they would still produce majority white characters. There has not been centuries- if not millennia, when we consider Jesus Christ himself, even- of purposeful “Blackwashing” with the intent of removing the original ethnicity- and thus importance- of white people. No one has ever been allowed to forget when someone is white. No one has ever been allowed to forget or not acknowledge white people.

How it could be "solved"

Personally, I love Black edits and I welcome them here. I find them creative and fun. But if you really, REALLY didn’t want us to make those edits, then naturally, we need more Black characters in all of our media!

I wouldn’t have to make edits if I saw more of me to begin with in the things I like to watch- but when we have those characters, racists act an ass about them. We’re not allowed to even be present! I’ve seen too many gamer bros mocking the existence of Yasuke in Assassin’s Creed, and he was a real ass man. But if we made a game about African peoples in African societies, how many of the gamer bros would actually play those games? Do you think there’d be as much support, when we hear so much about Black characters that are treated so abhorrently? How many games do we have where people would love their faves just as much if they were Black? I even learned that Solas was apparently supposed to be a man of color. IMAGINE how many people would not have liked that man, with the same exact plot and characterization.

Something I’ve noticed recently: apparently "Blackwashing" is not a thing when White fans “allow” it. Take this recent trend with Miku. International Miku was beloved! But if you draw any other character as Black on any other day, there will be people that are horrid about it. Ask any artist, Black artists and Black cosplayers especially, who’s ever done it what their comments are like. I’ve read entire missives akin to white supremacist drivel on how it’s somehow morally wrong to make characters Black. Meanwhile no amount of “hey maybe you shouldn’t do this” prevented the movie Gods of Egypt from being created, with a cast full of British White people.

Solutions to Avoiding Whitewashing!

1) Using References!!

Do I think you should know what Black people look like? Yes. We’re humans. It’s 2024. Everyone knows what we look like when it’s time to hate and discriminate against us, so you know what we look like when it’s time to love and depict us. If you’re on Tumblr, you have access to the Internet. ESPECIALLY if you’re in the U.S., as Black people are the source of damn near every piece of online pop culture. If you can find my dialect to make my jokes, you can find pictures of me.

Would I rather you use a reference every single time so that you can only strengthen your depiction of my people? ABSOLUTELY.

Anyone on the Internet telling you not to use a reference or that you shouldn’t need a reference? Unfollow them. You don’t need that negativity in your life. Why would you deprive yourself of a tool to create? The greatest portrait painters in history had to look at their subjects! You are not getting paid nearly as much to do this as Hans Holbein, and he had to stare at Henry VIII correct else lose his head- you can pull up multiple references. I’d far rather be judged for using hella references than be judged for being a racist!

Part of the issue is people draw what they’re used to, what they’re comfortable with (thus last lesson). But if what you’re used to is not what someone will look like… That’s not okay. Their features are not the issue, your skills are the issue. Learn! Practice! There is no rush. No one is rushing you to be perfect at drawing Black characters, and no one is rushing you to post them. You can just practice! If you’re not a professional, you can take as long as you need to draw! If you need to draw that piece of hair over and over until you feel like you have down the shape, you do that! If you need to use a tool that would draw the hair for you, you get that tool!

If you want to post, you can say you are practicing! If you make clear you are practicing, then be willing to accept that people may have feedback. I’d far rather deal with someone saying they’re unconfident and practicing, than someone posting a whitewashed caricature and closing their ears because “well at least I’m trying!”

2) Empathize! Care about actual Black people when you create a Black character!

Imagine, if you will, in the Twilight Zone: you went to an artist, and you asked for a white character (I typed in “regular looking white dude” on google). There’s hardly ever any white characters, you’re so super excited about this one! You paid good money, because you’ve seen just how amazing this artist creates! They’re so good at drawing characters of color! But no matter how many times you ask, they send you back an image of… Assad Zaman.

That man might be fine as hell! Gorgeous! Beautifully done! Chef’s kiss. Stunning! But… He’s not white. That’s not what you asked or paid for. You can’t even fathom how they mixed this up, they don’t even look alike! And when you confront them, they gaslight you, they call YOU the issue for not understanding how you can’t tell that this is a white man! They would never get this wrong! They have white friends, you’re the racist! But you’re not stupid, and you have functioning eyes- you can SEE what this drawing looks like! And… It’s not you.

It’s dehumanizing. It’s being told that there’s a “better way” to look like you, and that’s by… Not looking like you. You, as you exist, are what’s incorrect. Your identity is incorrect, not their drawing. It’s better to have thinner hair instead of an afro or locs, it’s better to have lighter skin, it’s better to have a straighter, thinner nose over a round one, and smaller lips.

And what makes it worse is knowing that people who don’t look like you? Probably won’t care. They won’t be willing to see- not unable, but unwilling- that playing with this caricature is harmful, that they’re propagating harm by not acknowledging it. They’re letting you know that your humanity means less to them than the clout received with a whitewashed or half-assed Black character, and that people will applaud them for that ‘attempt at inclusion’. And people will applaud! They will be entertained by the mere performance! And that hurts.

I’m going to say this, and it’s awkward and I try not to say it directly on here, but… Having Black friends and/or being around actual, real life Black people would help. I can tell from some of the questions I receive that Black characters and their traits- especially things like our hair and our cultures- are being treated as… alien concepts. But even if, for whatever reason, you legitimately don’t know any Black people, you do not need to know us individually to care about our humanity as a whole! Even if you do not know we’re there, we are, and we could possibly see your work!

By acknowledging Blackness and making room to understand what it means- and that includes how we can look- you are doing the bare minimum of acknowledging our personhood. If you cannot do even that, you don’t need to be drawing us.

Conclusion

Here’s the thing: if you want to draw a white man with tanned skin, do that. Just do it! You do NOT have to erase me to have more of you! There is not a single fandom where the majority of the white fans ever said “gee, not another white guy!” It simply doesn’t happen. God knows we wish it did sometimes. You will always have an audience for white characters. There’s no danger to any of you of “being erased”.

(Without putting on my political hat, I will say that a lot of white people who consider themselves to be far from white supremacist will express beliefs in line with great replacement theory if you push them hard enough. It is unfortunately not as uncommon an idea as you might think. I would do some self-evaluation.)

People are going to notice that you only ever draw white people, but… To be frank, that has never stopped anybody from being successful. Again, Jen Zee, at Supergiant with the terrible dark-skinned characters… Still has a job. at Supergiant. A professional studio. Dragon Age. Multiple games of consistent whitewashing and racist writing. Still going. If racism prevented creation and popularity, I wouldn’t have to have this blog. Alas, that is the society we currently live in.

But if you ACTUALLY want to depict Black characters, if you ACTUALLY want to do right and be respectful- not because you want the clout, but because it’s the right damn thing to do- then you need to commit! This means drawing them as they are meant to be! Accept that you’ll likely lose some fan base, who was there (whether they were aware of it or not) for the white and lighter skinned characters. Accept that this means that trying to appeal to those people by whitewashing characters is 1) wrong, 2) racist, which is 3) something you chose to do when you could simply have just… Drawn more white people.

I’ll say it again: antiracism is hard. It’s hard doing the right thing in a society that rewards racism so easily. It’s really hard knowing that people will stop supporting you or caring as much about your work when you start including Black characters as actively as you do white ones, especially if you start talking about the importance of it. But in my honest opinion, I’d far rather be someone that cared about others, with genuine fans, than someone that was racist for the fleeting internet clout of strangers. And that may be less ‘hopeful’ than I normally am in these lessons, but… People make choices. And people who have been informed- as you are now- are aware of the choices they are making. It’s the thought that counts, but the action that delivers- let’s choose better actions.

#creatingblackcharacters #black character design #whitewashing #antiblackness

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bravadoting · 2 years ago

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Black Trans Archive (Desktop only)

CW // flashing images and body horror

#media recs #cw flashing images #cw body horror #Very visceral experience especially with the art and storytelling #Its messages are directed toward different audiences (black trans; nonblack trans; and cis people)

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tododeku-or-bust · 13 days ago

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The Guide to the Popular Blogger's Non-Apology For Antiblack Racism

1. _____ is pressured because _____ is running out of denial for their actions; _____ is taking the easy way out.

2. _____ pens a post first saying that they're taking a short hiatus due to "all the drama, but first-".

3. _____ pens an apology for disappointing their viewership with their actions; that is, breaking the unspoken "we aren't supposed to be racist out loud, that messes up the cognitive dissonance that we are Good" social contract. Either does not apologize for the actual racism at all, or does it in an underhanded "I didn't know/we could have been polite/we're all victims" manner.

4. _____'s viewership, usually composed of a mostly nonblack audience with similar views but less followers, forgives aforementioned actions, though they are 1) not the target audience of a real apology and 2) therefore lack the right to forgive anything.

5. This cycle of non-accountability continues despite the actual victims of the racism and the outcome of their actions being unaddressed. Anyone who says this out loud is "a cop/fed/psyop" or "doesn't believe in redemption".

6. _____ comes back a little bit later to make more memes, and everyone chooses to ignore forgets what happened. No one learns.

7. Six months later, a new contender named _____ will wash, rinse, and repeat.

All right y'all, calling all bets! who wants to put money on it? 💵💵💵

#like it is insane how many times this has happened #must we keep doing it #racism is entirely too predictable and i hate that

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bookishfeylin · 1 year ago

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Him being retconned into a MOC alters the whole dynamic throughout the entire series, and it makes *that scene* in particular grotesque, and it fits a horrific pattern of Sarah treating POC like crap in her books.

Reread that part my dear. And yes, considering I could be harassed over this as I have been harassed in the past, I’d say I do have a right to at the very least be concerned over what people do with my content.

caught this in the notes of a fanfic. im baffled left to right throughout the whole damn thing 😭

we can cannot use irl societal imbalances in comparison with that of fae FAKE book characters that very clearly do not have problems with poc/foc. class problems are very very common in SJM books however racism has never existed in her worlds. lucien is not poc enough to even have been viewed as a poc for HUNDREDS of years so will not experience the (fake bcz it doesn’t even exist in prythian) discrimination this person is making out he does.

#Also should all the Black people and nonblack POC who agree with me should have their opinions discarded?#Like Black people are NOT a monolith so no you cannot take only word of the people who agree with you as correct #I don’t like that Sarah copied and pasted a racist real world dynamic into these books and then glorified them for her white audience #That and fandom getting mad at Lucien not being perfectly subservient to feyre is the issue here.

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dicapiito · 1 month ago

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Since Black People share zero blame about what happened in the election and why Trump won again; let’s do a master post on who’s to blame as to why Trump won again:

1. White people. They are never to be trusted to actually pay attention to shit so they will believe anything anyone tells them to. If someone is promising to get rid of anyone who’s not white; white people will vote for that candidate. White men vote for violence and white women vote in hopes to be like white men. I mean, Roe V Wade SHOULDVE been important …until I remember those stories from nurses at Planned Parenthood mentioning how obnoxious white women are about the service. White people who are actual allies are very rare and they know if they admitted to being hateful; they’d be all alone watching Fox News.

2. The mainstream media. MSNBC, CNN, Bill Maher, John Oliver, Jon Stewart ( the biggest douchefuck), Chris Hayes, Anderson Cooper, Joy Reid, among others (who I can’t name because I refuse to hate-watch their media). They spent all their fucking time bashing Biden and the Democrats. They let the lunatic leftists have a platform and they treated Trump like he’s no threat until it was way too late. They figured it’s better for their audiences to not take what Trump did in 2016-2020 seriously and just be mean towards Biden, Harris and the Democrats who actually work towards better.

Any one of these jokers could’ve taken an actual stand and report actual news about Biden but once Covid got calmer thanks to Biden and the White House became boring again because the Biden Administration was busy ACTUALLY WORKING; it just wasn’t enough for them. Once they knew leftists also found another cause they could hijack for themselves to “ stick it to the Dems” they also let these fuckers on their show to help spread more lies about the Democrats. But nope! They latched onto the “ Free Palestine” movement and sold that shit, knowing full fuckin well that it’s not America’s problem about the conflict and Biden and Harris were making sure to get a two state solution.

Their buyers remorse media is not cute and they are only doing this because they know they are a major reason why Trump won again. They’re also scared of retaliation so they’re going to act like they “ regretted it” and that Biden “ wasn’t so bad” while not ever really apologetic but their audiences will eat it up.

3. Nonblack PoC. Latino, Asian/ Pacific Islander community ( I’m not even shocked. I’m apart of this group and they love antiblackness), Arab Americans ( Rashida Tlaib is antiblack but because leftists are stupid; they couldn’t see something so obvious). The desperation to be accepted by white people and also the xenophobia in all these communities had them voting for Trump. They have the “ I’m one of the good ones” mentality and well they’re about to see that antiblackness and xenophobia has screwed themselves .

4. Social media websites letting misinformation spread, and I include tumblr since yet again this happened. I appreciate that X has a community note and people tried to fight it but it was just way too great. Too many bots were getting through. Facebook, tumblr, Twitter, TikTok, likely Instagram as well. And once the elections are over; it’s like they treat the election interference shit like it didn’t happen.

5. Leftists. As usual, since they’re bored and rich, they do this protesting “ the establishment” every four years because they don’t want to pay their fair share of taxes. They went right along with the Free Palestine bullshit because it has worked for them before. Susan Sarandon , remember her? She helped fuck over 2000 as well as 2016 and let the GOP into the White House. Since leftist includes being racist/antiblack and antisemitic; it’s a great way to get more stupid white people to not vote or “ protest vote” and help the GOP win. Now that they have; we won’t see the likes of Jill Stein or any third party candidates. They are only around to help fuck over the Democrats and yet this lesson seems to have to keep being repeated and holy fuck it’s fucking annoying.

6. Nancy Pelosi. I know I haven’t said much but she wanted Biden to step down. She wanted an open Democratic primary to get a new candidate and to go right past Kamala Harris. Her bullshit has been known for awhile, especially if you live in the Bay Area. People forgot because of Covid and because of the whack job who attacked her husband. But remember; she’s also Gavin Newsom’s aunt and well…do with that what you will. If Democrats have any chance at getting their base back; Pelosi needs to step aside and let Hakeem Jeffries be Speaker. Pelosi knew damn well if it was not Kamala Harris; Black People would not show up but she is a white woman first so of course she did what she did. And for her to act like Biden was too old when she’s in the same age group was even more moronic since he won against Trump the first fuckin time

7. antisemitism also played a huge part. Remember Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff is Jewish so if it wasn’t antiblackness; antisemitism was also at play here. Even though people won’t say it just like they won’t say their true reasons why they didn’t vote for Kamala Harris. Jewish People were the only allies along with the lgbt community who overwhelmingly voted for Kamala Harris. Every group has knuckleheads but the knuckleheads were extremely smaller than everyone else.

8. The Squad members. AOC, Rashida Tlaib, Jayapal, Cori Bush, Summer Lee and Jamaal Bowman. It’s time to get rid of these idiot DSA morons and the fact that Cori Bush and Jamaal Bowman are out is awesome. They always wanted to fuck over the Democrats because they want to appear like they’re activists while they really just sell “ someday it’ll be better” while making $176K a year. They need the GOP in charge so they can coast in the House. Too bad leftists don’t get that.

So now that we all know who’s to blame; maybe now take some fuckin responsibility and hope to fucking heaven that Trump won’t have SCOTUS overturn shit but who are we kidding? With Elon Musk around; a lot of things will be rolled back but let’s see if people learn anything from it. Oh who am I kidding ?

Oh and thinking of moving to Canada? Lmao Justin Trudeau already went “ AHT AHT”. Best believe other countries are already following suit so y’all are going to be owning up to who you voted for lol.

But ya know, Biden was “ too old” and Harris was “ too joyful”

#us politics #us elections #kamala harris #mainstream media #cnn news #the daily show #joy reid #last week tonight #john oliver #jon stewart #anderson cooper #Donald Trump #y’all got the man ya wanted #it’s above me and Black People now #doug emhoff

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bird-inatrashcan · 21 days ago

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CALLING BLACK SONIC FANS

Are you Black? Did you play Sonic Forces? If yes, I need your input.

Recently, I've been made aware of a post that interprets Infinite as a Black man. I'm in the middle of a longfic and I've been writing him as Very Distictly White. If this is intentional coding, or at least a prevalent interpretation among Black people, then I've been whitewashing him and it needs to stop. I've been asking the input of some Black bloggers, and one response (out of two, I'm not singling out just one to get out of jail free) expressed doubt on whether what I described was coding or appropriation, so now I'm trying to reach out to Black people who know the source material and have played the game.

Please, tell me: Is Infinite the Jackal Black? Do you claim him?

Feel free to contact me privately, my PMs are open. I can't guarantee that my audience will be cool about this conversation, so if you'd rather not risk being targeted, you're free to go there.

Tell me if you're open to follow-up questions, otherwise I will keep it to "do you think Infinite is Black yes/no"

Currently I'm not looking for nonblack perspectives, but if you have any resources to point me towards or anyone to point me towards, please feel free to hit me up.

#Sonic the Hedgehog #Infinite the Jackal #Sonic Forces #Racism in fandom #whitewashing #if I get no responses I'll err on the side of caution and just Assume he's Black and stop writing #i might still do that. but I want to hear from Black fans regardless

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logray · 10 months ago

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The comment Lana Wachowski made at that trans100 event - about how she knows a lot of black people that would vote against trans-friendly bathroom bills, and that they should know better because black people used to be forced to use segregated bathrooms - is probably one of the worst things I've ever heard a white LGBT celebrity say. She and her sister have a long and well-documented history of being two of the most racist people in Hollywood, and this is a perfect example.

While she didn't directly say that black people are responsible for preventing trans-friendly legislation, she still heavily implied it. She still singled out black people as opponents of trans rights. She still, for some reason, basically said that black people being transphobic is worse than nonblack people being transphobic because it's also hypocritical (never mind that you can certainly say the same for cisgay transphobes, who she never mentioned, but she felt the need to single out black people because it's... bathroom-related?) and that she expects better of them - why would you expect better treatment from a cis black person, but not from a cis white person? She also heavily implied that trans people and black people are wholly separate, mutually exclusive communities, as if there are no black trans or transfem people

@ardourie this is what came to mind instantly when I saw your posts over the last couple of days. The Wachowski sisters love to make their films & shows racially and culturally diverse, they love to fill their shit with nonwhite people (who can be cis, straight, gay, but conveniently never transgender, as if that can be chalked up to coincidence), but their respect for blackness & black people crumbles as soon as they meet a black transphobe. Suddenly black people have to be singled out as transphobic. Suddenly transphobia is worse when it comes from a black person. Suddenly blackness is antithetical to transness and suddenly those are separate communities.

The Wachowskis are racist. Lana Wachowski is racist and her remarks at the trans100 event were antiblack. Audiences are way too ready to overlook the anti-Asian racism in Cloud Atlas, they're way too ready to overlook the comments the sisters made about white saviours not being a real thing, they're way too ready to overlook the active removal of any and all references to Norsefire being racist or white supremacist in V for Vendetta (despite making it clear they're anti-LGBT!), and they're way too ready to overlook the trans100 comments. They're influential white artists, and so (like we see constantly on this platform) any attempt to address or criticise their racism is met with allegations of transphobia. It's not transphobic to point out when trans people are racist. It doesn't make you a TERF to point out when transfems are racist. It doesn't make you transphobic to point out when trans people make the LGBT community unwelcoming and hostile towards black or other nonwhite people.

The Wachowskis, their comments in real life, and the media they make, are racist. They perfectly exemplify the kind of stuff Tyler's been posting about, where they drive qpoc out of the community, decry criticism from people of colour as transmisogynistic, and are racially exclusionary in their support for LGBT rights.

#txt**#lana wachowski #lily wachowski #sense8 #cloud atlas #v for vendetta

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ariariarimu · 3 days ago

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"Make your own representation" On: being black online and in fandom

its the 5 year anniversary since i became chronically online. A rant on drawing while black, fandoms, blackwashing and "making my own representation"

I first got dogpilled online when I was 14. I saw some edits going around, they looked cool. They made their favourite characters black, changing their skin and hair texture to look like me! So I decided to do some of characters from my new favourite game... genshin impact. I post them on my dead art tiktok page, go to sleep and wake up with thousands of hate comment in my inbox. I immediately start crying and go to my elder sister for help.

The hate comments are the same bullshit I STILL see young black artists get on their black edits. Blatant racism, "it's disrespectful to the original artist," "if this is okay can i turn [insert one of 5 black characters] white?" It hurt. but it helped that my sister went under every remaining hate comment (after i limited and deleted a shit ton) telling them to eat glass. Only ONE stuck with me, "why dont you make your own representation?"

quickly ON representation and visibility: black art, black movies, side characters anything with a black protagonist does not get as much attention as their white (or nonblack) counterparts. Ive seen it happen with Allura from Voltron in 2018 to Mel from Arcane in 2024. To being in the Gorrilaz fandom who (still) routinely forgets that Russel is a character that exists. I'm saying with a little bit of nuance (ofc), not ALL black media/characters are ignored. But counterarguments cherrypick the same three movies and characters they still pale in comparison to the thousands of white led (in both crew and cast) media.

(mini rant: i can say so much about how both allura and mel are disparaged by the fandom because they get in the way of a ship between two nonblack men. then are retroactively stripped of any and ALL nuance to be objectified, conversations simply lingering on how beautiful their designs are. but thats for another time...)

It's weird how people still don't see it. right now im seeing a conversation of so called "cinephiles" having a huge blindspot when it comes to black movies. theyll watch the most niche hard to find bullshit but they havent heard of a movie that has a majority black cast that ISNT Moonlight or Get Out. Hell they dont even know who Spike Lee is. Compilations of lesbian movies reccs where each slide is a different flavour of white ladies. THIS is what I mean. And this is what i started to understand:

"Making your own representation" is a band-aid solution to the lack of black characters and media. Its an excuse to get us to shut up. We make our own stuff just for them to go back to ignoring us. Out of spite I did start creating my own rep. And I still do. 99% of my stories and worlds are built around queer Black women, girls, enbies. My culture and cultures from around the black diaspora. To the point where I stopped drawing fanart altogether and engaging in fandom culture to avoid the rancid antiblackness id see so often. Going on pinterest to see my own art reposted with racist remarks of my reimaginings and redesigns. I had to stop and ask myself, are these the types of people i started creating my own representation for?

Does the attention and popularity really matter if I've captivated people like me with my stories? This is where I give an emotional positive view on art and drawing while black with love rather than spite. Kinda corny but who cares.

fuck spite fuck negativity, fuck all the people who continue to dogpile black artists online. fuck the fact that i had to be harassed before i even thought of making stories centered around people who looked like me, instead of the people who i grew up watching, observing and wishing to be like. Although I MAY be at a disadvantage when it comes to audience and general reach, I think creating shit that I want to see more of is worth it. and said thing connecting to people like me, who crave to be represented in nerdy shit like comics, anime and cartoons makes that worth even sweeter.

NOW: TO ALLIES IN MY CREATIVE SPACE

I hate how i have to say this but this is not a personal attack on you as a white (or nonblack) creative. and if you do feel attacked or even uncomfortable, ask yourself... why? thank you for the support, no need to white knight. just sit with what you've just absorbed. then ask questions and then research. Im open to asks/questions, preferably moots tho. google is free, but if you can't find an answer out there if i have the energy ill try and answer.

to any other black artists reading this...ily <3

#txt #txt post #text post #text #ari rants #drawing while black #idk if i should tag the specific fandoms i mentioned but whatever #mel arcane #allura voltron #russel gorillaz #blackwashing #black edits

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