Comments on: The Validity of Diversity-Based Reviews

By: Ragged Boy

Ragged Boy — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 12:42:52 +0000

I guess so I mean that’s kind of what I did in the first place. Thank god there doesn’t have to be an Earth.

By: B. Mac

B. Mac — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 02:53:29 +0000

It definitely doesn’t have to be set on Earth, or even with humans. To the extent that there is a problem, I think it’s that there seems to be an incongruity between the story’s setting (aliens on another planet) and how much that setting feels like it’s about humans on Earth. If you’d like to take this in a more heavy sci-fi direction, I’d recommend just differentiating the species from humans a bit, or differentiating the planet. I think Star Wars and Star Trek did a pretty good job of tweaking humans into interesting alien species.

By: Brett

Brett — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 00:36:46 +0000

That’s what I’m trying to tell you! It doesn’t have to be on earth! Earth doesn’t even have to exist!

By: Ragged Boy

Ragged Boy — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 23:59:00 +0000

Hhmm, now that I’ve vented I can be sensible haha. I see why they should be human, the truth behind my love of aliens is that when I was learning to drawing, I sucked at hands, noses, and arms. Also I hated overly buff superheroes, with their chiseled abs and ripped arms, I felt how come there aren’t skinny superheroes everyone isn’t buff as hell, I’m not. Plus, I hated how the human waist looks so ugly, so I began to draw noseless, three-fingered, skinny aliens with narrow waists after years of drawing this is has become second nature to me. Although on my long journey of learning to draw I have learned to draw those ugly features, I still love my aliens. But I guess if I ever want to be a comic book artist I’ll have to draw stupid noses and such more often to get better at them. It would be cool to have a poor black hero who isn’t muscular, I quess, I’ve got some authorial-distance problems to work out hahaha. I’ve got alot of rethinking to do, new names, new superevil, and modifying eveything to be on Earth. Sigh

By: Brett

Brett — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 23:58:58 +0000

How about making him human, but an alien human. Earth doesn’t even exist in Star Wars that we know of, but there’s still humans everywhere.

By: Ragged Boy

Ragged Boy — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 23:45:36 +0000

If I decide to humanize him (and everyone else) my story will need so much reconstuction. I guess I better get started in setting this story on dumb Earth. Oh my god that means I have to start all over. If I make him black he’ll be even more a Mary Sue, even though I dress, act, and speak “whitely”. No more Cyborn Moon or space travel. Now I’m going to have to use some stupid hegemon. His species is supposed to seem human they are the relatable base for humans (sort of like Star Wars), seeing as the other species are not human-esque. By the way the hip-hop guy is a different character not Aadrello, but I guess I’ll just have to make them human, ICK I hate noses haha.

What’s the word for a person who hate humans but is one? That’s me.

By: Jacob

Jacob — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 21:42:51 +0000

One of your choices that sort of baffled me was using highly human-like aliens in place of actual humans. Ahem. Your protagonist seems to live in a world very similar to a dystopian version of an American or European city, complete with graffiti gangs and economic recessions. As far as I can tell, his species doesn’t have any uniquely non-human qualities.

If I were working for a publisher that was interested in your series, I’d push you hard to make Aadrello/Sketch a black human, or at least a poor urban white. I suspect that would make the character significantly more relatable and marketable. If the character is sagging his pants to give him more hip-hop appeal, why not go all the way?

Ironically, I think that making him a poor black would make him more unique than an alien. There are so few poor black superheroes. For example, Static Shock is distinctly white-collar, Black Panther is royalty, Storm’s a teacher at a posh academy, and Steel seemed pretty well-off in his movie…

By: Ragged Boy

Ragged Boy — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 18:22:30 +0000

I never thought that this would apply to me because my characters are aliens and do not have a human ethnicity. But a few days ago I showed a friend a drawing of a character I made and they said this guy has to be black. I said he’s not black, he’s an alien. Then I realized that the character sags his pants and wears a noose around his neck “Oops Race Alert”. So its does matter because if i don’t give some sort of ethnic “clue” then people will go off what they perceive.

For example, no one really gave Daffy Duck a race, but people thought because he is rude, ignorant, and always ends up in a bad situation that he is black. Another is a character I drew that was like a deer/guy, people instantly thought that he was homosexual or a girl. It was funny but just because he looks effeminate doesn’t make him gay. I have no problem with anyone’s race or sexual-orientation. I’m black and straight but have a diversity of friends and associates. I’m often taunted for acting “too white.” So I just say I’m an alien and then they think I’m gay, which makes me laugh. Now that I think about it Aadrello, if human, would be white, Irabella would be black(with her new personality), and Jornai would be English.

By: The ReTARDISed Whovian

The ReTARDISed Whovian — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 07:08:31 +0000

When I throw in a tiny bit of character description in my writing (no mirror-gazing for my characters), I tend to mention the ethnicity of them passively, or even let the reader figure it out. I might describe how a female character wears a steel bracelet, her surname might not sound western and that her father carries a kirpan. From there, they can work out where she’s from and even her religious beliefs. I don’t outright say that she’s from India and that she’s a Sikh.

Sometimes I show by describing their voice.

“Hey, how are you?” he asked in a light Irish accent.

Other times I let other characters say it.

“This sausage roll is really good.” “Well, that’s the taste of Australia.”

By: dave

dave — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 14:47:29 +0000

i think that writing in fantastical characters can be a useful way of portraying difference without bringing in the reader’s inherent feelings towards an actual minority or non-normative group, but also want to emphasize that the parallel can exist even when there is no such intention. the x-men have been parsed again and again as having certain parallels with both gay/lesbian communities and queer lifestyle. (both being a mutant and being gay are things you are born with, that you may hide from intolerant people and that they can seek a like-minded or open-minded community to live freely, etc etc).

one danger, depending on the treatment of “fantastic” or alien characters, they may appear to be shallowly veiled caricatures of different ethnicities … it can take many forms, but the most obvious is when, for no reason, a species of alien has a scottish accent. these sort of telltales can then form a, perhaps unforeseen by the author, accidental bigoted portrayal of a minority group or culture.

By: B. Mac

B. Mac — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 17:19:53 +0000

Thanks for commenting, Dave. What do you think about using fantastical characters?

By: dave

dave — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 16:21:04 +0000

@alex smith: great comments.

so i’m been diving into large chunks of this website and really enjoying it, but i’d like to encourage you to delve into some more unfamiliar territory.

when you say, “I have concluded (above) that using minority characters virtually guarantees that some readers will think that I’m [terrible]” you overlook that when you only write white middle-class guy stuff there are plenty of folks who think you’re [terrible] too.

check this out: http://www.sequentialtart.com/article.php?id=987

By: B. Mac

B. Mac — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 22:20:26 +0000

Thanks for your suggestions.

I think I can relate to your annoyance that whites are so prone to have the seemingly random accidents that cause superpowers. I’m a Chicagoan and it has not escaped me that being a New Yorker is also a major risk factor. (Also, being a scientist/astronaut– being a white New York scientist is apparently so dangerous that you’d have to be stupid to do it).

One of my formative experiences was reading a comic book a long time ago where the heroes come to Chicago for whatever reason and have to stop some sort of sea monster from destroying… the Sears Tower! The main problem with that scenario– and I think this is glaringly obvious to anyone that’s spent more than a week in Chicago– is that the Sears Tower is a mile away from the lakefront. It would be like someone doing a landscape of New York and painting the Statue of Liberty backwards. Oh, wait).

By: alex smith

alex smith — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 17:57:30 +0000

PS: You have a great website!

By: alex smith

alex smith — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 00:50:32 +0000

You have to look at the whole of media to understand black fiction readers’ concerns. Blacks are generally portrayed stereotypically and not as humans with their own set of problems, backstory, lives, hopes, dreams, OUTSIDE of what the color of their skin reveals. Great strides have been made to create AWESOME black characters that have generally been written by white writers: Mr. Terrific, Cyborg, Steel, Storm, Captain Marvel, John Stewart… even characters that started as tokens like Black Lightning have been transformed by time. So, there’s no real excuse; good white writers have proven they can write interesting characters outside of their own race. As well, Warren Ellis’s portrayal of Midnighter and Apollo as two out super heroes who are not, in anyway, a stereotype of gay people, is also to be commended.

The point isn’t to get something right culturally; like, who thinks “what would a black person say?” when they go to write a story? If the story doesn’t call for street level black (or white!! or hispanic!!) characters, then why should the “Supp m’nigg” question even be asked? Instead, think, “what would my CHARACTER say? What kind of character do I want to write? Do I want a character that uses the “n” word to be in my story?”

I’m a black, gay male writer who has written a plethora of “types”. My comic book universe is truly diverse and I refuse to be pigeonholed. The reason why it’s diverse is two fold: 1) I feel a need to include non-white races b/c they (we) have been neglected for so long and it’s becoming increasingly difficult for me to identify with an all-white genre. I’ve even purposefully gone back and re-did my characters from 6th Grade (20 yeas ago! i’m 32) because I feel it’s sad that a 12 year old black kid needs to feel compelled to write white characters just b/c they were the norm. 2) It’s kinda dumb to think that if power is so random, why would only white folks get the powers? It just doesn’t make much sense (and even though we’re writing fantasy, we still have to be grounded in some realism for the fantasy to even work!)

No one wants a perfect character. I remember being pissed off that John Stewart destroyed an entire planet. I took that really personally as a young reader, and it helped informed the way i looked at comics. But I am OK with black characters being problematic, with things happening to them that make them stronger upon return (Storm losing her powers, captain marvel/photon being regulated to the b-list, cyborg’s endless dismantlings). A good example of how to write race is Ex-Machina. Have you read that? It’s very hard for me to read sometimes but I have to believe that I trust the writer, Brian K Vaughan. His characters are extremely flawed and awkward, but nonetheless interesting and “real” (wthin their own universe’s reality). Trust your instincts. Study. Watch every Spike Lee film. Read MILESTONE comics back issues. Talk to people on the subway. Realize that skin color doesn’t dictate personality or your ability to do heroic things; it only sometimes informs the conditions that these choices are made. This is what writers do; we make choices. Trust your readers.