Poll: Which is more racist?

[Mcupobob]

Its only racist if you add a token ethnic character who never develops and is only based around stereotypes. If your writing your comic and think "Hey I could use a little color here" theres nothing wrong with that but don't make a character who is only there because his/her is black/whatever else. What I'm trying to say is that race shouldn't be a way to define people, what they do and who they are do.

So no I don't think either situations would be racist in less how you execute the idea. If you're excluding certain races out of hate and point that out in the comic then its racist. Or if you trying putting a certain race into your comic and hes nothing but it stereotype then racist. Anyways if you just don't think about and not make it issue then its fine.

 

[Trippy Turtle]

how is either rascist? i could go up to any black person and yell "YOUR BLACK" and it won't be racist. its just a fact. racism is A: having a bias due to race or B: insulting someone about there race. saying someone is black is not racist neither is writing about them.

 

[sylekage]

It's not racist if none of your characters in your story are black, and it's not racist if you're white and write a black guy, it'd probably come out more stereotypical than anything.

Now here's a question for you, did you actually think to yourself "Hey, I didn't create any black people!" or did you not really give any of them a race? Just kid of wrote your own superheroes with a background. No mention of skin color or anything. Cuz that would be more of a preference amongst people, until they actually go to publish it, or they actually come out and say what they are, you know what I'm saying?

 

[Nieroshai]

In recent years I've created a pantheon of superheroes and a universe for them to dwell in, but Movie Bob's latest video has brought me to a realization: I don't have any black superheroes. Which now brings up this question: Which is worse, having black characters written by a white guy, or having no black characters?

What about an Asian superhero? An hispanic one? What about a latin-American one? Do you have an Indian super hero?

It's not racism that caused you to leave them out, it was identification. You're white, you make white heroes. It's a very normal, ordinary thing to do. You create identities you relate to.

When I write the stories I write, I usually choose regions and assign them cultures and races according to what race had that culture here in real life. Now in the early 20th century where most of our superheroes originated, they did not do this. Therefore we had a ton of white heroes and only token black ones and HARSHLY token Native American ones. Now we've been making new heroes since then, but we can't exactly kill off all the white superheroes that're already out there. So yes there is a disproportionate number of non-white heroes, but that's not because we're racist now, it's because we sucked at writing minority characters back when superheroes first became big, coupled with the fact that up until MLK and pretty much everything else that happened in the 60s and 70s, we didn't really pay attention to minorities because of them, well, being "separate but equal" at the time.

 

[Ulvai]

Oh, white guilt...

 

[dexxyoto]

I have no opion, a good charater should be a good charater no matter its race.

 

[s0p0g]

what about "neither"?

i mean, you could as well ask about asian, indian, middle-eastern and whatnot people

what's the big deal? are you still looking at that skin colour? are you that "old-fashioned"?


what about prince of bel-air; they were all black, not one white main zomg!!!!!1111111oneoneeleventyone AND they had a black butler, too! now how discriminating is that?
or the bill cosby show; not one white main-character
damn that's soooo racist

and why didn't the black guy whose name i forgot in Heroes have a black woman as a partner? why did she have to be white? are black women not good enough for black men? that's both sexist AND racist


the media are eff-ed up

 

[Vandy]

Actually, there's a historic precedence for an African in feudal Japan...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yasuke

 

[HardkorSB]

In recent years I've created a pantheon of superheroes and a universe for them to dwell in, but Movie Bob's latest video has brought me to a realization: I don't have any black superheroes. Which now brings up this question: Which is worse, having black characters written by a white guy, or having no black characters?

So what you're saying is that black characters written by a white person is racist just because they're written by a white person?
So does that mean that "Blade" is a racist comic book? The creator is a white guy after all.
And not having black characters is racist too? how does that work? I guess that means that "Inception" is racist, huh?
Sorry to say (write) this but if you're serious than you're really ignorant and/or stupid.

Nothing at all racist about either of those without racist context. Hell, black people can make black characters and be racist.

(Insert obvious Tyler Perry reference here)

Or Spike Lee.
Edit: Oh wait, he writes white characters in a racist way so I guess that's not the case, huh?

 

[Vryyk]

If the movie takes place in modern America than no black characters could be racist. Then again same thing applies to every other race except for white. If it takes place in other countries or times than it might not matter. If a white person writes a black person in a way that isn't racist then it isn't racist. Maybe you want to rephrase the questions? Since it's otherwise kind of impossible to agree with either point.

Wait, are you saying minorities are incapable of racism? I'm sure I'm just reading it wrong, could you clarify for me please?

 

[Switchblade1080]

Anyone making a topic involving racism IS racist...

 

[Bobbity]

Neither of them are necessarily racist, although the former smacks of commercialism and cheap stereotypes.

 

[loodmoney]

Assuming that your universe allows for people of colour, having no black characters is far worse. If you decide to only write white characters out of fear of misrepresenting blacks, then by the same logic you would have to write only men out of fear of misrepresenting women, only (and I am assuming here) hetrosexual, only... &c. &c.

Basically, you would have a universe in which only people who are just like you would exist. This is necessarily racist (sexist, &c.), in that it requires yourself and your readers to imagine only the existence of white folk.

On the other hand, writing outside your experience acknowledges that other people exist. Now this can be rasist if you write token characters, which allow yourself and readers to imagine only the barest of stereotypes, which is hardly better than non-existence. But it doesn't have to be racist, because you can write good characters, and you and your readers will see them as actual people.

I don't buy the "as long as the characters are good it doesn't matter" argument, either. If ignoring the race of your characters leads you to write a white universe, this speaks more to an ingrained racial bias than it does neutrality. The fact that you have picked up on your omission and have decided that there is a potential problem means that you can do something about it, and I applaud you for that.

 

[PrinceOfShapeir]

Actually, the OP is being pretty racist if he really believes that a white writing a black is inherently racist.

 

[bdcjacko]

I think it is more racist to pose the questions in terms of black and white and forget that there are more than two races.

 

[funguy2121]

Which is worse, having black characters written by a white guy, or having no black characters?

Sigh.

No, I can do this. It's OK.

OP, I'll take "worse" to mean "worse for art" and not in any moral sense, since neither of the two options you posed are immoral.

It depends on your perspective. If you haven't met many black people and you don't find that you relate to black characters, you are probably better off not trying to portray them (unless you feel like, y'know, getting out and seeing the world some time). As a writer, you know whether or not you can competently portray a black character. If not, I'd say stay away until you have a little more experience. Otherwise your black character will come off as "look at me! My creator's totally not a racist! 'Sup, dawg!" and believe me, no one wants that.

 

[The Grim Ace]

If the movie takes place in modern America than no black characters could be racist. Then again same thing applies to every other race except for white. If it takes place in other countries or times than it might not matter. If a white person writes a black person in a way that isn't racist then it isn't racist. Maybe you want to rephrase the questions? Since it's otherwise kind of impossible to agree with either point.

Wait, are you saying minorities are incapable of racism? I'm sure I'm just reading it wrong, could you clarify for me please?

Oh, no, minorities are as capable of racism as white people. I was just adressing his topic which was mainly about white people and racism (since he's taking it from Movie Bob's episode yesterday). Addressing the even more complex issue of minority racism is something that would probably give me carpal tunnel.

 

[thylasos]

Depends on the white guy, I suppose.

 

[Blindswordmaster]

Allow me to clarify: Yes, I am serious.
Upon further review, race doesn't really matter to my cast of heroes. I've really only focused on a few citizen persona. In other words:Race really doesn't mean anything to my characters, so I might as well make them white. I mean, most of them could be white, black, asian, or hispanic and it wouldn't really change them as a character. But Red Specter and Nightwatch have to be white. Masked Marauder too. It's just who they are.