What are some things you would like to see for characters of color in media going forward, and specifically Black characters? I read posts saying how to write these characters, but that's different from what Black and other non-white people WANT to see in these characters, you know? Are there any specific traits, hobbies, skills, philosophies, fashions, personalities, or anything else that you would like to see depicted more?
If there are characters that already exist that you want to reference, feel free, I will do research about them. I want to create characters of color as respectfully and creatively as possible, and I want them to feel multi-dimensional and fleshed out.
Sorry if any of this is stated weird, I just think you have good opinions and points of view. I want to do my best portraying characters of color and especially Black characters, and that includes what people want to see in them *along with* writing them well.
Sincerely, a white person who wants to create non-white characters that non-white people find joy and maybe even comfort in. (I've seen many posts saying how to write disabled characters, but as a disabled person myself there are things I want to see in disabled characters that those guides don't include, you know? And I respect your media analyses and takes. Sorry if this seems weird, have a good one!)
I don't find this to be a weird ask and I really appreciate that you wanted to hear from me. I got your 1k so let's go.
I will be writing this post from my own personal experiences as a Black American. Meaning, I can't speak for the entire Black community around the world.
Now with that out of the way, let's go onto the original question at hand
A bit of a non-descriptive answer is just any hobby. I just feel like too many Black characters are just reduced to extensions of the white cast/protagonist.
To get a bit more specific
I think this is my biggest one. I would love to see more in Black characters. Have a Black character who's constantly covered in paint, willing to sew your clothes together, etc. (If you've seen ML, then I say try to think something akin to Marinette). Art is a big thing in Black culture, one of the reasons why I really loved the fact that in Miles's introduction scene in ITSV is of him drawing, so this is a big one for me.
I've been getting back into Black Clover recently and one of the characters that I really like recently is Kahono. If you haven't seen the show, the quick version of it is, she wants to be an idol, has a song-based power, and I'd love it if a Black character were like that. One who's either just REALLY into theater, singing, etc.
On that note, Black theater kids also exist so it would be nice to see that. My parents and my grandfather (a man who alive during Jim Crow) LOVED the Hamilton musical. I really like musicals and got pretty bummed when I heard that Phantom of the Opera was closing on Broadway.
I also would like this because there's so many music genres that originate from Black American culture (rock, jazz, rap, swing, hip-hop, blues, rag-time, R&B, funk, disco, etc)
If there's one thing I MORE COLORS.
I WANT MORE BLACK CHARACTERS WHO ARE COLORFUL.
Too many of them often get washed out and sometimes look like they're supposed to be white. I think it's a huge lost cause that there's not as many Black characters who are colorful especially since we have a big wig and weave culture.
I'd like it if there were some Black characters who have a rainbow color-scheme/bright. Especially for the hair. I think it would be really cool to give your Black characters colorful hair.
Another one is alt fashion. I'm so tired of alt fashion purely being for white people. Black people also enjoy goth, emo, grunge, pastel, etc. so I'd really like to have some Black characters to look like that too. There's even Black creators out there who are actively trying to reclaim it.
Couldn't really think of another place to put this one so I'm putting this here. If I'm being honest, it can really isolating being Black with ADHD. While I do feel a sense of community, white people definitely dominate the community and I do feel ignored in a way when I hear about other people's experiences with being neurodivergent so it would be nice to have more neurodivergent and it can be autism, dyslexia, dyscalculia, OCD, etc. It'd be nice to have good rep in general and in the form of a Black character.
Another one I couldn't really put in another category so I'm putting it here. I'd like it if more Black characters could not only be queer or trans and it's not really ignored. I would like to see more Black lesbians fall in love with a woman, a trans Black man, etc. It would be nice for them to have that.
There's really not a lot of Black girly-girls out there. On the off chance they are, they're usually a background character who's friends with the white girl who is a girly-girl and doesn't exactly give them a lot of their own personality. The only Black girly-girl I can think of off the top of my head is Dara from SHAZAM. She likes baking, being happy, etc. It would be nice to have more Black characters like her. Just girls who like feminine things and it's not a weakness to them. That's a big one because I think it would've been good to see growing up and just in general.
Kinda going back to the idea of alt fashion here but I do like this. When I was younger and saw Teen Titans for the first time, I convinced myself that Raven was Black. I didn't understand why I felt this way until I got older and I realized that this was a side-effect of having little to no representation but also the fact that I had never seen a Black goth girl and I was really into goth/goth fashion when I was a kid. The only time I've seen a Black goth character in mainstream media was in Turning Red. I think all the girls in Turning Red are extremely well-written and for this question/topic, I'm gonna point out Priya, a Black goth girl. She likes Twilight, paints her nail black, keeps a stoic face, and she's not treated any differently than the other girls in their group. She's really cool, I would've been so annoying about her if I saw that movie when I was a kid. Also, Priya is my favorite type of goth, "I want to look goth but my parents won't let me" goth, and I LOVE IT. So that's something I would like.
I'm VERY biased towards this because *gestures to entire blog* and I don't think blerds get enough attention in the media. My dad's a blerd and got me into DC and Marvel when I was a kid. Look at my blog, I'm clearly a blerd, there's a lot of blerds around the world. If you look at Africa's first comic con, you can see that the convention center was packed. It was "the most popular days of the three-day event in South Africa."
Take CalebCity, RDCWorld1, and Cilvanis for examples. They're pretty prominent Black creators that like anime. Most weebs I know IRL are Black. In fact, I didn't start meeting white weebs until shows like Attack on Titan or My Hero Academia got popular. Hell, we literally mofos in the hood rocking JJK merch that are literally beating each other up over who has better opinion on the show. So I would like to see more Black characters play video games, lore dump, and etc.
This might be a bit random but I would LOVE to see a Black ailurophile. I've never seen one and if I had to put a percentage to it, I'd say that 90% of the ailurophiles I know in person are Black while most white people I know don't really like cats. I also just hate how ailurophiles are treated in western media just in general (it's misogyny but that's a conversation for a different time). It would be nice to see more Black character with things like cat ears, cats as pets, or cat clothes, etc.
You probably saw this one coming if you've been following me long enough but I can't make a collection of Black characters I like without bringing her up. (Also, if you want to get pedantic about Luz's race, she's an Afro-Latina/biracial/Black and Columbian and therefore qualifies.) Going with the overall theme of the show about how no one should ever be left out or mistreated for who they are and I love that for Luz. She's weird in such a relatable way, she's kind
I like that her style is gender nonconforming and not tomboy. It's fitting someone like her who doesn't like to chose sides and the show has a pretty strong neutral stance on it.
She's bi, has ADHD, has an awesome girlfriend, very creative, smart, and likes "editing anime clips to music and reading fantasy books with convoluted backstories" (this was the line that made me love her because she just like me for real, for real.) Iconic. Love her.
Same show, different guy but I also love him too. What made me love Gus from his introduction is, like Luz, he's a nerd. Before actually getting introduced to his character, Willow mentioned that Gus is a huge fan of humans and in his introduction he has his face in a human magazine. He's also really smart. Not only did he skip ahead academically, the way he uses his magic shows a clear talent. It's not just that he's smart. It's that he overthinks interactions with people because he's been taken advantage of when it comes to his educational career and because he's smart, he's thinking through everything too much.
I also LOVE the fact that he has an afro flat top with a fade and it looks good on him. There's never any unnecessary commentary on his hair (PLEASE avoid messing with your Black characters' hair, I'm BEGGING you) and I like that his dad is in the picture (if you're wondering where the missing father stereotype comes from, it comes the fact that white slave owners would kill the dad after he had kids, bad stereotype, please try to avoid a missing father plot for your Black characters).
I love that from the America team, Brody, the big burly Black guy, is the peaceful one in the group. He's the one who's the most level headed and tries to find the option that saves everyone. He's been compared to Ukyo and the fact that he's able to help out with the science shows that I can't tell if Riichiro did this knowing about the scary Black man stereotype in America and wrote Brody in response to that but whatever the case is, I love it.
Jimmy - My Adventures With Superman
I was pleasantly surprised to see that they Black-washed Jimmy. I can't think of another time this has happened and I just as pleasantly surprised to see that the show kept the core/heart of his character. He's still passionate about journalism and really silly. He loves his friends and just tries to be the best person he can be. I like that he struggles to fit in but tries not to let that get to him
Another bonus about MAWS as a whole is that all the Black characters have lighter palms. I don't see that a lot in animation so I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was a consistent thing in the show. And if you're curious, the bottom of our feet are also lighter too.
Kipo - Kipo And The Age Of The Wonderbeast
KATAOTW is such an underrated gem of a show that I highly recommend watching if you like heartwarming stories about families and the power of love with a kick ass soundtrack.
Now onto Kipo herself. (Once again, if you want to get pedantic about it, she's also biracial, blasian, Black and Asian, so she also qualifies). I really like that she's a very loving person. She's really smart, cares a lot about her education, and it's never a joke or punchline about her character but she's not a walking calculator and is more than that. She's funny, likes karaoke, and loves her friends. She also has a strong drive to better herself but she does it for other people as well as herself which I think is very admirable. She's allowed to unapologetically be herself which is very fun to watch.
Zira - Pretty Please, I Don't Want To Be A Magical Girl
When I saw that Kiana Khansmith made an animatic pilot for a show, I was already excited and when I saw how diverse the cast was, I got even more so. I trust her a lot to with characters of color and I was not disappointed when I saw the pilot (also consider looking into her writing process for PPIDWTBAMG as she has MUCH better advice than I can give out).
I like the estranged nerd loner characters a lot because they're the ones I relate to the most and Zira is one of the first Black girls I've seen who is. She has strong interests in magical girls and anime (and Kiana has even said "[Zira]'s at the very least not neurotypical haha" so hooray for more ND female characters of color). I like her design, it makes her look very cute, queer, uses she/they pronouns, smart but doesn't apply herself because she likes devoting her time to manga more (story of my life right there).
Annette -- Castlevania: Nocture
The GOAT herself! Annette is my favorite character from Castlevania: Nocture. She was enslaved on Saint-Domingue, broke out, and helped the slave revolution. She's strong, driven, and talented. She has a tendency to look and jump straight ahead because she wants to protect people due to her past. She has dreads, full lips. She's attractive and there's a lot of shots that do show that off but it never drives her character. She's allowed to have a cute ass romance, stand on her own two feet and move the plot and her narrative forward. I also got really excited to see that her magic comes from African/Yoruba mythology. I think that Greek, Roman, and Norse mythology has been done to death at this point and we should point out more, especially African, mythologies in fantasy stories. I also got really happy when she killed her old slave owner. It was beautifully done and I self indulged in that moment for a whole week.
With all that in mind, I'm going over one specific character that I think illustrates everything that I love in Black characters
I really wanted to go in deep with a Black character and seeing as how I just finished my umpteenth rewatch of Peacemaker and season 2 is coming out, I'll highlight her.
The first time we ever see her in the show is when she moves into a new apartment with her wife. We can tell from their dialogue and the rest of the plot that they're scared but they also know that they can both lean and depend on each other whenever things get rough.
This is her introduction. The show wants us to know her as a loving and caring person and that's who she is consistently throughout the show. She loves and cares for everyone she sees, no matter how bad they are, which is not only cool to see in a Black woman. This is also important to have in a show like Peacemaker because of the theme of caring about other people and the value everyone has (basically the power of love).
I also like this because there's no hiding or ignoring the fact that she's a lesbian. It is the first thing you learn about her so there's no hiding that. She's married, in love, and is intimate with her wife who is also a Black woman.
Also in her introduction, we do learn that she doesn't always think before she speaks which is something else we see as the show goes forward.
When she's on the job, she's impulsive, jumps head first into action and danger without thinking first, and "sometimes [her] mouth just does what it wants" which causes her to often sticks her foot in her mouth.
It's really nice to see this but Peacemaker is also a good setting for this because it's a comedy and allows itself to have lot more unseriousness to all the characters. Even the straight men in the show have a good number of unserious moments.
There's also the fact that she's the new girl and doesn't understand everything yet. She's doing her best. As I've seen someone else point out is that the plot can actually move forward because everyone is kinda dumb/incompetent. I actually really like this angle the show has because first of all Peacemaker is a comedy but also because it never feels like she's ever being singled out whenever she makes a mistake or fumbles around. In fact, I like it because it almost say it's really nice that they put her skills on par with people who've canonically been part of the CIA since they were 10-18.
I really love this about her because it makes her feel very real and I often find myself thinking "she just like me for real, for real."
As much as I wanted to add more videos to this, tumblr only allows for posts so this is the one I'm choosing. I'm choosing this one because to me, it's the best scene to show what Leota is about (trigger warning for guns, yelling, and character death)
Bodyguard: Stay right there.
Harcourt: Oh, shit.
Bodyguard: Who are you?
Harcourt: Oh, Jesus.
Bodyguard: I don't want you to get hurt. Just stay there.
-Sound of gun cocking in the background
Leota: Drop your weapon.
-Suspenseful music plays
Bodyguard: *drops his gun and puts his hands up*
Leota: Hands in the air.
Bodyguard: All right, I'm cool.
Leota: You work for Royland Goff?
Bodyguard: Yes.
Leota: You one of them?
Bodyguard: One of what?
Harcourt: Adebayo, what are you doing? Take care of it.
Bodyguard: Take care of what? I'm... I'm not one of anything. I'm former Secret Service and...
Leota: I don't think he's one of them.
Harcourt: It doesn't matter. He's seen us! And Peacemaker needs our help, now!
Bodyguard: Listen, I... I... I haven't seen anything, okay? My wife's name is Marianne...
Harcourt: Why are you prolonging this?
Bodyguard, in the background: We've been married 16 years.
Harcourt: People are depending on us!
Bodyguard, in the background: We have three kids. Mason, Declan, and Jaden.
Harcourt: We don't have a goddamn choice! Adebayo, what the fuck?!
Bodyguard, in the background: I love them more than anything in the world. Don't do this!
-gunshots
Leota: *shrieks*
Harcourt: *sighs*
Leota: *pants* I'm sorry. I... I've never killed anyone.
Harcourt: Well, your streak's still going! Make sure he's clean. Murn will want a sample if he's not.
This scene was the biggest show of character for Leota. She's trying to find the everyone lives option. She wants what's best for everyone even on a battlefield and with literally the future of the planet on the line because that's who she is. She stands for everything Peacemaker is about and I love that for her.
She's also not the "mom friend" of the group. Even though she's shown closeness with the other characters, it's not different from how the others in the show interact with each other.
If I had to describe her in anyway, I'd say that she's wonderfully awkward. She's a fish out of water, she's the most deranged one out a group of war criminals, she's just loves her wife and dogs. She's everything to me.
*Also if you're willing to watch Peacemaker, I HIGHLY recommend watching The Suicide Squad (2021) first to understand the show better AND you can summon me for boss battles if you watch The Suicide Squad (2021) and Peacemaker
What You Should Avoid/Misc. Thoughts I Got While I Writing This
You didn't ask for this but I'm mostly bringing for anyone else who may be reading this and wants to know more too.
I touched on this earlier but I would err on the side of caution if you want a single parent plot with your Black characters. I'm not saying it's bad all the time because it can be done right. I think a good example of that is with The Princess and the Frog. I'm quoting my mom with this one but "I think it's nice that Tiana had a dad who she clearly loves and that he died instead of leaving." I also think this works in Tiana's context because Disney kills one parent for every princess story so it's not like they just randomly decided to kill off Tiana's dad this one time.
-Describing Your Black Character
Getting this far, you've seen that I capitalized the B in Black. Anon, I see that you've done it so this isn't directed at you. The B in Black being capitalized is important and has an important history in Black American culture that should be respected. Now, I'm personally not too pedantic about this one specifically because often times I forget/it slips my mind.
Here's the takeaway from what I just said, it's easy to forget so while you should make an effort, don't beat yourself up about it. The take away is NOT "well if Luce doesn't do it, then I can avoid doing it too." If that's your takeaway, I'm beating you with a spoon.
On that note, describing Black characters is important and I'll start off by addressing the age old question. "Is it 'Black' or 'African American'?"
I've been getting this question for as long as I can remember and I'm just gonna say, Black all the way. I don't want to be described as an "African American" for four reason, 1) we don't call white Americans "European Americans", 2) not every Black person is from Africa, 3) not every Black African is in America, and 4) I'm not from Africa. I was born and raised in America, my parents were born and raised in America, and as far back as we see, we were all born in America. I'm Black, Elon Musk is an African American.
The other question I always get is "is it wrong to say 'African American'?" and to that, my personal answer to that is yesn't.
The reason why I'd say "yes" to people who ask if it's bad to say "African American" is because of one reason and one reason only which is that I've noticed a lot of people say "African American" because they have an aversion to saying "Black." There's been too many times to count in my life that I'd my life when I've had non-Black people explain the appearance of a Black person to me and I've always seen their gears start to turn and get uncomfortable at the idea of saying "Black" and go with "African American."
Now that that's part out of the way, I'm also saying "no" because "African American" isn't bad or a dirty word. It's been an important term to describe Black Americans, it's still in use today, it's one used a lot in Black Americans, and while I call myself Black, when I want to talk about other Black cultures around the world, I'll call myself an African American.
Just to give an example of what I mean, if I wanted to refer to the Jamaican culture in Britain, I would call myself an "African American" in that context.
*If that doesn't make sense, I'd be glad to explain more if you ask.
With that in mind, I will say, for the love of all that is holy, DO NOT describe your Black characters as "tan." I did not get this skin color because of a tan, this is melanin. Not only is "tan" factually wrong, it also has the implication that the only reason why people would ever have darker-colored skin is because of a tan which really grinds my gears. I was born this way, the amount of sun I've been exposed to has nothing to do with it. I'm begging you say "Black" or use an actual color to describe your Black character (examples: dark brown, golden brown, pale brown, brown, etc).
To end this section off, I will say, it's hard to say what's "right" or "wrong" about how to describe people's races (especially when they're not white). In the past, "Negro" was the right way to refer to Black people but if you called someone a "Negro" today, you'd rightfully get beat up. And who knows, maybe in 50 years from now, you'd get beat up for saying "Black" because the proper term is "Monochrome" or something but that's my take on using "African American" and "Black." Take that as you will, but it's probably the question I've been asked the most throughout my life.
This is another thing I reference earlier under Leota's category but I once again say, please err on the side of caution if you want a Black maternal figure. Mammy, the stereotype that Black women are nurturing and caring mothers is another Black slavery stereotype that was used to convince people that Black people were actually okay with being enslaved and the mothers were happily nurturing their children. With that in mind, I'm not trying to say you can't make Black mothers, that's not the takeaway. The takeaway is, please double check your Black women as they might be more nurturing to the cast.
This might be kinda rant-y but I'm passionate about this one. I'm so tired of the Black characters needing to educate the white cast on EVERYTHING about racism. It's weird, it's exhausting to deal with in real life, and I would also just like more stories that have Black characters to just not tackle racism. Just like I've seen some people talk about how they want more queer stories that just have queer characters and aren't just coming of age stories about the struggles of being queer, I would just like a story that has a Black where they're just allowed to exist. I feel like only making racism-centered story lines with Black people has, to some extent, exacerbated the issue a bit. In some way it almost gives off the message that the only stories worth telling are about our hardships which is wrong. Just more stories where we're just your average person.
*Also as a side note, I also HIGHLY recommend the movie American Fiction as it's just a good movie but also goes to tackle this very topic in a pretty modern/nuanced way
With that all out of the way, the biggest piece of advice that I think I can give is: don't overthink it. I think creators that overthink their minority characters inevitably shoot themselves in the foot when they do that.
Yes, I'm going to have different life experiences and want different things in Black characters, I'm also not from Mars. I'm still a human being who wakes up in the morning, drinks water, and eats food. If you ever find yourself asking "what should I do here" I say, don't think too much about the fact that your character is Black and just that they're a person and go from there.
