Percy Jackson’s race masterpost
It seems like everybody is arguing about this so I thought I would give my opinion on it too. I’m happy to hear other arguments, but let’s keep it civil. And please don’t read just a couple sentences or paragraphs of all this, read everything and make sure you got my point before you start throwing with arguments. Thank you.
Well, let’s proceed:
Personally, I imagine Percy having a Mediterranean complexion (one of the sub-races into which the Caucasian race is categorised by. It is characterized by pink to reddish to light or dark brown skin tone; olive complexion being especially common), because of his resemblance with his father who is a greek god (that’s the most common race in southern Europe and yeah, you can tell me gods can look however they want, but they were imagined by greeks, and guess what, people imagine people looking like them. That’s something everybody does).
Percy is described to look almost exactly like his father. This is Poseidon’s description in TLT: “His skin was deeply tanned, his hands scarred like an old-time fisherman’s. His hair was black, like mine. His face had that same brooding look that had always gotten me branded a rebel. But his eyes, sea-green like mine…” and this is Percy’s description in MoA: “His sea-green eyes were as gorgeous as she remembered. His dark hair was swept to one side, like he’d just come from a walk on the beach. He looked even better than he had six months ago—tanner and taller, leaner and more muscular.”
Key word here for skin is tan. Greeks are white, but they are tanned. They have a medium-skin tone. Behind all that tan, Percy has a pink skin tone, as seen in BotL when he was on Calypso’s island: “I looked at my arms, sure that they would be hideously scarred, but they seemed fine. A little pinker than usual, but not bad.”
Now I’m going to talk about some arguments that people give in absolutely.every.debate:
The neighborhood where Percy lives. I’ve seen a lot of people saying that Percy lives in a latino neighborhood, giving racial demographics of the said neighborhood etc. Percy lives on the 82nd street, Upper East side of Manhattan (”I opened the window and stepped onto the fire escape. […]. It was a clear night. The moon was full over Eighty-second Street.”- BotL ). This is part of a neighborhood called Yorkville. The racial makeup of the neighborhood is 76.0% White, 3.7% African American, 0.1% Native American, 9.3% Asian, 8.8% Hispanic or Latino of any race (source). So most of the population is white. But you know what? Even if it wasn’t, I personally don’t really see this as a valid argument, I just addressed this problem because it’s brought up in a debate very often. One can live in a latino neighborhood even if he’s white or live in a black neighborhood if he’s asian and so on.
I see a lot of people bringing into conversation the name “Jackson”, which is a name of English and Scottish origin, so I don’t really see how it’s a common latino/African-American/whatever-other-race-name like people say it is.
Sally’s race. Now besides the fact that Percy is said to look exactly like his father and no physical similarity to Sally is mentioned (her eyes are either described as blue or they’re said to “change color in the light”, and she has brown hair), her race is not mentioned and anything that anybody imagines is just a headcanon (I’ve seen people saying that they see Percy with a black heritage because Sally’s parents were black, which was not in the book or saying stuff like, “wait, he’s latino because Sally’s from Puerto Rico, right?”. I won’t give any names, but people need to learn to make the difference between what was actually said in the book and what they read in a fanfiction or what they imagined).
Just because you think that the community that you’re a part of needs more representation, that’s not a valid reason. It is not an argument. It has nothing to do with this particular character. Stop reading a book just for representation, stop liking a character just because he’s the same race as you are. Start thinking about the plot, the character development, the relationships between characters. Fully enjoy the book that you’re reading. (Also 4 out of The Seven aren’t white, not to mention other minor characters. We cannot complain about lack of diversity in Rick Riordan’s books. Why don’t you talk about those characters instead of arguing about this one?)
“If a character’s race is not mentioned we can’t assume that he’s white. White is not the default.” True, but I think I’ve given enough arguments to show that I’m not just assuming his race, I’m basing my opinion on facts. And also, every time a character had a particular heritage, Rick Riordan made it very clear. Does anybody has any doubts that Leo and Reyna are latino, that Frank is Chinese, that Hazel and Beckendorf are Afro-American, Piper is Cherokee and so on? No. Absolutely none. In another series of his, The Kane Chronicles, the protagonist is black and even if the narration is in first person, his race is still clearly stated.
And yes, the official art is a valid argument in this debate. We now have the improved version made by Viria and it’s Rick Riordan who asked her to make the art. He approved of it. Look at the official art and tell me it’s not obvious that Hazel is black, Frank has Chinese ancestors, Leo is Latino and so on. It’s blatantly obvious, okay? Now look at Percy’s art and tell me what you see. Look at the Graphic Novels. Look at the books’ covers- Percy is in plenty of them. He and Carter Kane are both on the covers for The Son of Sobek and The Crown of Ptolemy- compare them. There is one person of color there and it sure as hell isn’t Percy.
Now if when you are reading the book your brain is picturing him not looking like in the book’s description, that’s OK and that’s something that happens all the time. But please stop confusing the canon with a headcanon.
Everytime I remember I actually sat down to write this I cringe so much. Why. Why did high school me give a fuck.
