online yaoi&yuri comics and race
i know that it's because white artists are scared of representing black people wrong, but every time yaoi and yuri authors include a black character they are always (always!) dating someone white. it's like the race version of "the most butchest girl twitter can handle". like the most black a character can get in yuri or yaoi is someone that always dates white people and has no cultural clothing and talks in perfect textbook english and never ever talks or mentions the fact that their childhood and adulthood was probably different from their white partner's and friends'. i am not trying to accuse artists of being outwardly racist, but a little ignorant and possibly not doing all that they could.
this is partially pointed at miss lucid comics, who works from yaoi.biz. her most recent comics, the hunt and river st have nonwhite love interests.
sorry the pictures are so huge!
and this is good! i am not trying to be against representation! from what i have heard, people would rather have an imperfect representation than to have none at all.
but. one of them is a werewolf, who used to shift as a child, and used to have no control over that kind of thing. so this nonwhite character went into episodes when they became uncontrollably strong and rabid, in a small town, and this experience didn't effect them at all? nothing to note there? in the series he was sent away because he got uncontrollable around the main character, so he went abroad to learn to control his wolf powers or whatever, but his experience as a nonwhite immigrant also didn't effect him? nothing to note? really? nothing that effects how you feel about your belonging in the world, your community, who you trust?
i have less complaints with river st, since it technically takes place mostly in a fictional world, and in new orleans, where black people held a bit more power than in other parts of the u.s. but like, he still has killmonger locs and we still barely know anything about his family. this might be a sign of just a writing flaw, but 2 books in we should know more about the background of the love interest. the white character is always the author and the reader stand-in with the complicated story. the love interest is just the accessory. which gets a little problematic when it's your first time representing people of color on this scale. in river st the black character is supposed to be the main character, but the story is mostly interested in the perils of the white character. we know that the main character is from a long line of reapers, seemingly well enough off, and used to be an alter boy. that's interesting! and that experience could be elaborated on looking through the lens of this character being black.
and once again, not to hate on miss lucid. she has always included people of color in her major comics (avialae, impact theory, the hunt, and river st) and it clearly seems to be something she cares about, but i think she can do even better going forward. i'm not trying to say they need to talk exclusively in aae and have grills, but having their background be incorporated into their character in some way besides their looks would be good.
tldr: i'm upset that a stupid yaoi comic isn't the first season of interview with a vampire. in attempts to be as non-offensive as possible and not make the author uncomfortable we are getting boring and basic portrayals of people of color.
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