TL;DR: read the damn post
I do want to be clear: my posts have specifically been about Cinderella Boy, but lack of/poor representation for poc is a huge problem across webtoon and the media landscape in general. I specifically called out Cinderella Boy because I really enjoy it and have been thinking about it a lot given that we’re almost to the season two finale, but this problem goes way beyond a single webcomic. Yet by discussing a single webcomic, we can start to understand the problem as a whole. I’d say I’m sorry to anyone white who felt offended, but honestly I’m not—if your first reaction to someone pointing out racism is to get defensive, then you have work to do.
If you are truly interested in making the world a more equitable place—which includes making it so poc have a proper and respectful place in mainstream stories—then I recommend you follow the blog @/creatingblackcharacters. If you don’t actually care, then don’t bother. I have learned so, so much from this blog. In particular, the book club is an excellent way to educate oneself, so I recommend reading all of the past books (White Fragility, White Tears/Brown Scars, Mediocre, and currently, Medical Apartheid) as well as following along when we start our next book in August(?), Beloved by Toni Morrison (and reading the book So You Want To Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo for good measure)—a task I myself am still working on, because learning is never finished.
I am saying all of this simply because it is the right thing to do. And I’m not trying to say the work that we all—including me—need to do will be easy. In fact, like me, you will probably also feel really uncomfortable, upset, and guilty. And you have to just sit in those feelings and feel them without saying anything, and it won’t be fun, but it’s the only way you’ll learn to put them aside, listen to the needs of poc without making it about you, and focus on how to actually effect change in the world. And one of the small ways you can begin to help is to point out implicit racism, however slight it may seem to you in your privileged eyes, and have discussions like the one we’ve been having. I’m not a perfect ally, I’ve certainly fucked up in the past and I’m sure I’ve fucked up in some way without realizing during this situation. The only thing we can do is try to better every day.
Because our discussion has centered around webtoon, I want to end this post by uplifting six webtoons that do feature people of color as main characters, which are
Daybreak
My Missing Oscar
The Blind Prince
Superfish
Dagger to the Heart
Cinderelle
Thank you for reading.
