#black!april

[civilianlillian]

April O’Neil 2018 will be black in an incarnation for the first time since the Mirage comic run

[civilianlillian]

Really don't understand the message of black April. Why is it bad thing to draw her?

It isn’t? Honestly April being black in 2018 is GREAT since in the Mirage run she was black, but then she was turned white when the TMNT franchise picked up.

Fans of the show who would like to see more poc representation, especially with a well-known main character of the series (who is not an antagonist or mutated mind you), have been pretty vocal about how hype and excited they are that April will be a black girl in 2018. just search for her on tumblr and you’ll see all the awesome fanart and concepts, it’s something to be happy about

If this ask refers to the recent reblog from my bud Jo, it’s more annoyance over someone calling “dibs” to draw 2018 April first. (they could be joking but it’s the internet when can we be sure of anything) With fandom in general, claiming that kind of right you kind of can’t do anyway, but when you also take the above into consideration it just feels like staking a claim that’s not yours to make.

It wasn’t a post about NOT drawing fanart of Canon Black April, it was about calling dibs on the first fanart of her like typing “first” in the youtube comment section (and again neither I nor Jo know if it’s a joke or serious, just feels iffy given circumstances)

[civilianlillian]

You want to know the most hilarious part of all this? I’m a 23 year old homosexual Asian male. I have these strong views on equality and I automatically get labelled as a “30 year old white woman”. It’s absolutely crazy! It’s not reverse racism, love. It’s racist against white people. Even though I’m not white. Still. I’m writing a thesis on these sort of assumptions. And goodness me, I’ve got a lot to work with.

You want to know the saddest part of all this? i go to sleep, wake up 9 hours later, and look in my inbox to see that you’re still going

First, based on your use of language I would have to call bullshit on your claim. Your use of “love” and “darling/sweetheart” or the like towards @guide-to-the-galaxy (because you are definitely the same anon) is a trait of the famed class known as “The White Woman”. The White Woman can activate this trait for two purposes: a) to show affection towards another person as a pet name, or b) to be a condescending twat while trying to prove a point.

Now, if your claim of being a young man is true, that just makes you a sexist or misogynist and i am too tired to care looking the definitions up to know which you fit into for the sake of answering you, but I do know that alas homosexual men are not exempt from such a title. The usage of this language towards women (and Jo and I make it clear we identify as women so you can’t have missed it) means you’re using disrespectful and condescending language to, again, aid in proving your point by possibly trying to get us to cower and back down. You can claim to be rooting for equality but I can say this kind of language thus far says otherwise.

Second, you’re still on anon, so if you wanted to show actual evidence that you’re a 23 year old homosexual Asian male, you’d turn it off. But I doubt you would, because the fact that I still have to refer to you as Anon means that you either don’t have a blog (unlikely) or that you know you sound like a pillock and you don’t want people to see your name and know you for the implied racist you are.

Third, let’s give a hypothetical scenario which you might actually relate to if you really are a “23 year old Asian homosexual”. A character in a show is canonically gay. Then, in a reboot of the show, the new writers make them canonically straight. How would you feel about that? If you’d be upset, then that’s a double standard. You’re preaching about how non-white people should let white people continue the practise of whitewashing and erasing people of colour from media for the sake of making things equal. No. That’s not equality.

Equality is making sure that something is accessible to everyone regardless of race, gender, sexuality, or ability. The thing is, that equality can’t be reached by saying “if they can do the thing why can’t we” or “well they’re allowed to do it so we have to be allowed to”.

The “double standard” of creators reimagining characters as non-white with people in the audience celebrating while doing the practise the other way around being met with boos and accusations of racism is because, well, whitewashing is racist, either intended or unintended due to internalised racism (which is something that stems from how you were raised/grew up in society and can be recognised and corrected if the person is taught how the thing would/might be racist). As my friend @sir-adamus put it, whitewashing is looked down upon due to HISTORICAL CONTEXT and YEARS AND YEARS OF WHITE PEOPLE BEING ASSHAT SHITSTAINS TOWARDS PEOPLE OF COLOUR. We shouldn’t reimagine characters of colour as white characters because it’s history repeating itself, and it’s something we are addressing as a problem because THAT is a step towards equality.

Do you complain about how you can’t play on the lift meant for wheelchair users because it’s a lift meant for wheelchair users and not /you/?

ps. bonus answer also from @sir-adamus:

“ “racist against white people” yeah this is totally a 30 year old white woman “

[civilianlillian]

I guess you’re right. Maybe true equality will never exist.

it might if people like yourself stop trying to twist the meaning of it pulling the good ol’ “reverse racism” crap =P

[civilianlillian]

Character Artist 1: OK, so that's the turtles and Splinter designs done for 2018.

Character Artist 2: Cool, so any ideas on what to do for April?

Character Artist 1: Beats me.

Me: *crawls out of the top drawer of the nearest filing cabinet while clutching images of black April from the original Mirage comics*

Me: i hAVe a SUgGEStiON

[civilianlillian]

So after a bunch of inconsistent sketches and, what, a month??? after I said I’d do this, I finally finished a sketch of Black April this week. Also, eff anatomy drawing it sucks. I’ll be working on a digital ink+colour version of her later this week, it’ll give me a chance to FINALLY USE MY DRAWING TABLET AGAIN.

So this is how I picture a black April O'Neil looking in the 2012 setting, and also how she appears in my AU (currently still stuck in my head because eff writing it into actual words too while i’m at it).

big thanks to @sir-adamus @call-me-the-cooky-one and @onthespectrumwriting for freaking out when I showed them my sketches, your positive feedback is what motivated me to get off my arse and draw

(also think this goes without saying but please don’t repost/delete captions/yadda yadda. and if you call me paranoid for the watermark, well, suck it)