I'm saying this unapologetically and I stand on what I said. Yes, this is about Clementine and her blackness because it's Black History Month and as an actual black girl I'm going to use my black ass voice to talk about how Clementine's race affects the community.
TLDR: CLEMENTINE IS MOTHERFUCKIN' BLACK. FULLY BLACK
Someone (not tagging them cuz I don't wanna give them haters if this attracts any) made a Clementine edit that give her black features. Small but effective tweaks that still kept the essence of the character while highlighting Afro features. Beautiful btw. And of course this opened up an argument on TikTok. Nearly 300 comments, more than half arguing that Clementine isn't fully black. I don't speak for the person that made the edit but we all know my opinion on this. Yeah, I got heated.
I'm not doing this on BHM. I'm so fucking tired of having to fight the same battles for the smallest fucking crumb of inclusion. I will scream until I'm blue in the face, die on this fucking hill, that Clem is black! Just fully black! Blackity- black! And the reason ppl don't see that is because the developers did a shitty job when it came to giving actual representation. They should've done a better job when it came to Clem's blackness and think for more than five seconds about the cultural impact she'd have on black players. I swear to god they designed her with a "I don't see color" mentality, which is insane because the world is full of color! They just designed her as a little girl, not a black little girl, which is completely different. Black people walk through life differently, even in the apocalypse! The end of the world is no excuse to remove melanin or change curl pattern because "she has matting" or "she's malnourished".
I'm tired of ppl saying, well her mom is half Asian, well one of her parents might not actually be her bio parent, well this developer said this, well the voice actor confirmed that, she was based off of a developers daughter, well someone on the team said she was fully black but then recanted. Why can't we ever get a straight answer??? Why is it linked to the wiki (that can be changed by anyone) and not to a legitimate source of a creator saying word for word, bar for bar, explaining her race? WHY ARE WE STILL DEBATING THIS YEARS AFTER THE FUCKING FRANCHISE ENDED???? Why is Clementine, out of the entirety of the walking dead universe, the only one whose race is constantly debated?? I'll tell you why. Because she's a black little girl and no one cared to put effort into her features. They were afraid to show our blackness in a good light. They didn't think a little black girl was worth protecting. They didn't think players would care for her as much if she were a little black girl because black people aren't important, despite us being the motherfucking blueprint for everything in this goddamn world.
This rant goes the same way if I actually believed she was mixed. Mixed girl doesn't have to equal racially ambiguous. If her mother has Asian descent then as the developers, you should specify her heritage! Because surprise surprise, when people relate to a character, sometimes race is an important factor, therefore, it's important to specify. I want so badly to be able to say "I love this black character (Clem)!" Without someone going, "erm, actually, she mixed ☝️ 🤓" and then starting a debate in the comments. At the end of the day, she black or mixed with it, so why are you fighting my claim that she's black?? Also, how can you claim representation when the fandom is constantly fighting on what race Clementine represents?! It's unfair to mixed ppl and black ppl alike!
When it comes to this, I really don't give a flying fuck what others think, especially if they're not black! It's not you place to say shit, cuz it's a black issue. No other voice is important but black voices when it comes to black issues. Because despite how ppl have said times have changed, there's still struggle from my people. I doubt Clem's race would be an issue if black ppl were in the room, if they were on the team and their input was taken seriously. I doubt this would be an issue if there wasn't some executive saying she needed to be lighter to appeal to a larger audience. This shit isn't just happening to clementine, it happens everywhere, especially to black people. It's all so disheartening. Everyone wants to be us until it's time to be us. No one thinks it's a big deal, because this isn't their reality, they don't have to constantly fight to be seen or to be heard. They don't yell until their throat is bleeding and then have someone tell them it's not a big deal, like a door being constantly closed in you're face. Everyday I wake up in this skin, and everyday in different ways I'm told my people are less than and unimportant. We're so insignificant, that we can't even get the same decency and courtesy to get proper representation unless we do it ourselves and even that gets put under scrutiny.
So next time when you wonder why someone or I am fighting so hard to say Clementine is black, fully black, this is why. We're not being racist against mixed individuals nor are we attacking them. Because like I said, mixed or not, the girl is still black. For me, I'm just tired of having to share spotlight with another race, tired of fighting for the same amount of respect and dignity, tired of fighting to be seen, to be taken seriously, to be heard. It's exhausting to have to fight for your existence.
And btw, yes. It is that deep
-signed, a southern black girl who's tired of the bullshit.
