Notable members include: Jett Fillmore, Will Harris, Modo Olachenko, Olivia Burke, Archie Everhardt, Lenny Williamson
Y’know, there was a brief time where I was willing to be a bit more lenient with how folks portrayed some characters in Goat 2026. Not all of them stood out as particularly Black to me. I just figured y'all at least knew which characters were undeniably Black, as in, it wasn't left up to interpretation. But apparently, no matter how obvious the writing and portrayal of the character is linked to their Blackness, y'all still had the audacity to depict them as white, of all things, when reimagined as human beings.
So now I have to say, nah: they are all Black. Every team member here. Meaning when you draw them as humans, they better be Black. This is already a Black sports genre story anyways.
“But what can I do about Olivia’s hair?” Either make them into afro-puffs, use the concept art where she is drawn with Black hairstyles in mind, or base it on Y2K straightened Black hairstyles. Either figure it out or don’t do it, I'm just at that point.
Edit: Thanks to this addition in the notes: We now know that Modo's style is based on a former Black basketball star. Please read
Literally, I can’t imagine watching a movie like this and forming the conclusion that someone like Will Harris is a generic white boy. Truly, what were y'all smoking? So for this series, I do want to point out some possible reasons, some of ya’ll don’t want to see these characters as Black. We know it’s due to antiblackness, but we gotta dig deeper into some of these reasons.
Why can’t Will be Black?:
He’s goofy in a corny way
He’s considerate
He’s small thus “non-threatening”
Typical underdog story you associate with scrawny small loser white boys
“None of those reasons only apply to non-Black characters,” and yet time and time again, y'all demonstrate you believe that to be exactly the case. Your actions speak louder than words here, remember that.
See, Will shares a similar demeanor and appearance to the character Miles Morales: a young inner-city Black boy with a humorous personality, fro-ed out hair, love of sneakers, you get the gist. Hell, there’s talk that Caleb McLaughlin may end up voicing Miles in the next Spider-verse movie(don’t quote me).
The thing with Miles, however, is that he isn’t an anthropomorphic animal or anything like that. He’s visually a normal human Black boy. Unfortunately for non-Black fans, many didn’t know how to engage with that fact. Miles’s character was funny and charming and sweet and all, but they just couldn’t imagine a Black boy having those traits, while also being unapologetically Black. I’ve seen attempts to whitewash his character on the account that his mother was Latina, but then stump themselves learning she’s Afro-Latina. People tried depicting him as a troubled Black youth who steals art supplies he can’t afford, which no…he doesn’t do that. His dad is a cop(awful), his mom is a doctor, and he goes to a private school; they aren’t struggling financially. So when all of those attempts to sanitize his Blackness were met with criticism, non-Black fans then turned all their focus onto Gwen Stacy. That's sadly the common tactic for these guys when they enter a fandom focused on Black stories, they focus on the token white.
Now, because Will is depicted as a goat person, some of y'all decided that was a perfect opportunity to say he can be white, cuz “no one said he couldn’t be,” thinking y'all are clever. We already went over how stupid that logic was, so I won’t say much here again. If you are out here believing that a character looking like this, in a Black sports movie genre is white: skill issue.
What I will talk about are the characters yall WILL agree are indefinitely Black…but only due to bigoted biases of preconceived notions towards Blackness.
See, for me, Jett Fillmore is a Black woman because her VA, Gabrielle Union, makes her sound like a typical, old-school auntie who knows how to smack-talk and got game. She was also characterized as someone who had trouble expressing emotional vulnerability and was always hardest on herself. I often see this happen to Black women irl, as we tend to keep to ourselves and close ourselves off, figuring no one actually cares to help us (which does happen more often than not). We live under a system that puts us under constant pressure and hypersurveillance, waiting, and cheering for our downfall. We are expected to help everyone, but at the same time, never to express our thoughts, as that makes us appear aggressive, threatening, and hysterical. That was just an interesting storyline they gave her, and I would have liked to explore that more (how was she not the main character???), but for what we got, the signs were there.
Also, she’s literally a black panther wearing her own Jordan brand; it’s honestly not that hard to conclude that this is a Black character. So for a time, I was impressed to see the fandom depict her as a darkskinned Black woman, cuz fandoms never go that far unless - oh….oh boy
Yeah, so imagine my disappointment to learn the fanbase seems to only agree she’s a darkskinned Black woman, because they see her as an aggressive and angry individual who is “masculine” because she doesn’t have a “feminine body.”
Idk about y'all, but it’s funny how every other day on this website, we talk about how women should be allowed to express their emotions, allowed to express anger over personal injustice, and allowed to have varying body types without being demeaned or questioned about their gender expression. But when it comes to Blackness and Black women, we all of a sudden can’t find ourselves to extend that same grace and consideration. Why does Jett need to be considered a masculine figure for being a Black athlete? Why does Will’s race AND his gender need to be questioned by non-Black people for not meeting the assumed image of Black boys?
Misogynoir in women’s sports is so disheartening to witness. Our bodies are already masculinized (or called animalistic) enough as it is. You then have to add on top of the fact that we aren’t allowed to scream, get angry, get energetic, be happy, or show any visible disappointment with a turnout, lest you be deemed the villain.
Similarly, we have the character Mane Attraction that fandom will also not argue is Black. You would think it’s because of his inner-city AAVE, his use of diss tracks, or his cornrowed mane he takes great care of (even if they might be extensions, which gestures). But no, looking at how y'all treat Jett, I can only assume it’s because Mane is a big, strong, and aggressive individual bullying the “meek, frail, and feminine” main character. I’m being sarcastic with those traits I used to describe Will btw, because that's how he’s all of a sudden framed when it comes to shipping. No, he's just smaller than the average Roarball player, that was kinda the point. Which you should ask yourselves why being small = petite and feminine...and white. Had Will been built like the other large animal players, I’m very certain yall would label him aggressively masculine for speaking AAVE.
Basically, a lot of y'all in the fandom are phony for encouraging this behavior, honestly. All this talk of how we want media to stop portraying everything as an assumed binary, only to show y’all want the status quo to remain. So until further notice, everyone on The Thorns is Black. “Everyone?”
Hey, if you can somehow find a way to make Will a white boy, I’m sure y'all can find how to make the other guys Black.
Due to some alarmingly ignorant events we’ve witnessed the other day, I now feel compelled to make a series of posts discussing non-human characters that are intended to be Black
Assuming a non-human character HAS to be white is due to whiteness being framed as the default. This tends to lead many to believe that they can depict any character as a white person uncritically. The truth of the matter is that even if the character isn’t human, you can still potentially be whitewashing them. Hollywood (storytellers in general) have had a long history of only ever including poc by depicting them as something inhuman, so it’s not like it’s impossible to pick up these intentions
Often when someone is pointed out to have whitewashed these characters, they become extremely defensive and double down into the mindset of how these characters don’t have a canon real race assigned to them, therefore they have the “right” to depict them however they please
Which, sorry, the writers had some faith in y'all to use critical thinking to naturally come to (what should be) obvious conclusions. Seriously, I’ve seen y'all depict Kung Fu Panda characters as white people, despite the fact that the story’s location takes place in Ancient China and is unapologetically Chinese (depicted by white people but nevertheless). And don’t even try to bring up how “they can be white if they traveled from a distant country,” because y'all shut that down immediately when Black people bring up that we also traveled. We are not doing this “rules for thee, not for me" type reasoning
Essentially, who you decide gets to be depicted as Black or not can potentially be rooted in racial or other bigoted biases. Again, rather than confront those biases, many get defensive without examining what has led them to hold onto these beliefs. And as we’ve also seen, those of us who do call out this behavior are framed as the aggressor for the crime of disturbing someone’s fun by making them feel bad. Believe it or not, antiblackness is not fun; at least for normal people.
So yeah, I feel motivated to do this more than ever. It’s 2026, y'all need to get over the fact that white isn’t the default.
Disclaimer: Tumblr recently implemented a dumb, frustratingly bad change to notes. Because this is my first post after this sudden change was decided, and this is a rather sensitive topic, I do ask y’all to try to reblog from my OP. It’s only because I want to see people’s comments for myself (and know which people I need to block if needed).
Update: Apparently Tumblr just reversed this feature. Idk how long this will last, but in the meantime, reblog and comment as you usually do
Sonic is one of those pop culture icons that doesn't show signs of leaving the public's eye. Each year or so, a new Sonic project comes out, hyping up old and new fans alike. Whether the projects are received well or crash and burn is another conversation I won't get into. There just always seems to be a glimmer of hope that the next big Sonic project will eventually come out. If not, we have the assurance of older games, comics, and cartoons to fall back on.
A huge part of what makes Sonic projects so beloved is the character himself: Sonic has an impressively effective design that’s simple, dynamic, and even has some cute factors. Meanwhile, his personality aligns well with the ever-so-rebellious youth culture. To put it in simpler terms, Sonic’s a cool guy.
With that said, it’s a shame that so many non-Black fans have forgotten that Sonic’s character is heavily rooted in Blackness. Black-American culture specifically.
For instance, according to Sonic’s co-designer, Naoto Ohshima, the shoes are inspired by Michael Jackson's Bad album cover. Looking at it now, I wouldn’t be surprised if Michael's “Bad” outfit inspired designers to add the gold belt buckle in future iterations. Because fans recognized that shoes are a big part of Sonic’s character, they often make custom sneakers from sports shoe brands often associated with Black-American fashion. Even Timberland did an official collaboration.
(Custom Sonic shoes by NikeID)
In terms of music, Sonic's themes and soundtracks are mainly composed of hip-hop, rock, and R&B, most of which are sampled from Black artists. Even Malcolm X quotes found their way into the games. Listen, having the song Wrapped in Black play the phrase “Too Black, Too Strong” in the background is oddly specific, no matter how that segment made its way into Sonic Rush. Especially when it’s playing while Sonic AND Blaze(his dimensional counterpart, so wink wink) are fighting the Big Boss in their super forms. I'm not complaining tho, shit was peak
And how can we forget all of Sonic’s Black voice actors, which, while that pool is small, still help to push for more Black voice actors in a field where they’re often discriminated against. If you thought things got better just because Jaleel White voiced classic Sonic (and his Sonic Underground siblings, so again, wink wink) for a good while, y'all should have seen the racist reactions of supposed fans when Deven Mack voiced Sonic in Prime. And he sounded practically the same as Roger!
With these and so many other culturally Black influences that contributed to making the speedy lil blue guy we know today, it's no wonder fans, especially Black fans who clock these factors, envisioned Sonic as a Black kid. Which makes it all the more bizarre when you do see primarily non-Black people argue day and night over this. Considering that Sonic and most of his friends are colorful anthropomorphic animals, you have to wonder what they could possibly take issue with Sonic being Black?
Apparently, there's an unspoken rule when it comes to creating humanized depictions of anthropomorphic characters like Sonic. When it comes to their perceived race, they should only be represented by a racial identity they are “most likely” meant to be associated with. Odd, this is the only time these guys understand what character coding is; you gotta wonder what's the catch. Then you hear them list out their reasons, and the puzzling narrative starts to fit together (by mashing everything in).
Sonic is allowed to be Latino (white/white-passing) because of Shadow’s weird fascination with Latinos (idk why that’s a reason). I also hear he can be Japanese because he's part of a Japanese franchise (sounds more reasonable at least, but bar’s in hell). But, the race Sonic would most likely be, according to these fans, is white. Why? “He just seems like he would be,” is at best the typical answer you'll get. Now, when it comes to Black Sonic, get this: even with all the reasons shared in the paragraphs above AND THEN SOME, Black is the only race that is just not well-suited for Sonic in any capacity.
I know, it don’t make any kind of sense. Unfortunately, plenty of us have had the displeasure of witnessing the same ole “I’m sorry, but Sonic is such a white boy,” comment every time there is art featuring Sonic as a Black kid. Does anyone ever ask? Nope. It opens with a false, apologetic tone, followed by some variation on this condescending statement meant to sound ridiculous in practice. It’s out of the question: Sonic is white, he can never be Black. Plain and simple…only it’s not.
Quite honestly, I never get a sound reason for why Sonic has to be white. When you’re not dealing with overtly racist fans that would rather cry about forced representation and calling you slurs, you meet the fans that want to appear nice as they turn down any suggestion of Sonic being Black. The moment you question the logic behind this thought process, the same individual, if they're attempting to dial down the tension they needlessly started, would claim, “I mean, c’mon, it’s obvious,” which, cool. That should make it really easy to answer then. But apparently not, as these people exit the conversation at this point (which again they first prompted). Needless to say, there’s a lot of pushback when it comes to making the statement, “Sonic the Hedgehog is Black."
After observing and asking other fans about this experience, here are some possible reasons why non-Black people have a difficult time accepting Sonic is Black.
Why can’t Sonic the Hedgehog be Black?:
His muzzle and belly patches appear closer to a peach colored skin tone
He’s silly and goofy, “like a white boy"
City Pop is not “Black” music
He's very mellow compared to SOME characters
Skater/Surfing culture that y'all link to whiteness
Sonic isn't tied to an obvious real culture like other characters
He’s associated with American music and counter-cultures, which again, y'all associate with whiteness
Here's a big one I do see people bring up: Jaleel White himself stated he wanted Sonic to come off as someone without a race
Let's talk about Jaleel's statement first, because I have a feeling a lot of y'all sighed in relief, assuming the Black man gave y'all the OK to not acknowledge a character's Blackness. He starts talking about this at 2:06
Essentially, what Jaleel meant was that he didn't want fans to perceive his take on Sonic as “the Black one.” If I had to use Miles Morales as an example again: Do you see Miles as his own individual character, or do you see him as just The Black Spiderman? Note that this Does Not mean Blackness is not an important aspect of his character. If you take away Miles’s Blackness(as fans attempt to do), you no longer have Miles. We are saying that regardless of his background, Miles is a hero because he’s Miles. Same reasoning with the hedgehog: Sonic is a hero because he’s Sonic. Jaleel recognizes that as an actor, and as a voice actor, guess what? He’s going to be trained to perform the voice of a character in a way that others after him would be able to copy. That’s standard industry practice.
Also, let's be real here: most of y'all heard “raceless” and still find yourselves defaulting Sonic to white. What I don’t think Jaleel recognized at the time was that ambiguity in gender expression, body type, class, and any other aspect of human identity always defaults to whiteness. Everything else is classified as “the other” or “the people with the labels.” That’s why people have a hard time imagining that Black people can ALSO be women, or disabled, or rebels, or any other marginalized identity. We can even overlap with multiple labels, that’s just how human beings are, we’re complex. Just because you have only seen non-Black people partake in some activities above, don’t outright assume Black people weren’t involved. In many cases, they were the original influencers that just went unnamed, like rock 'n roll or country.
City Pop is typically performed by Japanese artists, but the music is HEAVILY influenced by Black American music. I promise you, your favorite City Pop artist has praised the likes of their favorite Black artist as major sources of inspiration. They most likely did a collab; it happened all the time. Michael Jackson had a known relationship with SEGA (the company that makes Sonic games), to the point it was rumored he helped work on the music of Sonic 3. If not, SEGA has definitely sampled his works and created a game based on his movie, Moonwalker. Hideki Naganuma, the composer of Wrapped in Black, is also known for drawing inspiration from Black music genres.
“But Sonic speaks in white surfer/skater talk! Black people don’t do that stuff!" First off, Sonic speaks in AAVE(African American Vernacular English). “Ahh yeah, this is happening!” sounds a bit silly when delivered by a white VA following a Japanese direction, sure, but you can tell the English localization was trying to make Sonic sound like a cool American. They just didn’t understand that AAVE, “the cool language,” is a specific form of English, with its own grammar rules. There’s a reason white suburban parents hated this type of speech, and everyone associated with it. That’s what makes Sonic the rebel. I should also bring up that this sentence was Sonic’s FIRST speaking line in mainline games; they wanted everyone to know what this guy was all about. Poorly delivered, but they still intentionally made this decision for a reason. Most of y'all aren’t even in the skater scene to verify what counts as “skater speech” to begin with, so idk where y’all are getting this information. Aside from all of that, Sonic is a skater and parkour enthusiast at best; he ain’t getting in that water. He sinks, remember? If I want to be funny, I should mention how y'all still believe Black people sink when we get into the water, and never acknowledge that the reason many don’t know how to swim was through segregation laws (Link 1, Link 2, Link 3)….but I won’t…… Thirdly, roller skating and skateboarding are popular outdoor activities among young Black Americans. We weren't allowed on beaches or most rinks (oh look at that, I still got to mention segregation, funny how this works), and our neighborhoods were constantly gentrified and paved over for industrialization and urbanization (this plot sounds familiar). So the Black youth figured that surfing on the concrete playgrounds of L.A. and inner cities was the next-best solution. I get that Tony Hawk and white skaters are more publicly represented in the sport, but Black skaters have been here since the beginning. Most of y'all have been quoting Black skaters’ AAVE w/o even realizing it. Remember the “Wack!” Black skater vine? Jamal Smith is a professional skateboarder who speaks the same AAVE that you hear Sonic constantly say. So yeah, we have definitely been in the scene much longer than y'all believe. We’re just more likely to be harassed by the police when skating. White skaters might get a stern talking to for loitering(made-up crime, racist in origin), but Black skaters often find themselves in the back of a police car doing the same thing. In any case, this highlights a major aspect of Sonic’s character: he's anti-authoritarian. Cuz ACAB
Of course, this core aspect of Sonic has slowly lost its identity in recent years. Even most Sonic fans can agree that the games have lost its attitude themes. Sonic became “too safe,” essentially. No, I don't think Sonic would have a cop as an adoptive dad. Nor do I believe Knuckles would align himself with anyone who supports genocide and war crimes. But I guess that’s what happens when you start appealing more to white audiences, who’d rather keep the status quo rather than risk their own “peace” in mind. Sorry, not sorry, but part of Sonic's rebellious attitude, which everyone finds cool, came from being a literal Freedom Fighter who was always starting shit. Going back to the earlier point I made where Black neighborhoods would get gentrified to push for industrialization, this is the literal plot of Sonic 1. “Can't white people be like this too?” idk, y'all clutch your pearls hearing rap music, and cry about not getting your coffee flavored sugary milk concoction due to boycotts; and have the audacity to call yourseves rebels, nah. I’m just making the observational parallels here. Sonic is the kind of person most of y'all would throw a fit over for not being quiet and actually FIGHTING the system. I shouldn’t be surprised, MLK made y'all mad too.
Any other attempts to downplay Sonic’s Blackness are the usual anti-Black sentiments. Can’t even make the muzzle color argument, given that everyone in the series gets extremely light-washed over time, and also Sonic is just blue. Name me a blue hedgehog, I’ll wait. Then there’s the fact that light-skinned Black people exist, which people still despise when they are unapologetically Black about it. Similar to my points made in my Disney Black Prince post: if you can’t imagine a Black boy being silly and witty, and fun and lovable, then you have to confront that bias yourself. When you do, you start to realize there's no genuine reason why Sonic can't be seen as a Black kid. Cuz he very much is.
Now, with all that said, I still have some things to say to folks who do draw human Sonic brown, and his relation to other characters. Sonic Adventure 2 is where the character, Shadow, was introduced. Shadow is described as Sonic’s lookalike rival. In fact, that was a whole plot point in the game, where Sonic and Shadow get mixed up by the authorities. Which (looks left, looks right), cops do this with Black people irl.
Where am I going with any of this? My point is: if you make Sonic light-skinned, Shadow has to be light-skinned. If you make Shadow dark-skinned, Sonic has to be dark-skinned. Otherwise, how else do they get mixed up so frequently? I mean….other than cops assuming all Black people alike, or just finding an excuse to harass the nearest one they could find.
My main issue is when y'all apply these colorist ideas onto the characters, it ends up defeating the point of acknowledging who gets to be Black or not. Colorism is still racism. Y’all can accept Knuckles or Shadow to be dark-skinned, but only because you chose to see them as aggressive, violent, and bitter individuals. For Knuckles, y'all reduced his character down to the “dumb one” after having that one experience of him being vulnerably gullible. I know if y'all saw him as white, he wouldn’t have been reduced to this aggressive, dumb brute, often adultified compared to Sonic and his friends. At the very least, y’all would have called out on this deliberate character assassination for what it is. When it comes to Shadow, y'all wanted to do the Yin-Yang thing with him and Sonic badly. Now, instead of this complex character, he’s this stoic, unfeeling, prone to violence dark-skinned hedgehog, as opposed to the light-skinned/white happy-go-lucky Sonic. Sonic is a Black skaterboarder boy, and Shadow is a goth rollerskater boy; they’re both cringe on the same coin, but boy, do they like starting shit. Get over it.
What’s especially aggravating is when fans correctly point out that the Black cultural factors that apply to Knuckles (his quills inspired by dreads, his shoes representing the Jamaican flag, his rap tracks) allow him to be coded as Black. However, when using that same line of evidence for Sonic, it’s all of a sudden not enough, which gestures to this entire post
Y'all gotta learn how to cope with the fact that Sonic is Black. Without Black culture, there is no Sonic.
For those who fell off the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic series (or just never watched it): Mage Meadowbrook is a regular Earth pony that lives in Equestria’s Hayseed Swamp. She grew up as a talented healer, known to create cures for the most serious recorded diseases. Later in life, Mage was recruited to join the Pillars of Equestria and vowed to protect their home from evil forces (Pretty impressive resume for a pony). There was also this whole thing about curses, and shadows, and the Pillars stuck in limbo, but all that other stuff ain’t important. The real question we need to address: Is Mage Meadowbrook a Black character?
I mean, you look at this design and tell me that ain't just a Louisiana Black woman in the form of a blue pony. She lives in the bayous, a common wetland terrain in Louisiana. She's described as speaking in a Cajun-Louisiana accent. She and her family literally have afro-textured hair so thick it sticks up, which you don't see often in this series. It's hard to miss the intentional coding here, so it makes it all the more alarming when you do see fanart of her as a human white woman. I'm not just referring to the Equestrian Girls style with skin color that matches their colorful pony counterparts; no, I mean they depict her as a straight-haired, pale-skinned white girl. You can see this for yourself by looking it up online. It ain’t pretty.
Whether the fans that drew Mage this way are kids or not isn't an excuse. If Black kids have to still experience racism even in fandom spaces, white kids can learn not to whitewash. Let's be real though, they are most likely grown folks, as this space isn't known to have the most reasonable of adults. I haven’t seen many reasons as to why some are eager to depict Mage as a white woman, as most of the fanbase seems to understand she’s meant to portray a Southern Black individual. Based on past observations, I can make a few guesses. So what about Mage’s character is not clicking with certain fans of her deliberate Black-coding?
Why can't Mage Meadowbrook be Black?:
Aligns with the cottagecore aesthetic
Aligns with the witchcore aesthetic
There’s an unawareness of what cultures Mage represents
She has a white voice actor
She has blue irises
Her association with Fluttershy
The Cajun identity could potentially mean Mage would be considered white
There are a few different takes on what the Cajun label is meant to describe and if it should even overlap with the Creole identity. ( X, X). Whether it refers to a dialect, a cuisine, or a group of people, Cajun is understood today to represent a collection of cultural backgrounds that primarily live on the outskirts of Louisiana (Black, Indigenous American, French, and Spanish-European). Sometimes it refers to a mixture of these heritages; but it could also refer to specific groups that don’t necessarily have to be white, nor do they have to be Black. That probably has y'all wondering then, what's the big deal about depicting Mage Meadowbrook as a white girl?
Well, regardless of what they mean by giving her a general Cajun-Louisiana accent, you can see that Mage’s design and lifestyle more closely resemble those of Black and Black-mixed women of Louisiana. It’s a very distinct style that incorporates various traditional fashions from the Diaspora. The vibrant colors, the headscarves, the jewelry; they all had numerous uses and meanings even when brought to the US. It’s not simply the cottagecore getup, as I’ve seen fans attempt to describe Mage’s attire and interests.
Cottagecore was an internet aesthetic trend in which women (not solely but primarily white girls) depicted themselves living a simple, rustic lifestyle. They romanticized the idea of escaping big-city societal problems by moving into the countryside. They wear light, loose, frilly garments while practicing the more “feminine” and “delicate” aspects of homesteading (X). To an extent, Mage Meadowbrook seems to match this lifestyle. She doesn’t live in a major city, and she spends her time journaling and collecting plants. The aesthetic sounds pleasant in theory until you realize how much of it is tied to colonization and tradwife ideology. Others have already written detailed documents on this subject, which I encourage y'all to look into yourselves (Link, Link, Link). What I mainly wanted to point out is how these influencers set up the appeal of going back to “simpler times” (red flag). While they try to sell you on this idea of a comfortable, stress-free environment, they leave out the reality that in order to achieve this lifestyle, you must perform manual labor. Do y'all think most of these TikTok cottagecore girlies (and their film crew) are doing all that? No, their sense of a rural setting is sanitized and unrealistically uncomplicated. Now, back then, the typical Southern Belle could still enjoy the pleasures of living in the countryside, sipping a refreshing drink, and enjoying homemade goods on the porch. They just have servants and slaves do the hard work. Needless to say, Mage isn’t doing all that mess; she and her family do the manual labor just as Black Americans were forced to do (I’ll get more into that in a bit).
Along with the cottagecore trend came witchcore. Yes, it’s essentially the same thing, just leaning more on “witchy arts 'n crafts”. To be clear, there's a difference between this aesthetic vs. genuine witchcraft. It’s also important to distinguish spiritual and religious practices by their distinct belief systems. We shouldn’t categorize them all under the same "witchcraft umbrella” and assume it all links towards European paganism. For Mage’s case, while some described her as a sorceress, she's more recognized as a gifted healer. She’s not just picking the flowers to decorate her home; she collects all sorts of natural materials to brew into medicinal potions for her small community. Based on her environment and home decor (similar to Zecora’s), I have an idea of which cultures the creators are referencing as her expertise. Unfortunately, the series has a frustrating habit of taking non-white cultural identities and not so subtly applying them to characters meant to be seen as abnormal and foreign. They are hardly handled with care, as you could imagine.
If I had to guess what visual elements MLP applied to Mage’s potion-making, I’d say it’s a mix of West African, Haitian, and New Orleans practices: Hoodoo and rootwork specifically. Probably some Voodoo/Vodun, for a visual appearance. Vodun is a religion unlike Hoodoo, with its own ceremonies and systems. Unfortunately, I doubt this cartoon, known for its clunky racism allegories, cares about such sensitivity. Yes, these beliefs and practices are all linked in history. It’s just more likely the show was trying to give Mage a generalized New Orleans "witch-doctor” vibe. Whatever the case, rootwork practices had Black practitioners forage for available resources to create elixirs that heal body and soul. That essentially describes Mage’s specialized family tradition. To further add to this point, they do have Mage battle (eventually cure) a horde of zombies in the comics. If you follow me, y'all should know by now the origin of zombies is inherently Black, and the original horror aspects aren’t exactly how modern movies make it out to be.
“Ok, but what’s so Black about foraging? Non-Black people can forage!" That’s true, there’s documentation of Indigenous American groups helping enslaved, displaced Africans to identify plants and their properties since this land was all foreign to them (what you actually thought I was gonna credit white ppl? Y'all needed slaves for everything, so nah). What makes some rootworks distinctly Black are the beliefs and practices carried over from West Africa. Mage lives in the small fictional community of Hayseed Swamps, but the setting is meant to correlate with real-life Louisiana bayous. She and her family were raised to use whatever resources they could forage for as medicine. This is similar to the way of life of self-liberated Black people, who learned to live and thrive in the bountiful wonders of Louisiana's wetlands. The unfamiliar and hazardous biomes also made it more difficult for slave-catchers (and cottagecore girlies) to navigate. I'm not saying Mage Meadowbrook was subjected to pony chattel slavery (even tho this cartoon sometimes implies that’s a thing-). I am just going into depth explaining WHY foraging was so ingrained into Black people’s way of life, even in the bayous. I have to give a special shout-out to The Black Forager(Alexis Nikole Nelson), who explains the importance of this history, as many laws after the Civil War prevented Black people from foraging and thriving. All this to basically say: there’s not a chance that white cottagecore individuals are going to tolerate living in the bayous. Maybe if you’re a country hick, but as we’ve established, that’s not the aesthetic y’all are applying to Mage, nor want to be associated with.
If anything, y'all tend to depict her as some white girl in boho/orientalist fashion. If you don’t know what boho fashion is, it is a style meant to encapsulate a “free-spirited” nature. They are primarily worn during counterculture eras, such as the Flower Power scene. It tends to be associated with cottagecore and witchcore, given its down-to-earth, natural vibes. White people aren’t the only group who dress in this style, although they are notably the ones predominantly shown. Consequently, people often forget that this style takes and culturally appropriates aspects of various marginalized groups’ fashions, leaving them uncredited: Romanian people, Indigenous Americans, the Asian Diaspora, and the Black/African Diaspora. Guess which one Mage Meadowbrook is associated with while adorning wooden jewelry, a vibrant green skirt, and harboring an intricate collection of African-inspired masks.
The way Mage puts up her hair is reminiscent of how Black women put up their hair and wrap it in cloth. While we always rocked this look, there was a time in Louisiana where Black women were forced to wear their hair this way. The Tignon Laws had it where free and enslaved Black women must cover their heads with tignon cloths when in public. The headscarf was to prevent us from supposedly seducing white men; but also to represent a shameful garment, reminding us of our “lowly” status as Black women. Naturally, it never worked as white folks presumed it would. Again, we've always rocked a good head covering, even back on the continent of Africa. Haitians already wore them before they came to Louisiana, so Vodun priests and Hoodoo practitioners wore them here as well(so yknow, Mage). Headscarves have simply been a fashion statement for Black Americans for generations, despite all attempts to police our hair. So nah, y'all don't get to claim Mage Meadowbrook is a straight-haired white girl.
Headwraps are a vital part of many cultures and for self care!
Which is the other thing, most of y’all would rather drop dead than show an ounce of forehead anyways. The mere idea of being bald or implied to be by having extremely short hair is extremely upsetting for a lot of white people. Maybe because it disrupts white femininity’s insistence that long flowing straight hair is the most beautiful feature a woman could have. I mean, that's why the Tignon Laws were made in the first place, white women actually felt threatened when other women disproved this notion. And so, when y’all draw Mage as a human woman, y’all are very adamant to give her straight hair coming down to her shoulders. Diabolical. Goofy even. You take that forehead of hers for what it is.
No, Mage's hair isn't fully covered. Black people can wear scarves however we please now, believe it or not. Although, it’s more likely this personal choice was made cuz the accessory would appear too bulky on top of a pony head. It’s probably also why her and her family’s hair sticks up the way it does: to intentionally mimic the full headwrap. Fun fact: Mage Meadowbrook's hair is shaped like a lobster tail. Crawfish? Shrimp? Idk, I can't eat any of them(weh in allergy), it just adds to the Louisiana influence in her design. Even her headscarf looks like the white meat inside these critters.
Character design is fun like that, which is why I don't fret too much about the fact that Mage has blue eyes. I mean, I do, it very much bothers me, but I meant that it doesn’t discourage me from knowing she’s Black (it’s not like this is the first time y'all depict Black people with blue eyes). Barely anyone in the series has typical black and brown eyes. Most MLP eye colors tend to either be the same as an already established color in their design (mane, cutie mark, coat) or at least something that complements their overall color scheme. Personally, I would have gone with a green or red for Mage Meadowbrook's eyes; there's just A LOT of the same blue in her design….Ok, I’m gonna back-track here a bit, cuz typing this made me realize a possible reason as to why they made Mage so blue. It’s a common belief amongst the Black Diaspora, especially in Louisiana, that certain shades of blue ward off evil spirits. She’s literally Haint Blue. Man, I love an actual good thought-out character design, even though there’s a good chance I’m giving these white creators more credit than I should give them. Honestly, if they come out saying this was always their intention by the time I post this: No, it wasn’t. Also, I would still change Mage’s eye color, you can’t stop me.
Anyways - if not for the eye color(which Black people can just have), people probably assume Mage is non-Black because she has a white voice actress. Yes, knowing the race of voice actors can help us get a sense of a character's ethnic coding or cultural identity, especially when VAs act in their natural dialect. That doesn’t mean that will always be the definite case, given how discriminatory this field can be towards poc. You should look at all other factors of their characterizations. And I listed A LOT of other factors above to show Mage Meadowbrook is Black, so don’t play with me.
If I had to make one last personal guess as to why fans have a difficult time acknowledging Mage’s Blackness, I’d imagine it’s the same reason they throw tantrums over Black!Fluttershy. The majority of ponies and characters in this show are ambiguous in their cultural coding. However, as we’ve all learned, ambiguity defaults to whiteness, especially in toxic fanbases like My Little Pony. Sure was a sentence I typed, but it’s true. These people act like you’ve desecrated their ancestors’ graves if you drew characters named Pinkie Pie and Rarity as Black girls. They’ll straight up threaten you for drawing their kind, soft-spoken, timid girl, Fluttershy, with any melanin. Maybe because Fluttershy lives the soft cottagecore lifestyle these fans wish to achieve: A quiet and serene utopia that isn’t disrupted by the existence of brown people. Seriously tho, the more I look into the whole cottagecore/witchcore campaign, the more I see it's all repackaged white flight. Which is silly to apply to ponies, whose bit is that they are farm animals. No duh, they live in stables and rural communities, that’s where you tend to find them. Anyways, what does Fluttershy have to do with Mage?
Well, to bring up the Pillars of Equestria again, they were basically the Mane 6's Elements of Harmony from long ago. Each member carried their own element, but they were similar to the Mane 6’s in motives and personality: Sorcery=Magic, Healing=Kindness, Bravery=Loyalty , Hope=Laughter, Beauty=Generosity, Strength=Honesty
Mage represents Healing, the counterpart to Fluttershy’s Element of Kindness, and thus, they share a lot of personality traits. Mage is very intuitive of nature, she has a soft accent, and of course, she's very kind. She may not be as shy as Fluttershy, but she is rather reserved. And like Fluttershy, Mage will help out her friends however she can, even if that means confrontation (which she doesn’t particularly enjoy). Many non-Black people are still ever so reliant on overused stereotypes of Black women; they can’t fathom the idea that there are Black women with Mage or Fluttershy’s temperaments. We are all human, and we all can have various personalities, not tied to race. It’s these same bigoted beliefs that made cartoons drastically lightwash characters like Bumblebee and Orange Blossom. If you can’t imagine Black girls to be kind and shy, then I can only imagine how else that bigotry stunts your general creativity. Not my problem, just get over yourselves and get better.
Mage Meadowbrook is a Black Louisiana woman. Yes, she’s a pony, but as we’ve established in this series: obvious allegories and metaphors (I hope you guys learned back in middle school) help us gain a more in-depth understanding of these characters. Mage Meadowbrook isn’t so much talked about along with the other Pillars. It isn't an excuse to attempt to whitewash her and the cultures she represents.
