Race in Comics

[Mo]

*signature*

..in an unrelated note, I just wasted three seconds of my life.

[McDuffies]

My plan is to garner miself another lifetime, three by three seconds.

[Cope]

I wasted five seconds.

Man, I gotta learn to read faster.

[Rocknjosie]

I don't think it's right to compare the racism this grandfather showed with Nazi Germany during WWII. While both are obvious cases of racism, it is not on the same level. nor do I think it's fair to suggest that if he is a racist like that in the 1970's, that he must have been much worse in the 1950's in the South.

While there are a LOT of people with racist attitudes, those attitudes often extend no further than a subconcious response. When faced with their racism, these people tend to be embarassed by it.

I never lived in the Jim Crow south, but from what I know I'd have to disagree. From the average of two lynchings a week, to the postcards in general stores featuring pictures of lynchings, to the schools closed so that kids could go watch a lynching, to no job opportunity, to schools only being desegregated post 1950...and the list goes on. Obviously I broke a few laws of debating bringing in Nazi Germany, but I don't think it's unfair to compare Jim Crow south and before to Nazi Germany in the ghettos phase.

Well, it is only unfair to judge a person based on only one thing you've heard about him, and I think that's what Rkolter was trying to say.
To try to give a parallel example, I know a lot of people here who dislike gays, but I can guarantee you that they are, in fact, very good people. None of them would ever hurt a gay, throw a stone at them or anything based on their personal dislike. Sure, they were raised not to like people of alternative sexual orientation, but that doesn't mean that they are deprived of compassion, sence of equality or any other human characteristics.
And then, there is a nice saying: "Dog that barks doesn't bite".

But then again, I don't think that your post was as much a stretch as it had virtually nothing to do with what I was saying. We talk about whether it's reasonable or fair to ask a very old man to change his complete views of life in his last days of life, and you bring in great historical human injustices, fear of death and whether someone could be forgiven or not (but we were not even mentionong any forgiveness because we weren't talking about any crimes in the first place). You seem to have brought the topic only because it's something that currently interests you, not because it was related to the topic of discussion. I just decided to keep shut up hoping that this pointless discussion won't go further, but it did. Blah.

Tolerance of cultures goes both ways, remember.

Let the Nazis have their views and you have yours.

*cough*

You know what, I don't like what you're doing.
Maybe you haven't realised, but you're pointing fingers and shouting "RACIST!" just now. That's something you should never do in a discussion like this.

From where I sat, people were trying to justify why the phrase "let the old man have his values, and you have yours" was used. I let comment go, but I'll admit, I was just waiting for someone to give me something to dispute. That comment really irked me. I'm not sure how you saw the discussion, but I saw it as trying to justify one man's beliefs because everyone else thought the same way and as long as they don't pick up a rock it's fine. I realize I misread you and I'm sorry, but I still feel like that undertone was there, if not in your post than just in some of the other people also trying to defend the comment.

[Nicotine]

Tolerance of cultures goes both ways, remember.

Let the old feller have his views and you have yours.

I don't see why people are so offended by this.

You can't change the views of someone who has been thinking like that for so long, so why waste your time doing it. I think that's basically what this means. So what's the problem...?

[FinbarReilly]

Tolerance of cultures goes both ways, remember.

Let the old feller have his views and you have yours.

I don't see why people are so offended by this.

You can't change the views of someone who has been thinking like that for so long, so why waste your time doing it. I think that's basically what this means. So what's the problem...?

The problem is that racism is looked upon as being aberrant behavior in our culture (in general), and not tolerable behavior. Although a wide range of behaviors is acceptable, there are some behaviors that aren't...

FR

[Nicotine]

Tolerance of cultures goes both ways, remember.

Let the old feller have his views and you have yours.

I don't see why people are so offended by this.

You can't change the views of someone who has been thinking like that for so long, so why waste your time doing it. I think that's basically what this means. So what's the problem...?

The problem is that racism is looked upon as being aberrant behavior in our culture (in general), and not tolerable behavior. Although a wide range of behaviors is acceptable, there are some behaviors that aren't...

FR

I know that. What I mean is that if a guys been racist all his life no matter what you do your not going to change that.

[McDuffies]

From where I sat, people were trying to justify why the phrase "let the old man have his values, and you have yours" was used. I let comment go, but I'll admit, I was just waiting for someone to give me something to dispute. That comment really irked me. I'm not sure how you saw the discussion, but I saw it as trying to justify one man's beliefs because everyone else thought the same way and as long as they don't pick up a rock it's fine. I realize I misread you and I'm sorry, but I still feel like that undertone was there, if not in your post than just in some of the other people also trying to defend the comment.

So yours was the "preaching vs. acting" arguement? No, it's really not that. I remember the old saying: "God give me courage to change what I can change, calmness to accept what I can't change and wiseness to differ those two".

But what I really ask is that noone points fingers and acuses others of racistm, not even implicitely. Racism is a very hard accusation and you shouldn't base it on undertones that you think you've seen in posts, different interpretations of posts from the point of view that you've chosen, glancing a post with one eye without thinking thoroughly what the poster wanted to say or whatever was the reason. Until someone steps out and says something undoubtedly racist, I think that there's no basis in looking at them with hatred. As far as I remember, no regular poster here has ever said something racist, shown resentment toward people of different race, or even advocated racism (despite what someone implied here, being easy on an old man who happens to be a racist does not mean advocating entire racism).
So let's put the ball down.

[Rocknjosie]

*sets ball down gently*

[MixedMyth]

But what I really ask is that noone points fingers and acuses others of racistm, not even implicitely. Racism is a very hard accusation and you shouldn't base it on undertones that you think you've seen in posts, different interpretations of posts from the point of view that you've chosen, glancing a post with one eye without thinking thoroughly what the poster wanted to say or whatever was the reason. Until someone steps out and says something undoubtedly racist, I think that there's no basis in looking at them with hatred. As far as I remember, no regular poster here has ever said something racist, shown resentment toward people of different race, or even advocated racism (despite what someone implied here, being easy on an old man who happens to be a racist does not mean advocating entire racism).
So let's put the ball down.

Here, here! ^_^

Also remember that we all have our own little biased perspectives. I don't mean racism in the way we usually think of it as a terrible monstrosity. I simply mean the limits that we all have from being ourselves, having our experiences, and not having someone else's. That is inherint in culture and race (since race is a cultural construct). It's also important to realize that everybody is under that condition.

The point is that because of this, innocent mistakes can happen. Misconceptions abound, and assumptions are made. But it's not necissarily because the person is a rabid racist, but because they don't have much of a knowledge base to draw from or a real understanding of another culture/race.

*hums Avenue Q*

[Turi]

*tries to get back on topic*

Vedrblaka's Saga is set in two isolated, bordering comunities, but the theme is more nationalism than racism, so I don't know how much parallel there is. The Isar-men DO look slightly different (darker hair and paler skin) than the Eldr-men, but I do not draw nearly detailed enough for this to show. There is not much thought behind this, other than that some people detest each other purely on nationality, and that that's stupid.

On the group project I'm working on, though I rather doubt it'll ever see the light of the day, Operation Ragnarok, one of the heroes has powers of fire AND ice rolling through her body, a constant struggle which reflects her inner turmoil: She is brought up in a very traditional family, but have goals and ambitions beoynd the role of a housewife that her father wants for her. It kinda came naturally to have the girl be of saracen origin. Partly because I wanted to have a muslim portraited for once as a good guy (or, in this case, girl), which is scaringly uncommon in Denmark these days. But I have no agenda on this. She's a person first, and a saracen muslim second. Perhaps that actually IS my agenda.

[BERSERKERCREW]

my characters are a mix of latino, caucasian, asian and african american.
the mains are a mix of latino and caucasian and 2 mainly asian.
but i think they come off looking more caucasian than anything,
because i don't really elaborate on their backgrounds.

[MariaAndMichelle]

Our characters are what they are in real life.

...Wow. That was simple.

[Nutcracker]

I'm not very good at drawing faces yet and they don't diffr much, so making race differencies is VERY useful. I also have species differencies: bunnies, devils, monsters...
But yeah, when I think of a character, or just people in the background I automatically see them white because less than 1% people I see in the streets of Warsaw are non-white (cuz nobody wants to come here).

[Marverick]

*tries to be on topic*

If you look at my sig, my comic has a real rainbow of races (and those are just the main characters, many more races will be introduced as the story go along)

My database section goes pretty in depth about it, its not just for aesthetics. Each race is different in its own way.


As for real life, i'm not racist at all. I think all races are equal....same for men and women

I suddently feel like singing hand in hand under a rainbow!

peave and love dudes!

[Lady Blue]

In my (currently not online) comic, the main character is blue. *points at avie* The human characters are mostly very pale skinned, mostly because they all seem to be parts of my personality... which is sort of weird.

Race will be adressed in the comic, but only minorly, because a minor character is Japanese. Of course, no matter how hard I try, subjects I feel strongly about appear in all of my work. Rasism, Religion, Gender roles, and Censorship found their way into the plot, and I'm sure other things will bubble up.

But really, I didn't plan anyone's race except for a select few. I needed someone from a country very different from mine, that could easily be bilingual and learning to speak Japanese was on my list of to do at the time, so a new character was designed to lend herself to the plot.

And... I baisicly restated everything ya'll have said. "I don't really think on my characters races too much"

[Warren]

There is no need for race to be an issue in my comic. Never came up.

[Rkolter]

There is no need for race to be an issue in my comic. Never came up.

Yeah, but the guys are cool while the girls are all stalkers, psychos, or more masculine than the guys. You're a horrible, horrible person and should be punished for your transgressions.

*gives your wife a stuffed animal*

[McDuffies]

Biker mcDuffies, I presume.

[K-Dawg]

I never think of the race thing, I just draw. I'm odd like that.