Race in comics

[Fabio Ciccone]

I may be ignorant, but I thought Portuguese were considered hispanic nation too.

Ooh! I just looked it up! The corresponding term for the Portuguese is "Lusitanic"

Yeah, these names comes from the Roman names of the provinces... thus Hispanic - Hispania (Spain), Lusitanic - Lusitania (Portugal), Britanic - Britania (Great Britain)... you get the picture


Just don't call a Portuguese Spanish or the other way around... I don't think they'll like it... kinda like Brazil and Argentina, Australia and New Zealand or New York and New Jersey

[McDuffies]

Kind of like when Lithuanian acquaitance got mad when we called him "Russian".

Hmm i suppose its better than the alternative "token" characters. I think comics shouldn't *try* to include everyone if you're just having random minorities. I think its kind of insulting, hence why I try hard to make everyone important in some way.

Yeah, it comes off as giving someone place in a comic out of pity.

[TheSuburbanLetdown]

Hmm i suppose its better than the alternative "token" characters. I think comics shouldn't *try* to include everyone if you're just having random minorities. I think its kind of insulting, hence why I try hard to make everyone important in some way.

Yeah, it comes off as giving someone place in a comic out of pity.

Yeah, like in a cereal commercial. There's always the white boy and girl, the black kid, and some other minority, usually hispanic or asian depending on how the marketing team is feeling that day.

[Tystarr]

My whole comic consists of different races. I just had to do it cause theres not many webcomics out like that. You'll be more likely to see a comic about talking animals, aliens or elves before you see a comic with non-Caucasian folk.

[TheSuburbanLetdown]

I think that happens because people are afraid of offending people and being labeled as a racist, which is an accusation that's thrown around way too freely.

Some of the problems with just throwing other races in fiction is that some people try too hard to justify them being another race and it ends up being cheesy or preachy. ABC ruined the show All-American Girl by telling Cho to act "more Asian". Later they added more white people to the cast to act as a barometer of normalcy to Cho's "Asianess." The Cosby show didn't get ruined by having the audience be reminded that they were black, it's just something they were. Though there is some criticism that the Cosby show should've focused on that more, but oh well. So then that brings up the question, "So, should they have acted 'more black'? What does that even mean?"

[Tentoumushi]

I think that happens because people are afraid of offending people and being labeled as a racist, which is an accusation that's thrown around way too freely.

That's how it is with me. It really sucks being white sometimes. I really would love a multicultural cast, in which the cultures they come from enrich the character or story, but doesn't become EVERYTHING about the character. I want my cast to be realistic but at the same time, I really can't do that without being labeled a racist. Which isn't fair becuase every time i see an Italian in something they're speaking loudly, eating pasta, having broken English, or crying which are all stereotypes that are TRUE to some degree (spend 5 minutes around my mom's family). I don't get offended when I see that on TV, but *I* can't have an X minority doing Y becuase people will think I'm racist, even if its a positive stereotype...like an Asian kid who's good at math, or a Hispanic that's really good at dancing or something.

[Yeahduff]

I don't really mind "tokenism" most of the time. It's only annoying when the creator feels the need to justify the choice with "a reason" or something.

The ethnicity of a lot of my characters is ambiguous, which I'm OK with. It's not really about race at all, though the setting is diverse, so it seems a good solution.

[Cuendolin]

Yeah, these names comes from the Roman names of the provinces... thus Hispanic - Hispania (Spain), Lusitanic - Lusitania (Portugal), Britanic - Britania (Great Britain)... you get the picture

Just don't call a Portuguese Spanish or the other way around... I don't think they'll like it... kinda like Brazil and Argentina, Australia and New Zealand or New York and New Jersey

Sorry, I was mostly thinking about south America but you are right . Hispanic should refer to countries where spanish is spoken.
I was thinking on the word "Latin", and probably is not right too.

About calling a Spanish, Portuguese. I'm not sure If anybody would be offended by that. It depends on the circumstances, better not to try.

[Fabio Ciccone]

Sorry, I was mostly thinking about south America but you are right . Hispanic should refer to countries where spanish is spoken.
I was thinking on the word "Latin", and probably is not right too.

Actually the term "Latin" is correct for both Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries... Latin America is everithing from Mexico to southern Argentina

[KWill]

I don't really mind "tokenism" most of the time. It's only annoying when the creator feels the need to justify the choice with "a reason" or something.

I disagree entirely, unless I misunderstood/Duffy miswrote. I loathe adding a black character or hispanic character simply because all the rest are "white". If a token character's part is justified with a good reason, it's not really a token character anymore.

[KWill]

Sorry, I was mostly thinking about south America but you are right . Hispanic should refer to countries where spanish is spoken.
I was thinking on the word "Latin", and probably is not right too.

Actually the term "Latin" is correct for both Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries... Latin America is everithing from Mexico to southern Argentina

Oh, heck, by extension, the US is part of Latin America as well, considering that a lot of states (Florida, California, and Texas, among others) were originally Spanish-speaking, and still are, to a certain extent.

[Cuendolin]

Oh, heck, by extension, the US is part of Latin America as well, considering that a lot of states (Florida, California, and Texas, among others) were originally Spanish-speaking, and still are, to a certain extent.

I should give up with definitions.
I think that Spanish is spoken because of people coming from Mexico and Cuba and it's not an official language of that states but never been in USA, so I can't say.
Anyway, the thing that bothers me is that the portray of hispanic or asian race sometimes is very topic because the culture could be different depending of the country.

[Yeahduff]

Latin America is South America, Central America, Mexico, and the Carribean Islands. It's an unsatisfactory term on a number of levels, but what are you gonna do?

I don't really mind "tokenism" most of the time. It's only annoying when the creator feels the need to justify the choice with "a reason" or something.

I disagree entirely, unless I misunderstood/Duffy miswrote. I loathe adding a black character or hispanic character simply because all the rest are "white". If a token character's part is justified with a good reason, it's not really a token character anymore.

Nah, you read right.

Everyone else being white (why quotation marks?) seems like an excellent reason to make a character black. Why not just make a comic full of dudes? Or blondes? What's wrong with a little visual variety?

And supposed reasons for diversity are almost always so lame. Oh, a new supporting character in a wheelchair? Guess we can look forward to an episode about disabilities. People's identities extend beyond the labels we assign them. If a hispanic girl only comes around when we're discussing immigration, I'm not sure I wanna read this book. Oh, you're a comedy, like a lot of comedies, and your not interested in taking on such topics? Guess we won't be seeing any black people.

OK, so we all roll our eyes at the cliques that are so carefully and delibrately diverse in shows and such, but it's preferable to seeing nothing but white faces.

[TheSuburbanLetdown]

Execution is key. If the character is treated like a regular human being and not a character type, then it's fine.

[Datachasers]

Hey guys, yet another topic from me!

So I have a issue I think others might have too. I love multiculturalism in comics, when done right. In fact I'm going to have my comic translated into as many languages as posible when it gets a bit longer. My main cast itself is comprised of (if they were human) people of Europian, African, and Hispanic descent.

My question to you is how do you portray people that are not of your race or culture. Its hard enough having two central characters be african american and not be able to give them the same features as my other characters ( becuase of mintral style mockeries, lips and big eyes on african characters, even in the slightest, can be a big no- no) Also, my friend from Puerto Rico is helping me out with my Hispanic characters. I never would have wrote thier part in the way she has instructed me, which clues me in to just how culturally clueless I can be.

So how do you all deal with it?

for the racial point is a main subplot - however i have "artifical" races each of them being "city based" color doesnt really

apply - each area having a relitive mix of racial leftovers - ( new roma being a exception useing a eugenics program - even

there traits from each race being used to make something better ,faster , stronger (( where its from not really being a issue )))

the main "racial factions" being
andriod- Mecha -
humans ( broken down by city ) not by color
and luna citizens ( living in lower gravity and the closed space , giving rise to effectively a new race )
and then mutants / wastlanders / vault dwellers ect -

in any case my virsion of racism is mostly organic vs Mecha
i try to be careful about steriotypes thankfully at the time point in my comic a young black male and a young white male will pretty much have the same mannerisms - bombing the human race to extiction and back tends to blur racial lines -

[Adobedragon]

My comic is [urban] fantasy and most of the main characters aren't human. The setting, however, is modern day Albuquerque, which is a racially diverse place. So many of the secondary (human) characters are Hispanic or Native American. I don't do this to make any kind of statement or to add a token character. It's just what I'm used to seeing.

[Jen_Babcock]

My cast is mainly white though I have one African American and one Vietnamese in there too.

Other than making them look like they're not white, socio-economically they all come from the same basic background. I guess I don't really put any stereotypes into them. Tiffany, the Vietnamese character doesn't really talk about her "Vietnamese-ness" and she is very American.

[Datachasers]

My cast is mainly white though I have one African American and one Vietnamese in there too.

Other than making them look like they're not white, socio-economically they all come from the same basic background. I guess I don't really put any stereotypes into them. Tiffany, the Vietnamese character doesn't really talk about her "Vietnamese-ness" and she is very American.

exactly - in mine there is a lot of genetic "blending" so its a might diffictult -

[Kemmy]

My comic is [urban] fantasy and most of the main characters aren't human. The setting, however, is modern day Albuquerque, which is a racially diverse place. So many of the secondary (human) characters are Hispanic or Native American. I don't do this to make any kind of statement or to add a token character. It's just what I'm used to seeing.

Ditto. My comic is set in Toronto, which is pretty multicultural. If I had made my cast all-anything, I would have been misrepresenting the setting.

[Fishies]

My comic is a fantasy comic but I don't really like the idea that being fantasy can 'excuse' having an all white cast. I mean, if you're making up a whole world, why have only people who look white? Since Pumpkin Flower is set in a large city with modern-type travel technology I figure when drawing lots of people I should have variety.

I worry about doing it wrong a lot. For one my drawing is two steps from stick figures. My main character's face is two triangles for eyes on a poiny oval. (Well, maybe dots, it depends on his mood.)