Comment by Ja-y JTBD on Rok

Comment on ReplyRok
·6 months ago(edited)
Ch. 2
@Rok first and foremost it sounds really bad for you if the only times you've identified characters as black is when it was racist.

Next. In my time of reading manwha for more than 3 years, I've seen several black character (I don't know how many because I don't count my black people). Some with affros some with straight hair. Main thing all of the time they are drawn to fit the art style of the story.
Real people don't actually have single point noses, but they do in manwha because it's easier and prettier the less details there are in someone's face. The only time to add more detail is for a joke, dramatic effect or to make someone older/uglier except for the occasional distinctive detail like scars (which normally ended up fading away).

In most manwha I've read, they don't mention specific real life race at all. This is just commonly how the genre functions. There's no Asians, there's people from the empire, there's no Americans, there's blue eyed, blonde haired people from a foreign nation, there's no black people, there's darker skinned people of the desert. Basically everyone is drawn from the same basic style with superficial differences 

You're purposely ignoring the obviously intended implications and somehow, according to your comment, only acknowledging someone as black "where it's pretty racist". You've got to understand how bad that sounds. I'm not calling you racist but that sounds like someone with internalised racism, and yes black people can get that, I had that when I was a teenager.

Also, don't bring culture into this because that doesn't actually support your point unless you go with the surface level, one-note view of ignorance common in racists.
On a more serious note.

1 Reply

·6 months ago(edited)
@Ja-y JTBD For the usual representation in manhwa, they don't have to explicity say "american, european" etc etc because they make it quite obvious with the wardrobe, physical features, architecture, and cultural customs etc. For example, a ton of manhwa have dukes, counts, marquis etc. So, it doesn't take a genius to realize that the setting of the story is medieval europe; therefore the characters are white.

However, these darker skinned characters are also in the same setting and their character design is ambiguous, so it's not so obvious to know who they're supposed to be modeled after in real life. There are no setting, language, or cultural cues to suggest when characters(including these characters) are black or not.

In one rare story I read where they actually used cultural clues, architecture, and wardrobe with the darker skinned characters, it was obvious that some of the characters were modeled after indians and some characters were modeled after black people...and no, there wasn't the usual "obvious" racism in the character design...though they were still called barbarians and slaves which irked me. That story made it far more obvious because they gave more obvious clues to the characters. The average manhwa doesn't do that, so it's much, much harder to tell. 

Have you ever seen dragonball z? Sometimes, when they portray black people(which is very rare in dbz and anime in general), they use the very racist, stereotypical huge lips etc etc. That's what I mean when I say, "obvious to the point of being racist" because that's how a lot of asian cultures see black people. When it's not ambiguous(like this story has), they make it very obvious bc their racism comes out in their media.

Culture is a huge part of this because they use their standard of beauty in their media. Did you read my comment properly? The way they portray people of dark skin(just darker skin, not necessarily black) is in generalizations, and asian media heavily stays away from portraying black people at all because of cultural beauty standards and the homogenous population of their society etc.

Tbh, from the first sentence I got irritated, because I don't think you read my comment properly, and you're misunderstanding me, and I hate being misunderstood. Let's just end it, because I have a feeling that we're going to keep missing each other with this topic. It seems like you're taking your initial belief of what you think one of my comments meant, and you're not getting off of that. So whatever, just forget it.
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