I've been noticing a trend that's been going on lately in fiction (Videogames, comics what have you) regarding "representation" (aka adding a black person as a main character/support character) It's usually a black woman with
A) An afro
b) Sass
c) openly opinionated on whatever author's pet politics are.
Is this the only acceptable design for a black person in fiction? I'm not American so I'm out of the loop a bit.
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There's a history behind it
Does that describe Riri? Besides the Afro.
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Hey, above is Sup Forums related.
it's Sup Forums related and a fair point about pingonholing people into set roles. Especially interesting if you take into account recent characters such as riri are apart of a diversity push.
>Is this the only acceptable design for a black person in fiction?
It isn't, but it is becoming the popular go-to for black females.
Including a character like this seems to give me the impression that it's done for brownie points. Kamala Khan didn't give me that impression in the long run though.
whatever happened to marvel saying "diversity made our comics bomb"
did they backtrack from that?
Don't forget nerdy black boys trope
It seems to be one of those things where everyone knows the truth but you can't actually express it openly.
no i mean, one guy explicitly said that.
did they make him apologize or retract his statement?
The hair is a thing with progressive black women lately. A lot of black celebrities do everything they can to straighten their hair, seriously fuck with it with treatments and chemicals, and frequently just wear wigs. This is viewed as changing who they are to appear more like white people. And yeah, it kinda is.
I don't really have a problem with it, but comics are so fucking dying of unoriginality right now I don't care.
Of course, he retracted it. No apologies though. "misunderstanding"
Is there really no other hairstyle though?
Marvel didn't say that. They said something along the lines of "people are not buying these diversity books". As if to imply that it's OUR fault for not liking diversity. Marvel will never accept blame or take responsibility for anything.
There's plenty. The afro and afro-style haircuts are just ONE of the most popular forms of black women hair. It's just the most marketable hairstylings much long hair with "floof" is for white women.
Of course, yes, greater variety would be welcomed.
>There's plenty.
Sure like jerry curls, dreadlocks and uhh.... shaved?
Sure, that covers the bases. Hairstyles, no matter the race, never leave it at though. Variations occur from one another.
You've forgotten the other one now which is that they're usually some kine of engineering/scientific prodigy. It's following societal trends (or at least the cries of a very vocal minority) and overcompensation.
That's really only in comic books though. And like only two being push in Marvel. In other media, it's just a sassy girl
Honest question, Would it make you happy if all of the characters prodigy/sidekicks were white kids?
Them being one-note characters is far more offensive to me than them being non-white
The guy basically said "we tried a bunch of new shit starting in 2014. People ate it up. All of a sudden in October 2016 they stopped buying it. We're not sure why and it will take a little while to adjust to that."
BleedingClickbait homed in on the diversity stuff, because of course they did, but Marvel was up to more than that at the time. They pretty much trashed their house style, they brought in writers from less traditional sources (like YA books and webcomics), they advertised themselves in new markets, and of course they did the diversity stuff.
The super-geniuses? Yeah. That, or Asians. More Europeans wouldn't hurt. But a Super-Genius Black? Don't make me laugh... Wakanda gets a pass 'cause Vibranium.
Marvel seems to give female team leaders haircuts as well. Apparently you can't lead if you have long hair.
I'd probably be a little less annoyed if a handful of them were straight white boys as it would feel less political. It'd still be pretty obnoxious, though.
Not really. They just seem less stereotypical but nothing going for them.
Honestly though says it best. If TF2's characters were one note, no one would like them.
I've seen so many black bitches with Mickey Mouse ears on their head. I have to turn away to keep from busting a gut laughing, it looks so ridiculous!
I want to see US Agent get a black girl protege. Who is more conservative than he is! Just to throw everyone for a loop. And she'll demand to be called Bucky because if that's good enough for Cap's white boy sidekick, it's good enough for her!
calm down samefag, it's just a drawing
>whatever happened to marvel saying "diversity made our comics bomb"
Literally 1 employee not speaking in any official capacity. How fucking stupid are people?
Wait. You mean it actually happened?!?!
The acceptable, "representative" depiction of today will become the negative, racist rendition of tomorrow. Decades from now, the modern rapper will be viewed as poorly as Stepin Fetchit, and all these "progressive" characters will be seen for the backhanded racial stereotypes that they are.
They just read the stupid headlines like the dummies they are.
I mean I know stupid people exist and all but it's hard admitting I associate with them through proxy. That's on me I guess for assuming most people I talk with aren't total retards.
Would it be wrong to look forward to that day because it basically means everything they cherished being seen as evil and wrong by the new generation and stomped like how they did it to the previous generation before them?
Mind providing a list? Aside from this bitch, can't think of any that come to mind. Especially in th video game field. Though I might have just gotten lucky and avoided them all together.
>brought in writers from webcomics
Jesus Christ.
>Literally 1 employee not speaking in any official capacity.
He's the VP of sales. If anyone is qualified to offer commentary on Marvel's sales, it's him.
That said, he's only half right. People don't hate diversity, they just hate the way Marvel's trying to go about it. Readers are open to new characters, but they don't want those characters to completely replace the ones they're familiar with. Also the staggering majority of the writing is braindead, pandering goatshit with zero self-awareness and no respect for the reader. Add all of that to the same problems Marvel's been having for well over a decade by trying to goad people into buying fuckloads of event crossovers, and you have the perfect storm for a dying company.
Considering it'll never come, I don't know.
Have you seen how some bashed Star Trek TOS for being sexist/racist despite it being ahead of its time? Or the ones bashing Marble for being a symbol of white supremacy.
>BleedingClickbait homed in on the diversity stuff, because of course they did, but Marvel was up to more than that at the time.
Here is the quote.
>“We saw the sales of any character that was diverse, any character that was new, our female characters, anything that was not a core Marvel character, people were turning their nose up against,” Gabriel added. “That was difficult for us because we had a lot of fresh, new, exciting ideas that we were trying to get out and nothing new really worked.”
Not in any official capacity? It was a literal interview meant to be published worldwide.
variety.com
Wrong? Maybe, but at this point I'm too tired to care if it is.
It will happen. It's happened many times before, and will keep happening. One generation analyzing a previous generation's works and tearing apart perceived flaws in a fit of youthful hubris is just part of the natural cycle that's been created in this culture.
Unless you're tacitly saying that some apocalypse or massive upheaval will rewrite/destroy the cycle or something.
The Nadine Ross from Uncharted 4 and the upcoming Dishonored and Wolfenstein as far as videogames go recently.
>He's the VP of sales
So not even the president of sales? A literal fucking nobody not speaking in any official capacity. Was this a big press conference held by Marvel when he released his opinion? Was the head of PR involved as well? His job is to under manage sales. He has nothing to do with the content of a single fucking comic and you're retarded for taking his OPINION as marvels
It's more interesting than reading a comic or playing a game where the black person is only talking about rap or sports or weed.
>not speaking in any official capacity.
See
If you're not familiar with black women why talk about it. It's not celebrities that do that. Damn near every black girl you meet does this. They wear weaves because for whatever reason their hair grows at an incredibly slow rate
> the minority represents the majority
No user, I have not. Kindly provide evidence to your claims
>VP of sales
>second chair to the president of Marvel's sales division, offering his analysis in a public interview within his capacity as VP of sales
>A literal fucking nobody not speaking in any official capacity.
You're so mired in denial you're swimming with crocodiles in Egypt.
High top fades (it's a unisex haircut), short hair, twists, braids, frohawks, etc.
> the minority represents the majority
Well SJWs are a minority of the populace already. A minority of the left wing population, much like how Sup Forums is a minority of the right wing side. A minority within a minority if you will.
Even the headline is click bait. Nothing he said represented Marvel's opinions on the matter
Honestly user I'm not sure what you think you stand to gain from blindly defending Marvel's bullshit practices. The facts are there and you refuse to accept them.
>Last week, while at the Marvel Retailer Summit,Marvel’s senior vice president of print, sales,and marketing,David Gabriel, createdan uproarafter implying
>implying
> ImFuckingPlying
Holy fucking shit you're retarded. My statement stands that his IMPLYING was in no way the official stance of Marvel
>implying
Kek
He went from
>Now the million-dollar question. Why did those tastes change?
I don't know if that's a question for me. I think that's a better question for retailers who are seeing all publishers. What we heard was that people didn't want any more diversity. They didn't want female characters out there. That's what we heard, whether we believe that or not. I don't know that that's really true, but that's what we saw in sales.
to
>Discussed candidly by some of the retailers at the summit, we heard that some were not happy with the false abandonment of the core Marvel heroes and, contrary to what some said about characters “not working,” the sticking factor and popularity for a majority of these new titles and characters like Squirrel Girl, Ms. Marvel, The Mighty Thor, Spider-Gwen, Miles Morales, and Moon Girl, continue to prove that our fans and retailers ARE excited about these new heroes. And let me be clear, our new heroes are not going anywhere! We are proud and excited to keep introducing unique characters that reflect new voices and new experiences into the Marvel Universe and pair them with our iconic heroes.
>We have also been hearing from stores that welcome and champion our new characters and titles and want more! They've invigorated their own customer base and helped them grow their stores because of it. So we're getting both sides of the story and the only upcoming change we're making is to ensure we don't lose focus of our core heroes."
So yeah they backtracked a bit.
my girlfriend is black and I had her read RiRi's first few issues, she thought it was kinda boring and patronizing, just not compelling or offensive, basically bland and try hard
her favorite minority character is Cindy Moon
They are not. Black Women don't like that. Every survey indicates the same shit: it doesn't matter how much afrocentrist and media Jews try to push it: real women find it a pain in the ass.
Natural hair is high to maintain, relaxers, wigs etc all that clusterfuck is the easy option. Black women didn't start using all that due euro centric parameters of beauty, it's just that their natural hair is complete shit, that's why in Africa most tribes don't use it.
African hair is like Irish skin, no black woman one that isn't highly political will tell you that isn't a pain in the ass, just like every Irish will tell you going to the beach sucks
I wanna FUCK Riri
Lee from the walking dead telltale games was great though, so was Clem. I only wish those games had more actual gameplay.
The only reason American slaves had afros was that while waiting to be sold in Africa the slaves couldn't take care of themselves, the lice problem was an even bigger reason to cut their hair during trips, afros are not practical and only during the 60s and 70s the modern glam and disco inspired afros became more popular, specially in Brazil and murrika.
DC seems to have cut down on it since Nu52.
Marvel is currently in their stage, which reflects their absymal sales.
Either they'll grow out of it and realize they're a comicbook company who doesn't have a role in politics, or they can become number 3 and Image can take their place in the Big 2.
You gonna put a baby in her user?
>just like every Irish will tell you going to the beach sucks
My GF is Irish, can confirm she fucking hates the beach.
Can you name even one big 2 female character other than Riri that sports an afro?
I can't think of any.
You're seriously overreacting to one character having an afro.
Just stop making characters from the outside in.
still annoy the shit outta me
>Every survey indicates the same shit
> mentions surveys
> doesnt post them
>Can you name even one big 2 female character other than Riri that sports an afro?
Riri doesn't even has an afro anymore.
It's a nod to this real life American superhero. Her feats of strength are amazing.
...
No.
Fuck the prodigy shit.
I hate that shit.
Their head of sales said flat out that people weren't buying diversity. The faggots in the comic blogosphere then went apeshit and called him a bigot. For telling them what the numbers told him. because that's his job (though not necessarily doing interviews about it).
They then had to backtrack and use the same 6 examples of books not failing as examples of "success" instead of sticking by the numbers about the abundance of failures.
So they backtracked, in so much as they patted the faggots on the back to avoid further backlash and said "no no, you're right, 6 out of 50 comics is a good track record."
It's all to blame on one clickbait title, and nobody bothering to read the actual article with the full quote.
Some people itt obviously did the same.
Why do they even bother? I thought SJWs were widely hated yet they STILL get pandered to?
>SJWs were widely hated
Not really.
>Their head of sales said flat out that people weren't buying diversity
their VP of sales IMPLIED. learn to read
>I don't know if that's a question for me. I think that's a better question for retailers who are seeing all publishers. What we heard was that people didn't want any more diversity. They didn't want female characters out there. That's what we heard, whether we believe that or not. I don't know that that's really true, but that's what we saw in sales.
t. Fake news
user beat me to it, , seems to be a bit more than an implication.
>I don't know that that's really true
Yeah, but that's really not what "implying" means. He clearly states it, just says that he's not sure if it's accurate.
Is this what it feels like to be completely alone? Because it seems more and more that if you don't fall in line with them, you'll be ostracised. How did they wield so much power? It's even WORSE when the actual abusers hide behind them by parroting their views. Is the only way to live a normal life is to keep your head down and not oppose them?
...Riri isn't very sassy. And if she has a political opinion, I haven't noticed it.
Please don't take this as approval of the character. I am an Iron Fan and my soul has been writhing in agony since 2004, but things were never as bad as now.
which means there is no basis if he cant even back up his own claim as truth. I mean I could swear you suck dick but that doesnt mean I know for a fact that you do
The writing's on the wall. The sheer amount of information necessary to even function properly is so great our primate brains outright can't handle it..
WHERE IS THE DAMN SINGULARITY? I NEED AN UPGRADE RIGHT NOW!
>Is the only way to live a normal life to keep your head down and not oppose them?
This, too, shall pass.
>I've been noticing a trend that's been going on lately in fiction (Videogames, comics what have you) regarding "representation" (aka adding a black person as a main character/support character) It's usually a black woman with
>A) An afro
>b) Sass
>c) openly opinionated on whatever author's pet politics are.
>Is this the only acceptable design for a black person in fiction? I'm not American so I'm out of the loop a bit.
Amanda Waller sold it for me though. Maybe it's because she doesn't come across as a stereotype when she does it.
hes right though. theyre not widely hated which is why they wield so much power. You think one day they stood up to the wrong views of the majority and the majority just rolled over?
This is more like if you had proof we sucked PPs and then chose to say "I don't know if that's true though" because you knew the faggosphere would go apeshit about you outing us.
which in no way would justify me saying anything to begin with. He commented on some things he heard and then immediately said he had no proof to back it up. Its sampling of data at best. Him saying i dont know if its true didnt mitigate anything
He literaly states his basis for thinking that. What the fuck is wrong with your logic skills?
You misunderstood me, I hate SJWs. Most people either don't care or think they're fighting the good fight.
Step out of Sup Forums once in a while.
She's a huge stereotype, she's basically angry black chief of the no-nonsense older black woman variety.
he literally states he doesnt know if its true. He wasnt asked if it was true before finishing off with"I don't know that that's really true".The guy in charge of sales hasnt seen enough evidence to say without a doubt that its a fact
Which has nothing to do with whether it's said or implied.
Nobody claimed that he said "for sure it's because people don't buy diversity", you're arguing against windmills here.
has absolutely everything to do on whether its implied
im·plied
[imˈplīd]
ADJECTIVE
suggested but not directly expressed; implicit:
he suggested that he has some info stating some retailers didnt want diversity. he never stated all. which then we people spouting
Not at all but Sup Forums sure likes their (You)s
Good point. Although it does seem like it's a big culture war that they're winning because almost EVERY website that isn't Sup Forums capitulates to their views. Sites that used to be more even handed with their views are now siding with them and silencing who they perceive as their enemies.
All that, and yet they STILL complain about how the world is against them and that there's not enough moderation. Even on Twitter, the place that they have the most control over.