controversial questions I have to ask
Question # 1
Why are most hero's in media represented as Caucasians and not any non-whites? Is this a form of white supremacy?
Question # 2
Why do publisher's feel they need to white-wash every cover of books? Example: When the book is about Non-white character's the publisher always puts a picture of a Caucasian or adds a dark pic, making the readers think the character is white.
Here's an article I read about this question. http://www.yalsa.ala.org/thehub/2012/12/10/it-matters-if-youre-black-or-white-the-racism-of-ya-book-covers/
Question # 3
What can a person of color do to make their characters likable to white readers? Example: We're trying to make a story where our character is African-American, but have fear that racism will attack us. We want to break the stereotypes that African-American's are thugs, criminals, etc and give them a lifestyle that makes them acceptable to life.
More questions coming soon...
Comments
Answer #1: In the U.S., characters trend toward white for historical reasons, and because whites are still the majority of the population, at least until the Hispanics catch up. Stupid characters and characters there to be made fun of are also typically white, as the writers don't want accusations of racism. There are certainly more non-white characters across the board than there used to be.
Answer #2: I haven't noticed this, but it's been a while since I've read any young adult books. The pics shown in the article look like they're just trying to create a dark scene while still having something brighter stand out.
Answer #3: The most important thing for a character of any race in a story is to make the reader "relate" to the character. Can I imagine what the character is going through? Would I react in the same way if I were in that character's position?
Suppose you have an African-American character afraid to go to the police, which would conform to the stereotype. If you want to have that plot point, explain why, something better than oh, police always give African-Americans a hard time and never believe what they say. Include a scene that illustrates why your particular character is afraid. Or, have your character not be afraid to go to the police and assist them at all, which would go against the stereotype you're trying to break.
Thanks for the response.
Why should people have the right to tell game developers how to make their game, if you don't agree make your own game, what is stopping you? My guess is that most developers are WM, so they make a character based on themselves. It has nothing to do with racism, and honestly i'm tired of hearing the tears.
I'll just pop in and say that I dislike the term "Caucasian". Thank you for your time.
Why the hell do people think they have a right to call developers racist for just having a white male in games...You know what, read this:
I'm an avid reader of YA books, and the lack of POC on covers is an issue that comes up a lot and something I have noticed myself. Often times it's not the author to blame (authors rarely have control over their covers) but the publisher. I'm sure the lack of ethnic cover models plays a role in it, but I think the main reason is that having a "vanilla" looking person on the cover is more relatable for readers, at least according to publishers.
Oftentimes books will be whitewashed. The article you linked mentions For Darkness Shows the Stars which I own. The character isn't supposed to be lily-white skinned as she appears to be on the cover, but the author (controversially among the YA community, I might add) excused this by saying that her paleness is due to the translucent effect.
Here's another book that I have read that completely whitewashes one of the characters:
The boy on the cover is supposed to have tan skin and long dark hair in a ponytail, but he instead is pictured as a Caucasian teenage boy. What makes this even worse is that the girl on the cover perfectly depicts another character- one with red hair, light eyes, white skin. I think that's really hard to excuse.
I also read Across the Universe and while I think it has a beautiful cover, the male protagonist who also is described like the one above is put in a silhouette. This isn't that bad, unless you notice the changed features of the boy on a subsequent cover change:
The boy here has some ethnic features that I at least think do his character's appearance justice. Then they changed the cover....
....to a boy with much more Caucasian features. Notice that the girl has barely changed, who also happens to be white in the story.
To end on a positive note, one of my favorite book series did a gorgeous interpretation of one of the Asian main characters (the white hair and eyes are not natural, and are an actual plot point in the book):
So the YA book industry definitely has a way to go in terms of accurately portraying POC characters on covers. But I'd like to think that now that this issue is being addressed, publishers will try to diversify their cover model/illustrations
because of the illuminati and zionist want us to feel like we arent enough to be the leading man but just good enough to be second....
no jk. idk and i couldnt careless. my guess is that that most of the people who do are white themselves. i mean why would someone who is white write about a character that is not white?? he doesnt know , most likely, how others outside of his ethnicity think and do certain stuff. so they stick to what they know. i mean if it was a mexican dude for example making up a character is most likely going to make him mexican. why? cuz he is putting his own expierences there, is what he know. same if it was an African-american writer or whatever.
1) No, it's largely a matter of appealing to the white majority (the US is still something like 65-70% white, to my knowledge). I would agree it would be nice if there were more portrayal of minority characters, especially ones that weren't "the ____ perspective" type thing - like Lee for example. He's black but the whole narrative isn't focused on 'the black experience.' Honestly, I'd say some people may subconsciously avoid media with minority characters because they think it is going to be a movie about being that minority.
2) Same thing. Marketing. And the major thing to remember about marketing is that, for the most part, it's very conservative (not in the political sense). Marketing relies on appealing to images and formats which already have a certain degree of resonance with the public.
3) I can't help you with the marketing, but honestly, I'd say just write it, and try not to focus on race more than it is related to the narrative you're creating. If it's about a black family living in 1962 Alabama, yes, race will probably be a central part of the book, but race doesn't have to be a big part it in. Like I said above, a lot of other ethnicities may avoid a particular work if they think it is 'what it means to be _____' (that doesn't mean you have to ignore it completely - again, to reference The Walking Dead, there is the urban joke at the farm; while it seems like a funny moment to us, the implication is that Lee constantly has to deal with little prejudices that are inevitably frustrating)
Just because a character is white doesn't make the book/game or whatever it is racist. It's about the character, not the color of their skin
Heroes? I assume you mean protagonists? Hey, guess what? White people are a majority and are usually chosen for historic reasons example: game of thrones. How does this not make sense to you. Also, White supremacy? Go back to Tumblr.
I've never heard of this problem, because I don't read a lot of books. What do I know is that the author of the article you're referencing sure seems to look for racism when it isn't there.
huh? what? Just make a character! Who cares about skin color! I don't recall anyone having a problem with GTA V, Remember me, Walking Dead... Fear of racist attacks? Who cares about what racists think?
yes lets make all the thugs and criminals white instead....? Also, what do you mean with acceptable lifestyle? What? Look, the world isn't politically correct so who cares if it's not portrayed like that in fiction.
Write your story. You can't controlled how it will be received. Just create something you're proud of, then try to market it as well as possible. And appreciate those who love your story.
Thank you
BUT ITS SKIN COLOR THAT MAKES ME BETTER THAN EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MEEEEEEEE
I don't get the tears but they taste sweet.
This is a very good post, and your examples of boy/girl covers made me wonder. The covers imply pretty strongly that the couple will have some sort of relationship in the book. Whether they do or not, all that matters is the covers imply it. When you've got a young audience, the book will often be paid for by parents or at least seen by parents as the young person reads it. There are still a lot of people out there who frown on interracial relationships, and if the parents are among them, they might not like that very much, so they wouldn't buy it.
If that's true, then adult romance novels should be less afraid to show mixed-race couples, as fewer of those readers would have to do any explaining. So I decided to look at the Barnes & Noble romance bestseller covers, to see if they're unaffected. Romance novels have traditionally all had a muscular man with his shirt off holding a woman staring off into the distance with some weird facial expression showing a mixture of agony and ecstasy.
As I looked, I remembered something I read a few years ago that romance novel covers were starting to buck that trend, as women didn't want everyone to know that they were reading trashy romance novels, even though they were. So most covers no longer look like this. There are a few that do, and they were all white couples, until I got to about #300 or so, which showed a black man by himself. That book was written by a well-known African-American romance writer, and she probably has enough of a reputation to have a choice on the cover. Most authors don't get one, and are just happy to be published at all. Anyway, I stopped at that point. No mixed-race couples there, either.
Thanks for the inspiration. It made me think.
No, it is not white supremacy. Whites make up majority of the US (66% not counting Latino) and a huge number of Europe. Stories adapt to the majority of the targeted audience usually, i.e. why books for girls mostly have female protagonists.
Never heard of that, neither do I think it matters much. Don't judge a book by it's cover, literally here.
To make a character more likeable, they have to be relatable. A story about a kid losing his dad, and that kid happens to be black, is an example of this. What people don't want is a story about a black kid losing his dad, meaning forcing race into the equation. If you instantly think of them by their race then your good to go.
Why should people have the right to tell them how to make their games? Well because the people are the ones buying it. Why is the "if you don't like something, do it yourself" argument always the answer to people like you? You're probably the same kind of person to say if someone doesn't like certain things about America that they should go to another country. It's their job to make games that appeal to other people as well. Also, there's a lot of things stopping most people from making their own video game, like money, knowledge, time, resources, etc, it's not so easy. Why should they have to do all of that for such a small reason? I'm sure there are things you don't like and complain about, such as Obama, I've seen you complain about him in other threads. Why don't you become president then, what's stopping you? If you are tired of the "tears", why'd you even respond to this, what's stopping you from ignoring it? I'm not saying that this is a result of racism, but if you don't believe racism isn't still a problem, you are truly ignorant.
1) I'd chalk it up to "That's just how it's normally done," as of now. I don't think it's a white conspiracy to promote white power. I don't think it's white people pushing white people agendas. I think it's just commonplace. Why do most forms of currency across the world feature the face of a historic figure? Because it was the norm, and it has continued to be that way. There is more and more diversity amongst heroes, villains, and characters in general as of late so I find it, awkward, that you even bring it up.
2) I've never noticed this. The author of the article is obviously judging the subject from an extremely bias viewpoint, so I wouldn't put much faith in their depiction of the "problem." It's also limited to "YA" literature, so that may have something to do with it. How a young person wants to be viewed, or how they want to view something else may influence the depictions on the front page. I don't agree that it is racism. Too many complex and intricate phenomenon are chalked up to racism/sexism/other. Not only does this cheapen instances when real racism is enacted but it also can very potentially be masking the true causes of the phenomenon. One thing that irks me to no end is the compulsory reaction of people to label something and take it as the sole reason/purpose/etc for it. Sorry for bringing this into the conversation, but, religion is the perfect example of this. What easier way is there to explain everything than to just label it all as "giant man in the sky at work." It's done countless times a day in all facets of life, and it's a cop out. Why think critically about something when you can push a broad term on it and then sit there and bitch and moan.
3) Umm, really? You make a black character likable the same way you make a Caucasian character, Asian character, or Hispanic character likable. Racism isn't going to jump out of the closet and grab you. You may have people who dislike the character because they are black, but that is a problem on the reader's part, not the character's. This isn't some new, un-trekked territory of writing a black character who is respectable.... Look at the site you're on and the game the owners are most famous for.
Your fixation on skin colour makes you sound like a racist. You don't seem open minded enough to write a story that will appeal to more than one demographic. When asking about how to make your book appeal to more people your first stop was racism and specificly whites against blacks, excuse the pun but I have to, things aaren't always black and white, white people are not the only ones capable of racism, BET is incredibly racist to whites and espicialy asians (women in particular) indians are racist about pakistanis ect ect. Making out white people are the only ones capable of racism is very racist.
Care to explain how that's racist?
He won't reply because everything he said wasn't true. I'm nowhere a racist. I was just asking a question about why whites are considered the hero's all the time in media? This wasn't a hate post.
I just asked because I hardly see much non-white hero's, and if there are some, they're not as popular as the white characters.
If I offended any please forgive me and I'm sorry.
Don't apologize.
why not?
Because you don't have to, there's nothing to apologize for.
Thank you randomhuman. I appreciate it
You apologized and I'm still going to accept it.
Walks off accomplished
She took it back, you walk off with nothing.
She didn't.