Well, at first I was going to write this entire post in Japanese (to the best of my ability at least) to save myself from any offended or self-righteous people who stumble on it and to make a particular point. However, I decided that, nah, it would be too much work and listening to whining morons is much more fun. Especially when I can just delete their post if they are too stupid.
Racisim is a touchy subject. Being white, I can say it makes me nervous just talking about it because someone out there is going to accuse me of being a biggot or ignorant because, get this, the color of my skin. Funny how that works, isn't it?
I'm white so I can't possibly understand how it feels to be judged by the color of my skin. Is that so? So I don't get followed around a shopping mall or stopped by cops. I don't know how that feels, but it doesn't take a genius to figure out that it must be pretty degrading and infuriating. Sort of like walking into a lunch room full of non-white people and have them all move from your table. Or walk into a bank where there's maybe two people of "my color" and have everyone stare at you with those "You don't belong here you evil white person" eyes. Stuff like that pisses me off, hurts my feelings, and makes me feel...well...violated and bad.
Racisim pisses me off to no extent. Not just racisim, but any kind of biggotry that lessens another human-beings worth because they are different from someone else. I was brought up a human-being. I was taught to judge people's worth by their character and not their color, sexual preference, handicaps, etc. How about you? Don't tell me I can't be outraged for someone or I couldn't possibly understand what it feels like to be discriminated against because I'm not
Race has become this thing everyone waves around like a flag these days. And I mean EVERYONE. The minute the race card goes up, people start falling all over themselves. We all know OJ was guilty. DNA doesn't lie folks. There's a reason paternity tests hold up in court, and by the OJ ruling, all those dads in the world paying child support should be getting their money back. He killed two people and got away scott free. Why? Because he was black, famous, and the cops were dumbasses. I can't tell you how disgusted I felt when they gave the verdict. What a sad day for humanity that was. Two people brutally murdered and their killer walks because the color of his skin and the money in his bank account. Has the worth of human life fallen so low?
Anyway...this sort of crap is all over the place. People bitching about Affermative Action, television, music, politics, etc. Political Correctness will be our downfall. It's gonna kill us. If we don't start thinking like "people", we're all doomed. Biggots come in all shapes, forms and colors. It's not just a 'white' problem.
I stumbled on this thread today and it really struck a nerve with me.
Opening Post:
I am an ardent fan of LKH's Anita Blake but I don't see many faces in her books that look like mine. I think that we have been introduced to only two black characters so far; Jamil and Vivian, I think their names are....Do you think that she may introduce more in the future or did she explain in previous books somehow?
I think the question started off innocently enough, but why it should even matter enough to pose bugged the hell out of me. Especially when considering LKH's books. I read a lot, and she is one author that poses a multicultural palet of characters. Though the majority of her characters are white, Anita Blake, for one, is half hispanic. Not only that, but many of the minor characters are of various ethnicities. Shit, she's even thrown in an inter-racial relationship...the taboo of taboo's <---sarcasam. So why even bother asking this question?
Of course, people take a thread like this and RUN WITH IT:
There has never been a strong black character in any of her books, at least not one that has survived.
None of the Vampire council are black, Indian by way of Punjabi.........doesn't count.
There has never been any strong love interest for anybody that were black.
Before anyone yells,............What about Stephen and Vivian, the two of them are the most vulnerable characters in the series. Essentially they will always need someone to protect them.
I think the solution to RAZ's problem with AB lies in that one area.
Any other opinions?
Of course there aren't any strong black characters, she wrote the book about a half hispanic woman. Not to mention, LKH is white, so I doubt she has much experience with black culture. Kinda hard to write a realistic, believable main character without knowing much about her/his culture. I can only imagine how outraged the complainers on this board would be if LKH made Anita a "white black person". Oh, and isn't it funny how the Indian guy doesn't count...guess he wasn't "racial enough" for this poster. Christ, he was even a Hindu and one tough mother to boot...not to mention, Anita didn't kill him.
I believe she is biased, if not purposefully, then from ignorance. Not that I forgive her for this, because ignorance is not bliss. There are people of color in every aspect of every day life. It is not possible that she has no frame of reference, unless she is prejudice and do not interact with other races.
Of course if you have no frame of reference, then it is logical to do research before you enter a character into your writings. But of course the blacks in her books are not characters, they are pieces of personalities that she mentions every once in a while.
the only thing you know about the 3 that she speak about occassionally is
one is extremely polite(as if that is something that people of color just cant be)
and the other that he is tall with red hair and I believe he is so dark he seems purple(forgive me if I am putting the incorrect description with the wrong character)
and one that straightens his hair and then cornrows it......WTF.
IMHO, I believe she just threw a few black folk in there so she would not be accused of discrimnation. If that was her only reason, I would rather she did not.
I love the last bit, "accused of discrimination". That just took the cake. First of all, if LKH wanted write about blue muppets with shaved heads, she could. No one has the right to assume an author should create characters to appease a certain people. Thinking like this individual's scares the hell out of me. Stories are personal. Many authors take great care and consideration when creating their characters and the worlds they live in. I find it incredibly offensive that this person assumes a writer should just "make up" various characters and include them into a story to make it more politically correct.
She must be blind too, because Jamil is a really good minor character, not just a piece of personality, but I have a feeling that anything short of "main char." wouldn't be good enough for this person. If there aren't enough books out there with strong ethnic main characters, I suggest people pick up a pen and start writing. What's stopping you?
It seems as if she has a hard time believing that ppl of color come in a variety of shade simply because we are not all the color of coffee with no cream.
Apparently she missed the chapters about Luthor...
Before I post I want people to know that I don't consider myself racist and that this topic has sparked the whole racist issue of todays society. Firstly, I am AMERICAN and when I first meet a person he/or she is an AMERICAN. If I am forced to distinguish then I am white, you are black, he is mexican/hispanic, they are indian, she is asian. If I wasted my time being PC about everything gosh I'd never walk out the door!
Secondly, as a black person do you jump on other black people for making your ethnicity something that needs to be debated or do you just trash white people? I don't mean it to be rude but as I said I am not PC. It's a legit question as popular culture that you see on TV/Radio portrays black people as truly violent. And this is not done by white people dressing up as black people "dissing" them, these are black people portraying the immage. You should be proud of shows like The Cosby Show and My wife and Kids. They are wonderful by retaining their ethniticity (sp?) with out decending into the bullying violent propaganda being currently sold.
Thirdly, if LKH said that Perry was the most "polite black man" that she ever met then he probably was. She was not insinuating that ALL black people were rude just the ones that she had currently dealt with.
Fourthly, I think you are reading things into it that weren't meant to be there. I could say that I hate how JC and Asher act. I am almost full french and 1)can't speak a dang word of it 2)the french may be flamboyant but not cross-gender dressing so. I'm just saying that you shouldn't jump to conclusions.
Which I may have just done and apologize if you are offended.
AMEN! Notice how she apologized for being offensive. I wouldn't have. I mean, why is it expected for a white person to apologize almost immediatly when the topic is race? Guilty until presumed innocent maybe? Good comparison with the French angle to. As for "the most polite black man" comment...well, that was never said in the books. It was actually " the most polite man" she'd ever met, but someone on the board read what they wanted to read and added it to this thread.
First, I would like to point out that other than caucasion characters, there are more African-American characters (regarless of how they are described)represented than any other ethnic group in the AB series. While there are the 4 black characters who return periodically, Luther, Clive, Det. Perry, and Jamil(more so than others) there has only been, if I remember correctly, one Asian character, Meng-di(sp), one Native AMerican, who was of Aztec decent (is that still considered Native AMerican?) who was a vampire and was killed, one Indian(fom India) the council vampire who left, and the hispanic detective from OB. No one from the middle east has appeared at all if I remember correctly. And when you are listing black characters I seem to remember a black vampire with Nicholas in the first book. And just because we dont see Rashida much, dont forget that we dont see always see all of the wolves that have been introduced in other books return in each new book.
I am of Cherokee indian decent and it doesnt bother me at all that there has never been a cherokee indian or any other nation represented.
If you are looking for a book in this genre with predominately black characters, you might want to look up L.A. Banks' Vampire Huntress Legends. I havent read the books myself but I get the impression from the amazon.com reviews and editors book info that the main characters are black or non-caucasian (does tht sound right?). The books are in order: Minion, The Awakening and The Hunted. The reviews about Minion aren't great at first but they get better with the second two books.
In another genre is James Pattersons Alex Cross series which is about a black police detective turned FBI agent and the white characters in that series are almost non-existant.
Hope this helps.
Another nice post, not to mention more books to check out. However, Colin's human servant was American Indian. Also there were several Aztec Indians in Obsidian Butterfly, and a few hispanic characters as well (like Raphel). Add another ethnicity to LKH's score board. Tell me again, why are people bitching?
The truth is most of the people on this board are just as ignorant and "biased" as the other, with only a few exceptions. The entire point of this rant was to show how utterly stupid it all is, esepcially when a person of one ethnicity gets offended when they aren't "properly represented". Is there some rule these days that says authors or directors must have "strong" ethnic characters? Do I have a problem with such characters? Absolutly not. What I do have a problem with is people EXPECTING IT, like they are owed something. If stuff like this is important to you, start writing your own book or directing your own movies. Don't force artists to conform to the boundries our fucked up society has set. Racisim isn't confined to just one type of people. Everyone can be infected with it, and more often than not, you don't even realize it.
I, for one, am tired of all the complaining. Yes, there has been horrible discrimination by "white people" to people of other ethnicities, but why blame everyone? My ancestors never had slaves. I've never looked down on anyone because their skin is darker than mine (I've dated a few hispanic men,my ex was half Japanese, my brother in law is Chinese). So people need to stop being so quick to point fingers at others. Stop looking for something to be pissed about. Get mad about the stuff that matters, not dumb crap like not enough "minority" characters in books and movies. Get mad at the PEOPLE who keep racism alive, instead of blaming a whole group of individuals. Hold people accountable for their actions. Start looking at people as people, because technically, there is just one race and that's the Human race.
Easier said than done though, isn't it? People aren't willing to push aside this stone we've set between ourselves. I wonder why that is? I wonder what it would be like to live in a world where we weren't so obessed with the differences between people. Is it possible?
I hope so, but if it is, I doubt I'll live to see it.
Posted by Zoso at January 14, 2005 12:30 AM