- Apr 13, 2021
- 6 min read

Anti-Black Microaggressions in the Media

Let's point out a few of the charientisms and microaggressions that just happen to be aimed at Black, brown-skinned, or Black-phishing characters... I'm not going to spend too much time breaking it down. If you want more details, you'll just have to search for them yourselves on Google...

An Uppercut: The Jezebel Troupe, Huh?

Manhwa: The Remarried Empress | Online, there seems to be an alternative name for this character (Soju). But I'm going to respond to what they actually wrote in the webtoon, because that was where I experienced the microaggression. Of all the names they could have given one of the few female brown characters introduced in this webtoon, they chose to name her after a sorceress from Greek mythology (that was in the process of trying to bewitch someone's husband.) SMH!

A Right Hook: The Random Black Guy That Appears Just To Die...

Hollywood: Merlin | There were knights having fist-fights, sword fights, and fights to the death, yet no serious injuries were depicted when the any of the these (white) knights fought. But when they needed to demonstrate the lethalness of a certain witch's witchcraft, all of a sudden, a Black knight appeared for the role (season, 1, episode 2). Typical. But BLM, right? They drag the random Black knight's death out: first we watch him fight a vicious, cheating, Person of Non-Color. Then we watch him get bitten repeatedly by a poisonous snake. Then we watch him fight for his life while the "doctor" bemoans the long odds of his survival. Merlin and company finally get what's needed to heal the Black knight. We, (at least) the (Black) audience cultivate a little hope that he might survive, only to see the snake come and finish him off when things were looking up. Is anyone else sick of the sadism in Hollywood yet?

An Kick in the Shins: Subjugation of the Black (-looking) Male to the White (-looking) Male...

Manhwa: My Dear Cold-Blooded King | "Shivers down your spine???" Please! By the way, to all of you that are apt to crow on about how they're not actually "Black" or "White" save your breath. I don't care. Especially since I've already addressed it. (In addition to this nonsense, as usual: the first Brown-skinned woman with a role to play in the manhwa is given the Jezebel troupe to play again. Guess whose daughter she is? This Black guy's, who's supposed to be a great, war-hardened military general.)

A Kick to the Crotch: Depiction of Black Death in Graphic Detail...

Hollywood Show: Jane the Virgin | This show seemed low-key...until this was randomly shown in episode 2...

In the following episode, the narrator referred to this Black man's gory death as a problem that "resolved itself". Ironic that he was brutally murdered directly after he showed aggression towards the manipulative, gold-digging, white adultress he was screwing...

A Punch In The Stomach: Black=Bad!!!)

Manhwa: The Newlywed Diary of a Witch and a Dragon | How about the anti-blackness and flirtation with essentialism that this blonde character in the goes on?

If you are a student of history, this kind of drivel should sound familiar. This is how many Europeans talked about the people the defiled when they invaded their countries. This commentary is to the tune of "The White Man's Burden". (See the poem here: https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/kipling.asp) They finish up the tirade like this:

"Black Dragonkind: Demon World"??? Why does black always have to be associated with evil???

Hog-spitting: Let's Emasculate The Black Male...And Ostracize Him...

K-Drama: Itaewon Class | Xenophobia and afrophobia with a dash of, "they were tRyInG to do better" (LOL). This show was based off a Manhwa, and the (lone) African character, Toni, was never in the original manhwa. Seems nice that they added him, though...right? Wrong. They infantilized the hell out of him. In practically every other episode, he was whining, crying, or running away because his feelings were hurt. It was so irksome watching him being repeatedly ostracized by people who didn't know (or care about) the difference between race, ethnicity or nationality. To add insult to injury, they used him as a mouthpiece for pro-Korean propaganda. How the hell did these Korean directors and writers expect us to believe Toni (who experiences microaggressions, discrimination and derision everywhere he goes) when he says that the people that do these things to him (Koreans) are "good people"??? LOLZ. Stop.

Stomp on Their Feet!: Let's Hit The Black Guy First...

Manhwa: Lookism | Remember my post on blackface depicted in east-Asian media (Additional Racist Depictions of Black and Brown-Skinned Characters...")? Check it out: here's the Blackface trend again here:

Notice the dark skin complete with the pink rim for a mouth. Also note the discoloration of the palms. A simple google search could have told the artists that that color was bogus. I'm not tryna drag this, BUT: what's up with that creepy pose? Reminded me of "jazz hands"... (Read a bit about why "jazz hands" aka "spirit fingers" are problematic: https://unherd.com/thepost/woke-students-should-think-again-about-jazz-hands/).

This manhwa carries on. When the protagonist decides to punish Michael and his friends for their nasty behavior, somehow, (as usual) Michael, who is Black, is attacked first, before the rest of them, although he would technically have been the hardest to hit, being in the middle:

I've seen this "beat the Black first"/ "Black punching bag" nonsense throughout Hollywood, such as in the movie Thor and in anime such as Carole & Tuesday. There will be legit NO BLACK PEOPLE in a show/comic until it's time for someone to get beat up. Every once in a while, Black people get to graduate to being the ones doing the beating up (by being painted as gangsters) such as in the following drama:

A Hit with a Baseball Bat: Black Man=Thug

K-Drama: Penthouse 2 | Let me say that I REALLY LIKE THIS DRAMA. BUT: they messed up here by deciding to include Black people in the drama just to be thugs (season 2, episode 1)...

Pepper Spray: Intellectual Africans + A Little Self Esteem? hArD pAsS...

How about how another show that I like that messed up? Anime (& Manga) Shingeki no Kyojin aka "Attack on Titan" | Look how they made the African character (Onyankopon) shy away from his witty reply to a microagressive question (a variant of "Why are you Black?") from Sasha (a white girl).

Apologists can sit here and argue that it was an innocent question or that Sasha isn't white. But they can also put a sock in it. (Especially since the girl's last whole name is German-Austrian and the only confirmed Asians in the anime are Mikasa and her dead mama.)

Should I drag this???

I shall!

What about the insidious flirtation with white racial innocence (I call it that because of the origin of the conversation being an inquiry of Onyankopon's brown-ness) from the blonde, blue-eyed Armin (a bookworm and certified genius, who should have read a book somehow that taught him about the concept of religion and deities, or how Africans are generally brown-skinned)??? As his collogue asks that stupid-ass question, we see nothing from him (and the rest of their gang) but blank astonishment...and the kind of awkward pause that people say "Anyway...!" to recover from. How it hurt when they had the African similarly dismiss himself in abashment with a: "Whatever...to each their own. Right?"

The retreat behind an opinion for fear of a challenge?

Revolting.

If you can't defend "your" ideas, then why don't you keep them to yourself?

That goes for the scriptwriters, the "iT's-JuSt-My-OpInIoN" cult, and YOU.

Don't be weak.

Encourage others to have some backbone as well.

But let's get back on track: I marvel at the arrogance of the "Why are you Black?" question (which, now, is reminding me of the very interesting way that Du Bios put its ideological parent question: "How does it feel to be a problem?"). It assumes that it is problematic and abnormal (mutant-like) to be brown-skinned, when it's actually abnormal to be white-skinned. Google it (you can start with the SLC24A5, KITLG, or TYR genes).

But anyway:

"Like, oh my god, Karen!!! You can't just ask people why they're Black!"

We're not even gonna talk about the disrespect in them naming this guy after the principal Ashanti god (with no context) instead of giving him a regular name that they could have found on google. They ain't got no characters walking around called Amaterasu or Susano'o! (Don't bullshit me about Naruto, ok? Those were manifestations of chakra, and NOT actual characters.)

*Sigh*

Let's stop here.

(I'm a little irritated now, LOL.)