#no racism here

[justanechoflower]

Is the flower, racist?

[mk-wizard]

Honouring Akira Toriyama through a case

Hello.

I wanted to do something by honouring Akira Toriyama and while I inted to do an art piece, I also felt it is about time we cleared the air about one of the biggest misunderstandings about a character he created: Mr. Popo and why he is not an offensive character.

The big secret behind Mr. Popo's design and concept was the Jinn in Arabian and Chinese mythology. Specifically, the deity Mahakala who had black skin literally and thick pink lips with a stout figure.

Another thing about Jinns (or Genies) in their old lore is that they come in many colours, but not the shades human skin comes in. They can be green, blue, red or even black as licorice. With that said, Akira Toriyma designed Mr. Popo to look like something like the Jinns though in his case, he took liberties by making him look friendly, sweet and gentle while in most mythologies, Jinns are frightening.

With that said, Akira Toriyama didn't mean for Mr. Popo to look or be offensive in any respect. And he really isn't. He's a Jinn and as a character, he is intelligent, wise and a helpful ally who helped the team find a way to get to planet Namek and train to be able to defeat Cell as well as several other villains.

Whenever Akira Toriyama did draw human beings of any colour, he was fair. He gave them varying features across the board or which they could look attractive or homely. This included thick lips and plain features which were NOT reserves for black or brown people only. His depictions were diverse where anyone of any colour could look like anything. Here are examples of black and brown characters.

The closest character who I could find to be kind of pushing it was Android 15 and even then, he doesn't even look like a human being. He looks like a goofy cartoon character you're meant to laugh at kind of like how Steve Urkel doesn't really look like a real life nerd. The design was meant to be a joke not a statement.

I am also sure he did not look like this when he was human. And in Mr. Toriyama's defense, I've seen much worse depictions with way more negative stereotyping than this in today's modern age of which we should be more aware and more mindful of, but I am not here to call people out. I just made this essay to clear Akira Toriyama's name.

He was a good writer and also fair in his depictions of characters both inside and out. He did not discriminate for better or worse. At least, that is what I always got from it.

I hope this clears the air about the misunderstanding about Mr. Popo's design. He was just trying to create a lovable character not hurt anyone's feelings. It is a case of the cloud looking like a duck, but it's still just a cloud.

I hope we can all be cool now.

And RIP Mr. Akira Toriyama. You truly were one in a million.

[octarineblues]

supporting communities & people impacted by the Southport attack and the far-right riots in the UK

here is a list of community fundraisers I found, starting with those aiming to support the Southport community after the appalling attack at a children dance party, to the fundraisers helping those affected by the subsequent racist and Islamophobic far-right/nazi riots

Edited on 5 August to include Middlesbrough fundraisers. Edited on 6 August to correct the link on the Books for Spellow Lane fundraiser, to adjust the name change for the Belfast fundraiser, and to adjust the wording in the second last paragraph.

Southport:

Southport Strong Together Appeal - organised by the community foundation for Merseyside, for those affected by the Southport knife attack

United for Southport families - the funds will be distributed among the nine families of the children who were at the party

Swifties for Southport - a fundraiser for the Alder Hey Children's charity, which supports the victims and the affected families, as well as first responders and clinicians. Extra funds will also support the wider Southport community

Fundraiser for the Southport Mosque - a fundraiser to aid rebuilding or possibly re-locating the Southport Mosque after the damages it suffered during the riots

Rebuilding Windsor Mini Mart - fundraiser to rebuild the locally-owned grocery store that was targeted during the attacks, broken into, and looted

Liverpool:

Fundraiser for the Spellow Hub - the Spellow Hub was broken into, looted and set on fire at night during the riots. The Spellow Hub is a newly created one-of-a-kind (in the UK) institution, which consists of a library as well as a community centre with a mission to help people get education and pathways to work

Books for Spellow Lane - another fundraiser for the library in the Spellow Hub, to replace the books and rebuild the library there edit: included the correct link

Hartlepool:

Fundraiser for the Nasir Mosque - the Nasir Mosque was attacked following Southport riots; this fundraiser is organised by Hartlepool citizens to help the mosque deal with the damages as well as to show appreciation for the role of the mosque in the community. edit: the funds will be also distributed to the local community!

Rebuilding the Farm Shop - the shop was targeted during the riots, and when the owner and his son tried to protect it, they were also violently attacked. The fundraiser is to help fix the damages to the store.

Sunderland:

help rebuild Citizens Advice Sunderland offices after arson - two of the Citizens Advice Sunderland offices were set on fire during the riots, and one of them is completely destroyed.

Hull:

Hull Help for Refugees - a local fundraiser to support the Hull Help for Refugees charity, the donated money will be re-distributed to community members affected by the riots

Fundraiser for Hull Help for Refugees and Welcome House in Hull - collected money will be donated to the two charities

Belfast:

help fix racially motivated damages - originally the fundraiser for the Sahara Shisha Cafe which was targeted by the far right in Belfast during the riots, now a fundraiser for all affected businesses in the area. edited to reflect the change of the name of the fundraiser to avoid any confusion

Middlesbrough:

Supporting residents after the riots - Middlesbrough has suffered so much during the riots, lots of businesses as well as just regular family homes were vandalised, had their windows smashed or even were broken into. This fundraiser wants to distribute the funds between affected people to help them fix the damages, and to generally support the local community. the newest fundraiser, imo potentially the most urgent one

Fundraiser for a Care worker's car which was set on fire - a car belonging to an employee of a care agency was set on fire during the riots while he was on shift at a care home.

If you want to donate locally but there is no fundraiser to support where you live, consider donating to your local charities oriented towards Muslim or PoC communities, or towards anti-racist and refugee organizations! And go support your local Muslim/Arab/Black/Asian/Refugee owned businesses!

If you have any information about other local fundraisers, feel free to add to the post or don't hesitate to let me know and I will add them here! We have seen so much hate in the past few days, we have to stay strong and keep supporting each other!

Stay safe everyone 💛

[tododeku-or-bust]

"it's just because of who's willing to answer the poll/who gets to see it" there has been about 7-8 polls atp asking the race question. And every time, it skews 70-75% white.

There's no "well it didn't reach the pee oh cees" it reached us lmao. These often get into the tens of thousands. We saw it! There's just not that many of us here! I'm not sure why it's so hard to admit for some folks that this website skews white. Yes, odds are, you don't know nearly as many people of color (or their beliefs) as you think. Yes, you likely have racist biases that are going unaddressed due to the lack of people of color in your life. And yes, being on Tumblr does not automatically make you more progressive on these topics- not if you're only ever listening to other white people, which is likely due to the cultural whiteness of this app. This has been my TEDtalk 👍🏾

[splatoonusna]

An update on the 2024 Splatoon 3 World Championship:

[bixels]

I'm not explaining why re-imagining characters as POC is not the same as white-washing, here of all places should fucking understand.

[transvarmint]

Imane Khelif got harassed on a literal global stage, had her gender and sex publicly speculated on, faced intersexism, racism, and [trans]misogyny all at once. But sure I guess she's "pretty damn fortunate" because she won a gold medal. Great. Very cool analysis here. [Sarcasm]

[ilottthepilot]

very strange how many people want to die on the hill that this is not alex's home race, simply because of the flag on his racing license... one would think dual nationality is a very simple concept for an adult to grasp

[trans-androgyne]

"Manhood is fundamentally shaped by the patriarchy and cannot be separated from it." What a sad view to have of gender, and one that directly harms trans men and mascs.

Do you realize how close that is to what TERFs believe? I’ve encountered so many of them that go off about how gender is inextricable from patriarchy, only existing to oppress women. That's where the term "gender critical" comes from. They think gender should be abolished entirely instead instead of preserving what brings people comfort and euphoria. They see trans people transitioning as inherently upholding patriarchy, including believing that trans men are just oppressed girls betraying their sisters by trying to move up in the gender hierarchy.

Gender has existed without patriarchy and it will again. I'm sorry to tell you this, but by saying the two are inextricable you are letting colonizers win. My ancestors lived in a matriarchy before being colonized by Spain and inundated with Catholicism--yet we still had gender roles, ones in which women were respected and had power. We certainly were not unique for that.

What happened to "smash the patriarchy"? Please don't just accept that this is the way of the world, that to be a woman means to be a victim and to be a man means to be an oppressor. My masculinity is queer, not gender-conforming. I resist the patriarchy by my very existence, as do other trans men and mascs. If you want to be inclusive and supportive of all trans people, you're going to have to expand your view of gender beyond what the patriarchy has taught you.

[genericpuff]

if i had a nickel for every time a popular online fandom artist went through a massive career change that permanently changed their art for the worst but they obliviously flaunted it as "style development" i would have two nickels, which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it's happened twice

[tariah23]

oooooo white people in my replies really saying ‘I can excuse racism but I draw the line at homophobia’

Not surprised since this is the site that only talks about racism and thinks it’s a big deal when they see it demonstrated in the cartoons and comics they like *coughs* dungeonmeshi *coughs* (for example at least. I haven’t seen THIS many white ppl talk as in depth about racism on here as much as these fandom nerds, man. I stg. Like “Ohhhh, so you all DO acknowledge that racism is real? Just not in real life even if you could feel it slapping you in the face at high speed. Gotcha.” It’s crazy.

Tumblr is like, 90% white and is extremely centered around them. That’s why you barely see stuff that’s important to black and brown people ever trending here or being talked about. It has to be something incredibly huge to the point where even white people can’t ignore it like they usually do, to talk about it here.

They only talked about George Floyd here because the topic of his death became world news. Even people in other countries were talking about it. Before him, it was probably Ferguson and Trayvon Martin… most of them are still trying their best to ignore the genocides because it’s a “touchy subject.” What do you expect from white people who live in their own bubbles of comfort and refuse to pop it with a needle??? They find comfort in their privilege and faux ignorance (they love playing stupid to avoid conversations about important things outside of fandoms like, are these mfs born with half a brain dedicated to fandom or what.) That’s literally all these mfs make a big deal out of, especially on this annoying ass platform. The ao3 mfs will go to war for the site that allows racist ff and cp like it’s no big deal. I wonder how many people here even donated to the site while actively scrolling past dono posts from folks who really do need help. They act like they’re doing a civil service by defending this site that makes over the amount of it’s intended dono goal in minutes.

Then you already know as soon as you even bring up racism in the stuff they like, they start ganging up and harassing black bloggers especially, calling them TERFs and the whole nine. Anything to make that person look bad for being concerned about the racism that they have such an intense aversion to. God, it’s absolutely exhausting knowing that these people would have no problem choosing a cartoon character over your entire existence if they COULD. Isn’t that fucking sad, man?

[flakops]

warrior cats hot takes be upon ye!

[alicentflorent]

I feel like we don’t talk enough about how baela was reduced to a cheerleader who spent most of the season giving Jace pep talks and Rhaena was reduced to a surrogate mother tasked with caring for the queen’s children who are also her brothers but the show forgeta to mention that

Rhaena does not get to develop her political skills and impress Jeyne Arryn or show us that she has value despite not being a dragonrider and Baela doesn’t get to have more than one quick scene that shows off her skills as a dragon riding warrior nor does she get to advocate for her sister’s claim or get the same comfort from Jace that she provides him.

[hussyknee]

I just want to make one thing very clear. Black and brown people, especially Muslims right now, don't owe white people for your allyship in racial justice. Not even those who are themselves systemically marginalized in some way. Not white Jews, not white queers, not white disabled, not white working class, not white poor.

Whiteness is the most lethal kind of oppression because it built the current colonial capitalist, imperialist world order. Every white person benefits from and is complicit in its systems in some way because white supremacy is global. Whatever marginalization has white people in it can be and is easily weaponized against the mellanated. When charged with your racist, exclusionary and oppressive behaviour you hold up Black and brown people of the same marginalizations as tokens. This is the only time they are ever visible; more often than not you profit off their labour, hoard their gains, throw them under the bus and make them part of your iconography for liberal progress points once they're dead and have no inconvenient opinions about your conduct.

This is why it's very hard for Black and brown people to take accusations of bigotry towards you in good faith. We also have a duty of care towards others but more often than not it feels like you want us to do what you want while holding a knife to our necks. Even when you don't do it directly, you issue demands like "if you don't do x and y you clearly don't care about my people and deserve the worst!!!" without considering for a moment that the full brunt of that policing will always fall on Black and brown people, because punitive justice exercises itself first and foremost on the vulnerable. If your demands for allyship carry disproportionate punishment for Black and brown people should we refuse, you're just on some power trip and never needed our help in the first place. This also obfuscates the needs and disenfranchisement of BIPOC Jewish, queer, poor, disabled and Global South people, because without racial justice, few of your gains will ever materialise in their lives. It's always trickle down liberation for the rest of us.

Your allyship is supposed to be the work of conscience, a recognition of injustice and a drive towards privilege equal to your own. For white people, it's an individual reparation on your part. It is not an act of kindness, or benevolence, or a transaction that must be repaid in kind. The worst of us deserve the same rights the worst of you already have. That's the meaning of equality. If you're willing to let us get fired, deported, or brutally murdered for bad behaviour, then not only were you never an ally, you were also just waiting for the opportunity to use that weapon you claim you never wanted. There is no justice in an asymmetry of power.

[rotzaprachim]

it’s actually incredibly hard to talk about Jewish religious extremism beyond tzionus you’re met with the fact that half the population thinks Jews are basically just inherently evil parasitic bad actors and ultra orthodox people especially are stupid and/or evil for the crime of Looking Different and then the other half believes that ultra orthodoxy couldn’t possibly do anything problematic or religiously extreme cause hey look at least (some) of them aren’t Zionist!

[messiahzzz]

i’m not here to claim that wyll doesn’t deserve more extra content or that larian’s perspective of him isn’t rooted in racism in any way whatsoever. however, i sincerely believe that it’s always important to list the facts first before misinformation continues to spread which only results in more needless outrage.

these are all of wyll’s scenes that exist in the game as of now:

meeting karlach, mizora, and his transformation, the tiefling party kiss, the dance scene, mizora visiting camp, another scene where mizora visits camp, and the proposal scene. additionally, mizora and uldred can join camp, if he is alive.

in strict comparison - this is the exact amount of scenes the other origin characters have:

Astarion has 9 scenes, 6 of which can possibly be romantic.

Lae’zel has 7 non-standard dialogue scenes, 3 of which can possibly be romantic.

Shadowheart has 6 non-standard dialogue scenes, 3 of which can possibly be romantic.

Gale has 6 non-standard dialogue scenes, 3 of which can possibly be romantic.

Karlach has 4 non-standard dialogue scenes, 3 of which can possibly be romantic.

Wyll has 5 non-standard dialogue scenes, 2 of which can possibly be romantic.

source: [x]

wyll is lacking one scene compared to characters like shadowheart and gale. lae’zel merely has another non-standard dialogue scene, while astarion has double the amount of possible romance scenes and 9 scenes in total.

here is a video of wyll’s entire story: [x] at a duration of 2:25:24 in total it’s very similar in length to the romances of the other companions the same channel uploaded. (minthara & halsin excluded)

i have also seen many people refer to the datamined voicelines as proof of how much content wyll lacks. this, however, doesn’t tell us much since those compilations include battle grunts, noises, and other repeated lines. if you want to check them out for yourself, here is chubblot’s playlist on youtube: [x]

wyll’s romance/approval-specific greetings also exist, they are merely bugged. although i have heard that some people have been able to trigger them. bugged content is something that also affects other companions – in fact, most of gale’s romance scenes and some integral dialogue have been bugged for months now with no fixes anywhere in sight. if you don’t want to look for wyll’s greetings in the files, i took the liberty of doing it for you:

alas, his general reactivity after act i remains the same as with the others. aka: he's barely responsive to his surroundings nor to any key decisions the player makes.

wyll also isn’t the only character who isn’t able to make his own choice on whether he agrees to sell his soul for his father’s life or not. in fact, the only characters who can decide their own fate are shadowheart and lae’zel. the latter option only now being added with patch 6.

so what exactly did wyll get after patch 6? the same amount of kisses like everyone else: 4 in total. as well as some new idle animations and polished facial expressions. the kiss where he invites tav for a quick twirl had already been added in an earlier update (patch 5, 30th november 2023). which means it’s understandable that certain characters who didn’t receive any new animations or other content before were now added with patch 6 as well.

wyll’s quest regarding ansur also didn’t get removed from the game. this is plain false. larian merely changed the subcategory in the journal (which larian had done previously with astarion’s gur-related quest as well)

if you have a gripe with this particular decision: that is valid. the quest, however, is still the exact same as it was before.

i see fandom heading in this really dangerous direction where people fully believe they have the right to attack others for pointing out the existence of false information. i understand that people are upset about wyll having less content than characters like astarion and i am in no way here to claim that you should refrain from calling out racism where it’s due. however, this hostile behavior directed at anyone who dares to disagree with you is creating a really toxic environment within online spaces, where people hesitate to engage with the wyll side of the fandom at all (out of fear of immediately receiving the racist card for merely correcting inconsistencies in logic). and in case it needs to be said again: it is never justified to harass real people or send death threats to others under any circumstances, much less if it concerns a fictional character.

i, much like everyone, really want wyll to receive more love from fandom and larian alike. but it is no one’s place to police other players on how they should engage with this specific character in their own game. if others simply couldn’t connect to wyll as much as you personally have – for whatever reason – that is on them. it's them who are missing out. this shouldn’t hinder your enjoyment of this character in any way or discourage you from creating more fan content.

TL;DR: it’s completely valid to request more wyll content, but please don’t resort to “demands” or public pressure directed at the devs. this is only doing more harm in the long run (to wyll’s, as well as his fanbase's reputation within the rest of the fandom instead of actually accomplishing much). don’t spread misinformation that he’s the only one of the companions who is continuously receiving the short end of the stick in terms of content, general reactivity, and bug fixes. if anything, the biggest difference is between him and astarion (again, much like every other companion).

🙏 please be respectful to each other 🙏

update, 19th february:

a user suggested providing an alternative to petitions on this post and linking directly to larian’s official feedback form, which you can find here: [x]

you’ll be able to add screenshots of the specific issue you’re reporting. keep in mind that you need to name your exact game version if you plan to send in a report. i’ve had larian ask me to send them the specific game files in the past, so it’s best to keep them on hand in advance.

larian also has a faq page on how to submit a general bug report [x]

here is an example of what to write:

(I’d like to address the disparity in content between Wyll and the other origin companions.) As of now, Wyll is lacking an entire scene compared to the rest of the characters, and his romance-specific greetings remain bugged as well. The lack of equal scenes makes Wyll’s story feel lackluster at times and undermines the pacing of his romance and overall character arc. It is very disheartening for POC players specifically to see racial biases reflected in his treatment and that Wyll didn’t receive the same amount of resources. Considering his narrative role as the Grand Duke's son he also deserves to be in the spotlight. When can we expect any fixes or additional content?