niggagenos:

something that i’ve been commonly told when i make characters black is that i’m “blackwashing” them and i should keep in mind “what if it were the other way around and they were whitewashed?” a lot of people that call me, a black person, racist compare whitewashing and blackwashing as if they work together hand in hand

whitewashing is the act of making a canon character of color white, which removes poc representation. “blackwashing”, a term created by white people, is the act of doing the opposite of whitewashing, which adds black representation. for decades, black people have been forced to identify with poorly written and often black characters built off of sterotypes. thats why fans of media like myself have had to make representation of our own by making our favorite characters mixed with their canon race and our own cultures. people should not be off threatened or offended by “blackwashing”, especially when a lot of casts have white or pale poc characters and the token black character looks like a stereotype, ends up dying, or both.

“why don’t you make black original characters?” tons of artists on here have made black characters but you don’t see them cross your dashboard  because it doesn’t have the same effect as making a canon character black.

“why don’t you focus more on canon poc?” a) there  isn’t even any canon poc in some series or b) the small amount of canon poc are poorly represented because authors don’t often do research on black culture

“blackwashing” doesn’t exist. just like reverse racism, it’s a term coined by white people so they can feel special by being oppressed. people who believe in “blackwashing” are not educated on how black people are treated in media now and how they’ve been treated in the past. our skin color and facial features were used as clown makeup by white people in minstrel shows but people don’t even think about it because “oooOoOO what if it was the other way around and it was whitewashing” >:((”. instead of going after the people that make canon dark skinned characters WHITE, spineless dogs go after people about something that doesn’t exist. when poc make a canon character’s skin dark and say they’re black/latino/etc., they’re doing it out of love for their culture and people. when white people “blackwashing”, they do it in support of poc. nothing but love and care goes into “blackwashing”.

and if you still believe in “blackwashing” after reading this, i’m going to personally make your favorite characters black and there’s absolutely nothing you can do about it