Thread by @AmandaTNStevens, So, some people have comments about what I said about Shalai for [...]

AmandaTNStevens

So, some people have comments about what I said about Shalai for the Black is Magic secret lair so it's time for a thread:

Let's start with the easiest statement; WotC sucks at depicting minorities - especially those coded as being African, Southeast Asian, or Latinx

I think this is something we all know about because how comically inconsistent Liliana and Chandra have been depicted considering their supposed ethnicities. But that isn't the topic for today, so we're move on from there.

Black people are VERY rarely depicted in Magic art. This isn't really a topic up for debate. It sure has gotten better in recent years but if we're HONESTLY talking about Magic art from Alpha all the way through...let's say Scars of Mirrodin, Black people are on a fraction of art

There is only one block in Magic history that has a decent amount of Black people depicted in the art which is Mirage

Mirage Block also has some really questionable flavor text, depictions of race relations, and wildly inconsistent portrayals of Black-ness

Let's get something out of the way before I keep going:

Light skinned representation is important, valid, and matters

I don't think I would need to say this, but I guess I do. So, please make sure you internalize this

But with that said

There is also A HUGE issue in art, especially in fantasy art, of colorism. What do I mean by this?

Good guys are white or light skinned
Bad guys are all shades but if a Bad guy is not white? they are probably dark skinned

And if we even give art more of the benefit of the doubt

A lot of fantasy artists just SUCK at coloring Black bodies. Don't believe me, look at any dark skinned Black coded character in Magic. Here, look at Koth. Lets forget he is a Vulshok. Ever seen anyone w/ that skin tone?

And when characters who are coded as Black aren't some otherworldly level of dark skinned - they are some extremely racially ambiguous skin tone. There are VERY rare exceptions and most of that is in either recent modern Magic art or in other queues to determine ethnicity

So - when we take a character who is extremely racially ambiguous in their art like Shalai (very light skinned, extremely relaxed hair, not human, wearing European style armor) and just make her hair more kinky & darken her skin for a BHM product - Yeah, I'm going to take offense

I know at the end of the day Secret Lair is a product to SELL Magic cards

Yes, to some degree, for charity

But I'm honestly uncomfortable with this choice. We have so little realistic depictions of Black people in Magic that we have people asking if dark elves count

I know there are still more cards to reveal, but considering this is supposed to be for BLACK HISTORY MONTH I would have loved if we stuck to Black humans

Black people often have to look to non-humans who are coded as Black as their sole source of representation

And an initially racially ambiguous character, who anecdotally many Black magic players I know did not read as Black, who is an angel is one of the few cards in this product -

that continues the trend of Blackness is everything but human.

/thread

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