Why the fuck would I want cranberries with chicken: Okay, I get it now.

Why the fuck would I want cranberries with chicken: Okay, I get it now.:

peter-pam:

gailsimone:

strikematchlightfiyah:

gailsimone:

strikematchlightfiyah:

'Chicken slut' is a stone's throw away from 'chicken head.' "Chicken head" was used a lot in the 80s/90s hip-hop circuit to describe women who gave sexual favors in order to fit into a male rapper's inner circle. I'm not sure if that the reference being used, but it's the only thing I can link…

Wow, that IS bad. I admit I hadn't heard that one.

I did do some searches at the time for 'chickensluts,' and at the time I couldn't find any DIRECT reference to it as being in anything like common usage.  But that was several years back and now I do the same search and it comes up a lot, mostly a self-applied term, it looks like.

I do think the chicken thing is problematic. It's a chicken restaurant, but they're not as famous for fried chicken„ it's the chicken and dumplings that is the big deal. So the 'chicken' reference seemed more disconnected in context.

But yeah, there's enough shitty stuff out there about POCs and chicken that it would have been kinder and smarter to not mention chicken at all.

I apologize to anyone offended by this scene. Again, the statement here is parodying racist portrayals, not black men. But particularly out of context, shit, that line is pretty thin to see.

It's not even about the racist stereotype of black people and chicken (I honestly hadn't thought of that and I don't think it fits, but people are welcome to disagree.) It's just that it's pretty terrible to have the black male character automatically use misogynist statements while ordering a piece of pie. There's a lot of backstory to the black male character being overly offensive because the black male character takes a lot of heat as it is, you know? There's a lot of ammunition when it comes to black men and misogyny (as in, black men are believed to be more misogynist, as seen by most critiques of rap/hip hop in the history of EVER) even if it's meant as slang. I cringed because I knew that the panel reflected a lot of thoughts and beliefs about black men and that some racist asshat out there was probably smirking and laughing at the funny black guy that hates women because don't all black dudes hate (their) women!!!!

Plus there's all those other little details that soft-intelligence pointed out that I didn't even notice, but that's my main thing.

Right, I totally agree.  And IF he was the only black male in the book (and remember, he is BEING PAID TO START A FIGHT IN THIS RESTAURANT), it would be an even bigger problem.  But the other black male, Thomasina Lindo's grandfather, the Black Glider, is the most pious, honest, and faithful guy in the book. 

If you have a book with eight black characters in it, and all of them are noble but one, and that one starts off as a troubled kid, it seems unfair to focus on that one kid and make it seem like he represents all black men or all black characters, doesn't it?  Especially since he later risks his life to save others.

I kinda wish it was possible to put a bunch of the pages of Thomasina or Seresa or the other POC characters up to get a better sense of what the book is about.

But I really appreciate your comments, I am giving them a lot of thought.

But have you thought of it across the board? I know you can only control the portrayal of characters in your written stories but across the board in more media than just comics the image of the angry/stupid/slang speaking/neglectful/woman hating black man is so prominent it isn't even funny (it was never funny) 

..I'm just surprised I didn't think of chicken-heads first…wow I fudged on that one 

Oh, yeah, I think about it, absolutely, what Peaches said about context is right. No one would be mad about this page if it wasn't on top of a thousand shitty, mean-spirited portrayals of black men in all media.

I am not Dwayne McDuffie. I can't speak with his authority about being a black male in America, and I don't have his invincible gifts. I am a white, cisgendered straight woman. I know I am not the person comics needs to fix all this stuff. I wish I were. 

All I can really say is that I'm listening, I'm trying, I fight this fight constantly. I know I'm going to get stuff wrong, we all do. Writers are imperfect and I might be more imperfect than most. But if I do have a mission in comics aside from trying to tell good stories, it's about diversity.  I don't want people to feel they don't belong in the industry or hobby because of how they were born or what they do in life or what they believe in.

I don't feel like my voice is special. It clearly isn't. But what I DO feel is that I wish there were a lot more people raising up their voice in the industry. I wish there were more Greg Ruckas and Phil Jimenezes, and I agonize a lot over the loss of people like Dwayne and Perry Moore. Sometimes it feels like we can't replace those guys, and that's when I despair a little bit.   I don't wish everyone listened to me, I wish there were a lot more people IN the industry saying this stuff out loud. Saying it in private only helps so much.

Bleah. Now I'm bummed!

Anyway, thank you guys for the thoughtful comments. It's much appreciated.