~paime77

Took a minute but here it is. I have joined a group of Black artists, because I am Black. I have tried to deny it for some time, but the evidence keeps mounting.


People tend to ask why Blacks need to form groups -- it seems discriminatory. Actually the reason is simple: We form groups because we are so under represented ALL THE TIME.


Blacks are under represented in the creation of entertainment and in the mediums themselves. In other words, there are very few Black Saturday morning cartoons in history and even fewer that had Black creators involved in the creation. As it is in television it is on the Internet. The Internet is a 'for profit' venture in the US, and since Blacks are the largest group in poverty, thus there are few Blacks on the Internet. Of that minority of Blacks from the US on the Internet only a few produce artwork. So you have a minority of a minority of a minority.


When I was a child there were no Black cartoons on TV. It seems hard to believe with all the Black cartoons on now like, Boondocks and uh... uhm... and that one about... uh. Well never mind. But with all the cartoons created by Blacks like Boondocks and ummm.... uh you know that one about the uh.... wait Static Shock, uh but that was canceled years ago and they started to dumb down the character when they gave him a white partner...wait I know another show it is called uh.... Well the point I'm making is that Blacks were under represented when I was a kid, Fat Albert came a couple of years later: one show out of three networks, Saturday AND Sunday morning cartoons from 7am to Noon/1pm.


I guess things haven't changed as much as I would have hoped.


As I grew up there were very few Blacks "into" comic books, much less wanting to create comic books. So I felt alone, but it is through groups like these that I don't feel alone anymore. That I realize there are other Black creators out there --

"But the color of the creator doesn't matter".

Yes it does. We can look around this site and count the Black characters created by non Blacks on this site. I’ve never seen one – this does not mean that one does not exist, but I haven’t seen one. A Black creator would create a Black character and it would be less stereotypical, than one created by someone not from the Black culture. I say less because sometimes it is hard to get away from the inherent conditioning from the media that we have been fed from birth. Some Blacks have been so coerced by the media to not represent themselves AT ALL in their artwork.



Yes I like to see Black people being successful; we still have way too many firsts. WE are still under represented in the media on both sides of the creation -- creators and products. We still have way too little power over how we are represented in the media -- the executives in the media cater to stereotypical thinking, we should be proud to create something that shows us as wonderful, powerful, magical, and super. So joining a group that shows me someone like me doing wonderful art – makes me feel like I can create wonderful art too.