I don't understand the racism stuff ?? How is this story racist?? like it's nice for a cha...

Aoi.xx June 25, 2025 10:00 pm

I don't understand the racism stuff ?? How is this story racist?? like it's nice for a change to have black characters no?

Responses
    GreenTea June 26, 2025 1:04 am

    Too sum up the 2 major points:
    -Having dark skinned people being viewed as beastly, aggressive and almost non-human (very common troupe in stories like these)
    -Orientalism of middle eastern cultures, clothes and perception

    If you try to sift through the comments, some people explain it way better than I can

    Wursti June 29, 2025 12:18 pm
    Too sum up the 2 major points:-Having dark skinned people being viewed as beastly, aggressive and almost non-human (very common troupe in stories like these)-Orientalism of middle eastern cultures, clothes and ... GreenTea

    Yes the orientalism may be misrepresented - but so is most of the European culture in all those Princess-Duke-regression stories.

    Also, most black characters here seem
    much nicer than the light skinned ones...It is a fantasy story after all...it just aint that deep.

    Akira June 29, 2025 2:00 pm
    Yes the orientalism may be misrepresented - but so is most of the European culture in all those Princess-Duke-regression stories. Also, most black characters here seem much nicer than the light skinned ones...I... Wursti

    I agree with you.
    + the thing with stories is, that it oftentimes uses real life cultures and social concepts as a basis. It's nothing new for whites to mistreat people who are even slightly different from them and comparing them to beasts/animals. The same happened irl too, where they compared African people with monkeys during colonization. It is indeed racist, but as a world-concept it's nothing unrealistic.
    The point is tho - the people who are mistreating others, using them as slaves and are racist are the antagonists here, while the ones, who are being mistreated are the protagonists and allies.

    Isn't this more like "against" racism then?

    GreenTea June 29, 2025 2:38 pm
    Yes the orientalism may be misrepresented - but so is most of the European culture in all those Princess-Duke-regression stories. Also, most black characters here seem much nicer than the light skinned ones...I... Wursti

    I don't completely agree with you but...

    Unfortunately we are not in a perfect world where misrepresenting European culture has the same weight as misrepresenting east Asian cultures. And it's simply because of centuries of how racism and misrepresentation has affected them on a societal level. Simply putting on a pretty dress and calling myself a princess isn't the same as putting on a random head piece and calling myself any kinda Asian, because the latter affects how those people are perceived and treated

    And to you're second point. Yes these characters are nice. And honestly in these troupes, the darker skinned people are never the bad guys even if they are aggressive.

    The problem isn't necessarily the racism in the story, it's not wrong to write about racism. But that's coming from looking at it from *INSIDE* the story. The racism I mean is from *outside* the story, as in, what the creator themselves chose to put into this, the elements of it.
    They *chose* to use a very racist trope of a beastly, dark skinned race, which stems from a stereotype of black/darker skinned people being perceived as more aggressive. That troupe in itself is racist, along with giving them an orientalist culture (i.e. the first point)

    GreenTea June 29, 2025 2:38 pm
    Yes the orientalism may be misrepresented - but so is most of the European culture in all those Princess-Duke-regression stories. Also, most black characters here seem much nicer than the light skinned ones...I... Wursti

    Meant to say I don't completely disagree