Or you're just reading far too much into this, and trying to confirm your own pre-existing bias. For example, how exactly is Rachel a good person ? She lies and uses Marie, and from what I've read in spoilers, she turns out to be a real bitch. Her skin and hair colour weren't what indicated that she would be the white lotus chosen by Marie, but rather her seemingly innocent appearance (clothes, hairstyle, demeanor). Same for the envoy : he is presented as excessive (what with his overreaction to the food), but not evil — at most, he is presented as someone willing to fight for his people, which isn't exactly what I would call evil or wrong. And what of Marie's ex-husband ? Was he a nice white guy ? And the other maids who bullied her ?
This is not about racism, it's about your willingness to see it everywhere, including where it doesn't exist.
While I do see your side of things I still stand by what I said. There is a reason why Rachel, a character who you said was chosen for her innocent like appearance, has blonde hair while Ariel, a character who was right away shown as rude/disrespectful, has darker hair. Also, I never said the envoy was evil. But both main leads, who we are meant to like, find fault with him. So I’m sure you can agree that the envoy wasn’t written in a positive light? Regardless, I’m just saying there is a reason why the envoy is dark skinned.
As for your bottom statement, racism does exist everywhere. It is rooted not just in history but in our society today, in every single country in this world, through implicit bias.
Oh, I agree racism exists — it is indeed a biological feature to prefer members of your own group, who look like you, and with ignorance throughout history, of course that would lead to ideas about racial hierarchies in all human groups. However, to say that it permeates everything, even to this day, is excessive. Very often, and in cases such as this, offense is in the mind of the beholder — offense is taken, after all.
If, from two characters among the plurality of them in the story, you deduce that this story or author are racist, I do feel it's a subjective misconception rather than any objective fact. Among so many characters, more or less good, with different hair and skin shades, the two which happen to stand out in the latest chapters happen to have one dark hair and the other dark skin, with one merely being an entitled brat and the other not even being portrayed as particularly bad or inferior are enough to make you assign motives and designs where there probably are none ? Again, I don't agree, and I persist in thinking you should take a step back, and evaluate whether this opinion you hold comes from observable, objective elements, or merely interpretations based on very tenuous (at best) evidence.
I am not offended by the story, the only reason why I used the words “more offended by” in my original post was because I felt the issue I brought up was more offensive than other comments who noticed islamophobia within the story. Also, I don’t find the author or story racist, however, to me, there are things in the story that come off as racist.
I guess we can agree to disagree? I personally believe that the author has used the age-old white = good and dark = bad association throughout the story (whether on purpose or subconsciously I do not now). Using this association, especially in characters, is something I find to be problematic because of the racist implications.
Hello!
Pretty pale person here (Latina though ┑(￣Д ￣)┍). Don't think it matters though I think there is some value in showing where one is culturally coming from.
I do think racism permeates to this day through systemic racism so I must disagree with you on that point.
Though I do find the overuse of muslim characters as villains truly ridiculous, I don't think this is an exemplary case of this. So in that I agree with you. To be perfectly honestly, I've seen worse situations appear, especially in manga, so I can't say this is a good example of a racist situation. Especially since for now, he's just a tricky ally of a neighboring country. I'll admit that it could go down a racist route super fast, but for now I am remaining optimistic.
I think @btsqurux makes a good point though, as it is very important to be conscious of these situations. If not, we can allow misconceptions to plague all popular forms of media and unconsciously interpret them as truth, hurting others.
I do encourage you all to read Remarried Empress. Even though he is second lead, he is so much second lead sydrom that I wanna take him for myself 0o0. But the main is also cute though. Beside this manhwa I never really noticed that colored or muslim type of characters are often evil. But that could be because I read different kind of genres compared to you all ><.
Oh I've read that. It is *amazing* almost shipped him harder than the ML. The issue that tends to happen is that manga doesn't usually have colored characters and when they do, it tends to always be villains, perpetuating the stereotype. It's not an immediate "thats racist" moment but it is something we have to be conscious of. Remarried Empress is
ε=ε=(ノ≧∇≦)ノ though. Cannot wait for the king to get dead-ed
I think you would both like “Amina of the Lamp” ! (: The way I was shook when we saw main lead guy and even more shook when we saw the secondary female character!
Don't get me started on that ML. He is pure husbando material. (≧∀≦)
Like the way he handles the politics of the situation is just (๑•ㅂ•)و✧
AND HIS EYES
sorry ok rant over
Not going to lie as soon as I saw that the “good” one was the blond girl and the “bad” one was the black haired girl I peeped that the author was kind of biased in a way maybe not on purpose but it did happen and it’s already been written lol ╮(￣▽￣)╭ (〜￣△￣)〜 (づ￣ ³￣)づ idk
As a brown muslim, I under What you meam however, I don’t see the hair colour as anything bad but the skin colour is extremely annoying. They always make the rivalling country have ‘dark’ skin colour and they are known for being savages and rougj etc. I especially hate in Chinese and Korean novels (even ones that are out in 2020) where they still idolise having ‘fair’ slin and anything dark looks ugly. It makes me feel especially offended. Like how in the manga where the girl had dark slin as she has the piwer of darkness (i cannot remember the name currently) and the light goddess comes aling and gives her a wish and turns her ‘fair’ like y, is it an insult to be dark
Hello Asian here, just want to point out that there is some bias when it comes to blondes in Asia. I know not everyone is biased when it comes to blondes but many do prefer blonde over black hair color. I guess it's just the way or how most films project blonde as a good or innocent, or exotic looking being. Having born with blonde hair is coveted in Asia, especially in East Asian countries. This was based on my experience, some people in my class prefer to befriend western (caucasian) transfer student vs non caucasian foreign students (unless they are either handsome or pretty) I was like them at first because I didn't know better, however my views changed after moving. So yeah that's just what I want to point out.
Oh I have read that yeah!
I’m more offended by how, in this story, the further one drifts away from blonde hair/white skin the more villainous they become. Like I wasn’t surprised how the Muslim envoy was depicted and treated because I already saw it coming when the author had both main leads (Princess and Crown Prince) be blonde and the second main lead having whitish hair. Then I had red flags ringing when the only people in this story that had black hair was the King of the Eastern nation (who was depicted as a cruel person -by the background they showed of him- and who was the only character who liked Marie but stood absolutely no chance with her) and Ariel who was shown as a b!tch. Like it’s sad that when they first showed us the images of Ariel and Rachel I immediately knew that the one Marie was going to choose was Rachel just based on the fact that Rachel was also blonde. The situation with the envoy further cemented the idea in my head that the author was being racist throughout the story.