top of page

Representations of POC in the media

  • Charlie Creevy
  • Sep 26, 2022
  • 2 min read

People of colour always have it difficult in life so we should support them in the media any way we can correct? Well, some people fail terribly at representing out beloved people of colour, or just overly try to be a wonderful person to the time it becomes dangerous as I will elaborate on later in this blog.

First of all let me talk on my favourite piece of media which sadly happens to be made by a company both me and most of the media are not too fond of, Overwatch/Overwatch2 made by Blizzard Entertainment, this game (soon to be games!) happens to be my favourite with its colourful and quirky cast of characters which make for an amazing world built off of the foundation laid by amazing characters. Overwatch is no stranger to diversity, the poster character is openly confirmed as lesbian, they love introducing characters from all different places/races most notably being the main antagonist Doomfist being from African decent yet being the most powerful character in the story.

Doomfist.


The one other part I am here to talk about today is this dangerous part of the twitter (put down your pitchforks I'm doing that for you) art community. This horrid thing I am referring to is what is known of Black/Whitewashing if you have not heard of this disguised menace I will explain now. Black/Whitewashing is the "art" of changing a characters skin tone or race in art whether that be original characters or famous video game characters. Genshin Impact's newest region Sumeru has been hit hard by these critiques. In this video by black creator Mohammed Agbadi "https://www.youtube.com9oF6fvAzFbo" entitled "Twitter Artists Drawing Black Characters is Problematic.." presents good points about why these artists claiming to "Fix art" is ruining movements such as BLM itself.


However that is where I shall end this rant of a blog post and inform you all that trying to "fiox things" in terms of reputations is dangerous and you should take care and probably uninstall twitter while you are at it.

 
 
 

1 Comment


Nick Saward
Nick Saward
Sep 27, 2022

Whitewashing has been a problem within all forms of media forever - and it's interesting how this issue has evolved as other types of media emerge and become prominent. Video games have long been viewed with suspicion as painting with far too broad strokes or offering little in terms of representation to those who aren't white males - but this is clearly no longer the case. Ironically, the games industry itself is often the victim of negative stereotyping as there are publishers and artists out there creating games that celebrate real diversity in really diverse ways.


Regretfully, I'm not aware of the controversy surrounding Blizzard Entertainment - but am intrigued to know more, is it about representations?

Like
bottom of page