Some people are upset that Korra is technically black

[RandomKate]

People make such big deals about things.

[False Dichotomy]

Hacker Edward Tivrusky IV

False Dichotomy

She's totally eskimo/inuit/native north american in appearance. She doesn't even look black.

Apart from the blue eyes...

The eyes are connected to the tribes. The Japanese don't have yellow eyes, but fire nation descendants do.

The cultures are meant to resemble different nations and cultures in the real world. The southern water tribe look like inuits, the northern water tribe was not too different. Earth kingdom resembled china in general, air nomads resembled the southern china/india borders and the shaolin temples, fire nation resembled imperialist japan.

[Jecht Schmidt]

Black is Beauty

[Ringoringa]

Tifa463752

She is a water tribeswoman. That is all.

This. The show doesn't take place in our world. Its races are entirely different.

Although people upset by the fact that - whatever race they call her in the show - she's clearly got dark skin have issues.

[Rangeri]

It's a fantasy world. They may be based off Asian cultures, but honestly: dark skin with blue eyes is VERY rare in our world, but is a distinctive feature of the Water Tribe in the Avatar universe.Light skin with yellow eyes is just about impossible but Zuko, Azula, and practically the whole Fire Nation have this trait. Therefore I conclude that we can't tie our own racial notions onto characters in a fictional fantasy universe, because I'm sure their races (although based on many different cultures) are fictional.

Anyway, what does it matter? I thought we were all humans anyway =3

[Dark_Lady_Jade]

Korra, if she was living in our world, would be Inuit.

The only time the connection is made to her and blackness is when racist people whine "But Korra's not black!". stare

[Dove_of_Dawn]

Dark_Lady_Jade

Korra, if she was living in our world, would be Inuit.

The only time the connection is made to her and blackness is when racist people whine "But Korra's not black!". stare

Wait..I'm confused. You're racist if you say someone isn't black? Why doesn't that go the other way around? Isn't it racism if you're claiming she is black as well?

Also, I support the fact that she's Watertribe. Ain't one of our races, none of them are, so how dare we try to assign race colors from our world to theirs? Are we really that tired of defining people of our world by color? Doubt it, I see it every damn day.

[xx Cookie-Boots xx]

Korra's not black. o_0 She's a PoC, but by no means black.
Ah well, racists gonna racist.
Also, isn't Eskimo a racist term?

[Dark_Lady_Jade]

Dove_of_Dawn

Dark_Lady_Jade

Korra, if she was living in our world, would be Inuit.

The only time the connection is made to her and blackness is when racist people whine "But Korra's not black!". stare

Wait..I'm confused. You're racist if you say someone isn't black? Why doesn't that go the other way around? Isn't it racism if you're claiming she is black as well?

Also, I support the fact that she's Watertribe. Ain't one of our races, none of them are, so how dare we try to assign race colors from our world to theirs? Are we really that tired of defining people of our world by color? Doubt it, I see it every damn day.

It's racist because of the anti-black sentiment behind it.

"Okay, okay. Korra's skin is brown. But OMG DON'T YOU DARE EVEN HINT THAT SHE COULD BE INTERPRETED AS BLACK!!! scream " There's an attitude that people have, including PoC who aren't black, of 'anything but black'.

Also, the 'well it's not our world' reasoning doesn't fly, because the people and cultures in this series were inspired by and based on actual people and cultures of color, so to say it 'doesn't matter' is erasing and dismissive.

[Xiam]

Yeah, it's been said since TLA that the Water Tribe is based on Inuit people. The clothing and culture pretty much shows that. I don't see why anyone (well, anyone normal) would think Korra's black. That's like saying Guru Pathik is black. Or Zuko's white.

[Dove_of_Dawn]

Dark_Lady_Jade

Dove_of_Dawn

Dark_Lady_Jade

Korra, if she was living in our world, would be Inuit.

The only time the connection is made to her and blackness is when racist people whine "But Korra's not black!". stare

Wait..I'm confused. You're racist if you say someone isn't black? Why doesn't that go the other way around? Isn't it racism if you're claiming she is black as well?

Also, I support the fact that she's Watertribe. Ain't one of our races, none of them are, so how dare we try to assign race colors from our world to theirs? Are we really that tired of defining people of our world by color? Doubt it, I see it every damn day.

It's racist because of the anti-black sentiment behind it.

"Okay, okay. Korra's skin is brown. But OMG DON'T YOU DARE EVEN HINT THAT SHE COULD BE INTERPRETED AS BLACK!!! scream " There's an attitude that people have, including PoC who aren't black, of 'anything but black'.

Also, the 'well it's not our world' reasoning doesn't fly, because the people and cultures in this series were inspired by and based on actual people and cultures of color, so to say it 'doesn't matter' is erasing and dismissive.

You do realize,that though that sentiment is 99% of the time, occasionally it's not? Assuming that it is anti-black sentiment can cause hurt feelings all around. By saying she's not black, doesn't mean that she's white (or some other color), it doesn't mean that it wouldn't be awesome for her to be black, it's simply saying (perhaps) that the person does not see it. I personally don't. I've never met any Inuit, so I can't say there are no black Inuits, but that's all I can see her as. I have nothing against those that do see her as black, more power to them, but I'm not one of them. Does that make me racist?

The 'it's not our world' thing does stand on shaky legs, granted, but how can we put our labels into a place that isn't real, and isn't ours? They may have similar stigmas, but not the same. We may never know.

[False Dichotomy]

xx Cookie-Boots xx

Korra's not black. o_0 She's a PoC, but by no means black.
Ah well, racists gonna racist.
Also, isn't Eskimo a racist term?

No, "eskimo" is like using the term hispanic. It's not very precise, but it does refer to an ethnicity.

[False Dichotomy]

INUITS

You can even tell by the roundness of the faces that the water tribes were based off of inuit peoples. Katara looks pretty darn inuit, Korra being of mixed race, looks a bit more neutral, but still carries the darker skin tone.

[Dark_Lady_Jade]

Dove_of_Dawn

Dark_Lady_Jade

Dove_of_Dawn

Dark_Lady_Jade

Korra, if she was living in our world, would be Inuit.

The only time the connection is made to her and blackness is when racist people whine "But Korra's not black!". stare

Wait..I'm confused. You're racist if you say someone isn't black? Why doesn't that go the other way around? Isn't it racism if you're claiming she is black as well?

Also, I support the fact that she's Watertribe. Ain't one of our races, none of them are, so how dare we try to assign race colors from our world to theirs? Are we really that tired of defining people of our world by color? Doubt it, I see it every damn day.

It's racist because of the anti-black sentiment behind it.

"Okay, okay. Korra's skin is brown. But OMG DON'T YOU DARE EVEN HINT THAT SHE COULD BE INTERPRETED AS BLACK!!! scream " There's an attitude that people have, including PoC who aren't black, of 'anything but black'.

Also, the 'well it's not our world' reasoning doesn't fly, because the people and cultures in this series were inspired by and based on actual people and cultures of color, so to say it 'doesn't matter' is erasing and dismissive.

You do realize,that though that sentiment is 99% of the time, occasionally it's not? Assuming that it is anti-black sentiment can cause hurt feelings all around. By saying she's not black, doesn't mean that she's white (or some other color), it doesn't mean that it wouldn't be awesome for her to be black, it's simply saying (perhaps) that the person does not see it. I personally don't. I've never met any Inuit, so I can't say there are no black Inuits, but that's all I can see her as. I have nothing against those that do see her as black, more power to them, but I'm not one of them. Does that make me racist?

The 'it's not our world' thing does stand on shaky legs, granted, but how can we put our labels into a place that isn't real, and isn't ours? They may have similar stigmas, but not the same. We may never know.

neutral

Okay, now take a GOOD look at what you typed. First sentence, you basically said that ALL the times anti-black racism happens doesn't matter because of the 1% chance that it's not happening (which is wrong, btw, because there's ALWAYS anti-black sentiment). Also, it's rude of you to tell me that calling out anti-black sentiment hurts feelings. That's more erasing and silencing. What, my feelings don't matter?

By people rabidly saying Korra's not black it sends the message that her having brown skin is okay AS LONG AS she's NOT interpreted by anyone as being black. That's anti-black sentiment. The whole 'maybe the person didn't see it' is BS because even when there ARE black characters (I'm talking about blatantly, obviously identified as being black/of African descent), they get insanely whitewashed and interpreted as not black anyway.

OP stated earlier that there are black Inuits, because there are, just as there are black Native/Indigenous people. But as always, the black members of the groups are always erased and ignored (and only the lightest members of the groups being chosen to represent the groups), so who's to say Korra COULDN'T be black? That's the point OP was making. Yes, Korra would be Inuit based on the culture of the Water Tribes, but she could be a black Inuit, too. It's not impossible.

Not being able to interpret Korra as black is not racist, but playing ignorant and dismissive IS, and such arguments usually get stare in discussions. Just a tip for you for the future (another tip, NEVER ask if you're a racist, not even hypothetically).

We can apply real-world dynamics to fictional places because they are inspired by people and places in the real world, that's why. It's as simple as that. Why do you think people, especially PoC, get upset when characters get whitewashed? Why do you think people get upset when PoC are non-existant in fantasy settings?

It's easy to say something doesn't matter or that you don't see all the problems of an issue when it's not affecting you.

[xx Cookie-Boots xx]

False Dichotomy

xx Cookie-Boots xx

Korra's not black. o_0 She's a PoC, but by no means black.
Ah well, racists gonna racist.
Also, isn't Eskimo a racist term?

No, "eskimo" is like using the term hispanic. It's not very precise, but it does refer to an ethnicity.

There are so many archaic racist terms that I honestly just don't know anymore. gonk