Black cat - racist?

Discussion in 'Character Development' started by Lucie, Jul 9, 2020.

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  1. Homer Potvin

    Homer Potvin A tombstone hand and a graveyard mind Staff Supporter Contributor

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    Maybe go with Nasty Cat or something similar if you think it'll be an issue. I don't think it will be, but I'm not you or your potential audience.
     
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  2. Xoic

    Xoic Prognosticator of Arcana Ridiculosum Contributor Blogerator

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    There's always Smelly Cat, but I believe that one is probably copyrighted.
     
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  3. Naomasa298

    Naomasa298 HP: 10/190 Status: Confused Contributor

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    Smelly P... ok, maybe best not finish that thought.
     
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  4. Xoic

    Xoic Prognosticator of Arcana Ridiculosum Contributor Blogerator

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    That one wouldn't really be a kid's story... :cool:
     
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  5. Larro

    Larro Member

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    White guy in a black suit, voiced by a black guy, just to add to the confusion.
     
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  6. Larro

    Larro Member

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    Silky Cat / Fidgety Cat / Fluffy Cat / Hissy Cat...?

    Race wouldn't have come into my mind if I was reading it, but I understand where you're coming from. If Black Cat doesn't sit well with you, just change it.
     
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  7. Xoic

    Xoic Prognosticator of Arcana Ridiculosum Contributor Blogerator

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    I just watched Conan The Barbarian last night, and realized James Earl Jones is riffing on his Darth Vader role. He keeps telling both Conan and the Princess he's their father, and of course that would be not their actual father but their dark father (symbolic meaning of Darth Vader).

    Wait—dark father? Is that racist? :D
     
    Last edited: Jul 16, 2020
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  8. Larro

    Larro Member

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    If JEJ was happy enough then it's probably ok :agreed::-D
     
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  9. Lucie

    Lucie New Member

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    Oh, that's interesting! I haven't heard about anything like that.. Poor black animals.. Fortunatelly, the black cat in my story is "adopted" at the end.. So at least here I am out of obligation :D

    Yep, this is something I was thinking about as well - that it could be a possible problem for the publisher..

    I am not worried abou the Marvel because their Black Cat who is a female is translated slightly differently to my langulage than Black Cat as a male which is my Black Cat :)
    But Honestly, I wasn't thinking about it before, also thanks for the idea :)
     
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  10. Selbbin

    Selbbin The Moderating Cat Staff Contributor Contest Winner 2023

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    Black face?
     
  11. BearOfTheNorth

    BearOfTheNorth Member

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    I think that people always have something to complain about, especially in this politically correct world. People always manage to be offended by things that aren't even an issue, rather than focusing their energies into something that does matter. I say, do not worry about it. It probably will offend some people but there is nothing wrong with referring to a black cat as a black cat.
     
  12. KiraAnn

    KiraAnn Senior Member

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    I find all this talk about blackboard vs chalkboard amusing. I’m not young anymore, but I never saw a chalkboard that was black until I got to college.

    They were all green!

    Chalkboard always made sense to me.
     
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  13. Oscar Leigh

    Oscar Leigh Contributor Contributor

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    I find it funny that there are a legion of people in these comments getting essentially pre-outraged by the possibility of a theoretical complaint about a black cat character and ranting about their politics rather than just talk about children's cat fiction.
    I think the character is fine, and as others have pointed out you can avoid calling the character Black Cat and/or have other black cat characters; it's easy to avoid highlighting the black colouration of the character if you want to be safe on racial parallels. That would probably be wise, because in fiction coding and parallels tend to occur even if unintentional so it's best to do something, relatively small and insignificant in this case, if you're worried it might send the wrong message.
    This isn't a particularly risky case when it comes to representation, but there are some basic considerations that would make it more or less likely to come off bad.
    I would consider that even outside the black parallel, it might be weird that the only black cat is evil just generally, in that it might generally parallel the idea of stereotypes. Nothing terrible, but I don't find it a little suspect when physical typecasting occurs even in theoretically harmless fantasy way. It's pretty easy to focus on villainous actions without making it about their appearance or making them the conspicuous only with a feature (most suspicious when it is both).
     
    Last edited: Jul 15, 2020
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  14. Fervidor

    Fervidor Senior Member

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    This is a matter of coding. A racist interpretation - specifically that white people are morally superior to black people - may not have been your conscious intention. However, it can still be argued that your narrative has been coded that way. Coding doesn't have to be deliberately malicious, rather it's something we may end up doing simply because we are culturally accustomed to drawing certain associations, even if those associations are socially problematic.

    I've noticed this in my own writing. I have this tendency to make all my heroes white people. In fact, I tend towards what some might call a rather Aryan ideal: All blonde hair and blue eyes, etc. Now, I don't believe that makes me racist or anything, and I recognize that it's just an artifact from growing up with stories where the heroes where all predominately white. But, still, the fact that continuing this tradition feels more natural to me than diversifying my choice of main characters is something I should probably try to be mindful of. At least if I'm hoping to have a positive influence on my readers, rather than just maintaining the status quo because that's what I - a white man, mind you - is personally comfortable with.

    So, I'm not going to blame you for making the only villain of your story a black cat. Like, I'm not going to assume you have an agenda or anything. But I will say that the mere fact that you actually stopped to think about the potential implications is a good thing.
     
    Last edited: Jul 15, 2020
  15. Lucie

    Lucie New Member

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    Thank to all of you once more for your comments and points of view. It is important see them :)

    I will think about it - and might use some not-black fragment on the cat, like the paw pr something..

    However, funny and is, that the cas wasn ´ t meant to be a bad character at the beginning. It appeared in one of the first chapters and the imagine of the black fur just came to my head.. Far later in the story an idea came to me that he can come back angry for what one of the protagonists unintentionally did at the beginning and a brand new plotline appeared.. And the cat remained black as it was a clear picture of it in my head :D
     
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  16. KiraAnn

    KiraAnn Senior Member

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    From the cats I’ve had and known, I would choose a noisy ole Siamese as a bad guy. ;)
     
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