DE: Serious Monday?

[bjornwilde]

Shout out to genarti  for helping on the wording of this one:

What is your pup's ethnicity/race in the context of their world? Does it impact their identity and/or others' views of them? And how does that affect them?

Comments

[bjornwilde]

Ahsoka is a togruta and in the Republic that doesn't mean much. Being a Jedi has more bearing on how people view her.

Sabine is human, which is the Empire is a better than being non-human. She is also of the Mandalore culture which isn't so much a good thing in the Empire as Mandalorians are viewed as a culture to crush.

Rollo is a Northman and, at least outside of his lands, is viewed as godless and even soulless (I think). At the least, he is viewed as barbaric and violent...which is going to make his eventual marriage so much fun!

Sam is black and while the MCU isn't obvious about how racial relations are, Nick Fury himself made a comment alluded to black people being profiled by cops, i.e. "You wanna see the lease?"

Selina is white and doesn't seem to get any grief for it. She is homeless and from a lower income bracket though.

From her POV, Amelia is top tier. And even in canon, there doesn't seem to be any ethnic tensions among humans. The author isn't very clear on this though, so I could be wrong. Canon would have it that being a dragon would cause more troubles for her than being of seemingly Hispanic decent.

Hank, white and no troubles. He is also very unlikely to recognize his privilege, at least not yet. However, his ethnicity is over shadowed by him being a mutant. At present, the world does not have common knowledge of mutants, thought the USA and USSR governments have become aware of them (Thanks Magneto!). This has caused him to hide and even more so since his furry transformation. He likely hasn't shown his face outside of Xavier's mansion in weeks.

Izana is part of the crowd, even with their being third gender. Third gender folks are common enough they even have their own baths and changing rooms, even if Izana is the only one we meet in canon. The only time Izana gets any flack, it's from a romanic rival for Nagate. Previously, I was under the impression Yuhata (the rival) was calling Izana, "Mister Izana" as that was how the English dub and subtitles had ran with it, but in learning honorifics and listening carefully, Yuhata actually calls Izana, "Izana-kun", which can have male connotations, but given that Yuhata was an underclassman who was raised just that day to the class above Izana, I think it was more a younger person throwing airs at an elder, which is a much more culturally appropriate thing to do.

[yinyangwizard]

Seimei is probably going to ask Izana at some point about whether being intersex is common among their people. He suspects that it might be, since Izana doesn't appear to feel the need to self-identify as male or female (as we discussed earlier, they use exclusively gender-neutral pronouns to refer to themselves).

[bjornwilde]

Sounds good! And yes, Izana is pretty casual about the whole thing and wouldn't take any offense.

(I should also add that they are ethnically Nihonjin/Japanese, though a 1,000 years removed from Earth and genetically manipulated. The gene pool on Sidonia is also very small and cloning is not unheard of as a means to bolster the population. Izana may in fact be a clone, though that is my head canon. Canon does not confirm or deny this.)

[yinyangwizard]

Seimei is both ethnically and culturally Nihonjin (I.e., Japanese). Since he lives in a version of twenty-first-century Earth that is very similar to our own, I leave it up to you to imagine how this might affect people's perceptions of him in different regions of his world.

In Milliways I've found that his being Nihonjin influences his interactions with other ethnically Japanese pups in a way that I didn't consciously intend. He tends to assume that they share a similar cultural background to his own, and tends to be thrown for a loop when they don't (which is almost always the case).

[sdelmonte]

Cyborg is African American. Canon never played with that beyond him being sympathetic to Starfire when dealing with an anti-Tamaranian alien cop, and even then he said "well, I'm half robot." The writers of the show were cautious. I am moreso. But honestly, Cy should be thinking about all the things that come with being an African American 22 year old male in 2016. I just don't know if, as a white Jewish 47 year old, I can really do justice to what he must be thinking. But it's there somewhere.

As long time observers of the Bar might recall, I made Knox Jewish on his mother's side. As he wasn't raised in a religious home and as he has a pretty WASPy name, his being Jewish doesn't affect him overtly. But he identifies with Jews and sometimes with the State of Israel, cringes at anti-Semitism, and takes pride in certain aspects of Jewish history. His readers don't know he's Jewish, but I figure that when Wikipedia starts in his timeline, he will start seeing more anti-Semitic hate mail.

My other pups are pretty much non-ethnic. I suppose that Alec Holland has some ethnicity beyond "plant" but no one's explored it. Kirk is from a future where he's defined merely as human. And Charlie is still an orphan.

[athelstanthescribe]

Gavroche is white, but in the Underside, nobody's ethnicity seems to be particularly noted. Some people are white, some people are black, some people are - inexplicably blue, according to the comic - some people are giant hairy monsters. It's more about your fiefdom or lack of one.

Athelstan is a Saxon among Vikings, and as much as Ragnar insists it doesn't matter any more, it really kind of does - while it's more of a cultural and religious difference than racial or ethnic, the divide is pretty huge. (Mind you, now he's back in England, he doesn't feel he belongs there either.)

Giovanni is Venetian and apart from visiting traders, has only ever met Venetians. He's pretty happy with that but he doesn't really know anything different.

Michael Carpenter is white but doesn't pay much attention to others' race. His sole remaining colleague after Shiro's death is black (and Russian, so he is very aware of being different), his mentor was Japanese, Michael doesn't really care. And if people accuse him of privilege based on being white and suburban, he carefully considers his past behaviour and whether he might have inadvertently done something wrong, corrects it if he decides he has, and calmly goes on with his life.

Jonathan is white Californian and tries very hard not to be racist against either humans or demons - he takes each person on their own merits. It doesn't really impact his identity.

Nancy is white, may or may not have ever met a black person before Milliways, and probably was at one time casually racist (and unthinkingly homophobic) because 1940s. Her life experiences and the bar have changed that.

Cadfael is a Welshman in England and from time to time does get flak about it - usually when the topic of Saint Winifred comes up, because he didn't approve of her bones being disturbed and brought across the border. For the most part, though, his status as a monk is more significant. When he was in the Middle East, I'm sure he did get more trouble as an outsider, but he tried to remain friendly and smooth things over.

Ichabod and Norrington are both white privilege incarnate and both come from the age of legal slavery. Ichabod tries harder than Norrington to overcome it and genuinely make friends with non-whites, even in his own time and especially when he's in the future and Abbie will kick his ass if he missteps, but I have a feeling Norrington didn't really approve of the slave trade either. He just didn't try to do anything to change it.

Childermass is the most interesting. My headcanon, adopted from some fics on AO3, is that Black Joan was called that because she was mixed race. Her son, therefore, is also mixed race but doesn't look it (he might look a touch Italian, on account of Enzo Cilenti being a rather pale-skinned half-Italian, but nothing more noticeable than that). Now, he inhabits an England where slavery was outlawed in the British Empire within living memory and blacks are still the lowest class of citizens. Even Stephen Black, who has the highest job available to a household servant, suffers from that. For this reason, Childermass doesn't tell anybody who didn't know his mother the truth. Nobody. Ever. Because he doesn't get much respect as a shabby white man, but he knows full well he'd have next to none if he was open about a black grandparent.

[sunbaked_baker]

One of my favorite headcanons is that Childermass is a descendant of the Basque sailor, who was shipwrecked on the northern coast of England and reportedly saw the Raven King on a throne in an abandoned barn. He settled there and later married, and was loyal to the absent King ever after.

[athelstanthescribe]

Both could be true!

[angry_friendship_wolf]

Yamato is mixed-race, having a (probably) white Parisian grandfather, Michel, who seems to be his maternal grandfather (canon is delightfully fuzzy on the topic, but there's a good tumblr post about it here). While Japan has a less than optimal attitude towards mixed race people, this is never really brought up in canon (which, when you consider that Digimon loves sliding subtly scathing commentary on Japanese society into its character arcs, almost certainly means that the writers just made it up on the fly), for Yamato or his brother, and it's entirely possible that most people who meet them don't realise.

Yamato is doubtless aware that it might colour how people see him, and while he doesn't hide it, is also not in a hurry to mention it.

Hawke is white, and while skin colour doesn't seem to be a particularly big deal in Thedas, species definitely is, and as a human Hawke is part of the majority group there. This goes double in Kirkwall, where the favourite pastime of people is taking every social issue in Thedas and magnifying it to horrific degrees. Kirkwall really is just an awful place.

Sherral is an Archadian of a conquered territory. As with Thedas, skin colour doesn't seem to be a big deal in Archadia, but where in Archadia you come from definitely is - we see with Gabranth, another character from a recently conquered territory, that even the social and political power that comes with being a Judge Magister is not enough to shield you from a constant barrage of comparisons to animals and aspersions cast on your intelligence and loyalty if you're from an outlying territory. So that's a thing. Archadia is also a terrible place.

Yugo is ethnically Japanese in Japan, and comes from a position of socioeconomic privilege (at least in some contexts, by virtue of being the eldest son of a Yakuza head) to boot. To add to that, while Phantoms don't have a concept of ethnicity, being as they are biomechanical depression monsters, Phoenix is a Greater Phantom, and so has enormous social clout.

[yinyangwizard]

Hawke being Fereldan (which is at least a nationality, if not an ethnicity as such) definitely affects how people see him in Kirkwall. I mean, there's all the rampant anti-Fereldan prejudice and even exploitation of Fereldan refugees from the Blight.

[have_no_mercy]

Tess is white and rich, so she has many, many, many privileges. Unfortunately, the show didn't really comment on race it focussed more on economics, so she's very aware of those privileges as she grew up in poverty. As for being a woman in her field, it never really came up, either. The only other factor I can think of is that she doesn't have abilities, which I suppose could have been a stand-in for race issues as most people with abilities were ostracized and characterized as insane.

Kylo is human and white, which doesn't seem to factor much into Star Wars politics (except perhaps in the EU which I know extremely little about). Although the First Order is pretty white and pretty human, so.

[ceitfianna]

Will is white in medieval England but the aspect that made more of a difference for him was being a peasant. Now he's a part of Robin's household which gives him more privileges but he grew up in almost the lowest economic rung.

Charles is white and rich, which has afforded him many privileges. Milliways and canon call him on some of it, but he's a man from the 60s and it shows. Being a mutant while still not something a lot of people know about him requires hiding. Currently his status has shifted due to being in a wheelchair as the 1960s weren't an easy time to be disabled, he has money which helps but not fully. Canon comments some on sexism but not a lot on race which is a real failing of it.

Quentin is white, male, noble and Pureblood Daoine Sidhe so basically he has a lot of privilege in the Fae world. Its not completely clear cut though because he is Toby's squire and Toby as a Changeling is on a lower rung, since spending time with Toby, he's become much more aware of his own inner prejudices and those of society around him. He's been called on them a lot in the books. Also he's spent more time around humans than some other Pureblood Fae normally do and so he's more willing to trust and talk with mortals.

William is white and male but working poor. His family is lower status and he feels the lack of what they don't have. In terms of race, historically there were many black cowboys and Bisbee is near the Mexican border. Canon touches a little on race, Chinese railroad workers and Native Americans aren't treated well and no blacks or Mexicans are seen but I know they're there. I try to acknowledge that this was a part of the country where what you can do tends to matter a lot but there are a lot of complex racial tensions under the surface. They haven't come out as much in my playing of William but they are there.

Sameth is a white prince and canon doesn't talk about race at all and gender isn't a big issue either.

Moist is white and human, on the Disc, this makes him ordinary and with a few more privileges depending on where he is on the Disc. For him, it means its easier for him to disappear because he isn't special. In terms of race, its more about species than color on the Disc and Moist grew up in a place where as a human, he was a minority among the Vampires, Werewolves and Dwarfs of Uberwald. So he's actually rather aware of those issues.

Jane is a white, middle class woman in Regency England, she's aware of differences in terms of gender and class but race isn't mentioned. I think she's aware of it as the anti-slavery movement was going on in England at this time, but her focus is more on class.

Ivan is as privileged as its possible to be on Barrayar-male and High Vor. Skin color isn't discussed a lot in canon, but being white is the norm on Barrayar. Gender and race and species are major issues in canon, Barrayarans spend a lot of time being told off by characters from other parts of the galaxy about their backward views. Ivan's improved a lot and is good at knowing when to shut up, and knowing Miles has given him a deeper understanding of how messed up Barrayar can be.

Demeter is a white female goddess which gives her a lot of privileges and she knows about some of them but also as a goddess, she simply doesn't pay attention to some things. I'd say that being a goddess is far more defining for her, she's a little better than other members of her family in terms of seeing mortals as worthwhile and not as playthings. But her morality is skewed by not being human.

Tumnus is a male Faun and from how canon addresses race and species, he's fairly ordinary. What sets him apart is his closeness to the royal family. There are clearly certain races and species that Narnians trust less than others, but Tumnus tends to not be a loud voice in those issues.

[annalalaith]

Wil is half Elf in the show, but only 1/4 in the books. I play him from the books, mainly. He does have problems, because he has the Elf features. His ears are shorter than full blooded Elves, but not everyone knows this. Also, Elves aren't really liked in much of the Four Lands, so he tends to hide his ears. As a kid he was teased relentless by the other kids in the Vale over his features, so yeah he's scrappy.

The Count is a Vampire, as such he's trying not to draw too much attention to that fact because of his kids. Otherwise, he has managed to drain the entire counsel in their previous village, and subsequently run out of said village. Torches and Pitchforks, man.

Vala is an alien, she also was a Goa'uld host for some time, and she posed as a Goa'uld for a time. This means that there are places that hate her because of the time as a Goa'uld, well, also she's a great con woman and thief, so. yeah....

Naruto is a Jinkuri for the Nine Tales Fox. The reason that this is important, is because most of the people of his village blame him for the actions of the Fox, even though it happened while he was being born. Anyway, this has caused him to do his best to become Hokage and loved by everyone, and a great prankster.

[inlovewithwords]

A day late, because I forgot to look at this yesterday but find it interesting...
Eriond is non-descriptly... well, white. Which is full of really Unfortunate Implications because Eddings.
Henry... uh, looks like Ye Average American Generic White Boy. Technically none of his ancestors were from that plane of reality, but look it.
Lois actually is Average White American.

Now the interesting ones:
Evelyn has a few axes in play: a) human and thus treated as annoying privileged person by basically all the other races, but in the majority; b) mage, meaning treated with suspicion and fear by many Theodosians, except Tevinter mages who disdain their relatives who aren't In Charge; c) noble-born, despite the mage thing, so there's some class issues going to play into everything; d) Free Marcher, meaning probably viewed as "Oh, one of those independently-minded and unpredictable types" which will matter a lot more when she's not in a Free March circle and actually interacting with people from other places; and e) I've kind of gone with what we would think of as mixed race but Theodosians seem to care less about coloration in general. Phew!
R2-D2 actually has some huge things here, surprisingly! a) He's a droid, and some people in the Star Wars universe fail at treating droids like people ever. He's just furniture to some people, which makes it absurdly easy for him to be ultimate spy and badass. He's also an astromech, which can't even use speech most sentients speak and understand, so it lowers him further on perceived Person-hood... which is, as we all know, utterly ridiculous. (Also apparently an older model astromech, seriously, he has the best camo.)
Anakin is human so 'common' by that standard in the galaxy. He's also from Tatooine, which means some would scoff because that's Outer Rim hick territory. Also ex-slave, and believe me, he has some serious issues and hang-ups lurking over that. People tend to care more that he's a Jedi, though, than about the rest.
Tavi actually has describable-by-Earth-terms descent! Ancient Germanic and Italian descent, mainly, probably with a hefty dose of Greek, although given it's been two thousand years one assumes there's some Egyptian or Middle Eastern or god only knows what else from the various people who were with that Roman Legion that fell through a wormhole to Carna. That said, he's almost generic Aleran as far as region markers go. Alera doesn't seem to take skin color too terribly seriously as a prejudice thing (why bother when you can kill other species entirely, after all), or discuss 'regional traits' very much (which could be argued to be because Butcher never bothered). I figure that he looks classically Imperian (as in, from the old capital area, central Aleran).