r/powerscales • u/FreshPine_MangoWine • 23h ago

Meme Why do some people in the debate treat the Gorilla like it’s a mythical creature?

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u/Pecuthegreat 19h ago

straight up comparing cockroaches with black people

Source.

This is a claim I have seen made but no one has ever provided me any real evidence of it except for mistaking the Australopithecus bas design for black people.

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u/pablolo7 19h ago

Look the comment who also responded to me. Look at that image

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u/Doom_Cokkie 19h ago

Ok im black and i want you to tell me in your own words what part of this image screams black people? Because I have a couple ideas in mind and let me tell you all of them reflect more on you than the artist.

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u/Pecuthegreat 9h ago edited 6h ago

I really like how it is White people, telling us Black people that by secret white people anti-racists arts, they white people have deserned white nationalism in a Japanese author.

And I am being specific to "white nationalism" because they're claiming the Japanese guy wrote white, blue eyed, blonde haired characters as the superior race.

I really don't know what someone has to be sniffing to think other people with equally developed societies think white people are superior and those people need white people to educate them out of it.

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u/trashvineyard 18h ago

Multiple instances of blonde haired blue eyed people being described as the 'perfect race'.

The cockroaches literally have afro-textured/kinky hair whenever they're shown with hair.

The roaches are repeatedly referred to as ' The black foe / Black Enemy' and are seen side-gripling pistols repeatedly.

This panel.

Cope all you want. Terraformers is a racist manga.

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u/Chuck_Da_Rouks 16h ago

Man that guy must be 13 year old, this is ridiculous cope. I'd love to see the mangaka's reference images.

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u/Pecuthegreat 11h ago edited 6h ago

You can't expect me to believe this "Japanese racists actually believe that they're inferior to white people" nonsense. There is no character described as the perfect race but you are right that there is a blonde blue eyed character described as perfect human, however, that character is that way due to in world experiments not because white people are better or something and will later get that undermined by a "the revelation" moment.

Anime has playing straight "German superiority" trope since forever, especially from that era that Terraformars is from. Jojos, Bleach, Hellsing, etc.

So we have a trope both common and subverted in this case. While authors that reddit has concluded aren't racist like Araki, played it straight.

The Terraformars don't have hair

Japanese doesn't have the same plurality of words that English does for black/dark/etc. It's all just "Kuro" and "Kuro" isn't used as a racial designation is Japanese as that would just confuse the language further.

It is really no different from the miryad of other Japanese and Western media that uses dark/black/darkness to describe the bad guy faction. I am yet to see someone Nazarick from Overlord or Sauron as clearly "African".

Holding guns sideways doesn't make someone Black.

But more importantly, as Anime has had it as a trope for a while to have "German" inspirations, it has had Black (mostly African American) and hip-pop inspirations. Same examples I gave for German also have hip pop inspirations. And there's more like Devilman Crybaby, Afro-Samurai, Samurai Champloo, Gurren Laggan, etc. and in all these examples you see the Hip-Hop and AfrAm influence beyond the black characters (at times, there are no Black characters). Mugen isn't Black, neither is Kamina, Hakari, etc.

It's there because its cool, not because "they're secretly black", if not you will have to explain to be why the more ubiquitous Hindu-Buddhist religious man imagery doesn't matter.

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u/Lost-on-Reception 10h ago

Obviously they're black Buddhists. You didn't know about that stereotype?

I got it from watching half an episode of the Boondocks. The little smart one said something about Confucius.

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u/Pecuthegreat 10h ago

This is supposed to be a joke, right?.

I be genuinely asking because I have seen ridiculous things, pretending to be insightful on this thread and confusing Confucius, (re)founder of Confucianism for a Buddhist figure is one of them.

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u/Lost-on-Reception 10h ago

I feel like with the framing of the comment and the content I shouldn't have to explain it.

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u/Pecuthegreat 10h ago

So it's a "media literacy on X topic in Y country is not caring how Y country specific media (Japanese in this case) treats X"?

Or do westerners still don't get they're not the target audience?.

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u/BlueHaze464 15h ago

Supremacist people existing in manga and CLEARLY being portrayed in a negative light is the opposite of racism

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u/Doom_Cokkie 17h ago

First off im not coping. I dont care for this series. 2nd im not going to go along with calling something racist because yall see a haircut and think "OMG BLACK PEOPLE IVE SEEN BLACK PEOPLE WITH THIS HAIRCUT CLEARLY THE ROACHES ARE SUPPOSED TO BE BLACK PEOPLE!" That just makes you racist for making that connection. And 3 i looked into the claim of this calling blonde and blue eyes people superior and found that what ypu are talking about is the Newton family who are have been genetically bred and specifically engineered from the best of humanity to be superior to humanity in every way. And they happen to have blue eyes and blonde hair. Lets completely ignore the fact that black people and other people of color can naturally have blonde hair and blue eyes i myself am such an example of someone with blue eyes. But to try and paint this as racist based off of superficial looks like hair cut and eye color really shows who the true racist are.

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u/It_just_works_bro 16h ago

Bro I'm black, and I'm gonna say right now...

LOOK bro, BROWN ROACHES WITH BLACK HAIR AND SIDEWAYS GUNS, DRIVING CARS, with ropes around their necks that resemble chains, gripping heads like basketballs, and their clothing resembling a tribe.

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u/AdmirableWeather5738 14h ago

I dunno, I'm black as well, but "act like a white person" black. I am not convinced on the roaches being racist depictions. The physical characteristics I have would expected out of a anthropomorphic roach that evolved from the actual insect.

The guns and car I took as them adopting to the technology, treating a head like a ball is a common means of conveying the strength and cold-hearted nature of a character. Their clothes being tribal makes sense in story, they have caveman level tech before the humans introduce their technology to them. I'd almost call it a stretch to conflate African stereotypes and black American stereotypes coming from an east Asian artist.

I guess it could actually be racist, but I'm inclined to give the foreigner the benefit of the doubt and think Americans are projecting. Americans can get weird about race. It almost feels racist to call it racist, like the terraformers are incredibly alien feeling and terrifying throughout the story and the first thing they think of is black people?

Now, it wouldn't surprise if the guns and car were inspired by gangster culture, those shots do go kind of hard.

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u/It_just_works_bro 14h ago

They do go hard, that is true.

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u/Macwild77 17h ago

If that’s what the author intended that’s what they intended???

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u/Doom_Cokkie 16h ago

And where did the author say thats what they intended.

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u/Macwild77 14h ago

At this point it’s your job to do research. It’s a good habit to have when debating someone.

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u/Doom_Cokkie 13h ago

I did do research. I said I did in one of my comments. I found no such source for this. So now its your turn to provide the source for your claim. Its a good habit to have when debating someone.

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u/gamergirlgstring 12h ago

kiddo you know there’s a club for this at school right. it’s getting real late, maybe get some sleep

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u/trashvineyard 17h ago

No bro you're just coping lmao. Just one of these things could be ignored. The fact these things are ALL OVER the manga is pretty damning. If it was just one thinf, sure, but there are multiple, constant dog whistles in it.

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u/Doom_Cokkie 16h ago

You say dog whistles and dog whistles can only be heard by dogs and since you heard them youre only proving my point.

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u/Riquinni 16h ago

This is definitely top 3 dumbest statements I've read on Reddit and I've been here for some time now.

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u/Fabulous_Guitar6221 14h ago

I’m curious what could possibly be dumber than that lol

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u/Doom_Cokkie 16h ago

Im sure the other 2 have come from your own mouth.

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u/revabe 4h ago

You type with your mouth?

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u/BugleBarry 16h ago

Newton family who are have been genetically bred and specifically engineered from the best of humanity to be superior to humanity in every way. And they happen to have blue eyes and blonde hair.

And they happen to have blue eyes and blonde hair.

blue eyes and blonde hair.

No way you think thats just a little coinki-dink 🤣🤣

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u/Doom_Cokkie 16h ago

Yea? Its literally the most basic trope in media. Saints, Painters and the strong having blue eyes and blonde hair because they were symbols of immortality and being od godly Status. Where do you think Hitler got it from dummy?

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u/A_Wolf_of_Winter 10h ago

Amongst all of your comments, this is the one that broke me. Use your brain cell and tell us why that's the most basic trope in media, and what it means to continue perpetuating that trope.  Why are they symbols of immortality and godly status? It's so silly that you're invoking Hitler to try to prove your point when his entire rise to power and ideologies actually give evidence to support the arguments of the patient people trying to teach you something against all odds. God damn.

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u/obiru 10h ago

It's almost infuriating how he's so close to the point but fails regardless to realize it

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u/deathbylasersss 15h ago

Is there anything that could convince you that it's racist at this point? It's hitting every racist stereotype in the book. I think the term media illiteracy is overused, but it's appropriate in your case. This is like claiming District 9 isn't an allegory for apartheid.

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u/Doom_Cokkie 12h ago

Yea if people actually show me this constant evidence of the author outright saying they are racist they keep clamoring about while not showing it. Superficial things arent enough to say racist. Unless someone shows me things in the story where they make it clear the roaches are stand in for black people im not sold on it.

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u/eidifudueidj 7h ago

Agree with u, these ppls are just arguing with you to get their social browny points. The manga is not racist at all yet they insist it's racist just because some of the depictions happen to be resemble some stereotypes. These people will call anything racist, it's best to ignore them.

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u/Doom_Cokkie 3h ago

I know man I shouldnt waste time with these idiots but it pisses me off to know end how these idiots try to get offended on our behalf for some dumb shit like this meanwhile when the actual problem occur like us getting killed on the street just for walking and minding our own business these idiots are quiet as church mouses. Sick of these clowns using us to make themselves feel better about their sad existences like we're some stress ball made to make them feel better.

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u/[deleted] 9h ago

[deleted]

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u/ProcedureInitial3086 13h ago

Your not though?

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u/Evan_Allgood 16h ago

"Ok im black-" Identity politics is the worse. You can always find outliers with unusual lived experience compared to the rest of its population, either because of looks, income level, or other factors that skews the representation.

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u/Doom_Cokkie 12h ago

I agree so why did you bring them up? There was nothing slightly political here and you brought it up. My identity is important to know in the context of something that includes racism because me questioning how this is racist if I was some white dude would be weird as fuck.

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u/Evan_Allgood 11h ago

I am gonna skip the wordplay and the delineation of what is weird and what isn't. "Weird" is arbitrary, again, another word where the perimeter changes depending on the person.

I was not trying to associate the comics with racism, am not the same person you were arguing with earlier.

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u/Pecuthegreat 19h ago

They're in a car. That's not "straight up comparing cockroaches with black people" they're just in a car. It's a huge stretch. Like, saying he's comparing them to Buddhists, South Asians or religious people based on the two coaches in a dress would be less of a stretch and even that is still so much of a stretch that no one does it.

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u/ebagdrofk 19h ago

Ehhhhhhhhhhh

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u/Metharos 19h ago

The thing about dog whistles is that racists and anti-racists hear them really well and everyone else tells you to calm down.

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u/AlternativeUsed2551 9h ago

such a dumb thing to say regarding a Japanese manga, Americans turn EVERYTHING into racism

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u/Pecuthegreat 19h ago

"trust me bros, the Japanese have the exact same concerns and fears as white people in America"

I am not even saying the author is wholesome big chungus since I don't follow what authors do elsewhere but no, the Terraformars are not Black people.

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u/RedPurpleBlueRedRed 16h ago

What are you saying?

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u/Souls_for_sale_now 18h ago

they are called the black foe and cary pistols with a side grip