[ SECRET POST #3517 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #3517 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 58 secrets from Secret Submission Post #503.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

Probably-white characters you pictured as non-white

[(Anonymous)]

So, lbr: for most characters written by a white author and aimed at a mainstream western audience, if their race is not specified (or hinted at through their name, culture, national origin), are probably "intended" by the author to default to white. It's kind of shitty (and not actually binding canon, IMO) but true.

But, for a lot of people, especially when they were kids, their automatic mental picture of a character whose race is never mentioned may still be non-white. I'm not talking about deliberately deciding to interpret a character as non-white, but just the image that automatically pops into their head when reading the book may be non-white. Even if it's highly unlikely that the author intended it.

Have you ever had this happen to you? What character, and how old were you, and do you have any idea why you pictured them this way (i.e., your own upbringing or family/community makeup, or some kind of other association in your mind, etc.)

Re: Probably-white characters you pictured as non-white

[ariakas]

Personally I just assumed James Ramirez (the protagonist of MW2) was Hispanic based on his name alone. It's an FPS, so you never see his face.

Yet when I mentioned this off-hand, a friend of mine was taken aback and insisted that he was white. Had to be. His gloves are shredded at one point and he has pale palms, ergo, he's white. It was like... uhhhh.... that doesn't mean anything... but this dude was actually affronted that I could be so wrong; CoD's never had a non-white protagonist before. Clearly, Ramirez can't be Hispanic. Or something.

This was like... 2011? I was in my late 20s?

Re: Probably-white characters you pictured as non-white

[(Anonymous)]

Did he not realize white hispanic is a thing?

Re: Probably-white characters you pictured as non-white

[dethtoll]

All this time I'd assumed Ramirez was actually black, or at least particularly dark-skinned.

Re: Probably-white characters you pictured as non-white

[morieris]

When reading Ready Player One, I actually pictured John Boyega as Wade until they pointed out his pink skin like 3/4ths through.

The movie casting still disappoints me but it's not technically /wrong/ so....

& I dunno this was...2012? 2011? I was like 18.

Re: Probably-white characters you pictured as non-white

[sparrow_lately]

For YEARS, I thought Bruce Springsteen was black. I had a vivid image of a really cool guy with long dreads and a cool leather jacket. I would have sworn I'd seen this man identified as Bruce Springsteen. My mom loves him so I listened to him all the time as a kid. When I was 12 or so, I was literally shocked to discover he was white.

More conventionally, little!me's mental image of Remus Lupin got almost totally swallowed by the movies/art/etc., but I do remember he was very curly haired and not white. He had freckles!

Re: Probably-white characters you pictured as non-white

[morieris]

I felt the same way about Crispin Glover being black.

Re: Probably-white characters you pictured as non-white

[(Anonymous)]

I was confused by his talking about being brought up Catholic because I thought his name sounded nothing but Jewish.

Re: Probably-white characters you pictured as non-white

[soldatsasha]

Same, but with Eric Clapton.

Re: Probably-white characters you pictured as non-white

[(Anonymous)]

Who did you have in mind for Remus? I'm always looking for different actors. I'm afraid I don't have a particular image in mind for him, though I love his (occasionally) punk ass.

Re: Probably-white characters you pictured as non-white

[(Anonymous)]

I assumed that Harry Potter was non-white. I don't know exactly why, given that he was described as pale with green eyes.

I definitely thought that Katniss Everdeen was not white, but I'm not sure what race I thought of her as. I thought that was the intent, but many people seem to think of her as white, given Jennifer Lawrence's casting.

Re: Probably-white characters you pictured as non-white

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, I thought Katniss was intended to mixed race, and thats why it was noteworthy that she looked nothing like her very pale and blonde sister, because that happens in mixed race families (like my own).

I also de facto pictured Cinna as black, which was validated by the casting but based on the wank that popped up when the first movie came out, was not the most popular interpretation?

Re: Probably-white characters you pictured as non-white

[(Anonymous)]

I've heard some other people say they pictured Harry as non-white too, I think because jet-black hair is pretty rare for white people.

In any case, I don't think it's far-out to headcanon Harry as, say, indian or middle-eastern -- a lot of people of these ethnicities can be pale and have green eyes, especially if one of their parents is red-headed and green-eyed, or if they are mixed-race.

Re: Probably-white characters you pictured as non-white

[(Anonymous)]

I feel like Katniss is actually described as having features that don't sound particularly white - dark hair, olive skin, etc. (Although olive skin could mean she's of Greek or Italian descent.)

Re: Probably-white characters you pictured as non-white

[(Anonymous)]

I assumed that Hermione was black.

Re: Probably-white characters you pictured as non-white

[(Anonymous)]

When I read The Hobbit when I was 8, I pictured Elrond as looking vaguely east asian. Specifically, Japanese (in dress, hairstyle, etc). The visuals of Rivendell that my mind jumped to were much the same.

Probably because my family had a number of links to japanese buddhism, and the description of Rivendell (peaceful and a place of great wisdom and lore), and Elrond (perfect host, wise, helpful, generous, possessed of shitloads of knowledge and a giant library of ancient writings and shit - tbh I pictured him in that stereotypical hands-hidden-in-bell-sleeves pose) and the Rivendell elves (friendly, eccentric, kind of rude yet super nice and hospitable, always laughing and a tad condescending) all coalesced in my 8-year-old mind, with its reliance on my own personal experiences, as something overwhelmingly reminiscent of a buddhist temple, with its incredibly wise and kind priest and funny monks.

Re: Probably-white characters you pictured as non-white

[(Anonymous)]

I always saw Bugs Bunny as black.

I never realized he probably wasn't intended to be seen that way until recently when a friend spoke about it.

I guess it was due to growing up in a black/ Hispanic neighborhood. I always thought he was cool, wanted to be like him, didn't see white as something he would be, if race was involved (highly unlikely as he was a rabbit). Don't really know why.

Re: Probably-white characters you pictured as non-white

[(Anonymous)]

Before I watched it I really just assumed Steven Universe was meant to be latino, cause he was exactly like every little boy I had gone to school with in my 80% hispanic elementary. Then I started watching it and I got to Greg and I was like huh he seems to be white though... Then I saw someone refer to him as white and I was like okay I may have misjudged this.

(In my defense a lot of my friends assumed he was hispanic also...)

Re: Probably-white characters you pictured as non-white

[(Anonymous)]

Allanon in the Shannara trilogy, which is slightly odd in that I know the illustrations in our version of Wishsong had him either as a white-looking old man or as a giant cloaked shadow with hands but no face (that one may have stuck more). He's described as 'dark' a lot, though, and huge, so in my head he was this towering skinny almost-skeleton of a man with dark hair, skin and eyes. I think I pictured him as vaguely Native American-looking? Just, you know, seven feet tall, bony, and looking like he's perpetually fed up and does battle with demons for a living.

Re: Probably-white characters you pictured as non-white

[(Anonymous)]

When I was young, I saw this educational children's program that had a black girl who wanted to play Peter Pan in a school play and how she had to face hardships because of it, but in the end she got her wish.
I didn't realize Peter Pan wasn't black until I was like, 12. See, at the time I saw the program I thought the issue was that she was a girl. Not that she was a girl and black.

My sister also had one of those collector's barbies, I think it was a Swan Lake doll? And it had black skin. So I always thought the "white" swan was black, and the "black" swan was white and couldn't figure out how the prince was so dumb as to confuse one girl for the other. lol

And for some reason I've always pictured female characters associated with the moon as East Asian. Probably something to do with early impressions of folk tales.

I've also never seen Hercules as white.

Blaise Zabini was always a darker skinned boy in my head for some reason, I don't know why because his ethnicity or gender weren't revealed until much much later. I felt vindicated by the reveal because people always acted shitty towards me due to how I used to portray him in fics. (I also thought he was the rare mudblood Slytherin but turns out I was wrong.)

And I thought Katniss from Hunger Games was Middle-Eastern in appearance when I read the books.
Kinda relevant, somewhat OT: I was pretty shocked when some idiots *insisted* Rue was white. That definitely opened my eyes to how people will bend over backwards to justify making a character white despite obvious cues telling otherwise.

Re: Probably-white characters you pictured as non-white

[(Anonymous)]

Not quite an answer, but I'm hoping other people will know the series to weigh in:

Is Gen from Megan Whalen Turner's Queen's Thief books supposed to be white, or not-white? (Age-old question, I know.) I definitely pictured him as not quite white, but not quite any specific race 15 year old white trash country men could have given a name to.

Re: Probably-white characters you pictured as non-white

[(Anonymous)]

I'm the opposite of the "anime characters are white" fallacy: I used to think all anime characters were Japanese. Even when they lived Western-based fantasy worlds and had names like Lina Inverse. I still assumed they were Japanese-looking and -speaking in "real life."

Re: Probably-white characters you pictured as non-white

[(Anonymous)]

When I first read I, Robot, I imagined Susan Calvin to be asian. Looking back, I think the main reason was that I read it very shortly after watching Millennium Actress and imagined her as a less cute Chiyoko.

Re: Probably-white characters you pictured as non-white

[(Anonymous)]

Kind of weird because Tolkien POC headcanons usually make me want to roll my eyes despite being brown myself, but every depiction of Fingon I've seen where he was black or East Asian has been... extremely hot, and now my own image of the character has started to shift in that direction.

Re: Probably-white characters you pictured as non-white

[sadiesockmonkey]

When I saw Wicked on Broadway for the first time, the actor playing Fiyero was black, so that's how I've always thought of him.

That image has shifted over time both because it's been 10 years and because I saw the show again locally & the actor in the role was white. (That was...5 years ago? And at that time, it still felt wrong. On some level I think it always will, but the strong impression is fading the farther away in time we get from it.)