gailsimone:

Why the fuck would I want cranberries with chicken: pinchepeaches replied to your post: Okay, I get it now. Michelle, the…

squee-gee:

gailsimone:

strikematchlightfiyah:

pinchepeaches replied to your post: Okay, I get it now.

Michelle, the fact that…

In general, for all the strides comics have made with female fans, I still get the sense that the fandom at large isn't particularly inclusive to women of color. I mean it kills me when I see someone awesome like DCWKA recommending books to budding fans, and not a single one of them is a POC heroine or a team book WITH a POC heroine in it. And it's not her fault, but it's the sort of environment the industry has cultivated.

You can see tons of cute white girls with blue eyes and blonde hair, but black, Latina, Asian, and Middle Eastern heroines are few and far between. I would not be surprised in the least if a young black girl was excited about getting into comics but then backed out upon seeing how few people there were that look like her. And seeing as how it is the fanboys and fangirls of today who are the writers of tomorrow, that's a big problem.

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It's true, and let's face it, there's still a lot of misogyny, homophobia and racism on both sides of the table in the industry.  I have heard that a lot of people didn't care for Felicia Henderson (a WOC, I met her once, a lovely, smart lady), on Teen Titans. But the TENOR of bile for her work is astounding and seems way out of proportion to whatever problems people may have had with her work (and I haven't read enough of it to be familiar).

I do know there are a lot of female editors at DC and Marvel. I believe they, in particular, would like to hire more female writers. I know they want GOOD writers of all kinds. But I know they'd like to see more female writers take a shot. Right now, it feels like Marvel has more female writers doing superhero titles than DC. And remember, until a VERY few years ago, no black writer, male or female, had had an ongoing gig on any of the "icon" titles at DC or Marvel. That was in this past DECADE.

I don't know the answer. I want comics to be a meritocracy, I want the best writer for the job every time. But I also want to encourage a vastly more diverse GROUP of good writers to try to make their way in, as well.  As I said before I left Tumblr for a while, we've lost several important voices for diversity lately.  I am always hoping people will rise up and carry those principles with them as they work in comics. But I despair that too many people are discouraged. It's a tough gig to get and a tougher one to keep.

But I hope some of you out there will keep trying.