TADC is 6 dykes being tormented by a silly AI

OKAY, so I made a post early this morning (as of writing) where I casually brought up the fact that, in almost every humanized TADC design art I've seen: The only POC are Jax, Zooble, and sometimes (rarely) Gangle.

Why is this a problem? Good question.

FIRST: Jax is an antagonistic character who bullies the other circus members and has clear mental health issues. SECOND: Zooble is a snarky, sailor-mouthed alternative queer person who is always fighting against Caine's adventures. THIRD, for the optional Gangle: She is the meekest and shyest character. The "Submissive & Agreeable" type.

Jax is aggressive. Zooble disagrees with authority. And Gangle is kind of a pushover. Having only these characters have darker skin tones showcases internalized racial biases. You should be asking yourself why you're only making these kinds of characters darker.

Now I wanna show some colours I've collected.

I went scrolling through the main Digital Circus tag on tumblr looking for humanized versions of characters, I then colourpicked from those drawings and brought them onto a dark grey background so you can see them easier.

While the colours are often pretty close, Jax and Zooble (and sometimes Gangle) are more commonly portrayed darker. While the other three are consistently portrayed paler (I couldn't find any art of humanized Caine but I know I've seen him white and with blonde hair).

Zooble and Jax are also typically portrayed as an 'ambiguous' brown, with either European or mixed ethnic features. Ragatha and Kinger are often white. Pomni is often some kind of ambiguously east asian/wasian. and Gangle is often white or black. All of these might play into subtle stereotypes our minds might've accepted as truth.

You may be asking why I keep including Gangle in this main conversation when she's only sometimes POC, isn't that good? Well okay. Either she's portrayed as the palest in a lineup, or the darkest. Which given her meek demeanor, is kinda fucking iffy. I can't describe why exactly, but having the shy submissive character be either the darkest or palest is soooo off to me.

I do also want to bring up Queenie, who if drawn is sometimes the darkest out of the lineup (if not right behind Gangle). But she is also deceased, so lets remember that.

Okay, I've pointed out the problem, now what do I want from you? Just, think about why you're making a character darker than the others. Ask yourself if they "feel" like they should be darker skinned because of their personality or behavior. And if so, why? Just ask yourself why. Once you start doing it it becomes second nature and you don't notice it so it won't impact your flow or stifle creativity.

I am not calling anyone racist, not even you. I'm just saying we can do racist things.