#black coding

Hey fellow Black nerds, fandomgoers, and Tumblr users! Im putting together a large masterlist of Black-Coded (and eventually Black characters in general) characters!

A sneak peek here

Ive created a form for people to submit characters! Make sure you read the guidelines! You can submit characters for me to add here!

Submission Form | Toyhouse post | Bluesky post

Yall do know Black people across the diaspora just have Arabic names right? It's literally a common language on the African continent(North and East). It's also a name you'll find in the Swahili language. There's also a bunch of Black women named Aisha/Ayesha if you type in "Black women named Aisha." It's not a difficult name to come across

I'm not gonna lie, the people that really want to insist on Aisha being Arab and not Black at all seem antiBlack, cuz why do these people not want to acknowledge the existence of Afro-Arabs?

Unless you are Arab AND you still, acknowledge Aisha is Black, I don't really mind people coding her Afro-Arab. But some of yall do carry an animosity towards Black Americans that yall need to check yourselves on

I also noticed some label her Afro Arab, cuz yall don't think Black Americans have a visually interesting enough culture or cultural garments you can dress her in compared to the other girls. Meanwhile Aisha literally dresses as Destiny Child's era Beyonce, who she is literally based on according to Rainbow themselves

Daffy Duck (Looney Tunes)

Sans and Papyrus (Undertale) and also Undyne and Noelle

Selina Kyle (DC Comics, this is kind of canon but you know how comic industry is)

Luffy (One piece, he's literally Brazilian so)

Brook (One piece, I WAS RIGHT)

Wolfwood (Trigun)

Whisper & Silver (Sonic, but like almost every sonic character is black lets be real)

Courage (Courage The Cowardly Dog)

Arthur and his entire family (Arthur, oho i cant wait share the evidence for this one in the doc)

Huh.

Well, since we seem to be in that timeline, I would just like to state something potentially controversial.

They should make Baloo black-coded.

Hear me out.

I find it interesting how the original Talespin gave him German ancestry (what with his last name having “von” not to mention that one castle he temporarily inherited in "The Balooest of the Blue Bloods" that gave serious Neuschwanstein vibes) while still keeping his Indian roots with his first name. Which fits since Germany and India do share a surprising amount of history.

Lately, however, my rewatching of the original Talespin (in all its 90s glory) has convinced me that Baloo has some black bear in him. And by "some" I mean a lot.

Racial/queer stealth pun aside, Baloo (the Jungle Book version included) has a lot about him that I feel a black audience - and maybe nonwhite audiences in general - could vibe with, something possible due in large part to the lack of sufficient backstory for him.

His financial and educational struggles for one (like how he never finished grade school for instance even though we're never given an explanation why), as well as his constant struggles to regain his property (the Sea Duck) and by extension his financial autonomy.

Plus, Baloo has so many mannerisms and leanings that just do not make him feel “white” to me the same way Rebecca does.

Now one could still argue that Baloo’s just country - which yeah he definitely is judging by the Southern accent Ed Gilbert used for him - but we also see him scatting, listening to jazz, and doing a lot of improv singing. Not to mention we see him do a lot of dance moves - in Talespin as well as Jungle Book and Jungle Cubs - that strongly resemble those of black performers like Cab Calloway and Duke Ellington.

And can we talk about how blatantly anti-authoritarian he is? Say what you will about his moral compass, but Baloo clearly radiates "f**k the police" energy (and rightfully so). To say nothing of how ready this bear is to throw hands whenever anyone or anything he cares about is being messed with.

Throw in his German and Indian ancestries for the added struggles of hailing from an immigrant family and you got a prime recipe for a nuanced character right there!

I'm just saying: multiracial/cultural Baloo for the win.

As a side note, I stand by my conviction that, if this reboot gets greenlit and goes into production, James Monroe Iglehart should voice Baloo.

I mean c'mon, the man even openly admitted in an interview that if The Jungle Book were to ever be adapted into a Broadway show he'd love to be Baloo, who he even mentioned was his favorite as a kid in another!

Besides, Baloo deserves to sing. LET HIM SING, DISNEY!

That's book 47.

(But also how the examples of hork-bajir supposedly being unintelligent being shit like they speak broken English, they have a tradition of oral history and story telling, some shit that literally just Indigenous coding (granted the 3 separate racist things in the books about Indigenous groups I'm not surprised), them not knowing shit cause no one explains shit to them, etc.)

@stitchednumerals​ asked:

If you’re unfamiliar, this is an OC from a movie called 9 (Shane Acker, Tim Burton), where there are a bunch of little burlap sack dolls with human souls who run around and survive in a post apocalyptic wasteland.

Around the time I made this character, I was starting to try to be more diverse with my characters, so I made this character with the intention of making her sort of black-coded. Almost too literally, I think. Personality-wise, I think she’s fine. Let me know if you need any more information. Thank you so much!

I can’t really comment on the character or movie specifically, as I haven’t seen it. I encourage Black fans particularly to add their commentary on this.

I think it’s fine to have a Black doll character who is dark-skinned to the point where their skin looks closer to black. Your drawing does not look like a caricature doll, either. Still, there’s going to be brown tones to the skin. I would say use real human references for very black skin so you’re catching the right undertones. You could find skin color swatches to use as well.

pictured above, from left to right, Alex Wek, Khoudia Diop, Adewale Akinnuoye-agbaje, Nyakim Gatwech.

Lighting and even time of year matters, too. For example, here’s another beautiful picture of Khoudia.

Khoudia Diop (xxx)

Now, I only very casually do art. So, by no means an expert of this:

One thing I’ve learned is to be careful with using straight black from your medium of choice (paint, pencils, etc). Instead, you create the desired shade of black / dark, deep brown using a variety of colors, building up to the right shade of black. If you look at the people pictured in my examples, they’re all very deep shades of brown black. And yet, they’re not crayon black per se! They’re a gradient of dark browns with various undertones. In the second picture of Khoudia, you will notice the blues, rosy pinks, and purplish undertones in the skin.

I hope that was helpful. Perhaps a BIPOC artist can jump in with some more helpful advice!