#thatsjusttips

Okay. Grammar lesson!

"People of color" is a noun. So use it as a noun.

"I am speaking about people of color."

People who are of color. People. People is a noun.

It is not, as the Internet likes to use it, an adjective!

"POC characters!" is the color blind racist equivalent of "colored characters!"

Do you want to call me colored? Is that the racism we really want to use? Old 1960s racism? Shall I go to the colored water fountain next? I'm sorry- the POC water fountain?

If you are talking about all non-white people as a group, use "People of Color".

"White people are used to being the default- which is why they get to be White and the rest of us are People of Color. The Other."

If you are talking about a specific group of people, and you KNOW that, then SAY their group and NOT "people of color".

"I am not just a person of color, I am Black. Antiblackness is about Black people, not all people of color. Otherwise, I'd just say racism. Words have meaning!"

Further resource:

Note: There are plenty of wonderful Black artists that can do this far better, and you all should go follow and STUDY them!

First step: USE YOUR REFERENCES! Just to break down and draw this little sheet took me multiple references and about an hour of drawing and redrawing to really do it properly. It took practice! It's going to take practice, and well-drawn Black hair deserves practice! Commit to your Black characters!

Okay. Next step, the simplified way, i.e. how Ice does it:

Twists:

Step 1: Draw two curly lines.

Step 2: Draw curved lines from one 'corner' of one line to the next 'corner' of the other line. It should be moving down, as hair is twisted downward!

Cornrows (on scalp!)/Braids:

Step 1: Draw a zigzag

Step 2: Draw two curly lines, slightly off-center to one another. You want each 'point' of the zigzag to correspond with a corner of the curly lines.

Step 3: Draw straight lines between the point of the zigzag and the corner of the curved lines. They're gonna look like pentagons. The 'butts' of each pentagon should be curved, since that's the braid.

Would you give advice on how to unlearn any possible subconscious racism? Am I just overthinking things?

Baby's first introduction to their Whiteness, by a White Person. And if you can stomach that, then you can get into the books and resources by Black people that won't take the time to soften it for you, because you should know that we shouldn't have to do that. People do things differently; I am a lover of nonfiction books that teach me about things that I may have learned about in another resource I read. I like to find book lists; I started with the SPLC's Summer Reading list back in 2022 and kept going from there.

But, if you aren't a reader (which makes me deeply sad but some folks aren't) just being around Black voices helps. Even on here, as much as Tumblr decimated the Black presence on here, there are still plenty of Black bloggers that you could follow and simply LISTEN to. Watching media featuring Black people BY Black people. Listening to our music and being willing to give it a chance, actively telling yourself that the biased thoughts you have against it are probably racist. Even reading my lessons here and then applying it to your critical thinking when you watch regular media will help.

For example, if you wash your hair every morning or every night. Whatever happens to you that day, whatever you have planned, you work around having to wash and dry your hair. It's routine. It's a regular part of your day. You don't think of it as "oh well I guess I can't do this activity because it's not the right style".

It's the same deal with us. It's not a Sims character fashion choosing screen, where I pick Hiking Hair for Hiking and Swimming Hair for Swimming. It's not always a "oh, I don't have Hiking Hair, so I guess I can't hike". You modify your hair as necessary around your schedule.

If you really want perfectly straight hair, but you also wanna swim, guess what? You got to be willing to modify your schedule to protect it before, or redo your hair when you're done (if a swim cap doesn't work, which in my experience, doesn't). If you really want microbraids to last you the summer, guess what? Everything you do, past that point, will be with the microbraids! If I wanna go paintballing, and I have locs, I either gotta plan for protection over my head or I have to make time to wash it when I'm done. It's not like I just don't go! When I had my afro, it wasn't "oh, but it's not a protective style, what happens if I wanna go-" then I have to take care of my hair! It's a part of my day.

For example... You know him... You know I love him... You know I hate his design....

If I were to color pick the brown off of this image, say his cheek and his arm, I'm going to get back shades of ashy brown and tinted green. I would be drawing something equally disrespectful with these tones 😭 and I don't think we should do that, personally. Just because Canon is insulting, doesn't mean you have to be- isn't that like, a core fandom mentality?

[Color picker tool]

SOMETIMES, you gotta look at a piece and EXTRAPOLATE!! "Hm... What would be a respectful dark brown skin tone that could work here?" for example:

(yes ik they're the same ones from before lol)

Question for the audience!

Me personally, brown skin tones that aren't just "beige, brown, and greyish-black". If you can present me fifteen different shades of white, I want the range of brown!

I want the front hairstyles to match the back ones. No more straight hair bangs with locs in the back.

In da club, in da dark parking lot, in da grass at sunrise, in da direct morning sunlight 👍🏾

What didn't happen: Ice changed skin colors!!! 😱😱😱 Nope. I'm the same exact shade of brown in every single one of these images, taken throughout this weekend.

What did happen: lighting and color reflected off my arm! I am The Constant, I am The Work of Art- the lighting must work with ME and MY skin color. Same as you, a respectful artist, ought to be doing with your Black characters!!

Platform Black fans, Black voices, opinions that are strongly pro-Black. Make real Black friends. It's one thing to say "oh I love these Black characters!" It's another thing to actually express that you love real Black people.