Diversity in webcomics

[BubooSenchan]

Right now most of my cast are white, but that doesn't means that I don't like diversity. Diversity will come to my comic but in a more realistic way.

[BubooSenchan]

My comic takes part in New York, I know that New York is a very diverse state BUT a little more than the 50% of its people is white, and that is reflected in my comic.

[BubooSenchan]

I love to introduce diverse characters little by little.

[knightjj]

I see. But just to see if I don't misunderstand you: I'm wondering why would you choose the one 50% over the other 50%? The other 50% is still there and ethnicities in a city are not sectioned off. What is your definition of realistic and why would the white half be the so called realistic half? Just because there's more of them?

I see where you are coming from but i'm curious to hear some more explanation

[kyupol]

Depends on setting. If it's set in a cultural melting pot place like Toronto or most major US and Canadian city then it's diversified. At least the illusion of it but in reality every group gravitates towards their own. White with white, black with black, etc...

But in feudal Japan or Europe, then don't expect diverse group of people there.

Same thing in a university setting. Diverse ethnically but no diversity of opinion. Everyone has to be leftist. Hehehe...

[knightjj]

I get what you mean. I struggle with the feeling of "being an imposter" a lot. I tend to stay away from mental illnesses and religion a lot myself unless I have someone irl that's like the character to help me with it.
I think as long as you add diverse characters and their experiences as poc aren't the focus of their story you are fine. If you are unsure ask someone else from that culture maybe.
ngl It's tough and it's one of those things you have to learn by fail and error. :') But by never trying you'll never learn.

[spadesart]

usually people who complain about 'too much diversity' and how its 'unrealistic' probably live in undiverse areas. i live in Nascar Hell™ and it's almost an entirely white conservative city with extremely low diversity. if thats all youre exposed to and youve never lived anywhere else, i can see where it might be seen as unrealistic.

BUT that doesnt mean you can think that the entire world is just like that. i used to live in south florida, which has a small white population and is full of different ethnicities. if you visit there its rarer that you see a white person and nobody there looks the same. same with their lgbt population, its way more diverse than my little christian conservative town. same with orlando which is only about an hour away from where i live. if you go to disney theres all kinds of people EVERYWHERE. 'too much diversity' is a bs comment.

[Kura]

One thing I don't understand... is why some creators seem to think there is a super special way they need to introduce or work diverse characters in. Or that they can't or prefer not to include diverse characters because it wouldn't be realistic or because they don't know enough about the race or disability or orientation to do it right.

I mean... we're just people first and foremost and your characters should be thought of in the same way, you can introduce different types of diverse characters just fine without having to focus on what makes them diverse or justify WHY that character is the way they are and their relevance or part to the story for them being ____. I mean yeah it would be cool, but it's not necessary nor a good reason to go with what you consider your 'default' just because you feel you don't know enough to go deep into the character regarding that particular aspect about them.

If you're going the more educational or awareness approach than yeah, you wanna be more informed for these things, because it's distasteful to present harmful or wrong information, or have the character come off as a textbook or stereotype like case instead of what they are. A character. If you just want to make it a part of the character because people are different so characters could be different from each other too, then it's fine if you don't want to focus on it there's no reason to if it doesn't fit into the narrative, and you don't have to make your diverse character a representative. Just have them there. It's not a big scary thing.

Though yeah, I do understand the issue and frustrations with throwing diversity in for the sake of using diversity as a selling point or for the sake of filling up a diversity checklist, but I think as long doesn't feel like 'oh what race/orientation/disability is this new character going you have?' it should be fine to have as many characters that have different things about them as you want.

[Kayke]

I've gotten messages from people thanking me for having a diverse cast, but never from people complaining.

As far as being realistic goes, I think it's important to remember that individual friend groups don't have to represent the same statistics as the region as a whole. It's not like if an area is 20% black every group of ten people is going to have exactly two black people in it.

Also, if it's a fictional story, who cares! If people can suspend their disbelief for things like dragons and elves and aliens then they shouldn't get up in arms about realism when it comes to diverse casting.

[revisionstudios]

I would also suggest you try looking at the experiences of other people that you know who go through those things. You personally may not have experienced what it's like, but as long as all your friends aren't white/athiest/same body type, you can pull traits, reactions, and behaviors from those people. Ask them their opinion on something you're putting in your story, or how THEY would like so see their people portrayed (or conversely, what they hate seeing).

For example: I'm overweight, but my friend is naturally very pretty and thin. She gets shamed about her body more than I do, with people telling her she should eat more or "put some meat on those bones", or she has to deal with people objectifying her or even strangers touching her. So I can make a thin, pretty character and have realistic problems for her to face.

I also know a ton of LGBTQ+ people, a lot of people of other ethnicities. Droves of people with mental illnesses like depression and anxiety. I know conservative people, liberal people, moderates, and even extremists. I know fundamentalist christians and atheists. There's a lot of categories I'm missing or lacking in, but I'm aware of them and am always looking to expand my network.

The best way to not appropriate or stereotype a group of people is to meet others from that group and talk to them openly so you can empathize with their situation, even if you don't agree with their beliefs. And yes, sometimes it's hard to write complexly about things you don't agree with. But I think it's better to try, maybe fail, fess up to being wrong, and do better next time.

[jiany0u]

"Too diverse?" What an insane thing to say. Your comic is set in Paris, right? (I love your comic btw!!) I live in NYC, a super diverse city, and it's so silly to me when I see media set in NYC with all-white casts. From what I've heard about Paris, I imagine it's similar. Keep doing what you're doing!

I mean... we're just people first and foremost and your characters should be thought of in the same way, you can introduce different types of diverse characters just fine without having to focus on what makes them diverse or justify WHY that character is the way they are and their relevance or part to the story for them being ____.

I totally agree. If you don't have to ask yourself "why is this character white?", you don't have to ask yourself "why is this character black". I think Steven Universe handles diversity pretty well; the cast is pretty diverse and portrayed in a non-tokeny way.

[ahhvecadoes]

But in feudal Japan or Europe, then don't expect diverse group of people there.

In feudal Japan maybe, but Europe? Nah. There are the Moors and the Romani, both of which have been recorded in European societies since the Middle Ages and both of which have been depicted in art and writing for centuries as part of said societies.

[69Michi]

@miesmud I myself am on the same boat at you. The majority of my life I spent in an Asian country that hardly has any diversity race wise so it's hard for me to capture any other race correctly. This is part of the reason why I hesitate to include them in my work. Another reason, well actually, the biggest reason is because I have seen how "passionate" a lot of people can get when you bring up a different race or different sexual orientation.......... yeah, make me feel afraid to even tread on that kind of subject, let alone trying to portrait them in my work. I rather avoid them overall.

Honestly, I just meh overall when it comes to diversity and just design character to my liking. I will give a character dark skin colored, just because it's aesthetic pleasing to me and the character design overall, not exactly because I'm trying to be diverse. (I do try to give different character different skin tone and all that jazz to set my character apart) The majority of my cast doesn't have a set nationality either, neither the setting is fixed. Let's just say it's an alternate reality, and race/diversity isn't what my story is centering around so I would like people to not focus on that. I once had people asked me what nationality/race are my character, I just shrugged and said they have none, people seem to be fine with it and barely had anyone brought up this topic to me so I guess the majority of my audience doesn't care too much. (Thankfully.)

But that is just me and my "MEHHH" overall on this topic. I know diversity are important to a lot of people out there so I understand. Anddddd back to the topic at hand, no, I don't think there is a "too diverse". To put it in my opinion, I could careless what your character's race or sexual orientation is. If their design fits my liking and their personality hits me the right way, I will like them. Unless you are just blatantly throwing them in to fill the quota without proper personality or background, well... you do you mate.

[heterodont]

I'm always scared of portraying a race or culture wrong or poorly, or end up offending someone

adding on to what @revisionstudios said, I think people are only offended by 'diversity' if its because of the aforementioned Diversity Checklist or if you try to act like the utmost Authority of what the character is and speak over others who've legitimately gone through what the character has or can relate with. as long as you ask people about their experiences or research and don't act like you know everything there is to know about that culture, mental illness, etc. I don't think you're going to end up offending someone.

If anything, if you put the time and effort into learning others experiences - you're going to get someone who's really appreciative that theres a character they can really relate to.

and on topic, There really is no such thing as "too diverse" imo unless you're just doing it to get brownie points with readers and don't bother developing the characters as legit characters.

[keii4ii]

as long as you ask people about their experiences or research and don't act like you know everything there is to know about that culture, mental illness, etc. I don't think you're going to end up offending someone.

I'm Korean, and I still got accused of offensive/condescending portrayals of Koreans in my comic OTL (probably by people who weren't Koreans themselves -- I used to publish it in Korean, and none of the actual Korean readers thought anything bad of how the culture was portrayed)

But yeah, doing your best and truly respecting the actual individuals of that ethnicity/ orientation/ etc is all you can do. It's all you can be expected to do.

[R.n.P]

Just don't shoehorn any diversity you wish to put like how marvel did, people generally read comics to get away from reality so just throwing it back there would just turn people off like what again happened to marvel.
I'd say just go with what ever comes to your imagination without adding political influences especially in character designs, make it to be your own unique thing(basically just build up your own world n disregard politics n reality)

[heterodont]

Eh yeah there's always a chance of that happening :'D

I've really only seen that behavior among certain tumblr groups which is why I wasn't so sure of the chances of that happening outside of tumblr itself. It's also just taking unwarranted criticism in stride because that's something that'll happen regardless..

[joannekwan]

I think the "too diverse" complaint stems from series where the authors literally have one of everything and they forego rounding out their characters just to have more characters to check off list items. It's like, "Oh, I need an ace person, a disabled person, a trans person, and have them across a gradient of skin tones, etc." Tokenism to its max. Take a random sample of friend groups and I don't think they'd be so evenly spread out.

And perhaps it can be unrealistic when all the diverse people in the cast get along? This connects to the last point I made about friend groups being evenly spread out. I'll use myself as an example, I have many friend groups, but I don't ever see all of them meshing well together. My high-school friends, they're all Asian and female (mostly Chinese with one Pakistani/Indian Muslim girl), they're extroverted introverts and are fairly LGBT+ friendly. They would do okay with my college group of friends (even mix of Asian, Latina, and white, with 2 guys, one of which is gay); my college buddies are a bit more extroverted but do well just hanging out at home too. Then there's my group of internet friends (all some sort of LGBT+, but all white), I'm the only Asian they interact with afaik; very introverted but we have a good time playing games together.

Compare these to my husband's college friends (all Asian except for himself, with one female), they're more on the conservative side and are more introverted. I really don't see a couple of them doing well with LGBT+ groups. Then there are my husband's Nebraska friends, a pair of twins, white, not as conservative as you would think but very extroverted, sometimes they go a bit overboard with their gamer talk. We've played Overwatch matches with them and my internet friends, did not go well xD, personalities didn't mesh at all!

While myself and my husband get along with all these groups, it's really difficult to see these groups together. Not everything can be rainbows and peace signs. So maybe at the end of the day, what's unrealistic about such diversity is that they're not diverse enough in their personalities and view-points.

Granted, if you want to show a bunch of diverse characters getting along swimmingly then more power to you. But maybe some see it as a pipe-dream, something unattainable, and therefore unrealistic? Because all cultures, no matter how hard some try to erase it, still have veins of prejudice and discrimination running deep.

EDIT: I'll also add that sometimes you get some interesting combinations of traits. For example, my friend from Louisiana is trans male, missing an arm, and his fiancé is gay, but from some of the jokes and other things they tell me I've gathered that they're more moderate in their political views and aren't all-out liberal which I find fascinating.

[Potoh]

I agree that it's not good to feel pressured to include anything in your work. Just do what you enjoy doing. I couldn't produce work which I wouldn't be able to truly represent in its message.

people generally read comics to get away from reality so just throwing it back there would just turn people off

I think diversity IS part of reality, it's not something that has just recently been a thing in comics. It's something what's getting louder after having no voice for decades. So the majority of people might not be used to being confronted with it. I believe that the more is shown, the more people will get used to it, and the more it gets truly accepted.

[knightjj]

ah that's such a good point though. And honestly one I don't think of enough myself.
I don't think most of my school friends (pretty much all white and straight) would get along with my online friends at all (who are all lgbt and half of them poc)
My school friends are usually the ones asking me why I barely draw white people and think my characters are quite weird?

But yeah never used that in Les Normaux really. Probably didn't cross my mind either because its a "feel good" kind of comic and the friend groups don't really interact yet. But that would make for interesting story in the future. (not that any of them would be racist or homophobic or anything) (want to keep the overall vibe positive)
The negative aspects are definitely something I'm exploring in my new comic/thesis though.
So thanks for this new input!