Guess someone should comment on the race episode right?

Here's the thing, the only time I can remember being at all concious of the race of a character was when Volt (if I recall that's his name) in Irredeemable pointed out the cliche of being a black guy with electrical powers.

Was my lack of acknowledgement due to a lack of people of color in my comics? Or was it indifference toward racial differences? I prefer to think it's the latter. But to be fair, I don't recall too many non-white characters off the top of my head. Or maybe it's the predeliction for more esoteric books like Vertigo titles, or non-super Dark Horse stuff.

Oh, just remembered Papa Midnight from Hellblazer.

Well…are you a person of color?

(to ahe, as for some reason replying directly wasn't working)

Why is it ok for you to judge me based on ethnicity?

Fact is, I'm missing the lack of diversity because diversity doesn't inherently matter to me. I'm not looking for anyone to specifically be or not be any particular ethnicity. I'm looking for good writing and good art.

You don't have to “be looking for” characters to be of a particular ethnicity to recognize a lack of diversity. Are you trying to say that you literally do not notice whether a character is white or not? I'm pretty sure that asserting that you don't see these things because you're colorblind is on the RaceFail bingo card. Speaking as a person of mixed race, it's impossible for me not to notice when no one in a comic book looks like me or like my mother.

If you're interested in a discussion of race, I suggest that you bing Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack, RaceFail, Racism 101 and *especially* Derailing For Dummies. I mean that sincerely, these are good resources for someone who wants to start a dialogue about race issues who doesn't have a lot of experience, which I assume you don't, since diversity doesn't matter to you.

Diversity doesn't matter to me in things like comics, because it's the writing that makes for that broad range of experiences among the characters, not their color. And since we're talking about race in comics, and not race in the public school system, that's what my comments targeted.

By way of example, if I were to note a character as being black, what difference would that make to me? Should I be expecting him to act different than had he been white? Should I be expecting him to act stereotypical? Or be shocked if he doesn't? I'm not inclined to apply stereotypes to people, so in the end, my expectations for that character have no bearing in whether or not he's black or white, they're based on his actions/words/etc.

To keep things on topic (i.e. not about me) Is it safe to say you take issue with the lack of diversity in comics? Are there any you think excel in the area? Any particular titles where you feel they handle it better than others? Any that you think represent you're particular circumstance, be it in a positive or negative light?

And just a side note: I feel like I'm being repeatedly insulted here, with multiple assumptions being made about me without any real knowledge of who I am, or where I come from. Defending my comments, not a problem, defending my character, problem. If you want to have a discussion about race in the world, by all means ping me and we can meet over drinks/etc.

Asking you about your point of view is not an attack on your character. I'm sorry that you feel that you're being insulted, but if you want to have this discussion, you're going to need to be prepared to examine your own background and assumptions because race issues do not exist in a vacuum. For good or ill, the way that you were born and culture in which you were raised, race gender, sexual orientation, religion, economic status–these things all inform your point of view. This is true of real people and it is true of a good character. Would Mitchell Hundred be exactly the same character if he were the son of Korean immigrants? Or a woman? Not acknowledging diversity, insisting on color- or gender-blindness, is passive marginalization.

If you want to continue to talk about this, please do some research on anti-racist discussions/activism and the concept of derailment. There are a lot of great resources out there and I think I gave you some good key words in my earlier post.

Also, try not to take this so personally! I think that sometimes people can get defensive about these topics because they think they're being called racist–not true. I mean, unless you hate the Japanese. You don't right?

If we disagree, we disagree. You'll just have to rest assured that I've done my research (your comments that I haven't being another assumption ), done my living, and am comfortable in the positivity of my beliefs. And disagree with you from an informed place. Sadly, I may not be wording any of this in a way that convinces you of that, so I'm asking for a little faith. As I have that the same applies to you.

And no. I don't hate the Japanese

You're right, we're definitely operating on two different levels, which isn't productive.

I kind of hate the French. I don't think that's racist, though.

And now I'm going to come in and say THIS is why I like our podcast and the community we're building. We took a contentious issue with a lot of strong feelings and though the discussion seemed to get a little tense on both sides in the end in a way not commonly found on the intar-webs a point of agree to disagree was found.
Okay so now lets try Marvel vs DC. Ahe you take pro on Marvel, Marks you take it on DC. Aaaaaaand, go (kidding)

How dare you. Marvel?!?

It does seem we're in agreement on this one

Hey, consider it a thought project. Would you rather I make it, “Pro or Con-Rob Liefeld is an artistic genius” and make you take the “Pro” part?

Hey, when Picasso moved people's parts around in totally unnatural ways, he was considered a genius!

Ok … I can't even fake it.

Damn you! Now I have thoughts of Liefeld's stuff hanging in an art museum! So wrong.