32 replies to this topic

[Dr.Bedlam]

What I'd like to have is a little tighter classification, here.

"African American." Okay, this obviously leaves out the Gilligan's Island tribesmen and the Moorish type stuff.

The Blaxploitation figures could be considered African American. But certainly there's more to it than that.

What, precisely, are you looking for? Black cowboys? Black businessmen? Black gangstas? Black police officers? Black armored warriors on horseback? Black wizards? Black hobbits? A little tighter criteria could be a help.

[Dr.Bedlam]

Actually, Black hobbits would rock...

[BunnyPuncher]

I agree with doc bedlam. If you are looking for fantasy models african american is a pretty useless term without the social context of the modern world and points to specific cultural subgroup.

Black is probably the simplest descriptor but also includes a huge collection of very different looking people.

[TGP]

What is the ratio of blacks to whites† in... Taltos ?? This is an abundantly silly question. And the search for generic terminology, even sillier.

...the Gilligan's Island tribesmen...

Those are tagged "zulu" and there are a total of nine such figures (three sets).

Ratio drops to 1 : 83.

26 figures need to be found out of 1332 for the HPH / PFH† ratio to match what it was in the UK in 2001.

† Heavily Pigmented Humans / Pale-Faced Humans . . . [?]

[ObsidianCrane]

I understand the request but I'm not sure what it means.

What characteristics would the miniature have to have to be classed as "African American"?

I have an 02242 Ian MacAndrew that I have painted with purple skin and a Hasselfree Paladin I painted with blue skin. They are clearly culturally European in origin due to their clothing, but with their wildly un-natural skin colour they are also clearly not normal humans in the Earth sense.

This is why I am curious as to what characteristics would make a miniature be African American for you.

[Dr. Propaganda]

A problem with making ethically African miniatures for a fanasy setting is the limitation on the scope of the environment. You can either make ethnically African warriors in african cultural garb (i.e. Zulus, Moors, Nubians) which makes you vulnerable to claims of cultural stereotyping, or, you can exaggerate ethnic physical traits on characters to make them obviously ethcially African but dressed in non-African garb (i.e. typical Western European fantasy garb) leaving you vulnerable to claims of physical stereotyping. Characters of any obvious ethnic group run these risks.

That being said, two of my players, each or a different ethnic descent, seldom had any problem using the majority of the miniatures in the Reaper line. Changing a skin tone, or a hair color choice was often all that was needed to make the standard miniatures into "African" dwarves, "Hindi" elves, or "Asian" wizards.

[odinsgrandson]

To be fair, very many of the Pathfinder minis are modeled after the ethnically varied pictures in the Pathfinder book. I was personally rather thrilled to see so many different ethnicities represented in such an understated way.

My favorite African American mini is Seraphine Le Roix from the Studio McVey range. Of course, she's a lounge singer in New Orleans and not exactly an adventurer.



Now, I'm on the side of people who think that unpainted minis can be turned into most ethnicities without any problem.

[Dr.Bedlam]

Now, I'm on the side of people who think that unpainted minis can be turned into most ethnicities without any problem.

Too true. Several of my Reaper cowboys have African and/or Mexican ancestry.

[Korbl]

Unfortunately, demographic participation rates impact who is spending money on miniatures and what they buy.

There is something to be said for the theory that increasing the diversity of races/genders/body shapes/orientations/whatever you care to mention in games and such would encourage people of those same markets to take more interest. The number of black comic characters is still astonishingly small, but I'd wager that the number of black readers has grown continuously as more and more were introduced, for example.

For minis, especially setting/story agnostic ones, such as the most visible Reaper mins, this can be difficult of course, though as everyone wants that perfect mini, and is always disappointed, even if ony a little, to have to settle for something "close," it could actually draw more current black roleplayers to buy more minis (not that people have to play their own ethnicity, of course, but, well, no one I know has played a different ethnicity, just because we don't think about it. We may play across gender, orientation, ability, but no one I know has ever given thought to playing someone of a different ethnic background. We kind of just default to our own, assuming, of course, that we're playing humans.)

Wow, that was... an unusual first post. Hi all.

Actually, Black hobbits would rock...

...I am ashamed to say that my mind immediately thought of the Jerran from BoVD.

A problem with making ethically African miniatures for a fanasy setting is the limitation on the scope of the environment. You can either make ethnically African warriors in african cultural garb (i.e. Zulus, Moors, Nubians) which makes you vulnerable to claims of cultural stereotyping, or, you can exaggerate ethnic physical traits on characters to make them obviously ethcially African but dressed in non-African garb (i.e. typical Western European fantasy garb) leaving you vulnerable to claims of physical stereotyping. Characters of any obvious ethnic group run these risks.

I would say vary the hair texture on occasion and give some figures slightly more prominant facial bones. That's easy enough to do on the usual scale (I would think, looking at pictures others have linked to) and doesn't risk, well, Jinx (the pokemon) level unintentional implications.

[Dr.Bedlam]

Funny you should mention that. Wolverine and the Punisher, I am told, are wildly popular with nonwhite readers.

[Korbl]

Huh, well, it's not like I went and did a bunch of research. Interesting.

[Dr.Bedlam]

Neither did I. But DC and Marvel have both been aware of their nonwhite demographics for years, and have tried various methods for trying to reach out to them. Regrettably, for some reason, "employing black artists and writers" doesn't seem to be a part of that strategy. More than once, I have pondered, "So... there are no nonwhite artists and writers better than Rob Liefield?"

The horror...

[Dr.Bedlam]

I stand corrected; DC apparently tried an experiment a while back with some interesting results. The short version can be found at the link.

http://tvtropes.org/...MilestoneComics

[themudhead]

Too true. Several of my...snip... Mexican ancestry.

Huh? How can you tell if a race/person is Mexican? You must be American (ha, see what I did there?).

I think you mean Latino or Hispanic or Mulatto or one of several hundred words to describe the different racial mixes. Get it, right?

All Latinos/Hispanics/Mulattos are American. We just are born in different countries within America. Even Canadians are American.

With all the fantasy races running around it should be enough in most games to just be any color human you want. Just use different paint.

Nuf said.

[Dr.Bedlam]

Um... no. I painted 'em. They're mine. And while I have not given them little names or anything, it is my decision that some of them are white, some of them are brown, and some of them are dark brown. And while I suppose there's no reason the medium brown ones couldn't be Filipino cowboys, or Puerto Rican cowboys, it is my decision that they are of Mexican ancestry.

It is my understanding that this is one of the rights I am purchasing when I buy the figures; the power to determine their little destinies.