Why is the monster black? - It's 2023, please stop making the monster/arch-villain black!

Content notes: anti-Black racism, death, transphobia

From the Dementors in “Harry Potter” (2009 onwards) to Gloreth’s Beast in “Nimona” (2023) to the black hands in “Bee and Puppycat” (Netflix version), I noticed the disproportionate use of black and darker-skinned characters /forms in animations to represent monsters/baddies/ villains. I love “Nimona” and “Bee and Puppycat”. As a trans person, my comments on Harry Potter can be summarised in my song, Insomnia - which is about trans rights! Nine years ago, racist animation characters were explored in this article and also here.

The monster/baddie contrasts with the hero/goodie/s who is by contrast white/ light and/or lighter skinned (as in these examples).

I’m asking white/light-skinned/ non-Black artists (writers, filmmakers, animators) to broaden their “baddie colour palettes”.

How is this important and why should I care?

As with the words "black" and "dark", the use of black and dark colours by visual artists and designers to represent something negative, unpleasant or bad may stem from a universal association of the darkness of shadows and night but I think it’s partly rooted in white supremacy.

From healthcare, to education, to employment, to policing, Black and dark-skinned people are disproportionately treated worse in the UK and other countries where there is a majority of whyte & lighter-skinned people.

Healthcare

“Maternal mortality for Black women is currently almost four times higher than for White women. Significant disparities also exist for women of Asian and mixed ethnicity. These disparities have existed and been documented for at least 20 years, but only received mainstream attention and Government action since around 2018.” (source)

“being a trans/NB black and minority ethnic individual is correlated with increased emergency health care use (Grant et al., 2010). In some extreme instances, this racist and transphobic discrimination has led to horrific outcomes, such as the case of Tyra Hunter. Tyra was a black transgender woman in the United States who was denied access to ambulance treatment based on her gender identity after surviving a hit-and-run accident, and this denial of care resulted in her death (Jillson, 2002). (source)

Education

“In 2021, 85.1% of all teachers in state-funded schools in England were white British (out of those whose ethnicity was known),” while “92.5% of headteachers were white British.” (source)

“A new study by UCL Institute of Education (IOE) finds that 46% of all schools in England have no Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) teachers, and even in ethnically diverse schools, BAME teachers are underrepresented in senior leadership teams.” (source)

Work

A white person once told me that Black people at their work-place (a major well-known company) generally faced pressure to take unpopular work shifts.

“Skin tone can be a bigger determinant of whether someone gets a job than their educational background.” (source)

Policing

“There were 27.2 stop and searches for every 1,000 black people, compared with 5.6 for every 1,000 white people.” (source)

“More than half of black people searched by UK police felt humiliated, survey finds.” (source)

Not only is there mistreatment of Black & darker skinned people, but the lack of positive representation and lack of diversity at effective and humane leadership levels contributes to how white children and young people are raised to not expect Black and darker skinned people to excel academically and/or to be in leadership positions.

Useful terms for finding out more about this are “anti-Black racism”, “colourism” and “unconscious bias”.

I think that whiteness in authorship is a major factor and a majority of white people in creative teams. However, due to the culture, Black and darker-skinned people in places like the UK may well grow up with internalised racism.

Certain UK government officials who are BPOC (Black and people of colour) show a distinct lack of compassion and a distinctly destructive attitude toward vulnerable groups such as people who are disabled, poorer, immigrants, incarcerated, trans and refugees.

Despite being a multi-millionaire who experienced racism, Rishi Sunak wants to stop asylum seekers reaching the UK. Kemi Badenoch is transphobic, Priti Patel wanted to send migrants to Rwanda and even a former senior Conservative said they believed Suella Braverman was a “real racist bigot”.

While vulnerable groups may include white people, they also include Black and darker-skinned people who experience increased severity and at times fatal consequences due to the intersections of gender based violence and anti-Black racism and colourism.

Cartoons, TV and culture have tremendous power to affect society. Children often want to play games or watch shows on mobile devices. Young children form impressions about skin colour (and other aspects of appearance) as early as 3 months or 3 years old: “Previous research has shown that 3-month-old babies prefer faces from certain racial groups, 9-month-olds use race to categorize faces, and 3-year-old children in the U.S. associate some racial groups with negative traits. By age 4, children in the U.S. associate whites with wealth and higher status, and race-based discrimination is already widespread when children start elementary school.” this could affect both how they perceive and treat other people and themselves (if they are BPOC).

So… I have a challenge for you!

White/ light-skinned/non-Black artists.. when you design/draw monster/villain characters do you depict them with black or dark skin/forms?

If so,

Would you consider the creative and socially conscious challenge of drawing monsters who are not black/dark-skinned?]

I notice that while story-builders may set out to instill fear in the viewer, eventually they may try to show the emotional/vulnerable side of a “monster”. I also think that it’s possible to design and craft monsters in many colours (e.g. lighter in colour rather than dark/black in colour).

While the monster is often thought of as “the other”, ultimately the fear of the monster is the fear of ourselves. Is it possible for white /light-skinned animators/ artists/ directors/ writers to create monsters… “in their own image”?