Why is there no blacks in Pokemon?

[DestinyBender]

I enjoy the games whether or not there are any black people in the game. I doesn't really make a difference.

~DB

 

[Yaziyo]

Just a quick comment

So that basically means if I made a show based in Australia that, in parts, touched on different nationalities but I missed out on Hispanic and Black people (because there aren't HUGE amounts of them here), that would be ok right?

As an Arab born in Australia, I couldn't help but comment to this and to say, yes, there is nothing wrong with that. If I was setting a story in Sydney today, where I live, there would most likely not be a black or a hispanic character for the sole reason that there are hardly any living here. This is not about racism or narrow-mindedness, it's about keeping a story accurate. While this has nothing to do with Pokemon, you probably wouldn't expect to see a native american in a story set in sydney either, or an asian guy in the democratic republic of the congo, or an aboriginal guy in the USA for that matter.

You do not need to include every ethnicity in every story, that is silly.

For Pokemon though, I do not think they even thought of it. Adding ethnicities for the sake of adding ethnicities is not much better than having an all-white cast just because you want an all-white cast.

@BJ088

You really want to know why? This might sound offensive not to you since you're in Australia but to Black Americans. I mean no offense but when a Pokemon with black skin is considered racist, then adding black people into it will just cause them to go angry at Nintendo again. It's not that they don't want to but a small number of Black Americans(again no racism is intended) have to go and flame at Nintendo and claiming them to be racist.

You see the point is those Americans don't want Nintendo to have anything to do with Black People. If Nintendo had a black character, it would along the lines of "Pokemon are being racist,b lack people aren't like that" or " Why isn't the black guy a main character, this is racism!"

The thing is some of these Black Americans are so closed minded they don't see that you can't portray a race since everyone in that race is different. So no matter how Nintendo is gonna portray black people it will cause people to call them racist.

If anyone was offended because of this post, I do apologize.

Just a quick note on your reference to the Jynx controversy. People weren't offended because Jynx's skin is black, they were offended because the character as a whole bore a distinct similarity to "blackface", a racist historical depiction of black people. See the image below if you're not familiar.

Spoiler:

Yeah, just a few things I wanted to comment on. In the end, people are people. This is a children's videogame/cartoon, there are more important things to worry about in life.

 

[BJ088]

Just a quick comment

As an Arab born in Australia, I couldn't help but comment to this and to say, yes, there is nothing wrong with that. If I was setting a story in Sydney today, where I live, there would most likely not be a black or a hispanic character for the sole reason that there are hardly any living here. This is not about racism or narrow-mindedness, it's about keeping a story accurate. While this has nothing to do with Pokemon, you probably wouldn't expect to see a native american in a story set in sydney either, or an asian guy in the democratic republic of the congo, or an aboriginal guy in the USA for that matter.

You do not need to include every ethnicity in every story, that is silly.

For Pokemon though, I do not think they even thought of it. Adding ethnicities for the sake of adding ethnicities is not much better than having an all-white cast just because you want an all-white cast.

Props for the post, I think you're spot on.
But, I wasn't saying they HAVE to include every ethnicity, I was merely pointing out that if they DID, there wouldn't really be an issue as such. I mean, it would of been the last thing on their mind when creating this show/game.

Granted, good post.

 

[Pokémon Ranger ✩ Moriarty]

You see the point is those Americans don't want Nintendo to have anything to do with Black People. If Nintendo had a black character, it would along the lines of "Pokemon are being racist,b lack people aren't like that" or " Why isn't the black guy a main character, this is racism!"

They would also say, "Oh look, the Token Black Guy! Bet he's there just to tick boxes!" And not bother to take his character seriously even if he was the most well-rounded character in gaming history, which is racist in itself. -.-

Making anything these days is runs the risk of racism, sexism, ageism, homophobia...well, any prejudice you can list, really. I doubt there is a single book, tv show, movie, game, painting, doughnut, unicorn on the planet which has never had a complaint lodged about it for being -ist. :|

 

[BJ088]

They would also say, "Oh look, the Token Black Guy! Bet he's there just to tick boxes!" And not bother to take his character seriously even if he was the most well-rounded character in gaming history, which is racist in itself. -.-

See, I highly doubt that would happen. Especially in a show like Pokemon.

 

[Dunsparce]

A majority of the Characters are ASIAN, NOT WHITE.

They just localize their names to sound more American

These are the only non-asian People in the game:

-Lt.Surge: Noted to be American even in the Japanese Version. In the Japanese HGSS, you can even trade with him to get a Pikachu with an English Nickname.

-Tucker: His Japanese name is Heath, hardly a Japanese name.

-Fantina: Noted to be a foreigner even in the Japanese Version. Not 100% sure on wheteher she's French in the Japanese Version, though.

-Dahlia: Her Japanese name is also Dahlia, meaning she is either from India or the Middle East.

-Argenta: Her Japanese Name is Kate, and from seeing her clothing, is probably British


Brock and Pheobe are part of a Japanese Racial Minority found mostly in kansai, where they look like normal Asians, just with Darker Skin.

 

[Pave Low]

Its happened in a Pokemon series where Jynx was Black! But due to the racist abuse, the episode was banned!

 

[poopnoodle]

There are no whites in the game, I'm not offended.
It is Japanese, and the Japanese tend to avoid adding racial diversity, as that would most likely ignite dr-baaaaawwww-ma. I am in complete agreement with Wings Don't Cry. I have a friend who visited Tokyo and he says it's a rare occasion to spot a black guy lingering about, and if you check Japanese demographics you'd see that Japan's ethnic variation does not come close to that of America's or Australia's. Since Japan is not diverse in skin color, it's harder for them to get used to portraying other races in manners that won't be perceived as offensive. So, to me, leaving Japanese characters Japanese is a perfectly understandable conclusion.

If Nintendo had a black character, it would along the lines of "Pokemon are being racist, black people aren't like that" or " Why isn't the black guy a main character, this is racism!"

This. If you have ever lived in America / have seen The View, you (you being BJ 088, and I'm not being condescending for the record, so I hope you don't misread this as if I am) might have a bit better concept as to how drama is sought. -on The View, they blame Cookie Monster for causing childhood obesity.- Also, we all saw the calamity that Jynx's character induced.

 

[Team Rocket's Raichu]

Good discussion, but I wasn't talking about racism. I was just pointing something out.


Oh and to me the in-game sprites look like whites not Asians. (I'm not trying to be racist.)

 

[Redstar]

The funny thing with Jynx, was that I never thought of it as being black. I just thought it was a black creature... Same with Mr. Popo from DBZ: I didn't think he was black, I thought he was just a black-skinned alien.

So it's funny that some people won't really know if it's a stereotype, because they just assume it's something else. Americans, for example, see blacks all the time so I would imagine since we already know what "they're like" and how "they look" that the anime depictions, since are so exaggerated, won't be connected.

 

[Andrew McKenzie]

I always saw Brock as black or at least half-cast.

 

[Sydian]

I totally used to think Brock was black.

Anyway, I always wondered why there wasn't an option to play as a black guy/girl in Pokemon. I think I discussed it with someone the other day, actually.

 

[Luck]

I totally used to think Brock was black.

Anyway, I always wondered why there wasn't an option to play as a black guy/girl in Pokemon. I think I discussed it with someone the other day, actually.

You can choose to make a coloured person in battle revolution >.>
I completely forgot about that.

There you go, thread is null and void now 8D

 

[The Roshi]

Probably because Japan is homogenous. Nobody makes a fuss so they don't feel the need to add other races. Besides, each game has it's hero or heroine. Until they make a game without that, it will be impossible to make any other race besides white (Japanese white). Unless they made the main hero black... but again it's JAPAN we're talking about.

 

[Kirbychu]

Just to remove some peoples concerns, there IS a black man in Pokemon, specifically Pokemon Ranger 2.

Barlow?

Anyways, the Japanese don't really see people by skin tones, they tend to see people as Japanese, American, etc. They somewhat distance themselves from other countries. As you've probably noticed, when a character is not Japanese they're foreigners and a complete stereotype, and it's pretty obvious.

They do it to Americans too. Look at Lt. Surge. He's the blonde hair, blue eyed, soldier known as "The Lightning American!" Whenever there is a non-Japanese person, it's pretty obvious.

I did not mean to offend anyone.

 

[Ellie]

Oh, honestly, this debate has been done so many times and it's ridiculous every time.

As others have said, the characters in Pokemon are mostly Asian (no, they're not white/American, it would be more obvious if they're white/American like Surge, and in every localization the "generic trainers" are given names that correspond to that culture, and hair/eye colors mean nothing for anime characers for the most part) because Japan is mostly Asian. It would not make sense for the main characters to be anything but Asian, and if they did make a black main character, people would complain that there's no Hispanic main character, or British main character, or Indian main character or... and so on. There's no way for them to include every single race in a starring role, since there are just so many races of people on Earth.

And while there may be some black people in Japan, there are many other races that an equal/similar amount live in Japan, and are not represented either. Japan isn't nearly as focused on being "racially diverse" as other countries are, and there aren't a whole lot of non-Japanese people in Japan compared to those other countries either.

Finally, we all have to remember that although I'm sure all of us are older, Pokemon's marketting and such is primarily aimed at children, and children mostly do not care about race, in fact a lot of them don't even really understand the concept. One of my best friends since I was around... 5ish years old is a different race than I am, and I didn't even think about her race being different than mine until I was much older. Children aren't going to be offended that there's no black (or other race) people in the game unless someone close to them gets angry that their race isn't represented and tells them why they should be angry or something.

Can't we see past the fact that a game created by the Japanese has a mostly Japanese cast and enjoy the game for what it is?

 

[Sydian]

I think the Arcade Star is black. Just putting that out there. I think there's a few people that come close to being black.

Also, since this discussion can really expand in horizons, I'm moving it to Pokemon General. That way it'll cover all games, anime, and manga.

 

[Fenrir Reki]

Im guessing its because that is how it has traditionally been? I dont know, but I dont think they are trying to be racist by doing that though. Besides it was made in Japan so wouldnt there mainly be asian people?

 

[Steelix8]

Making anything these days is runs the risk of racism, sexism, ageism, homophobia...well, any prejudice you can list, really. I doubt there is a single book, tv show, movie, game, painting, doughnut, unicorn on the planet which has never had a complaint lodged about it for being -ist. :|

This...To be perfectly honest I'm getting a bit tired of all the drama that this politically correct stuff is getting us these days. I mean, when we have to live in a world where Pokemon has to be politically correct, you know we have our priorities in really bad places. The reason that there aren't many people outside of the basic "Japanese White" people is because it is a JAPANESE game. We here in america brand everything that is the slightest bit offensive as "racist" or not "PC" we automatically assume that this is the norm for every other country in the world. This, however, is unequivically false. Japan is not consious about racism or racial diversity because, for the most part, there isn't very much racial diversity in Japan. Most people are Japanese or the member of some Asian race (not to say all Asians are the same, as they are not. My point is you rarely ever see like...a Chinese person being racist towards a Japanese person.) It's not an issue in Japan so they don't worry about it. Notice how the Jynx controversy was brought up by americans? Honestly, I don't think that Gamefreak has any reason to put other races in their games because they don't have a rock solid reason to. What...so they don't have any black people in pokemon? That means they're doing something wrong? Please, spare me. I suppose that Finding Nemo, Toy Story, Peter Pan, and Naruto are all racist and politically incorrect to right?

Another thing, has anyone noticed how the black community is the main race everyone is focusing on? Why is that? What makes black people so much more important than hispanics? What about indians? Native americans? Are black people more important than them? Exactly, no they aren't. Somewhere along the line one race will feel they are being treated unfairly, and it can just turn into a huge mess. If they put a black person in pokemon, there's innevitably going to be that ignorant person that says "So why are there no black people in Naruto/Bleach/Dragonball-Z/(instert anime here)?" or "Why no hispanics?". Japan won't mess with the race card because they have done just fine without it; to mess with it could spell serious loss of financial benefits from North America.

 

[Åzurε]

This has been done to death and farther...

Essentially everything has been said. The Japanese developers don't want to mess with it, at the risk of sparking something they don't want to get involved in.

Also, Japanese people have been drawn so many times, it's probably easier by now. =P