Black Parenting : Positive Characters for Black Children

They are all very lighted skinned.. can dark skin coexist with sweet positivity? Their is no African reflection in any of them.. And, I knew that before you posted the images. It's the reason I asked you about the word "Tolerance".. black folks are not the group that need to be taught tolerance.. we are the most culturally tolerant people.. and, of course, that has to do with our relative social/political position within Western societies.. What folks mistake for "intolerance" within black communities is actually a reactionary brand of intolerance that emanates from the social/political/physical/psychological oppression of western society.

All of that said.. I think your idea is a good one.. and the artwork is nice.. my only concern is how the African image is not represented. We don't look like that.. not even in caricature form.. it really looks like more of the same Barbie-type image warfare the teaches black young girls to be unsatisfied with their own image... and you having once been a young black girl, it kind of makes sense that you would equate sweetness and positivity with light-skin and long hair.. blonde girl in the middle.. etc.. and complete exclude even your own complexion/image..


WORD THE TO THE MOTHA!
 
Hello everyone,

I am new to the forum. My name is Tamara, I black woman from the Caribbean originally.

Nice to meet all of you :)

A little about myself, I am a young artist, living in the U.S, and a (hopefully soon) entrepreneur.

I'd like to use my talent to spread love, tolerance and other positive messages to small
children, through the creation of a series of cartoons.
I was wondering what your thoughts as fellow black persons are on the state of positive images for black children these days.

When I look at our cartoons on television, I don't tend to see many black main characters, I have seen Dora the Explorer as of late which is great, but still no black characters that appeal to our young toddlers. I
I would like to fill this void somehow, because it is very important children this young see someone like themselves being positive.

What I would like to know from all of you is how important persons in general feel this is for kids, even if you are not a parent, your input would be much appreciated.

I am actually looking around for similar forums to gather this input because I would like to analyze the diversity of opinions if any, so do not be alarmed if this post is on others, it's not my intention to spam.

Thank you :)

Hi Kyooms,

You're very creative and the concept is constructive. However, we should not be so quick to push the Multicultural agenda if we as African peoples are lagging behind in too many areas. We should not portray us smiling and grinning when around Europeans if we can hardly do that with ourselves. White people, Asian people and "Latinos" feel no sense of guilt having cartoons, movies, plays neighbourhoods without one Black in the picture. It disturbs me that as soon as we get a platform to express this art form we gotta go including EVERYBODY. I actually hate that about us and resent Black people who can't see the insanity in this behaviour.

So is this theme maintaining the staus quo? Are you trying to not offend Whites and other nonBlacks while compromising what our reality and issues are?

I also looked at the cartoon pictures and it sends this message to me: How to make Black kids grow up and Happily and comfortably fit into a White owned and controlled society. I know that's not your agenda but that's the impression i got. Let them laugh and grin but amongst themselves. Just keep it Black. And to be proBlack does not mean being anti-white. Only White people think that. Have some jet Black people thrown in their with Afro puffs. Now also, say you include Different Cultures including Whites right? WHAT IS THE CULTURE OF THE CARTOON CHARACTERS? (im not yelling either lol)
White people don't talk about White Culture because they run the Culture we live in.
 
I'm happy kyooms came to this site to discuss this before just getting it produced with no forethought. Marcus Garvey said unfortunately most of Educated amongst our people are the Biggest sell-outs. So i Give Kyooms respect for even being willing to discuss this on this site. :jumping:
 

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