Whitewashing Non-white Countries

[ohmypizza]

I hope that this doesn't only bother me.  I'm not talking about Studio Deen whitewashing Seychelles, Egypt and Turkey, since someone already covered that.  I'm talking about the fans not doing their research and rendering a lot of non-white countries lily white.  I've seen too many examples of this.  People who make Greenland OCs tend to especially

Comments

[franceismyhomie]

I hate it whenever people did not do the research on whatever country they're making an OC of.

I've seen one or two OCs for Sri Lanka [my home country] that lists Russia and China as their parents. Not necessarily white washing, but wtf? How on earth did you get those two as the parents? Just because they're the two popular Asian countries in Hetalia?

My opinion is if you're going to make an OC, do it for something you actually know so you don't risk offending someone from that country. Or, you know, RESEARCH.

[juandalyn]

WAIT WHAT.
Sri Lanka? Russia and China? WHAT THE HECK?!

I'm not from Sri Lanka but my friend is and... wow. That's stupid.

[franceismyhomie]

THAT WAS MY REACTION TOO!

I died on the inside when I saw that. There's another where it was like, Haiwaii and Sri Lanka were friends and stuff and I had no idea where they got to that conclusion o_O

Oh these people -.-

[kecen]

Somebody probably wanted Russia and China to have a lovechild >>

Still, Sri Lanka's culture is totally distinct from Russia and China's so whaaaaat.

[rosetteroulette]

Yes, this.

Research is really required when making an OC. And if they'd done the research but ignored it, screw them.

There's nothing wrong with non-white people. >(

[kainoliero]

In case of Iceland-clone Greenland I guess most people's explanation is that Iceland originally "found" Greenland and inhabited it - well, at least some parts of it. But those people eventually either died or moved away completely so there's absolutely no reason for Iceland lookalike OC's. Even Denmark would make more sense, in case we for some reason really cannot have an Inuit Greenland... -.-

In short: yes, this, so much.

[alexander_rowe]

Finally someone addresses this here. I'm normally a lurker to Hetalia_Wank, but by god I had to come out of the shadows and comment.
I know what you mean about people whitewashing personifications of places that should be like the natives that live there.
I have seen everything from white African countries (Benin, Nigeria, and Madagascar) to Fiji, Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa, and Martinique not looking like natives at all but cookie cutter blonde hair blue eyed sues.
It's terrible and it shows just how ignorant some people can be. When making personifications, it's a learning experience. Not everyone in this world is the same, people are different and that is what makes our world such a wonderful place.
Another thing that grinds my gears is when people say: "Oh they were occupied by France, England, America, etc. that is why they are blonde". Well what you need to realize is that they were their before any of those nations showed up...

[nodokaotonashi]

"Another thing that grinds my gears is when people say: "Oh they were occupied by France, England, America, etc. that is why they are blonde". Well what you need to realize is that they were their before any of those nations showed up..."

Yes this. I mean... look at countries like Cameroon or Egypt ! Are OC makers too afraid of making some countries more tanned than others ?

[ohmypizza]

I'm usually a lurker, too, even though I did post something that was annoying me in the free-for-all wank post this community had a while back. This is my first true post, too. I was waiting for someone to talk about this, so I just took it into my own hands

[arachnes_web]

I really never thought there could be anything more annoying/offensive than the good 'old kink meme standard of Hawai'i being America's and Japan's butt-baby...but you found it. O.O

[landcow]

I agree with everyone's comments within this post! I don't have anything else to add. ^^;

[pantsu]

hey this is gonna sound really creepy probably but whatever mang, someone showed me a tumblr post you made bitching at us about how we were judging j-fen for their norway pictures even though they flipped at the tsunami art etc etc

I just wanted to clarify that I don't think any of us were trying to blanket judge the entirety of J-fen, but some of us noticed that there were a few people who had complained about the tsunami art who then went and drew bloody Norway art, which is all tiers of uncool. That's all - nobody was saying the collective whole of Japanese fandom is guilty of this, but we're gonna call out hypocrisy when we see it in individuals. We're not going to take it out on everybody, and luckily people from both current events who drew the offending art ended up taking it all down, so it ain't no thang.

[landcow]

Naw, not creepy. Sometimes the internet feels like a really small place.

"Bitching"? Um... I don't know if this was intentional or not, but when you put it that way, it feels quite antagonizing. It sounds like you're calling me a bitch after all...

From some of the comments in that post, I think I was justified in believing people were referring to the entire J-fen. For example, people were saying stuff like "Stay classy, J-fen" or "My respect for the J-fen has dropped". If they don't feel that way about the entire J-fen, then that's good. They just could've worded their comments a little better.

[pantsu]

ok yeah that's cool as long as you weren't talking about me LMAO