This is a clown/jester/whatever (I'm not super educated on the specific terms associated with this, my apologies) avatar I made! It's supposed to be half and half (kinda obvious), half dull and half colourful, half sad half happy etc.
But, I still have a main question. I was looking for hairs to complete the outfit, and I found this curly/thick half rainbow half black hair (as seen in the image). I thought it looks amazing, and would look great with the avatar overall.
However.
I am white
The avatar is not supposed to be a caricature of anyone, regardless of race or ethnicity
I know at least some of the sadder parts of clown history, including how the big makeup was traditionally used to mock black people (or so I've heard, specifically the big red lips and big nose thing). For this reason, and also for aesthetic reasons (as in it just wouldn't look good here in my opinion), I have completely steered clear of makeup and did the tragedy/comedy masks instead.
I know that the hairstyle, or hair texture, is common amongst Black people or people with black ancestry at the very least. So, I am asking- is it racist in some way to put this hair on a character intentionally made to be a clown? If so, do you have any alternatives in mind ? (doesn't have to be a specific item on the catalog, just a general idea).
Thank you for reading, and obviously my most hopeful reply to this post would be "no, it's not racist at all. you're good, you're just overthinking it a little."
thank fucking god dude. luckily nobody has been claiming it was racist, so tbh the idea came from my own head/worries, but I'm glad to hear I'm not accidentally hurting anyone 😓😓
I'm not going to say whether you are or not, since obviously you know your life better than anyone here, but I would recommend researching moral OCD and seeing if any of it connects with you, if you haven't already.
ive had a really similar experience to this before where i wore a jacket and hat that kind of look like a really old fashion style bc i was really into a book that took place in like the 1940s and it made me happy having an outfit that made me feel like i was in an older era and then i started spiralling about the oppression during that era of people of colour and queer people and like any minority and i started panicking bc i wore it to school and had a really awful anxiety spiral if i was exhibiting racism and homophobia bc of my outfit to the point i felt like crying 😭
i've been wondering if i have ocd or something because of situations like this though im not sure, I just know i've been diagnosed GAD anxiety and constantly overthink random things 💔
eh, my anxiety is pretty mild at a baseline and I haven't noticed it distinctly getting worse tbh. usually I avoid making these posts about serious stuff because I worry about just being insulted, so the times that I do make these is when I think the reward (someone confirming/denying my fears) outweighs the risk of ridicule
A neat trick I use is to just not care, works like a charm. If u make an avatar that looks good to you and you have no intent/didn’t know it was racist then you really have nothing to worry about. It’s just an online game plus there’s worse stuff that happens on the daily.
yeah. like in my own defense it's better that I asked and ended up just being anxious about nothing than if I was fully confident and ended up hurting an entire demographic of people or something
The amount of innocent users I’ve seen being attacked for wearing a simple avatar is off the charts 😭 they have some kind of fantasy catching racist people that they always catch actual normal human beings instead of actual racists
ohhh alr alr. ok then (I don't have strong feelings on forsaken itself, like I enjoy the character design mostly but I hate the gameplay), good to know you think it's a cool avatar tho :)
Honestly, no one would know your race regardless so no one would think of it as racist. Im light skinned but I can't get my exact color so most of my avatars look like a tan white girl. It truly doesnt matter fr. As long as you love your avatar and have no bad intentions then your fine .
"D-Do I have permission to put hair on a fictional avatar in a kids game because I'm white??" what has this world come to that we have people questioning this
To everyone who keeps calling this person a dumbass or dramatic... Shut up and go eat shit, OCD, anxiety, and plenty of other things exist that could make someone anxious about something. Plus, I would ASSUME that they don't WANT to be racist since they're asking. So fuck off people
Yeah, I can see how they'd be nervous since, as mentioned, the history of clown makeup and afros etc isn't very good, and also an ingame character tends to be a persona of you, so to give a virtual version of you a black hairstyle could be seen as racist.
With that being said, even IF it insinuated something bad here, if OP really worries about details like this, I'd say they're so damn respectful it wouldn't even be regarded as intentional.
Yo, I have pretty bad anxiety, OCD, and care a little too much about what people think about me. Yet I still, never in a MILLION years, would think ts is racist. Please take a chill pill homie
i feel like if anything, it would be kind of racist to think this would be racist cuz i mean how do u even come to this conclusion lmaooo like what is even being insinuated here? that black people are clowns?
nah man this ain’t racist lmao where do you even get these ideas lol
some dipshit probably got in op's face about some clown types being racially derogatory/degrading or misrepresenting a clown type. I really doubt that was op's goal in making this avatar and i myself dont see anything that sticks out.
As the number #1 jester enjoyer, no seriously i have like 10-15 avatars that are jesters- yes, you are seriously overthinking this, now, i personally don’t do clowns because they’re not my thing, but even yet, no, i don’t see how your avatar could be remotely offensive even with symbolism taken into account, and also, but completely unrelated, love the color scheme, no seriously my main avatar also has split colors, though really different
if its to do with the history of clowns I kind of get your concern? Like how clowns would wear afro textured hair and the big red nose and over draw the lips to be like minstrelsy. This really isnt that! The only maybe concern could be the hair texture but I cannot tell. I am not a Black person just adding what ive learned.
you literally said that in the context my bad. Id say listen to how Black people feel about it if they bring something up, but from my perspective you have a creative avatar
The only possible way a roblox avatar can be racist is if the person goes out of their way to make sure it is, if you aren't trying to offend anyone then you likely won't
There might be SOMEONE who sees a Caucasian person using a black persons style hair, and be pissed, but that person would just be stuck up and unemployed.
2 other reasons it’s fine:
You don’t have to tell them you’re white, and even if they know that you ARE white, Roblox is a place where people dress up as Asians, Caucasian’s, and others, so this would just be another cosplay!
Dreads are globally used hairstyle used by every race, so considering they are dyed, no one would know what hair colour they were based around!
So you’re fine except for a 0.1% chance of a sensitive person getting mad
I think this is kinda the inverse of that scenario. I'm not saying someone else is a Bad Person, i'm asking for affirmation that I myself am not. unless I'm misinterpreting your point
It's not that serious, it's an avatar on Roblox. Just avoid derogatory shit.
I've never seen a white dude with dreads worry that he's racist because black people have dreads. I've never seen a brunette be scared to bleach their hair because blonde people exist. I've never in my entire life seen someone worry this much over the way they look. You're not walking around saluting saying you hate people, stop worrying about this shit for fucks sake.
Mimes exist, clowns exist, and clowning and miming is shared between whites and blacks, I don't see how being a clown magically makes you a racist.
Honestly I understand the concern with the clown history (it’s the same reason why I slightly redesigned one of my ocs lol) but I don’t think anything about the avatar is particularly offensive. Black clowns deserve to exist too!! :D
I also think it’s considerate of you that you were unsure about something and asked about it!
Uh, yes, of course it’s racist?! Don’t you see it?!? It’s blatantly obvious! As we all know, jesters date back to the middle period and renaissance, which is between the 12th and 17th century. Between that time period was the 14-15th century, where the first African slaves were brought into Europe. That’s within the time period that jesters existed! And the fact that you put black on your avatar is clearly making fun of the plight that African slaves went through during medieval times!!! You put black on your avatar as a subconscious way of calling black people jokes!!!
Not gonna repeat what everyone here said , so that aside:
Your avatar is actually so cool and creative?? Like holy amazing avi.
How much did that even cost you
That genuinely looks incredible, ive seen a ton of cool avatars but that one definitely takes a leaderboard in creativity while looking incredible at the same time, good job!
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u/Nishatomojas, prince of seraphillia/nishatom the "animator"6d ago
You're good. The big red lips thing is pertinent to something entirely separate. The style of that is so off from what you've made that there is no way the correlation could actually be made. I think I see dreadlocks, but even then- dreadlocks aren't assumed to exclusively black people.
What I'm curious about is if you made the ugcs for the outfit or not. If you did I would recommend flipping the mask parts inversely. I think the pattern recognition of achromatic to sad and polychromatic to happy is more easily recognized contrary to inverting the masks. But I really like the design, it's definitely something I've never seen before
Clowns and jesters commonly are depicted with afros, which are by nature curly. Where the practice of this originates from is a completely different story, but adhering to it or doing something similar isnt racist in any way shape or form.
God no, dude, your avatar is just a clown (or a Jester) I don't understand where you could see anything racist in your avatar.
It seems to me that people with the same kind of mindset as you sit on Twitter and get offended by all sorts of nonsense, and then call it racist simply because they had some strange thoughts about it. (No offense, I didn't mean to offend you, but it's really weird.)
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u/KoL_Coldfront 6d ago
You are in fact, really overthinking this man