Of Pokemon and Racism

Of Pokemon and Racism

In the last few weeks I have been seeing a lot of the following photo;

I have to tell you, that's pretty fucking racist. Jynx maybe the most obvious racist caricature I have seen created for some Japanese cartoon... and that's saying a lot. Jynx is a blackface mammy in a blond wig, and comparing Nicki Minaj to it is incredibly racist. It's racist on top of racism.

Then again, to be fair, the Pokemon series is literally about trapping random wild animals and having them fight each other for the amusement of children, so, y'know, a racist caricature in there seems kind of pair for the course. Though, considering that these are supposed to be wild animals, maybe that makes it a fuck of a lot worse....

This does bring up other really fucked up stuff because in the lore of the universe Pokemon are incredibly intelligent-- in the show all of them understand language-- but you "can" still own them and make them fight for sport and money. So the presence of a specifically black caricature is all kinds of super fucked up.