Why not watch another whilst you’re here? https://youtu.be/MZJdcr4fhnY
And/or support me on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/spice8rack
Massive thank you to Amanda Stevens for her wonderful insight. You can find her at the links below!
Website: https://www.amandastevens.org/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AmandaTNStevens
Articles: https://commandersherald.com/author/amanda-stevens/
00:00:00 – Introduction
00:01:50 – 1993: Mirage
00:09:36 – Magic’s Drought of Blackness
00:14:53 – Let’s Talk About Problematic Cards
00:23:33 – Black Planeswalkers
00:32:43 – Why Does Representation Matter?
00:38:40 – 2000: Invasion
00:42:29 – Now & The Future
00:52:54 – The Limits of Represenation
00:58:20 – Conclusion
~Tags~
Magic the Gathering, MTG, Magic the Gathering Story, Magic the Gathering Lore, MTG Story, MTG Lore, MTG Blackness, Black Characters Fantasy, Black Characters Scifi, Blackness, MTG Racism, Magic the Gathering Racism, Teferi Lore, Brothers War Lore, I’m afraid Timmy doesn’t feel well today Miss Bullsworth at least I assume he doesn’t seeing as we haven’t fished him out of that sulfer cave yet, Urza Lore
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Vorthos: "Since Zhalfir was fully phased out of the multiverse before the Mending, we could have some pre-Mending Planeswalkers appearing!"
WOTC: "…huh…wow, that's way better than what I was thinking of"
"What were you thinking of?"
"Well, now I'm embarrassed to say…"
Yes, diversity and representation are important.
I think that the laser-focus on skin-color of today's guest is quite unhealthy however.
When I heard the story of them focusing on skin-colour first and being hyper-aware of it even during their childhood it just seems weird to me.
Maybe I'm the weird one or maybe it's because I'm european and grew up in a culturally diverse environment, but I never even notice the characters skin colour in cards.
I'm more like "hey, that planeswalkers costume looks sick!" or " I love how the designers drew the characters in a dynamic way". If you'd asked me to describe Tefferi before this vid I'd have said "He has an air of wisdom and noble character about him and wears some clothes that remind me of a vizir" not "he's that black dude."
The whole diatribe about card-counting black-skinned charcters seemed real petty and obsessive. Why do there absolutely have to be an equal number of black and white people in magic in important roles? I thought we were past the whole "Judging a characters worth by their skin colour". Instead of evaluating personality Amanda makes it come across as: "if the character isn't black, they are worth less for me". The dicussion itself mentioned how most black-skinned characters of relevance have been included in recent years. Clearly Wizards are making an effort to get with the times and include people of all races and genders. You can't just dump a boatload of characters into a story all of a sudden to fulfill some black-quota. I simply cannot understand why skincolour is your measure of a person.
Amanda described the Persians as being the merchants of North Africa, however the only Persian empire that had territory in north Africa was the Achaemenid Empire (550 –330 BCE). The Umayyad Caliphate (661–750 CE) had a much greater impact on the formation of the modern culture of North Africa than the Persians ever did, such as spreading Arabic as the common language of the region. I'm used to westerners down playing the historical contributions of Arabs especially considering that people from Morocco to Egypt identify as Arab.
I'm sorry you lost me at Koth.
I also would like to hear more about Aminatou
When you brought up the legendary creatures, I just had to think of Adeline: Introduced as a love interest for Chandra, so of course she had to be a badass but nothing else in the story.
ok, but wtf is up with that mug spice? Are you wanting to drink all the tea ever?
Y'all really sleeping on my girl Huatli. I don't know much of the lore, so might be something in the lore where she is not even human. But i do love me some dino riders and I do want to see her in more cards.
Also the Amonkhet comments make me think of that one picture of the super white Pharaoh that people pass around saying he's from a text book
Mirage block is my favorite block, the art is most of why, and now I recognise another reason I love mirage block
Since I'm very new to MtG lore I would like someone to answer me: are all main humanoid villains (not counting Bolas who sort of is humanoid) either white or their card is white? Because ok Yawgmoth, Elesh Norn, Garruk, Lim Dul, any vampire boss, tezzeret, Ob nixilis, Heliod, Mishra… Technically Karn when he became corrupted, sure. Any other?
With all due respect to M*** vs D******, this is the one I’ve been waiting for. I’m a Black person who’s about the same age as Amanda (old lol) and started playing in Urza’s block. Disruptive Student – amongst other cards – always stuck in my craw…I stopped playing just as Odyssey came out but have come back to the game in the last year or so, not least thanks to finding your videos. Amanda said it all really, but the difference is astonishing. There is still a long ass way to go. But hey, at least it’s being acknowledged by Wizards.
This video means a lot. Thank you.
Always glad to see Amanda on a YT vid. When she speaks, you listen.
I how they talked about people not connecting with individuals in the media they consume but I relate to that a lot I'm mixed race and can relate to the whole not being x enough for then and being too x for the other. But I don't really care too much about representation, I play the game for the mechanics if anything it's funny sometimes when people point out art. I hope they go back to Jamuraa for this person and anyone else feels the same way, but I don't really even look at the art that deeply. Just give me a strong card all I'll play it make them black white mixed asian imma play the card
Who gives a sh!t what color these fake characters in a fake world are.. this is lame progressive, representation nonsense for losers. You people are a plague on society.
I'm not sure if they mentioned Estrid being a Black Planeswalker. I was cooking while listening, but either way, Estrid has a pretty cool design and should also receive more love from WotC
Imagine being so one dimensional you need other people to look like you in order to relate of identify yourself with them.
I would argue that Daretti has a pretty badass prosthetic for mobility reasons
I don’t think it’s fair to say that Koth isn’t black, and that Vivien is. Vivien has fine, straight hair, and Koth is a rock person from an artificial world where everyone is a metal/rock person in some way. They both have dark skin, and look generally like a person of African descent on Earth would look, except: they aren’t black.
Being black is a lot more than being of African descent, or having dark skin, or coarse hair. It’s being the heir to a long history of diaspora due to European colonization, and the effects of that which are being felt by millions of people… on Earth. Vivien, Koth, and even Teferi do not meet this definition of blackness- they have dark skin, and look like me and some of the members of my family, sure- but they aren’t me, and they aren’t black. They’re dark-skinned people from a fantasy world.
I know that all people seek to see themselves in the stories they consume, and I love to see people of all colors and types in Magic, because that’s what the real world looks like: a diversity of kinds of people, and a cornucopia of experiences and appearances- unlike the strangely pale NYC of Friends, as Amanda points out. But these Magic characters can never be truly black, and to claim that Koth can’t be black because he’s an elemental person or somesuch is to entirely miss the point.
I can't help feeling kind of weird about the Koth bit because he's very visibly a black guy? Like he's very clearly a human with dark brown skin and chunks of rock growing from his body. He's not soot black like the salamanders in 40k are and I don't think the presence of stone growths or glowing eyes take away from the fact that he's visibly a flesh person with skin. Especially when you show the different depictions of him on screen and he's clearly not like obsidian or anything.
Really good points about Amonkhet, it's a favorite plane of mine but giving the art a more critical eye than I did 5 years ago the vast majority of those cards don't look like black people. I'm so used to depictions of Egypt that either skew more fair-skinned or simply have white folks in the role that it didn't sink in. Rather silly in hindsight, I hope we get some much darker skin tones next we visit Amonkhet. Especially with the influence of Bolas gone and that no longer being the dressing of the plane they could really up the black feel and culture.
HEY NOW! There's a difference between poorly drawn and stylized art! Phil and Kaja Foglio are far from poor artists! Though I would never say their art and style is up to the rendering standards of current Magic.
I find the argument that fantasy races/aliens don't count as representation for minorities odd when no doubt we take the opposite as more evidence of overwhelming whiteness or male representation. It's a double standard to point to all the monsters, elves, dwarves and aliens that Are Literally or are coded as white and/or male as part of evidence of racism/sexism via defaulting but then at the same time don't consider characters like Yaheeni or categories of human like the Vulshok as valid representation.
I'm not saying Amanda isn't making a good point here because there is a problem in lots of media of parceling out representation to characters or fantasy races that aren't standard humans. I would never argue we need fewer standard humans representing more races/sexualities/etc, rather I wouldn't want to see black elves get abolished because the art directors decide "we've learned that a black elf doesn't count as representation, so we won't bother ensuring future black elves".
We've had some one-shot style stories/planes lately. Strixhaven and Ikoria were not very connected to the current primary plot of Phyrexia returning. Our more recent visits to Theros and Innistrad were pretty much their own things as well, no Phyrexians or anything.
Fantastic video glad I watched it. Diversity is pretty much always good though similar to Mass Effect when it comes to Magic: The Gathering I consider it a core value of the game itself.
37:31 i used too never feel represented in media then i watched beastars and legoshi became a trauma kin but also i was an egg and the little trans rep in media is hyper fem
I can't be the only one who saw Teferi in the thumbnail and was like "Teferi's not black, he's blue and white" and thought it was one of those clickbait incorrect thumbnail&title combos for a good few seconds.
I understand that this is not related to the overall point of the video, but reading the arkbow as a weapon introduced to defeat Bolas is a very strange take. For M19, the set that debuted Vivien, all of the planeswalkers were related to Bolas in some way. But they realized they didn’t have anyone for green, so they made one. Yes, it felt a little like Captain Marvel who was similarly introduced as a powerhouse for the good guys, but I never felt like they implied the arkbow was this crucial weapon. Because she’s right that the darkblade is doing that already in the narrative. The arkbow, narratively, is an ark. All the animal spirits on it to escape destruction. Meta, it gives Vivien a different power set than other creature-based planeswalkers and makes her stand out as the only archer. And I don’t see her replacing Teferi. She really feels like a backup for Nissa more than anything else.
Always enjoy your stuff.
CORRECTION: Ixalan only takes place on the archipelago of Ixalan, but the continent of Torrezan is just mentioned en-passsant, same for the floating city of the brazen coalition.
Speaking of Zimone, I was excited to learn today she's reappearing on a new art reprint of Rhystic Study, appearing in Jumpstart 2022. In universe art that's not by a terf. I'll be happy to be asked if I pay the one with that facing across from me.
granted, i am white, so i'm ready to defer to the experience of POC folk on this, but i don't really get the section un-claiming Koth here. he is clearly supposed to be both human and black (the Vulshok are definitely human mechanically and in the lore). having metallic outgrowths on your skin does not make him an elemental, that's the default look for every living being on Mirrodin.
plus, he just seems cool as hell, is Mirrodin's leading freedom fighter and has been the source of my favorite flavor text in all of Mtg (Darksteel Plate). i'd certainly much rather he be the red-aligned planeswalker rep on the Gatewatch than Miss "racial ambiguity, bisexual erasure" Chandra.
On the topic of disabled characters I would like to point out that Daretti is a wheel chair user, Elspeth has PTSD, Narset is typcially considered to be ND, Freyalise wears an eyepatch, even Urza used powerstones as prosthetic eyes. I'm not trying to refute what Amanda was saying but I do love pointing out disabiled representation when possible
Honestly, this really highlights how far representation has to go. Like we’re just trying to get things to the baseline of representation. We’re nowhere near the point where we can show all the diversity’s within those groups. Like my family is Cherokee. We’re in the tribe, we vote, receive the newspaper (we were publishing newspapers before walking the trail of tears), etc. anytime I see Native Americans in media and games our tribe is never represented. I just want something. I don’t even care if it borders on racism. I’ll take any representation at this point. Take the risk. We can get more nuisanced as we do more, I just want something at this point.
Still waiting on that mill vs discard video