Hey guys, so this is just my opinion, and me not being biased, and yes....I'm indeed black, let's carry on. Read it all before you decide to try and execute me in the comments. I would like to say I don't think Jaxx intended to be racist, and I don't think this manga was intended to come off as racist. I think that they wanted to do a story in which the period itself was briefly a factor of the manga. I can totally see how this comes off as racist yaoi slop. I think that while it wasn't intended to be racist, it is written in ignorance and in a way of 'oh the main guy so humble for letting the slaves go' and the love interest is a 'humble slave master' it's giving that slaves they had weither they looked after then or inherited them due to their 'humbleness' if you will, we must completely glamorize and glorify them because they aren't bad like the brutal instances of slavery we know about and even don't know about in history.
I think Jaxx jumped the gun and should've gotten fellow black individuals' opinions on this before they published this. I think if they did this and actually put more care into how they wrote this, I think it wouldn't have gotten nearly as much backlash as it got. With a topic like this, you have to be extremely careful or simply not write it at all. Jaxx could've easily just written about the time period and left slavery out of it completely, or loosely have it added (such as slavery is abolished or currently the civil war is ongoing). I doubt Jaxx was going to heavily talk about slavery in itself, and it was going to be a book about a man who sets slaves free and is a slave owner. It comes off condescending and watered down, so we can digest this so we don't feel disgusted reading it.
This was extremely risque and as much as I want to commend them for taking such a huge risk, I also think it's incredibly stupid because I could've altered this plot to where it wouldn't have nearly been offensive, and it could've still been yaoi with maybe a similar and dare I say a more interesting plot. It could've been a rivalry between two generals or commanders in the Civil War who fall for each other, but they are on opposing sides because idk they have a father who they are scared to disappoint, so they have to be for slavery but they don't actually have that view. Hell...it could've been about two generals on the same side that are scared to be gay because they know, on top of being abolitionists, they would get murdered for being gay. Or cowboys who trade goods....anything would've been better than this.
BTW, not saying this actually should've been written.....but I'm just saying.....there were better storylines if you were gonna do this kind of political story of this multitude. All this to say....regardless, I don't think Jaxx was going to be able to give this type of history justice anyways, because I doubt Jaxx did their due diligence in learning enough history to do this manga. (I see comments saying in Korean they aren't even taught about slavery.) Respectfully, I'm not losing sleep that the story is cancelled, and neither should you. I think the criticism they got was fair, and I don't think it needs to be written, especially after they cancelled it.
The thing is, it would look so bad on Jaxx if they came back after they said the book was cancelled and they came back to finish it, and not only that, they didn't improve the story. It's a big slap in the face to black people. Also, those who are comparing people, I guess loving manga with rape to slavery (drawing the line at slavery), are actually insane and incredibly ignorant. Not only did people during slavery rape black people, but they ate them, lynched them, used their skin as decorations, made them have sex in front of others to emasculate/humiliate each other.....the list goes on. I have nuance to enjoy a book while not justifying or ignoring the actions of the characters in the book, but we are not about to compare fucking slavery that lasted over 200 years, to rape in yaoi. It is not remotely the same. Not downplaying rape, obviously, but I want you to genuinely hear how fucking insane this sounds. 'You can read rape in yaoi, but you draw the line at slavery?' Yes, bitch I do, *imagine I can add a meme, and it's Cardi B in court meme gesturing to her eyes* like are some off yall deadass?
Hey guys, so this is just my opinion, and me not being biased, and yes....I'm indeed black, let's carry on. Read it all before you decide to try and execute me in the comments. I would like to say I don't think Jaxx intended to be racist, and I don't think this manga was intended to come off as racist. I think that they wanted to do a story in which the period itself was briefly a factor of the manga. I can totally see how this comes off as racist yaoi slop. I think that while it wasn't intended to be racist, it is written in ignorance and in a way of 'oh the main guy so humble for letting the slaves go' and the love interest is a 'humble slave master' it's giving that slaves they had weither they looked after then or inherited them due to their 'humbleness' if you will, we must completely glamorize and glorify them because they aren't bad like the brutal instances of slavery we know about and even don't know about in history.
I think Jaxx jumped the gun and should've gotten fellow black individuals' opinions on this before they published this. I think if they did this and actually put more care into how they wrote this, I think it wouldn't have gotten nearly as much backlash as it got. With a topic like this, you have to be extremely careful or simply not write it at all. Jaxx could've easily just written about the time period and left slavery out of it completely, or loosely have it added (such as slavery is abolished or currently the civil war is ongoing). I doubt Jaxx was going to heavily talk about slavery in itself, and it was going to be a book about a man who sets slaves free and is a slave owner. It comes off condescending and watered down, so we can digest this so we don't feel disgusted reading it.
This was extremely risque and as much as I want to commend them for taking such a huge risk, I also think it's incredibly stupid because I could've altered this plot to where it wouldn't have nearly been offensive, and it could've still been yaoi with maybe a similar and dare I say a more interesting plot. It could've been a rivalry between two generals or commanders in the Civil War who fall for each other, but they are on opposing sides because idk they have a father who they are scared to disappoint, so they have to be for slavery but they don't actually have that view. Hell...it could've been about two generals on the same side that are scared to be gay because they know, on top of being abolitionists, they would get murdered for being gay. Or cowboys who trade goods....anything would've been better than this.
BTW, not saying this actually should've been written.....but I'm just saying.....there were better storylines if you were gonna do this kind of political story of this multitude. All this to say....regardless, I don't think Jaxx was going to be able to give this type of history justice anyways, because I doubt Jaxx did their due diligence in learning enough history to do this manga. (I see comments saying in Korean they aren't even taught about slavery.) Respectfully, I'm not losing sleep that the story is cancelled, and neither should you. I think the criticism they got was fair, and I don't think it needs to be written, especially after they cancelled it.
The thing is, it would look so bad on Jaxx if they came back after they said the book was cancelled and they came back to finish it, and not only that, they didn't improve the story. It's a big slap in the face to black people. Also, those who are comparing people, I guess loving manga with rape to slavery (drawing the line at slavery), are actually insane and incredibly ignorant. Not only did people during slavery rape black people, but they ate them, lynched them, used their skin as decorations, made them have sex in front of others to emasculate/humiliate each other.....the list goes on. I have nuance to enjoy a book while not justifying or ignoring the actions of the characters in the book, but we are not about to compare fucking slavery that lasted over 200 years, to rape in yaoi. It is not remotely the same. Not downplaying rape, obviously, but I want you to genuinely hear how fucking insane this sounds. 'You can read rape in yaoi, but you draw the line at slavery?' Yes, bitch I do, *imagine I can add a meme, and it's Cardi B in court meme gesturing to her eyes* like are some off yall deadass?