How long until Mr Popo gets cancelled?

[MyVisionity]

The notion that Africans sold their own people into slavery is a fallacy used to shift the blame of the slave trade onto its victims.

You do know that slavery was a thing long before africans and blacks, right. Like since the beginning of humans dominatiing other humans ... so the beginning of humans. People used to sell themselves into slavery for various reasons. Europeans came looking for slaves because it was known that slaves could be found there.

Of course slavery has existed among all peoples since the beginning of human history. What's your point?

The fact still remains that Africans were never selling their own people to Europeans. That's just a myth that people use to disparage Blacks by taking away responsibility for the slave trade from Europeans and putting it onto Africans.

[PurestEvil]

...so, as a girl who would totally date all three forms of Cell this thread is taking a hell of a tangent.

Alight, Lady J ...

I can totes get behind Mr. Perfect Jawline Cell. And I can even image Semi-Perfect Big Lips.

But lvl 0 Bug Boy?

And I'm a dude that could totally get behind MKX D’Vorah and just might be down for MK11 Mileena. Teeth and all.

You can’t deny Bug Boy’s slithery voice is alluring. His “bwuuuuh”s makes one blush...

[JulieYBM]

...so, as a girl who would totally date all three forms of Cell this thread is taking a hell of a tangent.

Alight, Lady J ...

I can totes get behind Mr. Perfect Jawline Cell. And I can even image Semi-Perfect Big Lips.

But lvl 0 Bug Boy?

And I'm a dude that could totally get behind MKX D’Vorah and just might be down for MK11 Mileena. Teeth and all.

They're all handsome goodboys, especially the first form! He can scare off chasers and has that feeling of "probably REALLY good in the kitchen" to him. I want him to forcibly transform me into his cicada girlfriend and then force me to do naughty things!!

[Anonymous Friend]

The notion that Africans sold their own people into slavery is a fallacy used to shift the blame of the slave trade onto its victims.

You do know that slavery was a thing long before africans and blacks, right. Like since the beginning of humans dominatiing other humans ... so the beginning of humans. People used to sell themselves into slavery for various reasons. Europeans came looking for slaves because it was known that slaves could be found there.

Of course slavery has existed among all peoples since the beginning of human history. What's your point?

The fact still remains that Africans were never selling their own people to Europeans. That's just a myth that people use to disparage Blacks by taking away responsibility for the slave trade from Europeans and putting it onto Africans.

You don' gon full Simple Jack here, boy. Never go full Simple Jack.

Africans sold Africans. That's fact. Just like any other group that has sold people from their own people. There's nothing different in that regard. Heck, the jewish story of Joseph had his own brothers selling him into slavery over jealousy.

The issue of US slavery was how they treated their slaves. And the horrors endured. And are still felt to this day. No one cares about who made the sell, just the treatment that resulted from it.

Did you know that if a jew had slaves, he was required by law for the wellbeing of those people. He was not allowed to mistreat that slave.

[MyVisionity]

Africans sold Africans. That's fact. Just like any other group that has sold people from their own people. There's nothing different in that regard. Heck, the jewish story of Joseph had his own brothers selling him into slavery over jealousy.

You are applying modern concepts of race to a time period when they did not exist. The Africans that owned and sold slaves in that time did not identify as "African", because that category did not mean anything to them. Africans during that period identified themselves according to their languages, religions, clans, chiefdoms, and kingdoms. And the captives that they held as slaves were almost always foreigners, members of an outside group. They were not considered to be the same people.

Your Joseph story does not apply.

[Anonymous Friend]

Africans sold Africans. That's fact. Just like any other group that has sold people from their own people. There's nothing different in that regard. Heck, the jewish story of Joseph had his own brothers selling him into slavery over jealousy.

You are applying modern concepts of race to a time period when they did not exist. The Africans that owned and sold slaves in that time did not identify as "African", because that category did not mean anything to them. Africans during that period identified themselves according to their languages, religions, clans, chiefdoms, and kingdoms. And the captives that they held as slaves were almost always foreigners, members of an outside group. They were not considered to be the same people.

Your Joseph story does not apply.

Does it really matter? "Those dark skinned people living in those areas sold other dark skinned people living in that area, that area being the continent of African". I honestly don't really give a damn about who was buying and who was selling. It had been happening for thousands of years between different groups of people and between people of the same group. It's just another way for men to dominate other men through the ages.

It sounds like you agree that events happened but want to make special distinctions ... because?

[SlashHaiden]

I've known Dragon Ball my entire life, and even as a kid, I NEVER saw Mister Popo as being a stereotype of any sort or related to black people.
Even to this day, I look at Black from the Red Ribon arc and I do see a black man, but I look at Mister Popo, and I see an undefined humanoid creature with pitch black screen that doesn't exist in the world and pointy ears. The only thing in common between them are the lips, just like a common point between Nameks and Saiyans are the rectangle-eyes as opposed to characters like Bulma and Chichi.

Maybe this is because with Black, Toriyama clearly showed how he illustrates black people, so when Mister Popo was shown, it didn't even register in my mind that it could be any kind of representation of that, especially with the unrealistic pitch black and noticeable pointy ears. Toriyama might have been inspired by ill-intended parodies and stereotyped designs of the time that he might have seen here and there for the design, but he was also probably inspired by the devil for Dabra and I don't think he's trying to convey a satanist message or mock the Christians with that. The man just takes inspirations from common representations, including stereotypes, he just thinks "oh, those physical feature can be used for a creature if I tweak them a bit".

Plus, Mister Popo was never put into a situation that makes people mock him: he's immediately shown as stronger than the young Goku who has to learn from him, or later mentioned as a very respectable entity by Goku who points out he predates God himself and has known several past Gods, capable of initiatives that save the day when coming up with the spaceship for Namek, or shown as pretty clever when coming up quickly with the idea of fusing Goten and Trunks and the reasons why it would work when nobody could think of it. I don't remember any moment that's like "this guy's just like those funny black people, so laughable, now laugh in the audience!".

I don't think the character's in any trouble for the future, the same censorship might keep going for specific American channels (like the one that made him blue) or in the manga (you'd have to check if Viz still censors Mister Popo in DBS).

^ Cold Skin sums up my view entirely, Mr. Popo shouldn't be taken as a racist stereotype, as it wasn't intended that way (at least I think).