Genshin Impact Rant Book

no offense but black skin > white skin

So since Sumeru is coming soon, I wanted to make a chapter about some of the complaints I'm seeing, esp on Twitter (and I'm sure I would see the complaints on TikTok too if I had it lol - anyone with Tiktok can lmk).

Let's get one thing straight. Not all dark skinned people are Black. Not all Black people have dark skin.

What's funny is the amount of people getting mad at the leaked Sumeru characters because of the skin tone not being dark. If you guys don't know about it, way before Sumeru was an ongoing topic like now, people were speculating that Sumeru was going to be a "All Black nation."

Even now there's some people still thinking the same thing. For some reason, in their eyes, anyone who is dark skinned HAS to be a Black person - period. Anyone who disagrees is labeled as a racist and "Black hater".

Take Xinyan for example. There has been some Chinese people digging deeper into her lore and her descriptions and explaining that Xinyan is actually a dark skinned Chinese girl.

But of course, people are quick to jump in and say:

no, if she's gonna be asian, she's also black. So blasian

Uhhhh stop trying to erase Black people bruh y'all cHinEsE already have representation 💀

Xinyan is literally a Black name but n e ways-

Not ppl tryna erase black culture eww so qUirKy 🤡🤡

Her hair is literally AFRO. IT'S BLACK CULTURE STFU DUMB BITCH

Asian people are pale skinned. It's likely Xinyan is Black more so because Asian people are pale.... not black skin like her

Guys.... there are dark skinned Asian people. Source? Myself and the people I meet lmao.

I'm a pale skinned Asian, but it's disrespectful and ignorant to say only Asians can be pale skinned and dark skinned Asians don't exist at all.

Similarly, there are Black people who have lighter skin tone too. Source? Myself and the people I meet lmao.

A few months ago when I was at an event on my campus, this club was hosting a panel where they talked about the existence of Black people who has a lighter skin tone and how they get treated horribly by some people in the Black community. They get called rude names and often are told they aren't "Black enough".

That event I experienced reminded me of the situation that's going on with the Genshin fandom now. People are saying some really dumb and illogical comments:

Sumeru better be filled w/ Black people otherwise I'm not supporting hoyoverse anymore

Black people for years go through racism and get told our skin is ugly. We need representation in this all White game

No offense but..... black skin > white skin

White people ain't shit and it's sad Genshin is filled with them 😭🤡

Sumeru is supposed to represent Africa. Wtf is with all these weird ass names that's NOT African?!

And there goes another game misrepresenting Black people 🙄 we go through racism irl and in game too lmao

why so much hate on us black people? Y'all it's 2022 get a grip 💀 nothing is wrong with us claiming the character as black! She HAS DARK SKIN. She's BLACK 🤷🏿‍♀️ only black queens and kings can rock that dark color

Genshin is a FICTIONAL game. Why are people trying so hard to make it realistic when it's a fantasy video game? Yeah, some things might not make any damn sense, but it's fiction for a reason.

Also there's a speculation that maybe one of the characters (this dark skinned girl) is going to be a four star. This made people so pissed off to the point they're calling Chinese people "racist" and "anti-black" for not making her a 5 star.

One possible reason why I think Hoyoverse hasn't made a dark skinned character a five star could be because of the colorism in some (if not all) Asian cultures.

For years, Asians are taught that pale skin is beautiful while dark skin is not. That's why there's so many beauty products geared to help people lighten their skin to be "more beautiful". Growing up, I was even told by my parents to not go out in the sun for too long, otherwise my skin will get dark and ugly.

So while I don't agree with it, it's an explanation as to why there hasn't been a five star dark skinned character. BUT even with this fact, you shouldn't assume all Chinese people are colorists. If anything, there could be some people working at Hoyoverse who have a negative thinking on dark skin. Some employees' thoughts doesn't represent all Chinese people.

Westerners - Stop acting entitled and believing that you not spending money on Genshin is going to make them change their ways to suit the Western lens. In reality, they don't care atm (and hopefully never will) because most of their income is coming from the Asian countries.

I'm just going to pull for one of the Sumeru characters, but that's it. I'm not pulling because I support Hoyoverse, but I'm just pulling because I like the design. If they don't make any dark skinned characters, GOODBYE, Hoyoverse. I'm not spending my money anymore. So you lost a whaling customer.

So...... I'm sorry, but don't expect some future muscular and dark skinned five star characters. I'm not saying it's not possible, but just don't have high expectations. Diversity is great and all, but some people are really finding any chance they can get to complain about it. If you're that upset, then stop playing and go play another game. Better yet, make a game yourself and add in diversity.

How do you guys feel about Sumeru coming up? I'm really excited to explore and meet all the new characters! Also, if there's anything I missed about the online controversy with Sumeru, lmk! Sometimes I'm so busy writing about one topic that I totally forget to talk about another one later on.

♦︎ AnnoyedAsian