Depends on the family. Sure, they’re dead. Doesn’t change if they were a laugh riot or did incredibly laughable things in life. To mention those things isn’t really offensive. You are, after all, remembering them.
I went to a not-quite-funeral [the deceased’s ashes were being spread over Mt. Kilamanjaro as the service was being held], where the parents read a letter he had written as a child. It was the funniest plea for a raise in allowance I’d ever heard, and it was brilliant and was the epitome of the deceased, and goddamnit why did he have to die.
I’m leaving instructions that anyone who speaks at my funeral has to open with a joke. I’m totally serious. And I might make everyone wear one of those Groucho glasses/nose things. Including me.
I want a group to sing ‘Just One Person’ at my funeral. And ‘Movin’ Right Along’. If I could get away with it, I’d have them also sing a pop song while bawking like chickens.
I’ll do you one better. I wrote a eulogy for my dad’s funeral that was all jokes, because I couldn’t think of a better way of honouring my dad, whose real gift was the ability to make people see the funny side of life.
Not only did everyone laugh throughout the whole eulogy but lots of people came up and told me that out of everyone who spoke I was the one who really captured my dad’s spirit.
I was however terrified that no one would laugh before I actually gave the eulogy.
A good friend’s father passed away on Friday. To honor his wearing of Hawaiian shirts every day he possibly could (he was a retired San Diego County Sheriff), people attending the memorial service will be asked to wear Hawaiian shirts in Sam’s honor. Totally appropriate. RIP, Sam.
At my funeral I want an excerpt from any of the following read: a excerpt of a Discworld novel with (Terry Pratchett’s) Death, an excerpt from Sandman with (Neil Gaiman’s) Death, or an excerpt from Good Omens, probably with Aziraphale and Crowley. And non-depressing music. I would rather people remember and celebrate my life, than mourn my death. And they can wear any damn color they like.
it’s a hexadecimal RGB value. Each color gets 2 hex-digits:
RR GG BB
Lowest:
00 00 00
Highest:
FF FF FF
Thor got the color value by copying the picture into a image editor and sampling the color value (probably).
Actually, I just used the Colorzilla plugin for Chrome. It gives me an eyedropper tool right up in my menu bar. Very handy back when I was doing web design stuff.
Seriously, I’d like to know. The only way I have to interpret this is that she has a MASSIVE inferiority complex with a side order of delusions, but that doesn’t seem entirely right.
that or they outright treat him better. you’d be surprised how people from mixed marriages behave with their kids. it also happens a lot with sons being favored over daughters.
“Blackness” isn’t much defined by actual color (I guess. I’m not an American), there are tons of people who count as black but look more like they were dipped into tea once. It’s more about other “black” characteristics like, say, curly hair – anything that makes your black ancestry more obvious.
I’m wagering her point is less on actual skin tone and more on personality. She’s saying that, between the two, Walky was the more “white” acting kid. This is jsut a guess, though.
Yeah. In real life, arguments like this are almost always directed toward culture/personality rather than actual skin tone. You’ll hear insults like “oreo” thrown around (black on the outside, white on the inside, ha-ha-ha).
You have no fucking clue what you’re talking about. Hair has basically always been a popular measure of “blackness.” In apartheid South Africa your legal race could be determined by whether a pencil could stick in your hair. By that standard alone: yes, she’s blacker than walky.
And there are LOTS of other “black” traits like this, her eyes could’ve darkened first, her nose could be wider.
Victm Mentality 101: Less focus on resolving anything or moving on with your life and more focus on “Waah wah waaaaah! It’s not faaaiiir! No one should ever have this happen to them! I’ve got soooo many hurt feelings and deserved better! Marsha Marsha Marsha!
Although a rather mean stance to take, “Shut up ant take it bongo” is how Life expects you to deal with most of the bull krap it throws at you. So, yeah, get over it Sal.
Er, sorry, it’s not to the point about anything at all, but your icon… that’s not how runes work. Sorry if you already knew that and just decided to spell it like that anyway, I was just sitting here trying to read it and it took me a second because of the bronzeh k-nig-ht
On the other hand, I have heard it used to be pronounced something like k-nig-ht so
Oh yes, that’s something to tell the victims. “Psch! It’s not up to to decide what hurts you! That’s for me to decide! It’s your job to roll over and take it!”
Let’s see, what are some other examples of this mentality? That guy who ran for governor in Texas who compared rape to weather. “If it’s going to happen any way, you might as well lay back and enjoy it.”
If someone is claiming to be mistreated, especially for something they have no control over like race (or gender), decent people listen. They don’t say tell the person that they’re just whining and to get over it. That’s what oppressors do.
I should have said “material”. It can be anything with any properties. It’s purely hypothetical. It used when you need something frictionless or really light or really heavy or impossibly whatever.
Some of my friends have recently switched to telling people to ovary up (instead of man up or grow some balls or whatever). But I spose that’s just taking it to cis-female instead of cis-male… aaand now I can’t stop thinking about gendered language.
I know that this is an attempt to work with what’s already in place, but balls are vernacular intending to mean testicles. Cajones in Spanish. I’m sure it’s pretty equivalent in other languages.
Wait, doesn’t blackmail make sense to both parties? The blackmailer has to understand in order to come up with the plan and the blackmailee needs to understand and care in order to pay.
True. One can literally just go ” Give me half of your paycheck for the next month or I’ll tell everyone you know that you like watching cartoons in the morning!” As long as this person is embarrassed by watching morning cartoons, then blackmail works.
Same with jealousy. As long as one is insecure or embarrassed about something (taller, shorter, acting meaner, acting nicer, even eye color or hair length)
Likewise, the threat could simply be “I’ll tell everyone what you did yesterday morning” and the blackmailer doesn’t need to know what it was, they just have to see the reaction in the other person that they don’t want anyone to know.
Sal have “black hair”. Walky does not. Walky is, therefore, “whiter”.
There is no indication it actually started literally when they were born. However, by the time they were, say, 3 or 4 years old the hair difference would already be obvious. Thus, the different treatment would be there as far as Sal can remember.
Walky is not ‘ambiguously brown’, he’s khaki, just like in the limerick. There once was a maiden named Starkey,
who had an affair with a darkie.
The result of her sins
was quadruplets, not twins:
One white, one black, and two khaki.
That only really rhymes if you say it with a ridiculous Australian accent. And like most best limericks it’s a little fucked up, and weirdly Mendel-accurate.
Very good!! The movie was “Swashbuckler”, and also starred Robert Shaw, Peter Boyle, and Geneviève Bujold, along with Geoffry Holder (the “uncola nut” dude), and Beau Bridges.
Thank you for linking this. I’m a dumb and didn’t understand what Sal meant by this, but I knew it was deeper than their skin color. Now I am less of a dumb. <3
I sincerely doubt Sal remembers the baby times, so that’s pretty irrelevant regardless of Sal’s words. As far back as she remembers is all that matters.
Based on what I’ve read / been taught of psychology and how nuts memory can be, I’m pretty sure about that. I wouldn’t trust any supposed memories from super early on. I confess to not being 100% sure of when permanent memories are supposed to start forming (and it probably does vary a little), but I’d consider any memories prior to being four dubious short of there being evidence to confirm them.
Indeed, if you “remember” something from that far back it’s more likely imagined. Not that Sal, or most people, would feel that way about their “memories”.
Two and a half are when the hazy permanent memories start forming. Three is when they get firmer. You /can/ remember stuff from earlier, but it depends on the child.
permanent memories are not a thing. Memory is incredibly fickle.
There was a study where they “convinced” some teenagers (I think it was teens) that they had been sexually abused as children (when they hadn’t been). But they didn’t just convince them, they actually got them to develop memories of it. Basically our brains can create memories from nothing.
Brings to mind the McMartin Preschool Trial. The most expensive court case in US history, and it was based on faulty memories. Kids claimed that they were molested in underground tunnels beneath the school. And made claims about satanic rituals, hot air balloon rides, Chuck Norris and people being flushed down toilets.
Slicedtoad may be referring to completely different events in the 1980s, in which police and others convinced children they remembered being molested/exposed to Satanic abuse as part of a moral panic. The McMartin preschool trials were the most famous of these: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McMartin_preschool_trial
I am 100% sure that as a 3-year old, the first time I was handed my little brother, in a room that would have had to been filled with adults, for whom said little brother would have been the center of attention even had he not been handed to me (which I’m sure crossed the line from “Dwaaaah” to vomiting pure cane sugar) I unwrapped his swaddling to see what his umbilical cord looked like, and it was Patel colored with shapes like Santa Claus and animal faces and stuff.
It could be an built up memory. Just little signs that build up over time, which brings you to the conclusion that someone doesn’t like you as much as they like someone else.
As a kid, my memories of one of my grandmothers, was that she hated me. Partially true. She really disapproved of my existence.
She doesn’t need to remember, she just need to look a photo or listen to what their parents said when refering to them as babies. My own parents sometimes mention how my brother born pale as a sheet, my sister pink, I purple (I don’t know what the hell with that), or so.
After some days or so the skin star to take their actual color, so even if they are twins they didn’t necesary have the same born-skin-color. And being they twins and the first and only child of them the diference must have left quite a impresion in their parents.
Can I just step in and say she doesn’t need to remember being a baby, she needs to remember it always being true, and then see baby photos of her looking more black, and there you have it. There’s probably baby photos!
She’s not talking about being a baby either. She’s making an illustrative statement. “It started when we were born,” means “it’s always been like this!”
Genetics are a funny thing? I’m biracial (half black half white) and I was (apparently) born with green eyes and fair hair (it got darker as I got older). It happens.
Babies have less pigmentation when they come out because very little melanin is produced in utero. Melanin production kicks in outside of the womb because of sunlight. Lots of babies are born with light colored eyes that darken as they get older. I had blue eyes in all my baby pics, and now they’re hazel.
I’ve been told that eye color is based off predispositions to illnesses and such. Not sure how much stock there is in that, but I have brownish hazel-grey eyes in the winter, and in the summer when my allergies kick in, they start getting green. The worse my allergies are, the greener they are. It’s odd.
I’d guess your eyes only look more green when allergy season hits, because your eyes would be getting red and puffy. Red and green contrast, so the redder your eyes get, the more the green stands out.
Eyes don’t change colours once you are grown. Light reflects and makes them look a bit different, but they will not actually change.
I know my eyes look different colours to me at times, and I know people will argue this and are sure their eyes change colours.
But they don’t. I’ve been told this by an optometrist.
This is practically a human universal (probably multi-species, actually) that babies are lighter in hair, skin, and eye color and darken with age. Some ethnicities start with totally blond hair that goes completely dark-brown by adulthood.
I’m pretty darn black from black parents and I came out looking like an ‘Eskimo baby,’ according to my mom. Maybe that’s the Native American showing up, but yeah, an Asian family probably could have taken me home by accident and not noticed anything for a while.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Sal’s mom did a lot of bongoing about Sal’s hair being harder to comb when they were children and started putting relaxer in her daughter’s hair early. I’m also sure Sal heard the term “good hair” thrown around more than once when she was around her dad’s side of the family.
I don’t think it is attitude, no. It is not like Sal herself “acts black” either, after all. The key is most certainly the hair. It is probably why she is so protective about it.
At our high school (yes, high school, so this is probably terribly, terribly skewed and wrong, whatever) “blackness” is a sliding scale that everyone at the school understands. We have people who, by skin tone are blacker than the social implications of strong racist undertones, are generally accepted as “white”. Same the other way around; for a more popular example, Macklemore is white, but our school regards him as “black”.
As near as I can figure, it’s a culture thing, and black and white are just the terms for the culture. And by our rules, Sal is blacker than her brother by a hell of a lot, and her brother is nearly as white as us anime club bronies who don’t do parties or drugs.
Well, in the Walkyverse it was established that Walkys inability to dance is because of his white genes. Now, I have no proof that Sal can dance, but this could be how he’s whiter.
So does that mean that if you look black but can prove that you cannot dance or jump, you gain automatic white status? This new knowledge can change EVERYTHING! 😀
So if you have two skills- one white-specific, and one black-specific, you can switch races back and forth by proving you are not a member of one race and then the other?
Or would that just make you raceless?
Biology is confusing.
no? it’s a dance created by black women with a long cultural history? that’s a super not okay thing to say- and even if it didn’t have the long heritage it has, it’s not cool to shame women for being ‘bimbos’. please don’t say stuff like that.
Oooooooh. That makes a lot of sense. They’re definitely the same (or very nearly) the same skin-tone, and she does seem to be very uncomfortable with the way her hair naturally is. But Ithinkeel like she might also be talking about their personalities, that Walky acts “whiter” than her.
First;
I am equally upset by all use of the terms “acting white” and “acting black” in his comment thread. It’s unfortunate that I called upon it
when talking specifically about the former. I now regret not having responded to someone saying Sal acts “black” or, even better, having asked about both
at once. I don’t like these terms because they sound discriminatory, like it’s in the ethnicity of people to act one way or another.
Secondly;
I’m not sure how to apply Uncle Tom to this situation. Given his interaction with Joyce and Dorothy, Walky really doesn’t strike me as someone with
internalized racial-inferiority. I do not think he is an Uncle Tom.
It is strongly hinted that it may be the case for their parents. But if their favoritism is only based on their son having more caucasian features, then
it is not about how Walky or Sal act; not until Sal’s rebellion and Walky’s good grades gradually reinforce the preexisting favoritism.
Or did you mean that Walky is favored because he fits more to society’s expectations ? First with its physical appareance being whiter, and probably also male,
and then by being a good student ? Then I think you should not use this phrasing.
My problem is this: When you say “Walky ACTS whiter” you also says that Sal is acting “Blacker”, which translates as “being a juvenile delinquent, having
poor grades and defying authority equates being a black person”. When you say Walky ACTS like an Uncle Tom it almost sounds like you’re saying “being good at
education equals betraying black people”.
It does not sound right to me.
According to Sal, the walkerton parents just took a bullshit excuse to favore one of their children. Just read the comment below from Leah Rockshar (posted at 10:05 am), expecially the last sentence.
Sal is not “acting black.” Walky is not “acting white.” You can’t act what you already are (and they are both BOTH), and those are nonsensical terms that mean nothing in the first place.
that line was crossed pretty early in the comic. Pretty sure Billie has the most profane vocab–she also snagged the first profanity overall award in her very first appearance!
It also occurs to me that it’s probably not coincidence that both of Sal’s full-up F-bombs have been dropped on Walky. Not only is he able to – inadvertantly or deliberately – aggravate her more than anyone else, she probably feels less need to disguise her real self in front of the guy she shared a womb with than anyone else in the world.
That combination of closeness and antagonism is making me love the way Willis is handling their sibling relationship in this universe.
“Face-punches would be the cause of death for your life if ever were I to punch it in the face, the action of which I strongly desire to pursue at this very moment.”
I know the catch-phrase around here is “Damn you, Willis”, but in this case I’m directing the blame squarely at you, rachel. When I first got here to DoA I decided that I would not read any of Willis’ other stuff so that I would not have all those alternate universes crowding in and interfering with my enjoyment of this strip. But then you sandbag me with that link.
damnit ! Bill, I am sorry! Gah! Over at the other no-longer-to-be-linked comic, it seems like most commenters have read all of it already and are jus along for the ride with Willis, so there are some spoilers, which I try to avoid as I haven’t read it before, and I’ve even said, “down with spoilers y’all please” and, just, fuck, I completely ruined a big thing. I am sorry! Craaaaap. I would be madsadpissed in your shoes. : (
If I knew you in person I would buy you an apology beer!
Apology accepted, rachel. As much my fault as anyone else’s; I didn’t have to click on the link, and if I had known that BBR meant “Bring Back Roomies” I wouldn’t have.
Don’t deflect your own responsibility onto rachel. You clicked the link, and then I’m guessing you chose to stay at the website it led to rather than leave. THIS IS A MONSTER OF YOUR OWN MAKING! BWAHAHAHAA!!!
heh… I honestly feel she’s just talking about the hair texture at this point… it’s the only thing that would make Walky “whiter” than her- his hair doesn’t curl, hers does….
also… love poor Billie awkwardly getting sidelined here and half showing up in two panels
very true. when I was in elementary school, our neighbor’s grandkids totally confused me. the older one (she was in her teens) was distinctly AfAm, but her full sister (like two, three years old) was at least five shades whiter. several years later, when I saw them for the last time, there was maybe a two shade difference. however, I wouldn’t expect twins who, as young adults, have the same skin tone to have been born with different skin tones… you know?
Yeah, but that’s about her coping now, not when Walkie was born. Newborn babies’ peach fuzz doesn’t vary much from one to another. Unless Willis isn’t acknowledging that, I can’t imagine what it could be BUT skin tone on a shriveled, screaming raisin baby covered in goo.
Well, it’s not true that babies’ hair is all the same. But I think Sal is simply trying to say that it’s been this way for her as long as she can remember. The key here is that the juvenile crimes were about her response to her parents’ favoritism, not the cause of it.
Well, ignoring the points of ‘when we were babies’ being a turn of phrase (how do you turn a phrase?) and the already pretty well detailed hair issues, skin color can change on babies, especially darken. Walky may have been lighter in color at first.
I really doubt that’s what Sal means, though, and it probably has more to do with other parts of her appearance (like her hair) that aren’t shared with Walky, or even Sal just deciding that those differences must be why her parents don’t love her as much.
yeah. that’s true…. When I was born, my hair was jet black and thick. So much so that my grandparents walked right past me thinking I was a Native American baby!
Seriously, babies can be born with lots of hair or none. As much as we know walky’s hair is kinky when its short, an example of this being true from the beginning could be him having no hair and sal having kinky hair.
As mentioned, there can be baby pictures.
Treating differently + looking at the pictures that are from day one easily equals “from the moment you came out whiter” for real.
And as others say it could be a turn of phrase as well, but its nothing stopping it from not being.
I am…uncomfortable with this, if these next few strips are going to be Willis talking about race, especially with mixed-race children, because I have a very uneasy feeling that the man may not necessarily know what he’s talking about. Coming out ‘whiter’ and blaming all of Sal’s delinquencies on her being the ‘blacker’ twin, makes me, a child of mixed-race parents (and therefore mixed race myself) incredibly uncomfortable, as I am not sure where Willis is writing from in this particular strip. He’s not let anyone down before, and he’s done brilliant commentary, but this feels like it’s pushing the ‘writing about experiences completely outside my own’ just a bit.
also assigning ‘white’ behaviour and ‘black’ behaviour, if this isn’t about skin color, is also really…not great.
I don’t claim to speak for all mixed race people, but I am just saying, as a mixed race person, this leaves me uncomfortable.
In his defense, I feel he’s going to go more into how Sal is using the race thing s a bit of a scapegoat for why she (perceived or no) was treated unfairly by their parents. Willis isn’t saying they were treated differently because Sal was the “blacker” one. Sal is saying that. Remember that.
“The moon is made of green cheese,” said Bob.
Bob said it. I wrote the words. Does it follow that I, SDGlyph, must also believe the moon to be made of green cheese?
As a mixed race person myself I’m very intrigued by this storyline. There is something problematic though about a white man writing about life experiences he’s never had and trying to put himself in the point of view of a mixed race woman…there is the potential to not “get it.” I’m sure he’s going to do the best he can though. But there’s also the fact that this kind of situation DOES happen and it is entirely possible that Sal could have been mistreated by her parents and eventually realized something that they aren’t entirely aware of themselves about how they feel about the child that came out “blacker”. Sal’s mother is a white woman. Sal’s father is a black man who chose to marry a white woman so that they could subconsciously value whiteness over blackness…it’s entirely possible. It’s also possible that Sal was just looking for something to blame for her and her parents not having the relationship that she wanted and she looked at herself and looked at her brother and decided it was because she wasn’t white enough. We won’t find out until the story is told and we give it the chance to be.
This isn’t an autobiography. You don’t need to have the actual experience to be able to write about it. How well you do with it is dependent on your ability to convey your message, and how believable it is.
Did I say he wasn’t allowed to or that he wouldn’t be able to? No. I merely pointed out and I stand by what I said that when writing about a life/cultural experience that is not your own you have to tread lightly and be respectful which I’m sure Willis is aware of.
You seem to have jumped to a conclusion that’s not really supported by the dialog or context, since it’s Sal herself that’s making the assertions. It seems unlikely that she’s going to proclaim herself a criminal because of her racial makeup.
I’m pretty sure the commentary is going towards the idea she was treated second best by her parents because of [superficial reason], and thus ended up acting out in delinquent behaviors in response to it. Race is irrelevant beyond filling in that blank between the brackets.
I feel the need to second this. Willis isn’t “blaming all of Sal’s delinquencies on her being the blacker twin.” Sal, the speaking character, is perceiving her parent’s favoritism of Walky as being due to subconscious racism. The fact that she became delinquent is irrelevant to the situation at hand, which is Sal’s point with her comment: when Walky tries to make it about the robbery, Sal immediately drives it back to what she perceives as the real source of the issue.
I’m not mixed race, but I do have a sibling who came out whiter than me. This kinda thing does sometimes happen. Not that I don’t respect caution here.
Favoritism is an odd thing, I am (consciously) the favorite. I am more responsible, better with my parents and do not invest in illegal business ventures.
But my brother has always gotten more leeway when it comes to punishments, more opportunities to do things (suggesting he join the boy scouts, after telling me they “don’t feel like driving me every day” is one example), and yes even getting a bigger room with more toys…..
100% chance that your brother is the younger child. Your 2nd paragraph is all common older-sibling complaints. His greater leeway doesn’t have to do with favoritism, it’s cause he came later, after you softened the parents up a bit.
ugh I was acting as though I know your family better than you do. Sorry about that. That’s how it is in my family, your mileage may vary, sorry for mansplaining.
That’s how it was in my family, too. I started doing my own laundry, making lunches, etc when I was 7. When I wanted to learn to play guitar I had to buy the instrument myself, find a teacher, and figure out how to get there. My parents refused to drive me, and it was over 10 miles to the nearest bus stop. When my youngest brother was in high school, my mom did his laundry, made his lunches, and drove him to all his (marching band) practices including getting expensive hotels when they had BOA competitions out of state. She would never EVER have done that for me. Part of it is my parents had more time and money (it’s hard and time consuming to take care of 3 little kids, they’d gotten more established in their careers) and part of it was that he’s the BAAAYYYBEEEE and they’ve always coddled him. (part of it was also sexism, I’ve always been expected to do WAY more female-gendered chores around the house, including taking a week off of work (unpaid) to take care of my mom when she had her hip replaced, because apparently neither my dad nor my brother who was living at home rent free could do that.) There’s a VAST difference in the way kids are treated in a family, based on complicated interplay of birth order of the kids AND the parents, gender, and more.
Yeah Leorale, i am the oldest and for a while him being the BAAAYYBEEE was part of it. But at the point where him just randomly having friends sleep over (I was never EVER allowed) and getting in trouble with the law and getting a slap on the wrist, it seemed a little much. And don’t worry it wasn’t too mansplany 😉
Brigid, I know that feel. Your story actually fairly similar to mine.
It’s not so much a mixed-race thing, as it is sibling (and in this case, twins) rivalry and favoritism. It happens a lot, and the fights can be about ANYTHING. Even in one-race it could be about the colour of your skin. It’s illogical for the most point, but kids can get some weird reasoning, and it can stick in your head.
…Willis is also not a Gay man or lesbian woman either (pretty sure) but he writes about both. If people can only write what they personally experience or have dealt with this comic would be a lot shorter.
The most important thing is to be sensitive to the material, and more importantly, to the people that are actually affected by it. And to do your research! People who put in the effort to get to know issues that don’t affect them directly can write them well, but it’s very, very easy to be disrespectful and offensive unintentionally.
You know what I’m tired and reading over my comments I’m no longer sure I’m responding to comments that were directed at me though I stand by my whole “be respectful” thing regardless I think I’m going to go to bed.
Totally wasn’t directed at you from me 🙂 I hope and have a lot of faith Willis will handle this respectfully it’s how he does things. I was referring to this “uncomfortable with this, if these next few strips are going to be Willis talking about race, especially with mixed-race children, because I have a very uneasy feeling that the man may not necessarily know what he’s talking about. “
The problem is, the suggestion that “be respectful” doesn’t go without saying, when there hasn’t been so much as a hint of non-respectful-ness, is a bit of a backhanded insult, so it’s hard to blame people for assuming what you really mean is “white guy shouldn’t write about non-white issues”.
Like I’m very hopeful for this story line, but I’m also nervous and you raise some excellent points. given that you have lived experience with this, it’s beyond fair for you weigh in and express unease. it’s not like you outright condemned it- you expressed concerns. I don’t think it’s fair for people to be getting on your case for a legitimate and nuanced response. 🙁
It probably has before, but this comic definitely passes the race version of the Bechdel test. (Two named PoC, having a conversation, not about white people.) Also interesting that everyone in this room is mixed race.
Giving what we know about their parents so far, I would think the mom is the main culprit her, actually. In fact, if you go back to the strips where Sal is with their parents, you can see the dad is really trying to connect to her, while the mother is ignoring her in favor of Walky.
I am honestly kinda surprised I haven’t seen speculation about Linda being a racist. She strikes me as the type who’d make that kind of judgement about her kids and not really care about the consequences.
I take umbrage to referring to someone as “A Racist,” like it’s just a thing you either are or are not, with no shading. People can have racist thoughts, say racist things, and hold racist beliefs, but there’s nothing that makes them, fundamentally, “A Racist.” Every racist perspective can be redeemed, every racist belief can be countered – not every person will allow themselves to change, but there are those that can and do, and we’re not helping by using “racist” as a fixed trait like “blue-eyed.”
There’s also intentional, malicious racism, which Linda clearly doesn’t display, and then there’s subconscious, accidental racism, which can be even more insidious and just as harmful. That’s what’s probably happening here.
Last time we saw them together, Charles was being disappointed in Sal because of the way her hair grows, and Linda was ignoring Sal’s existence entirely. I’m not sure which is worse.
Charles maybe thinks he was being sympathetic, so I guess that’s something? Maybe?
Sal spends exactly one strip in the company of her parents & during that strip she has her dad’s full attention. Dad’s reactions:
– says he’s glad to see her. More precisely, he expresses happiness at seeing both of his kids together, which I take to mean that he a) would like to see more of her & b) doesn’t have a favourite.
– takes notice of her appearance.
– says she looks pretty. He *does* have a preference for straight hair on Sal – which is not necessarily a preference for straight hair per se – but this is a preference that Sal shares. For all we know, he merely expresses his support for a conscious choice that Sal made earlier.
– looks sad upon learning that Sal won’t be with them for the rest of the afternoon.
Mom, on the other hand, fails to acknowledge Sal’s being in the room at all.
He actually does not say she looks pretty. He says she looks pretty when her hair is long and straight. Which it naturally is not, and which by all appearances she has chosen not to maintain (she says afterward that it’s her preference to keep it straightened, which may or may not be true, and if it is true, may only be so because of negative associations from her parents’ obvious disfavor).
He doesn’t express happiness at seeing both his kids either. He simply says it’s been a long time since he has.
I’m sure that for Walky the message was clear. Walky didn’t feel the need to dress up to meet his parents though. Walky lived with his parents until a few weeks ago, and presumably received affection fairly regularly.
Sal probably requires a more direct “So happy to see you! How’s life been treating you?”
This “It’s been a while. I notice your hair’s not pretty anymore.” business isn’t cutting it.
“Walky didn’t feel the need to dress up to meet his parents though.”
Er, he actually specifically chose to wear one of the shirts Dorothy picked out for him in order to be more presentable. Of course, it’s definitely not comparable to the Catholic school girl get-up. /nitpick
Interesting hypothesis, but her dad’s really on board with her straightening her hair, remember. So he’s invested in altering her appearance to more of The White Ideal, too.
I’m not sure if Asma really counts as a named character. I mean, she’s got a name, but I only know what it is because she’s tagged. I don’t think it’s actually been mentioned in the strip yet.
Yeah, but you still have Walky and Billie. Several of their earlier interactions pass, with them talking about how much Billie despises him or about Sal.
Besides Walky and Billie we have Sarah apologizing to Raidah for punching her, Sarah and Dina talking about Jurassic Park, Dina and Billie talking about sharks, Billie and Sal talking about how cool Sal is (and making a motorcycle ride awkward) and Sal and Walky talking about pyjama jeans. …Maybe I should go to sleep or something.
The banking system isn’t controlled by white people, it’s controlled by rich people. The rich people are mostly white, for historical reasons, but that’s not their most salient feature.
Apropos of this thread, while I totally ship Sal and Jason (though it’s probably not a good idea or ethical or legal), and Walky and Dorothy (without reservations), I’d be down to see a black couple in this strip. Can I get anyone else on board the Good Ship Sarah-Jacob??
It’s so difficult! I’ll settle for rereading today’s comic one or two hundred time and thinking about how the others may act and what may have happened.
Guys, it’s not an issue of skin colour, it’s more of which child ACTS more white.
(unless Willis has other plans entirely)
I grew up in an incredibly racist society and people making comments of who was more white and who was more black were commonplace and normal.
It was not enough that your skin was lighter (but it certainly helped) but you had to act and talk as if you were on a different echelon of society than the poor, the uneducated, the darkies.
My grandma had two sisters and their parents separated them into “the white one, the darkie and the black one” (keep in mind none of them were white or black, just slightly different shades of brown skin). THEIR OWN PARENTS. And they treated each girl differently according to the colour of her skin. The one with the lightest skin colour eventually grew up talking and behaving in a completely different way than her sisters.
I’m guessing that what happened with Sal and Walky would be a less extreme version of this. They perceived one child as “better” because he was “less back” and treated him differently.
I’m pretty sure it’s the hair that differentiates them. Walky himself said that Sal takes more after their father while he’s more of a “generic brown”. Also, she naturally has extremely fluffy and kinky hair, unlike Walky who has straight hair. Also, their dad greeted her by saying it was a shame she was wearing her hair naturally instead of straightened because it looks so much better that way.
Where you are seeing the attitude thing? Neither Sal nor Walky seem to act particularly “white” or “black” to me. Furthermore, Sal take the trouble to make her hair looks “less black”, which doesn’t strike to me as someone who is proud to act according to her heritage. Given we already know she have issues with heir hair, I would agree with Schwartz Sal’s cometary is about hair and not attitude.
The attitude thing is my interpretation of what happened in their childhood. What we know of Sal is that she makes an effort to change her hair, most probably because she wants to win the approval of her parents.
I’m basing my comment on my own experience growing up in a racist society. I could be wrong, since Sal and Walky obviously grew up in a different society in a different decade. We don’t know yet.
A stereotype was a type of photograph from the late 19th/early 20th centuries which you would use a special viewer to look at, which had the illusion of depth.
Just a point I feel has to be made. Sal isn’t speaking for Willis or the strip in general. She’s going to be talking about her own perceptions on how she was treated. So don’t take her saying that as WILLIS saying it. Too many of the first few comments seem to center on Willis taking it in a racially weird direction. But we really can’t say that, based on one troubled teen’s comment.
Walky really can’t let the whole robbing convenience stores go, can he?
In any case, it’s probably that Walky is really a misplaced target of Sal’s anger. Yeah, he’s more favoured, but in a sense it’s not his fault entirely, she should really be yelling at their parents.
I’m hoping that whatever comes out of this, Walky will get a clue and signal to their folks that Sal actually feels neglected. If anyone can send a clue to parents that play favourites, it might be the favoured child.
… Walky’s whiter? Sorry if this sounds stupid and/or racist, but they don’t look any different in skin tone. Maybe my eyes arent working right or it’s really subtle or something. Does skin color change when growing up like hair color?
Yeah, looking through the comments and reflecting on the hair stuff that happened previously in the comic, I can see that. Still seems weird to me, but I’m a white guy who’s never really cared about hair (though has really curly hair myself), so I guess my ignorance on the subject is expected.
That’s Sal, put it right out there, to the not so oblivious brother. Walky knows and he still likes to stick it to her? Brings my opinion of him down quite a bit.
I know he tends to live in his own world and I know brothers like nothing better than to piss off their sisters (and vice versa). But there is a limit, he knew his sister was trying to get ‘good notice’ from bongo mother and not all there daddy: Walky commented on it when he walked in the room and made a face at the dress. He KNEW. And he still says ‘…well I didn’t rob a convenience store?” Shit, I’d of decked him for that one.
Have to remember, this has only ever mattered to one of the two. Walky quite likely has literally never given this more than a moment’s thought. Sal’s the one who’s been silently stewing about this for years. Sal’s the one who probably got to lay awake at night in her boarding school, thinking about how she ended up here, when it all began.
The confusion in the comments section is really weird. This has been set up since it was first pointed out that Sal has more traditionally black hair and goes to great lengths to straighten it to a more assimilated and acceptable form, while Walky’s is more naturally straight. With the parents preferential treatment of Walky and his more straight laced (i.e. “white”) attitude and lifestyle, it seemed to me that this type of reaction from Sal was obviously coming sooner or later.
Maybe it’s because in black communities, we’re acutely aware this kind of thing because of its constant prevalence (dark vs light skin, “acting white” vs black, curly hair vs straight (or “good hair”) are huge points of derision), but it’s almost hard to fathom that this is surprising to so many.
I hate that though, cuz I act “white”. And I get my balls busted SO MUCH around black people about it. My self esteem is abysmal and part of it is because of this.
Don’t you have dreadlocks, Yotomoe? I’m pretty sure that would balance out any whiteness in your personality, unless you listen to One Direction, buy from Sears, and desperately try to adopt a foreign culture while knowing nothing about it.
Not really, I’m white and I’d bet that honestly probably a pretty big chunk of the readership is too. A lot of them probably aren’t even aware of this stuff.
I will have to give you that it’s probably true a lot of people who identify as white have no idea this sort of thing happens, though they’re not completely alien to the concept, and then there are some of us who are fully aware of it either from direct contact with it via friends, family members, etc., or actually from different classes now that I think about it (and here I mean “classes” as in school/education, not social strata).
Not trying to toot my own horn as a “special snowflake” or anything, but if you ask anyone who knew me while I was growing up, they would tell you quite honestly that I was blind to race until about my mid-teenage years. By that I don’t mean that I didn’t have friends who were from other races or mixed races but rather that I was friends with anyone as long as they were a good person – I didn’t care about physical features at all. It is only as an adult looking back and now knowing how the world perceives and focuses on such differences that I realize just how diverse my general friend “circle” was in many ways.
I also have to laugh at a moment around my early/mid teenage years that a couple of young black men made some comment about my dear friend Tunji hanging around with “that white chick” (meaning me) and Tunji replied “Who (name)? She’s translucent. She can’t even see race man.” Ironically, that was also one of the unfortunately many times I encountered the more/less race issue. The two started to insult Tunji about “how white he was becoming” when Tunji finally snapped (that wasn’t like him, he was a very kind person usually) and asked them what part of Africa their parents were from. They laughed but then Tunji continued by saying where *his* parents were from, because he was literally African-American and had the passport to prove it. That made them leave him alone but Tunji confided to me that he hated using race as a “one-up card” to win that sort of argument. Honestly no one should have to deal with that regardless of race. Now as an adult, I can’t tell you how many times I have been dismissed out of hand because “oh she’s just a white B—-” : – (
Anyway, now I’m rambling on, I’m sorry. To comment on the original comment, I agree, this was foreshadowed in the story and may I just say I *love* how Willis weaves storyline threads throughout multiple arcs. My main surprise was at Sal just coming out and saying it, but then – that’s Sal. That’s her personality, so it completely works. I can’t wait to see where this goes next, because even just having some semi-similar conversations with my own siblings where we remember childhood events *very* differently, there are many ways Walky could react to this.
Oh wowwww. That hit me right in the feels. Sal, bb, come here and lemme hug you. Or go and punch something, that might be more your style. But seriously. Just. Ugh. FEELS.
But what about self-love? Even if she’s got hella hydrophobic coating on those gloves, I still think that she’d want to remove them, for reasons of hygiene, control, and tactile feedback.
So, I don’t have any experience with this type of situation, but I do have a friend that has mentioned in passing that her and her siblings sometimes have these types of issues, except that her family seems to think she’s ‘too white.’
Real Talk.
Panels 1-2 are really good arguments for Black and White people.
Or men and women.
Cuz I legit know people who don’t think black people have a harder time than white people.
“Man it’s so unfair! Why do you have a whole Black History Month!? Where’s White History Month!? And Affirmitive Action!? And all these BLACK COLLEGES!? Why do black people get everything?”
That reminds of two lines from a poem; Pride by Joanna Hoffman. “So when my friend asks me why there is no straight pride parade, I tell her. / You can’t be proud of something you never had to fight for.”
The other day I heard this legit sentence from a dude in my (irony alert) gender and discrimination class: “My gym has Women Only days for the sauna. That’s crap. Why aren’t there Men Only days!?
Same argument. Same idiots, probably, who say all these things. Siiiigh, some humans.
I know what caesaria82 was trying to say, but I don’t really understand why complaining about there being no “men only” days for a sauna is sexist. Obviously, the other things pointed out in this particular thread are prime examples of male/white/straight privilege, but this one doesn’t make sense to me.
Well I imagine because in a sauna you tend to wear a towel at most, and most women are uncomfortable being naked around unfamiliar men, so most saunas are by default men only.
So basically, the women are scared away by the threat of harassment? I guess that makes sense… Wish it wasn’t so, though. /one day hopes for all bathrooms to be unisex
Yeah, my point was that the Women Only days are obviously there
because there was need for them. Because every other day is
basically Men Only day already, in terms of how comfortable you feel.
Women Only day is like once a week. Because women needed a safe
space in an environment where they could be made to feel uncofortable
on normal, mixed days. Plus ‘Men Only’ days sounded so ‘Men’s Rights’-y that it pissed me off lol.
Yeah, we really do, but what can I say, I’m an idealist. ; w ;
It’d still be cool if the incidence of unisex bathrooms was higher though. I have to keep using my sex’s bathroom, even when identifying as the opposite gender, which is really hnngh.
I agree with the earlier poster, that if the ‘favored child’ had nudged the parents and let them know they were ‘ignoring the less favored kid”- the parents may have paid more attention or realized what they were doing.
But: I don’t believe it.
The parents know very well what they are doing. And the favored child likes being favored and children aren’t known for their charity -especially to their siblings.
Although my brother and I had a good relationship and parents who tried hard not to show favoritism, we both knew he was the favorite. But, they tried and we loved each other.
We both had friends who had parents who did not even try. One family in particular had 3 kids, and the middle kid was treated exactly the way Sal is being treated by her parents.
Shit happens. You learn to live with it, or you rob convenience stores. And one day, stomp on the favored sibling.
Hope someday she takes that anger and smack her mother across the head with it. Her father too, just for shits and giggles. He know what the mother is doing but he doesn’t have the equipment to do anything about it.
Walky enjoys his favorite status. Often the favored child deliberately remains oblivious to the pain of the non-favorite child, identifies with the parents, and plays into the whole game. It is very normal for a disfavored or invisible child to blame their siblings….and rightly so. Poor Sal. Even today her dad told her that her natural hair made her less pretty than when she gets it processed.
I am of a mixed race family and was raised white. I did not figure this out until my mom met up with a black cousin when I was 19. I was the one with the Sal hair and having it was torture. They started processing and thinning my hair when I was five. I was the girl in the family and my younger brother was the golden child….nothing to do with my “bad hair” but all to do with being a lowly female.
I don’t think it’s right to blame your siblings for something they had no control over, and I’m not sure that Walky deliberately remains oblivious to Sal’s hardships. Being pissed off at a sibling for being an asshole about their favorited status is entirely different, and there I would say “rightfully so”. However, I’m not convinced that what’s going on here is that, either.
It’s a difficult situation. Walky isn’t being an asshole about his favored status because he likes being favored (though I’m sure it plays into it), he’s being an asshole about his favored status because he genuinely feel it’s deserved. In his mind, he’s a better kid than his chain-smoking, convenience-store-robbing sister. He’s still an asshole in this moment, the cause is different. Though you’re definitely right that Walky probably isn’t deliberately oblivious about his sister’s hardships but that somehow makes it worse. How do you not notice your twin sister‘s difficulties when you are growing up side-by side?
Walky strikes me as being pretty self absorbed. No more than you average teenage boy though. When you also consider his revulsion towards all things feminine I wouldn’t be surprised if even before she was sent away he went out of his way not to be close to his sister when they were growing up. So maybe in his mind any of Sal’s complaints about their parents were blown out of proportion because he wasn’t being treat that way.
You don’t have to blame someone for something to be angry about it. Rationally, you might know that it’s not their fault and they don’t intend any harm, but that doesn’t make you any less angry about it.
It doesn’t matter if her parents meant anything by the little comments and actions, it’s the meaning that Sal read into them. Hearing the same minor gripe about a physical trait for years can have a devastating effect on a child. When she started considering herself the less loved child, the gulf between them was born. And it only widened with subsequent actions.
Reading the comments makes me dizy. Circular much? But to reiterate it probably has less to do with race than with the fact walky is the favored child. My aunt is the same way about my dad. He was born second, he was the boy, and expectaions werelower for him that her.
The parents of walky and sal must have made her feel less than walky and in her mind it must be because of him having better hair, being better looking, whiter or whatever and she acted out because her family made her feel less than her brother over an accident of genetics.
This is why im glad my brother came first, he got to be the bad child and get baked into a pie, and i entered a family with lower expectations.
The argument that Sal is putting forth is about *why* Walky is the favored child. She states that race is the reason why he is the favored child. The comments are discussing whether this is true or not.
I know it’s not the same at alllllll, because it’s got nothing to do with race, but as the sibling who was, in the eyes of my parents, ‘lesser’ physically, looks-wise, not as beautiful, athletic, skinny, classically good-looking, etc etc., I can relate to Sal in my own little way and it brings back all kinds of painful memories.
But Sal’s deal is obviously a whole lot more complicated with all the implications. Man. Poor Sal. Poor, oblivious Walky as well, because I feel like his whole world view is about to collapse any minute now.
Shitty parenting, ruining kids’s self-esteem since always.
I feel for you Sal T.T unfortunately this is a thing still pretty damn prevalent in our society. I still remember being told by my mom to straighten my hair for my first job interview and for the first day of school. She told me that it would make me look more white and thus less ‘other’ to my future employers and teachers.
Oof….I knew, as I waited for this comic to load and saw it had 250 comments already (it’s only an hour and a half after it has been up) that it was going to be a good one….I was not wrong. This is some real stuff right here….
A lot of people seem to be taking this comic really, really literally. Hint: It’s not about what color they are in Photoshop or Sal’s memories of her own birth.
I haven’t seen it mentioned yet, but Sal may not have had a revelation about her upbringing until she spent some time at a Christian school in a more southern state. Even if she realized the underlying cause for her parents favoritism at an earlier date, I can imagine the relocation being all the more hellish because of that.
Also, I’m glad more people are getting an education on “good hair” stereotypes and “passing” in America. I mean, if Michelle Obama’s hair can make news, more people should know about it.
I really feel bad for Sal. She’s carrying around all that anger at her family, Walky’s so oblivious that it’s basically not worth bringing up, I’m assuming their parents just kind of gloss by the topic, afraid to acknowledge it. Alone and angry. It’s a crushing weight.
YES! Finally, I’ve been waiting so long to finally get a glimpse into Sal’s mind, especially her relationship with Walky. It was something that was seriously lacking in It’s Walky, so much stuff happened but none of it was explored. Granted, I won’t like her any more after this, understanding her problems doesn’t change her actions or her personality and suddenly make her likable to me, any more than learning about Ruth’s life made me hate her any less. But at least there’s understanding, I can get who they are and why they act like this and that makes the comic so much more enjoyable.
Not that I ever want anyone to realize that, but I’m glad she knows. I honestly believe that it may not be all of the issue, but that it is a founding issue. And knowing your parents are racist may be better than trying to find an internal reason. Poor Sal. I don’t expect Walky to respond well. It threatens his self esteem and worldview too much.
It doesn’t matter whether or not actually discrimination occurs by the parents, it’s the perception that counts. Sal has obviously for years felt like she wasn’t getting the attention.
In fact her entire personality shows it. When parents ignore a child that child either becomes a wallflower or starts trying to get the attention. In all likelihood the only reason Sal robbed convenience stores is she wanted ‘some’ kind of attention even if it was the bad kind.
When her parents responded by sending her away, Sal basically ‘gave up’ and hardened herself from further disappointment. She became the ‘rebel who doesn’t care about anyone’ – except like all masks it wasn’t really who she was. Sal actually cares ‘too much’ what other people think of her.
BTW to anyone who thinks that Sal’s making this up, her hair is but one way that Sal has tried to effect being ‘whiter’. Her accent is the other believe it or not. She’s taken on the accent of a ‘southern white’ rather than ‘southern black’. And there really is a difference without any racism intended. She went out of her way to learn to talk like a southern belle.
If anyone thinks I am wrong about her accent being contrived to appear whiter… take a real close look at the 4 panels from today. The angrier she gets the more she transitions away from the fake accent and the more she transitions into the accent she hates. Note the difference in her pronunciation of the word “and” from the first two panels to the last panel. You’ll also notice a difference if you’ve got a good eye in how the words flow. The angrier she gets the less ‘southern belle’ her accent retains. Proof positive of a fake contrived accent.
Well, first off you should know that there isn’t a singular southern accent period. Different parts of the south have slight differences in pronunciation and word flow. Whether you’re from the Ozarks or the Bayou or the Carolinas just to pull up three quick differences.
In this case, the accent normally pulled off by Sal kills off the D’s at end of her words, replaces ‘I’ with ‘Ah’. It’s a very popular contrived southern-esque accent.
Actually it’s so common and the ‘losing’ of the accent because of anger is also so common that I recalled there being a trope dedicated entirely to the fake southern accent slipping shtick so I did a quick google search and here you go (apologies in advance if I mess up this link), Ooh, Me Accent’s Slipping
But I’ve been TOLD by people that don’t live where I do that we mostly sound the same down here (coast of MS). In fact, I’ve had racist and crude remarks about my accent from people. “Why do you talk like a >>>>>(fill in the blank).”
Down here, when I was young I was told by people down here I sounded like a “belle.” So seems to be schematics.
I DO think there is a fundamental difference in how the vocal cords resonate.
But other then that I don’t see or hear a difference unless you speak of Hickville, USA talk – which tends to be rather….uneducated (and I’m saying this about some of my own relatives further north in MS…bless them but they ignorant…and some are just…racist ughhhhh). Makes me glad I live and grew up BELOW the Bible Belt….
Maybe I’ve just lived down here too long, but I have moved away and come back – and I had to “get rid” of my accent due to people misunderstanding me (seriously, how do you get “marginal to sh*ttang” from “manager to cosmetics” I have no idea).
‘Course as you said, it comes back if I’m overly emotional (or I slip back to it intentionally).
Not saying this ISN’T what Willis is doing here – since as you said it is the “fake” southern accent.
Which is hilarious because when I intentionally slip back into my accent people say it doesn’t sound right – because it isn’t the fake one.
Like I said may sound odd…I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night so I might be reading what you’re saying wrong – in which I apologize ahead of time.
Look at all the African-American women you know. How many of them let their hair grow naturally vs. how many of them straighten it out and “whitify” it?
It’s our whole culture that does this. If your hair is black and curly, you are not “pretty.”
Hr’s not actually talking about whether or not curly hair is objectively pretty he’s talking about the fact that we as a society value long straight hair over it because we pretty obviously do and this is a thing that black women have to think about. Whenever I spend over an hour flat ironing my hair, whenever I pay money to get damaging chemicals put into it to make it temporarily straight and whenever I just say “fuck it” and do neither and just let it be I have to ask myself am I doing this because I like it myself or because other people are telling me I’m not pretty enough unless I do. Black women/Mixed women whether they want to or not make statements with their hair and there’s a reason there’s been decades long movements trying to tell us our hair isn’t some kind of burden and can be just as beautiful as everyone else’s. So yeah good for you two fro thinking curly hair is pretty but way to ignore what the comment is actually discussing. Your personal opinion is irrelevant when battling against society.
Woooah there, I was responding specifically to that person (Vash, not Ridureyu). I completely agree with you. It’s possible to talk about frivolous things without denying a real cultural phenomenon.
I’ll look them over. Sorry if you feel like I was being harsh. This is clearly something I’ve been putting a lot of thought into lately before this comic even came out.
Nah, I can see where you’re coming from. Though I do happen to be ridiculously privileged (even though I kinda shouldn’t be… I’m mixed, bigender, and a bisexual/gay person), I’ve tried my best to learn about all this stuff. Sadly, I’ve been guilty myself of giving my black characters straight hair, but it’s mostly because kinky/curly hair is really freakin’ hard to draw. orz It’s less of a problem with my non-visual characters.
I apologize for coming off as insensitive to this issue, though. It’s hard to tell exactly how others will perceive your messages, y’know?
I’m guessing here (and please PLEASE correct me if I’m wrong) that Sal perceives all of her familial problems as stemming from her hair. It probably started super young with her mom struggling to care for it (as DanielleM pointed out in the comments earlier). It may have been compounded by relatives making comments, e.g. “Oh David looks so cute today! Pity Sal didn’t get her mother’s hair.” Also, Walky calls Sal black and refers to himself as generically beige, so this may be a family in-joke that Sal sees negatively.
Furthering the idea that Walky’s been the favorite child, it’s been mentioned that he’s never had a problem with grades. I’m guessing that Sal started acting up to try to get her parents to notice her by purposefully getting bad grades, then eventually escalated to the aforementioned convenience store robbing. So while I don’t think that Sal’s messed up relationship with her parents is due to her hair, but rather her resorting to pretty extreme measures that got the cops involved, I do think that she perceives her parents as being unconsciously bigoted.
Again please point out anything I got wrong. I am a white girl with no experience with these issues.
Walky’s hair is waaaay less kinky, for one (to the point where it looks straight even this short). I’m not sure if there’s anything else, but I might just be missing some details.
the hair thing didn’t even ping off my brain (cuz it was like 3 am when I saw this) until i read other comments and i saw other people mention it. that being said, this kinda thing doesn’t really just pop up without a reason, so i’d say that there is support for her feeling that way.
I happen to be mixed myself (1/4 black), though I look very, very white. However, my sister looks like… something else. She doesn’t look particularly black to me, but she’s definitely not white. I’m not sure how much that’s actually affected her – we’re middle-class and privileged as fuck, and our parents generally don’t play favorites – but jeez… I can’t even begin to imagine what it’d be like to be in Sal’s position.
Any of you ever read Jacob Have I Loved? It’s a terrible book, all about this girl who wastes her entire childhood and youth pointlessly hating her twin sister for being prettier and more socially adept than she is. She’s self-centered and controlling almost to the point of being a bully, and spends most of her time brooding on how unfair her life is, but somehow we’re supposed to feel sorry for her because she ‘can’t find her place in the world.’
This is the vibe I’m getting here.
Not at all. I was the third of six kids, as ‘middle-child’ as you can get. Moreover, I WAS that brooding, unhappy child who would deliberately sit apart from the other kids, and then feel ignored and unloved because they didn’t drop everything to come pander to me. But about the time I hit teenage-hood, I realized that the world didn’t revolve around me and I was never going to be the constant and sole focus of everyone’s attention, so I’d better get off my butt and focus on something other than self-pity. Despite living on her own and supposedly being ‘cool’ and in control, Sal is still wallowing in self-pity.
I read that book when I was 12 and I was supposed to be thinking about unfair families or whatever but all I remember is that the narrator and her boyfriend did top stuff in his car. Oh, burgeoning sexuality.
Since America is the melting pot there are some group of people who believe it depends on the mother. For example my brother and sister are physically white due to my Step dad’s genes but by the standards given before they would be considered Hispanic. Now using the Sal and Walkie twins they would be considered White due to their mother.
Threehundred years of the one drop rule, baby.
If you’re white and ___, you aren’t mixed, you’re ___.
(And if one of your parents is white and the other is white and ____, then that parent is ____, which mean’s YOU’RE ____.)
This isn’t really the standard these days, of course, but it’s skewed the range of what’s perceived as black, which is why you have Hispanic immigrants who were viewed as white in their country of origin that are shocked to discover in America, they’re black. (Basically the reason Hispanic was invented as a separate racial category, because Hispanics wouldn’t stick to the American perception of race.)
The only exception to this is the mulatto thing. If your mother was white and your father was black, you’re mulatto. But if it was reversed, you were black.
Of course, then we stopped calling people mulatto and started calling all mulattos black because we can’t be bothered to find someone’s ancestry before we typecast them.
People still say mulatto. Well white people still say mulatto in my experience. I’ve only ever been referred to as one the few times I have in my life by white people (one a teacher in front of my classmates) when I finally just answered the question of what my ethnicity is. Although I’m not sure if anyone makes the distinction with the mother. My mother is the black parent my father is the white one. I have heard that racial identity comes from the mother thing but that was said by my mother. Honestly I find the term mulatto to be incredibly dated and should be lumped into the same category as calling a black person colored or negro.
My understanding was that mulatto is already an outdated and racist term (because of its associations with slavery and colonial oppression). Creepy word.
My guess is that, actually, Sal was just the more difficult baby/toddler/preschooler….
You see this a lot in sibling groups. Some kids are just HARDER. They push limits more, they’re less cuddly, they take more discipline and work, they’re more prone to haul off and hit someone.
And so they get grounded more. And then blame the parents for ‘liking’ the other sibling, who never gets grounded because he’s just easy going and never argues, more. But they never connect their actions with the parenting decisions. It’s just “You like him better, because when I disobeyed (by hitting that teacher) I got punished more than he did when HE disobeyed (By forgetting to take out the trash because he was busy with legos.)”
It happens in every family. In this case, Sal is using race as an excuse not to come to terms with her own hard personality….
I don’t know. Sometimes for sure yeah. But I was the favorite over my sister growing up and it was completely due to me being a boy. All the talk of “Oh you get to carry on the family name!” and stuff like that. My sister totally resented my preferential treatment (I got away with a lot, she did not). We’ve long since mended fences as I clued in eventually.
Guess there are lots of reasons for one kid to be favoured over the other.
The weird thing is, I think I was the favourite child, and I made my parents try so much harder.
I think that parents just really like the smarter child. Or at least the one that’s more visibly smart. There is an intelligence difference between fraternal twins, in case you were asking. My sisters totally smarter than me, just in a different, less visible way.
It really does vary from family to family. Parents pick favourites based on who’s smarter, better at sport, prettier, more in-line with their own opinions/tastes, more popular at school, easier to manage, more interestingly spirited… People are people, kids, parents, all, and what people look for in others isn’t cookie-cutter.
We can’t know for sure, as we only have a vague notion of Sal and Walky’s upbringing, but do remember that this is the same Sal who dressed up in a Catholic school girl uniform, all sweet, with a huge smile on her face, when she went to meet up with her parents. And her parents didn’t even care. Charles was obviously happy to see her, but Linda brushed her off to pay attention to her (incidentally) male, straight-haired son. If Sal was such a difficult child, why wouldn’t they be surprised at her attitude and demeanor? To me, that speaks volumes: she’s likely had to do this before just to appease them and keep them from becoming even more disappointed with her. I don’t think this started with her delinquent behavior.
Whenever I see race issues in America, I immediately start laughing and waving a Canadian flag.
Then the Orange Lodge burns down my house because I’m an Irish Catholic.
Yeah, because there’s no such thing as racism in Canada *cough*TREATMENTOFFIRSTNATIONS*cough*
*cough*NOVASCOTIANCEMETARYREFUSESTOBURYABLACKCHILD*cough*
*cough*ACADIANEXPULSION*cough*
Nope. No racism in THIS country, no sirree. /eyeroll
I similarly don’t ‘get’ race issues the way Americans do.
Here in Europe white people hated each other for ages, and a black or Asian person has a lower chance of being a filthy Kraut or a nasty Russkie. “Whites” being one people is a silly colonies’ invention.
Seeing all white people as roughly the same (for a subjective definition of white – Italians, Jewish people, etc need not necessarily apply) is how white privilege is maintained in North America, so it’s their benefit.
I think it’s because our whole nation began as a colony of a country that still exists today. America’s actually pretty inclusive (unless you’re some shade of brown).
Plus, I’m not actually sure how you tell the difference between nation of origin…? I tend to assume every person I encounter is American, born and raised. I may be wrong in extrapolating it to the general populace, but it’s been my impression that society basically views it the same way*.
* White people, anyway, in the case of the racists and xenophobes among us.
I lived in Europe for a year, and this is COMPLETELY against what I saw and heard. I knew several racist europeans. They considered european whites to be more familiar whereas those of different skin-color where exotic and different (often spoken of as inferior). When I asked one if he would ever adopt a child he literally said “I don’t want a black or a yellow.” Then look at the struggles with muslim immigrants…. My impression was not that Europeans were less racist, they were just presented with less opportunity for racism.
MMmm yes they can be very racist, but they can also be very ethnicist, as such. Depends on the country and location within that country what matters / how much it matters (and sometimes whether you play football. Sometimes that doesn’t help.)
Poor Sal. She’s the most miserable/frustrated of the college kids by far. But at least she’s getting some hot lovin’ from the math assistant . . . which only leads to more frustration since it didn’t help her grade.
Sal is NOT delusional. There is, in the little we’ve seen of her parents, a LOT of evidence to support the favoured-son idea, and it does seem possible that it did, however unconsciously, start with race.
She’s not saying Walky “acts whiter”, you lot. It’s the hair. There’s always been this thing where black women are shamed or considered less pretty for having naturally kinky/poofy hair. They have to use relaxers and straighten the fuck out of it until it looks like white people’s hair before they can be beautiful/accepted/considered respectable. It’s a fucked up societal thing that’s been going on for a long time.
Walky’s hair is straight, like a white person’s. Sal’s looks nothing like her mother’s and is naturally curly like her dad’s. Earlier today her dad expressed disappointment that her hair was in its natural state. That was about all he said to her, and her mother too busy talking to Walky to even notice Sal. It didn’t even occur to them to ask Sal to reschedule her hair appointment and spend some time with them.
Sal robbed a convenience store and has been pretty openly rebellious for years. Walky never fell into those habits. Why? Why did a teenage girl who seems to want nothing more than her parents’ attention and acceptance rob a convenience store?
I don’t think it started with the robbery. I think the robbery was a symptom of how Sal felt constantly ignored in favour of Walky. Whether it’s because of race, gender, or some other factor we don’t know about, her parents fucked her over.
But Leah, what if she just likes to have straight hair? Jeez, you crazy race-baiters, always playing the race card! Privilege is a fairy tale dreamed up by anti-cswm* bigots and racism doesn’t exist anymore!!!!! Why do you hate white people?!!?! ヽ(≧Д≦)ノ /whinewhinebongobongo
*Cis straight white male. But what does cis even mean anyway?!!? It sounds like a term made up by feminazis!
Kerry, I’m pretty sure this is supposed to be thickly laden with sarcasm. However, you’re up against Poe’s Law here – there actually are people online who seem to sincerely believe exactly what you’re saying…
Yeah, I was worried people would take it seriously. Which is why I included the “/whinewhinebongobongo” part.
I don’t think there are many of these types actually reading DoA (or at least, not any that are commenting), but I’ve seen them over at SP!, and certain relatively innocuous comments in this section (among others) belie a similar mindset.
Parent’s weekend is going to be a gift that keeps on giving. Glad that Sal is being open here. Unlikely to settle things, but time for Wally to become a bit more aware of things. Not sure I like this Wally so much. Sibs will push each other ( I am two of seven) but should know which buttons must not be pushed.
Man. I have siblings. That’s not a unique thing for you to be sharing your expertise on.
Personally I’ve gotta say that I’m pretty close with my sister. I needle her occasionally, all in fun. I know when I’ve crossed a line and need to back off.
My brother and I sort of grew in separate directions, stopped talking to eachother much despite being regular figures in eachother’s lives. These days I can quite honestly say I have no idea what bothers him.
Doesn’t help that he can be a bit silent and moody at times. Hard to tell if he just stopped feeling talkative or if you’ve pissed him off and now he’s silently fuming about god knows what. Sal seems like she could actually be a bit similar in that department.
Of course given all that I wouldn’t try to poke fun at him, but I’m not Walky. Walky does that with everybody. He was doing it to Joyce all of 2 seconds after meeting her. Not really specifically a part of his sibling dynamic. You’ll notice that Sal’s never reciprocated this behavior.
Being a twin myself, I find it strange that they aren’t more close. However I suppose being opposite sex twins does create a larger divide than being a same sex twin like I am.
I find it more likely that their parents really wanted two boys and the ‘female disappointment’ is what started them treating Walky more favorably and Sal less so over time. They probably (unconciously) praised him more for good behavior and scolded her more for bad behavior, thus contributing to her increased desire for attention and her subsequent robbery attempts.
I think it makes absolute sense. I have seen this kind of prejudice in my own family . . .
My white/black and white/Egyptian mixed cousins can attest to how they were treated by our grandparents and other white family members as opposed to those of us who were fully white. Although I’m sure we were all loved even I saw that I and my siblings and white cousins were treated as favorites.
All my mixed race cousins had a term for themselves, they called themselves “The Basement Kids”. When we would all spend summers with our grandparents all the white kids got the upstairs bedrooms and all the mixed ones shared the basement bedrooms.
I didn’t notice it at the time but looking back . . . . I can see how unfair they were treated in almost every aspect of their familial lives.
This commentary has reminded me of a pair of siblings that went to my high school. They were mixed race, and about the same skin tone, but their features were different. One had stereotypically blacker features, and the other had stereotypically whiter features. These features definitely played a role, as the former hung out with mostly the black kids and the latter hung out with mostly the white kids. You can definitely be the same skin tone and be seen as “blacker” or “whiter” than one another, and not just because of “acting black/white”. (I will say that there didn’t seem to be any animosity between the siblings I’m talking about, it’s just how they worked. But it’s pretty easy to see how favoritism by race could have been developed…)
I’m surprised that no one drew the connection between Amber’s childhood robbery trauma and Sal’s robbery of a convenience store. While it is quite circumstantial this wouldn’t be
There’s been speculation in the comments before that those incidents were one and the same.
There’s a strip early on where Amber eyes Billie and Sal nervously as she passes them in the hall. At the time I chalked it up to Amber being worried that Billie, who she had, a couple days earlier, carried away from a fight with Ruth and had a brief conversation with, would recognize her as Amazi-Girl, but after Amazi-Girl’s origin began to be revealed, it seems plausible that it wasn’t that Amber was worried that Billie would recognize her, but that she recognized Sal.
Wow. This is the first time I’ve even commented, but I just had to today because I’m pretty sure that this just became one of my favourite DoA strips ever.
Do you guys not read the rest of the comment section or something? It’s the hair. Sal’s hair is like her father’s (kinky), while Walky’s more like his mother (essentially straight).
She’s definitely talking about hair. Girls usually want to relate to their mother. Sal sees her perfer Walky, doesn’t know why and reaches for the closest explanation, ie the hair. She probably looked at her mom as a kid and thought something along the lines of “mom’s hair is pretty, why can’t mine look like that?”.
Combine this with the fact that she seems to have some learning disabilities compared to Walky who is just naturally good at school and he just ends up becoming the favorite.
She spends twice as much time to get a D than he uses to get an A. So her mom who might be a tiger mom latches onto Wally causing problems for her kids.
Sal starts acting up, while Walky starts to act immature because he has the opposite problem of hating the attention given to him. He wants to do things at his own pace.
I doubt Sal’s mother is blameless in her daughter’s hair issues. If she took the time to put it into her daughter’s head that her curly hair was just as beautiful as her brother’s straight hair then this could just be Sal’s on insecurities coming through but I’m sure her mother more than once bongoed about how time consuming Sal’s hair was (because hair like Sal’s takes time and effort to tame) and pushed her daughter into chemically straightening it the second she was at an appropriate age. Sal’s mother doesn’t strike me as the type to really be sensitive to her children’s emotional needs/wants/insecurities when she clearly ignored the child that obviously needed her more in every way.
I’m not saying her mother is blameless, but the hair is just one part of her insecurity involving her parents, but I don’t really think that it’s about her hair. She’s just trying to find anything that she can blame Walky for because he can’t directly emote to her folks.
I really hope by the end of the year, Sal doesn’t straighten her hair anymore. Or at least learns to accept her hair as is, even if she decides to keep straightening it.
I think it’s starting to sink in for Sal that she keeps her hair the way she does more for other people (society, her parents) than herself. The last comic where she was listing her reasons for liking her hair straight sounds more like her trying to convince herself than being true to what she wants. Once this really sinks in for her I wouldn’t be surprised if she gives the natural look a try and explores her hair options a bit more.
I think Sal’s hair causes her a lot of grief for a lot of reasons. For one, I think she genuinely does like it straight for the reasons she stated, but at the same time, feels like she’s betraying a big part of herself by conceding to something she feels fits her mother’s (and others) beauty ideals. She doesn’t know if she’s chosen this hairstyle for the right reasons, or if she’s subconsciously agreeing with her mother and saying there’s something wrong with her natural hair.
It’s also easier to decide his future for him, lacking the drive and depth to get why he shouldn’t just let it happen.
Either way, it’s kind of on your creepy parents, Sal. They’re ignoring you because being your honest-to-God parents isn’t in their, and by ‘their’ I mean your Mother due to your Dad being a glorified Sidekick of a man, agenda. Oh HELL YES, it sucks, but it’s kind of all on them….
Your Stumble-Though-Life-Like-He-Shouldn’t-Have-To-TRY-With-Anything TWIN Brother going along with it like it’s karma armor or something, now THAT might be a less-than-lost cause. He *did* say he was interested in catching up here in college, didn’t he? Be ready to be called on your dramatics, is all…
Funny story that my mom and uncles used to pass around is that when I was born, I looked “straight up Chinese.” Hair texture, complexion, features, everything. My uncles would tease my mother and tell me that they were not sure where I even came from. Of course, as I grew, everything changed by the time I was one or two years old, when I darkened up to a refreshing shade of Kraft caramel, the kinkiness of my hair became apparent, and generally I looked a whole lot more like my parents. I am pretty sure this is common with a lot of babies. My sister looked black from the get-go, however, so there were many sighs of relief. 🙂
For reference, my parents are both black Caribbean (Guyanese, specifically with some Bajan thrown in), so there is probably a big ol’ smorgasbord of races up in there (I only know for sure that my maternal grandmother is half east Indian, my mother and sister both have a genetically inherited Mediterranean blood trait (Thalassemia), and I have a Swedish family name from my father’s side, and do not know of any other black Guyanese with Swedish family names besides my own SPECIFIC Swedish family name, and I am likely related to them all. There may be a pinch of Amerindian (Arawak?) in there as well). Guyana has a Guyanese-Chinese population as well, but I do not think there is any Chinese ancestry in my family. Admittedly, I still know very little about my genetic smorgasbord (and specifically about my father’s side), and I could be wrong.
Regardless, if a missing person’s report was put out on any one of us (mom, dad, sister, granny, uncles, aunties, cousins), we would ALL be described as “black.” Which we all are.
Oh man Guyana has crazy stuff going on! (Said badly, I already know about this, and am excited for a specific personal story from it.) Have had some other fun ones over the years too, definitely one of those western hemisphere countries where the nationality doesn’t even sort of give you an idea what looks are gonna be.
I have wonder if part of this isn’t all in Sal’s head.
Not all of it, obviously she feels the way she does for a reason, but so far we haven’t really seen any preferential treatment. We’ve seen walky’s mom planning out his future for him, and we’ve got her dad commenting that he liked her hair straight. They even showed disappointment when she told them that she couldn’t spend the day with them.
Not that they are completely blameless, but I think she’s digging her own well of despair in part.
Read the two strips again. Not once does her mom look at her, let alone talk to her. Her dad says, after greeting her, that she looked better with straight hair. He seems disappointed she has to go, but doesn’t try to stop her from going. Her mom ignores her presence even as she leaves. Also notice they went to Walky’s room instead of Sal, and don’t even ask Walky how Sal is doing or where her room is.
That seems like the biggest difference. They came to Walky. Sal had to come to them.
Even dad may have been “disappointed” to see her go, but not enough to step away from Walky for two seconds and take a walk with his daughter. Two parents, but only enough resources to get up to date on 1 kid’s life.
Remember too that they saw Walky naught but three weeks ago. You’d think that an opportunity to visit Sal would take priority since they don’t see eachother that often. They spent the whole day with Walky though. They proactively sought not just Walky’s company, but also that of the people in Walky’s life. Literally they spent more time trying to meet Walky’s sort of girlfriend than they spent trying to get in contact with Sal.
I think maybe there is a parental bias… but Sal may be misinterpreting just what it is. Unless of course Dave really DID “come out whiter”, but then darkened up… much like some kids are born with hair that’s either a lot lighter or a lot darker than their adult colour.
Instead, I’m figuring it more as sexism. Wouldn’t that be a more likely bias? Maybe even simply because they didn’t get a girly girl and disliked having a tomboy, rather than actually preferring male to female outright?
Incidentally, colour values from using the GIMP picker:
Panel 3 in the next strip … Sal, 205/167/126 RGB or 31/39/80 HSV. Walky, the exact same.
Panels 1, 2 and 5, Walky, same. Panel 7, Sal… same!
(though their surroundings make them look slightly different)
This strip, all panels: Not a single bit out of the 24 changes…
So whatever their skintones at birth, they’re exactly the same as each other now, which is quite remarkable given their differences in lifestyle and where they’ve been living. Even myself and my brother aren’t the same shade of pasty WASP white, and I’ve been on a package holiday where a fellow Brit of strong West African heritage (but with a very strong Essex accent) spent a lot of her time out on the sun lounger actively darkening her own skin tone because she felt life at high latitudes had bleached it to beyond what was healthy for someone of her genetic makeup.
In fact, one would expect Sal’s lifestyle to have given her more of a tan than Walky … so there’s every chance that if placed in conditions with identical sun exposer, she would actually turn out the paler of the two…
For comparison:
Jacob – RGB 197/153/119 (HSV 26/40/77)
Joe – 215/193/171 or 30/20/84
Walky!Mom* – 238/216/190 or 32/20/93, so light-pink she’s practically a soft-tone lightbulb. Close to, but not the same as the Dean (245/221/201)
Walky!Dad – 178/133/85 or 31/52/70
* As Walkerton is their surname, and David/Sal!Mom would be unwieldy, I don’t feel too bad using this shortcut.
Thus their kids are almost but not quite the average of them (which, let’s face it, would be too obvious). Slightly less red (-3), less green (-7.5) and a lot less blue (-11.5). So darker than average overall, BUT a touch pinker at the same time. Yay, Mendel.
(However, strangely, going by the HSVs: overall hue is as close as it can actually get – as mom and dad are only 1 point different anyhow, and officially the kids are dad-hue. They have a -deeper- colour than the average, and are just a tiny bit darker…)
I don’t even know where I’m going with this.
Walky!Dad is quite possibly the darkest guy seen in the strip so far, at least that I can recall, though; even if he may be only 50% himself, he’s still decidedly darker skinned than Jacob. In fact, Jacob is lighter than the halfway point between Dad and Kids for all three channels.
OTOH, Joe is almost exactly halfway between Mom and Kids, in terms of overall brightness, but is a rather different shade, as Red is lower, Green is about even, and Blue is higher.
Still not sure what this even achieves, but if anyone wants to make use of the data, it’s there.
Right, I’m going to go see if this office building has any showers in it, because all this racial profiling, even if for a neutral-good cause and with results showing that the strip is reasonably diverse, is making me feel itchy.
To come: Sarah’s values, once I dig up a strip with her in.
For anyone wondering why I didn’t go thru and scrape all the values for the whiter characters, I think we’ve got a reasonably good handle on just how ghostly pale some of them can get; I’m trying to see how dark-skinned people can be in the dumbiverse, so we can calibrate the Walkerton family against them.
These have all been normalised against a known other character, to guard against per-frame colour shifts (such as when the sun was going down). These are all the colours when “normally” lit. However, I have dropped the normalisation lines for brevity and clarity. Values are RGB followed by HSV, as measured using the GIMP colour picker.
I think “nameless guy” might actually be the darkest, but, eh, I have other things to go do now, so draw your own conclusions.
sierra – 139/132/105 or 48/24/55
joe!dad – 215/193/171 or 30/20/84 (yes that’s exactly the same as joe 🙂
sarah – 175/139/118 or 22/33/69
asma – 217/185/147 or 33/32/85
dina – 230/198/138 or 39/40/90
nameless guy in front of dina in flu shot line – 125/92/80 or 16/36/49
raidah – 198/146/115 or 22/42/78
chan – 146/106/45 or 36/69/57
and for the heck of it
billie – 248/237/205 or 45/17/97
char – 210/184/169 or 22/20/82
joyce – 238/216/190 or 32/20/93
I’m all for over-analyzing fictional issues, but the way you went about this is incredibly creepy. For what Sal is saying it really doesn’t matter whether their skin is the exact same hue or how they compare hue wise to the other characters. What were you trying to accomplish exactly?
What matters is that Sal felt her parents were disappointed with her for as long as she can remember. There are any number of factors that could have affected the way they saw their daughter, but at an early age she began to suspect it had something to do with race and her parents never did anything to refute that feeling. Even if their preference for Walky had nothing to do with race, better parents would have picked up on Sal’s discomfort with her hair/appearance and made her feel proud rather than ashamed.
Tahrey – as a general rule for life, categorizing people by their skin tone is creepy. Like 18th century slave owner creepy.
It’s not really the race issue that hits me here, it’s the “Favorite” part. Regardless of whether or not it’s true, when kids (or adults) feel that their sibling is their parents’ favorite child, it hurts. I’ve seen it around me all my life, esspecially with my cousins. And every time I see it now, I thank the gods that I am an only child. Because that kind of sibling rivalry is just awful. It makes both the “second-place” child and “favorite” child feel like crap, and if the parents get involved, then they’re stressed and anxious too. I’m lucky to be an only child, where my mom can hug me and say “You’re my favorite” and no one’s upset about it.
I’m not going to say that she’s for certain wrong about a parental bias or a racial basis behind it, but I expect there’s every possibility that it’s just in her head. A great number of kids are insecure, think they are the least favorite, concoct reasons why that might be the case. Also a lot of well intentioned parents are bad at noticing their kids are insecure or that they might be unintentionally doing things that cause their kids to be insecure.
It sounds like she turned into a little delinquent as a cry for help and the reaction that resulted was the opposite of what she needed, perhaps.
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WALKY, STOP BEIN’ RACIST
His hair alone counts as a hate crime.
It’s good that you’re trying, but I don’t think humor can help lighten the mood.
“That’s never true” I said, getting kicked out for cracking jokes at funerals.
I dunno, I’ve heard some great funeral jokes, mostly from old people talking about how they’ll next.
Depends on the family. Sure, they’re dead. Doesn’t change if they were a laugh riot or did incredibly laughable things in life. To mention those things isn’t really offensive. You are, after all, remembering them.
I went to a not-quite-funeral [the deceased’s ashes were being spread over Mt. Kilamanjaro as the service was being held], where the parents read a letter he had written as a child. It was the funniest plea for a raise in allowance I’d ever heard, and it was brilliant and was the epitome of the deceased, and goddamnit why did he have to die.
Funerals are for the living, is what I’m saying.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkxCHybM6Ek
Funerals depend on who the person was before going into the ground or burned.
Sure, Hitler’s funeral was a barrel of laughs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=W2sTq3iovUA#t=58
It totally was. 😀 “Because,” in the immortal words of Eddie Izzard, “he was a mass-murdering fuckhead.”
“As many an important historian has said.” : )
Or dumped in the Thames…or eaten.
I’m leaving instructions that anyone who speaks at my funeral has to open with a joke. I’m totally serious. And I might make everyone wear one of those Groucho glasses/nose things. Including me.
I’m going with the Jim Henson rule. No one will be allowed to wear black.
What did Kermit the Frog say at Jim Henson’s funeral?
Nothing.
I laughed. But jokes about funerals are different from jokes at funerals.
Oh nooooooo
I laughed, and then cried a little
That’s okay. Tom Smith said it for him.
I want a group to sing ‘Just One Person’ at my funeral. And ‘Movin’ Right Along’. If I could get away with it, I’d have them also sing a pop song while bawking like chickens.
i put it in my will that my funeral will include a clown to make balloon animals and a magician for entertainment.
Fitting that you have a Walky gravitar. That’s totally something he’d do. 🙂
I wrote the eulogy for my dad’s funeral. I deliberately made it funny and considered it a small victory when I made people laugh several times.
I’ll do you one better. I wrote a eulogy for my dad’s funeral that was all jokes, because I couldn’t think of a better way of honouring my dad, whose real gift was the ability to make people see the funny side of life.
Not only did everyone laugh throughout the whole eulogy but lots of people came up and told me that out of everyone who spoke I was the one who really captured my dad’s spirit.
I was however terrified that no one would laugh before I actually gave the eulogy.
im having my funeral be an auction for my body parts
A good friend’s father passed away on Friday. To honor his wearing of Hawaiian shirts every day he possibly could (he was a retired San Diego County Sheriff), people attending the memorial service will be asked to wear Hawaiian shirts in Sam’s honor. Totally appropriate. RIP, Sam.
“Open with a joke”… “I’m totally serious”…
I’m not sure now if I’m drinking too much, or not enough.
At my funeral I want an excerpt from any of the following read: a excerpt of a Discworld novel with (Terry Pratchett’s) Death, an excerpt from Sandman with (Neil Gaiman’s) Death, or an excerpt from Good Omens, probably with Aziraphale and Crowley. And non-depressing music. I would rather people remember and celebrate my life, than mourn my death. And they can wear any damn color they like.
depending on who died: the level,amount and type of humor applied is what will be determined as funny
“Lighten up”? DAS RACIS
Just for reference for people late to this discussion: (1) Both Sal and Walky have a skin tone of #CDA77E, and (2) that is completely not Sal’s point.
Huh, could’ve sworn Walky was a CDA77F*.
*I don’t know how it works, that could be electric blue for all I know.
Would of been funner if you had said #CDA77D X.x
it’s a hexadecimal RGB value. Each color gets 2 hex-digits:
RR GG BB
Lowest:
00 00 00
Highest:
FF FF FF
Thor got the color value by copying the picture into a image editor and sampling the color value (probably).
Actually, I just used the Colorzilla plugin for Chrome. It gives me an eyedropper tool right up in my menu bar. Very handy back when I was doing web design stuff.
Then what is her point?
Seriously, I’d like to know. The only way I have to interpret this is that she has a MASSIVE inferiority complex with a side order of delusions, but that doesn’t seem entirely right.
that or they outright treat him better. you’d be surprised how people from mixed marriages behave with their kids. it also happens a lot with sons being favored over daughters.
Or all parents, regardless of excuses.
“Blackness” isn’t much defined by actual color (I guess. I’m not an American), there are tons of people who count as black but look more like they were dipped into tea once. It’s more about other “black” characteristics like, say, curly hair – anything that makes your black ancestry more obvious.
I’m wagering her point is less on actual skin tone and more on personality. She’s saying that, between the two, Walky was the more “white” acting kid. This is jsut a guess, though.
Yeah. In real life, arguments like this are almost always directed toward culture/personality rather than actual skin tone. You’ll hear insults like “oreo” thrown around (black on the outside, white on the inside, ha-ha-ha).
You have no fucking clue what you’re talking about. Hair has basically always been a popular measure of “blackness.” In apartheid South Africa your legal race could be determined by whether a pencil could stick in your hair. By that standard alone: yes, she’s blacker than walky.
And there are LOTS of other “black” traits like this, her eyes could’ve darkened first, her nose could be wider.
Yes, he has no clue. That’s why he’s asking.
Hair. It’s a hair thing. Also, Walky may have been genuinely lighter skinned when they were younger. Skin color changes over time.
Victm Mentality 101: Less focus on resolving anything or moving on with your life and more focus on “Waah wah waaaaah! It’s not faaaiiir! No one should ever have this happen to them! I’ve got soooo many hurt feelings and deserved better! Marsha Marsha Marsha!
. . .
Although a rather mean stance to take, “Shut up ant take it bongo” is how Life expects you to deal with most of the bull krap it throws at you. So, yeah, get over it Sal.
Er, sorry, it’s not to the point about anything at all, but your icon… that’s not how runes work. Sorry if you already knew that and just decided to spell it like that anyway, I was just sitting here trying to read it and it took me a second because of the bronzeh k-nig-ht
On the other hand, I have heard it used to be pronounced something like k-nig-ht so
The Old English word that “knight” is derived from was cniht (ᚳᚾᛁᚻᛏ), pronounced just like it’s spelled.
It’s not exactly a complimentary term, either. It literally means “serving-boy”.
Wow, your username really says all we need to know about you, doesn’t it? I look forward tto your immenent rage quit.
Step one on resolving interpersonal issues: all parties acknowledging the problem.
On this front, Sal is doing pretty damn well. Sometimes, tough conversations need to happen before anything can get better.
Oh yes, that’s something to tell the victims. “Psch! It’s not up to to decide what hurts you! That’s for me to decide! It’s your job to roll over and take it!”
Let’s see, what are some other examples of this mentality? That guy who ran for governor in Texas who compared rape to weather. “If it’s going to happen any way, you might as well lay back and enjoy it.”
If someone is claiming to be mistreated, especially for something they have no control over like race (or gender), decent people listen. They don’t say tell the person that they’re just whining and to get over it. That’s what oppressors do.
Walky’s racism robbed those convenience stores.
i find you Gravitar exceedingly offensive.
Why is it because he’s black? If so I have bad news for you.
Why isn’t it because he’s black. (you forgot a comma)
Oh….. Oh…..
OH
OH.
Make it count, play it straight, don’t look back, don’t hesitate.
I’m not mad at you for the reference. I’m mad because I gave up on that show/band years ago.
Don’t look black?
You’ve got the music in you?
You’re halfway there?
LIVIN’ ON A PRAYER
DAMN YOU WILLIS THAT WAS GONNA BE MINE
Ok, Willis. This is the most comment appropriate-looking I think your Grav has ever been!
Joyce is breaking up with you
TAKE MY HAND, AND WE’LL MAKE IT I SWEAR
…It’s magic! You kno-o-ow…
Oh crap, Sal just went there.
Sal tends to go to places no one else has the balls to go to. Mostly because she’s Sal.
And mostly because she was born without balls.
Sal has more balls than people with balls. She has metaballs.
Sal has like… ten metaballs.
They are made of Adamantium, Covered in Unobtanium, and forged in the fires of mount Doom.
That is my MEME.
So a fictional metal coated in a hypothetical metal forged in a fictional mountain. Sounds good to me.
Is unobtanium a metal? I thought it was a metaloid.
I should have said “material”. It can be anything with any properties. It’s purely hypothetical. It used when you need something frictionless or really light or really heavy or impossibly whatever.
Take the unobtainium out and I’m onboard. I always thought that was a stupid name… 😉
You think Unobtainum is better?
Deep dipped in Australium!
And they are spicy metaballs.
I read that as Ten Meatballs.
I read that as “meatballs”…
Can we maybe stop measuring bravery by cis-male anatomy? That’d be great.
Some of my friends have recently switched to telling people to ovary up (instead of man up or grow some balls or whatever). But I spose that’s just taking it to cis-female instead of cis-male… aaand now I can’t stop thinking about gendered language.
Aren’t they also ball shaped, and a pair?
No and yes.
<3 taekwondogirl
Can we maybe stop measuring bravery by cis-male anatomy?
There are no transwomen who have the same anatomy?
Tch, transophobic.
You are quite clearly belying my intent and trying to bait me, instead of actually believing the point you’re posting about. Stop it.
It (and your original phrasing) is a symptom of the fact that we have no generally-agreed-upon adjectives that refer to sex and not to gender.
why does everyone think women don’t have balls ? How are ovaries not balls ? We don’t say testicles.
I know that this is an attempt to work with what’s already in place, but balls are vernacular intending to mean testicles. Cajones in Spanish. I’m sure it’s pretty equivalent in other languages.
How about “gonads”, then? That’s explicitly gender neutral, and sounds both cooler and marginally less crude.
Really, I’ve only ever heard it used to refer to cis men. So I’d argue even if it was meant to be gender neutral, its failing.
Walky’s balls came out whiter than Sal’s balls.
In fact, she got blackballed.
Better than blue balled I suppose…..
Those who are aware of Mssr Willis’ work will know Sal is not sal without angst.
Oh….. Well Damn…
Wait…what?
Believe it or not this makes sense. Jealousy is like blackmail: it only has to make sense to one person
BLACKmail.
BlackMALE
*facepalm*
BlaCKMAle
bLACKmALE
Then go buy some…
I don’t think that’s legal anymore.
Wait, doesn’t blackmail make sense to both parties? The blackmailer has to understand in order to come up with the plan and the blackmailee needs to understand and care in order to pay.
All the blackmailer has to understand is that it makes sense to the blackmailee.
True. One can literally just go ” Give me half of your paycheck for the next month or I’ll tell everyone you know that you like watching cartoons in the morning!” As long as this person is embarrassed by watching morning cartoons, then blackmail works.
Same with jealousy. As long as one is insecure or embarrassed about something (taller, shorter, acting meaner, acting nicer, even eye color or hair length)
Likewise, the threat could simply be “I’ll tell everyone what you did yesterday morning” and the blackmailer doesn’t need to know what it was, they just have to see the reaction in the other person that they don’t want anyone to know.
Awww Snap!
How? I mean, they are babies and their skin colour is essentially the same. Seems like it’d take a bit longer.
Babies even look more alike without their skins.
What the hell? Who let Mike into the comment section again?
Mike lets himself in… with the help of his supplies of nickels.
Mike comes in and out.
I’m implying that the thing he does this with are your mothers.
Okay, I laughed, out loud, for about a minute. Talk about the out of nowhere, amazingly…something comment. Kudos.
Sal have “black hair”. Walky does not. Walky is, therefore, “whiter”.
There is no indication it actually started literally when they were born. However, by the time they were, say, 3 or 4 years old the hair difference would already be obvious. Thus, the different treatment would be there as far as Sal can remember.
Come on guys, even Walky acknowledges it.
Was just getting ready to link this. Thank you.
You know its times like these I wanna post the continuity song
He’s Ambiguousely brown.
Walky is not ‘ambiguously brown’, he’s khaki, just like in the limerick.
There once was a maiden named Starkey,
who had an affair with a darkie.
The result of her sins
was quadruplets, not twins:
One white, one black, and two khaki.
That only really rhymes if you say it with a ridiculous Australian accent. And like most best limericks it’s a little fucked up, and weirdly Mendel-accurate.
No, ‘car-key’ is pretty standard Aussie pronunciation. (My friend uses it and her accent is hard to detect overall)
Is that for the colour?
Man no-one is Australia would ever understand me, I’m gaining a list as long as my arm for extra r’s in places.
As recited by James Earl Jones in an old 1970s pirate movie, the name of which I forget.
Very good!! The movie was “Swashbuckler”, and also starred Robert Shaw, Peter Boyle, and Geneviève Bujold, along with Geoffry Holder (the “uncola nut” dude), and Beau Bridges.
Thank you for linking this. I’m a dumb and didn’t understand what Sal meant by this, but I knew it was deeper than their skin color. Now I am less of a dumb. <3
It’s not about skin color folks.
It is when we are talking about babies
I sincerely doubt Sal remembers the baby times, so that’s pretty irrelevant regardless of Sal’s words. As far back as she remembers is all that matters.
Don’t be so sure on that. Some people have fantastic memory. Also, even going back to toddler, it could have been evident.
Based on what I’ve read / been taught of psychology and how nuts memory can be, I’m pretty sure about that. I wouldn’t trust any supposed memories from super early on. I confess to not being 100% sure of when permanent memories are supposed to start forming (and it probably does vary a little), but I’d consider any memories prior to being four dubious short of there being evidence to confirm them.
Indeed, if you “remember” something from that far back it’s more likely imagined. Not that Sal, or most people, would feel that way about their “memories”.
Two and a half are when the hazy permanent memories start forming. Three is when they get firmer. You /can/ remember stuff from earlier, but it depends on the child.
Early childhood teacher, so.
Also worth noting that she never mentioned remembering anything. It’s probably a conclusion she came to.
permanent memories are not a thing. Memory is incredibly fickle.
There was a study where they “convinced” some teenagers (I think it was teens) that they had been sexually abused as children (when they hadn’t been). But they didn’t just convince them, they actually got them to develop memories of it. Basically our brains can create memories from nothing.
How the hell did they get that past the ethics committee?
Brings to mind the McMartin Preschool Trial. The most expensive court case in US history, and it was based on faulty memories. Kids claimed that they were molested in underground tunnels beneath the school. And made claims about satanic rituals, hot air balloon rides, Chuck Norris and people being flushed down toilets.
They didn’t. Most memory studies involving manufactured memories involve showing subjects altered photographs, and seeing if they remember a non-existent event, such as this study: http://link.springer.com/article/10.3758%2FBF03196318?LI=true#page-
Slicedtoad may be referring to completely different events in the 1980s, in which police and others convinced children they remembered being molested/exposed to Satanic abuse as part of a moral panic. The McMartin preschool trials were the most famous of these: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McMartin_preschool_trial
yes, you’re right. I thought something might be wrong when I posted that. It’s been a while since I studied the mcmartin trials.
I am 100% sure that as a 3-year old, the first time I was handed my little brother, in a room that would have had to been filled with adults, for whom said little brother would have been the center of attention even had he not been handed to me (which I’m sure crossed the line from “Dwaaaah” to vomiting pure cane sugar) I unwrapped his swaddling to see what his umbilical cord looked like, and it was Patel colored with shapes like Santa Claus and animal faces and stuff.
That’s how reliable early memory is.
It could be an built up memory. Just little signs that build up over time, which brings you to the conclusion that someone doesn’t like you as much as they like someone else.
As a kid, my memories of one of my grandmothers, was that she hated me. Partially true. She really disapproved of my existence.
She doesn’t need to remember, she just need to look a photo or listen to what their parents said when refering to them as babies. My own parents sometimes mention how my brother born pale as a sheet, my sister pink, I purple (I don’t know what the hell with that), or so.
After some days or so the skin star to take their actual color, so even if they are twins they didn’t necesary have the same born-skin-color. And being they twins and the first and only child of them the diference must have left quite a impresion in their parents.
Sorry I didn’t see yours till after I posted!
Can I just step in and say she doesn’t need to remember being a baby, she needs to remember it always being true, and then see baby photos of her looking more black, and there you have it. There’s probably baby photos!
Nope, not even then, necessarily.
She’s not talking about being a baby either. She’s making an illustrative statement. “It started when we were born,” means “it’s always been like this!”
Genetics are a funny thing? I’m biracial (half black half white) and I was (apparently) born with green eyes and fair hair (it got darker as I got older). It happens.
Are both your parents half by any chance? That’s when all the crazy stuff happens. Half-Japanese people with blue eyes, etc.
As far as I know? No and I sadly didn’t get to keep my green eyes.
Babies have less pigmentation when they come out because very little melanin is produced in utero. Melanin production kicks in outside of the womb because of sunlight. Lots of babies are born with light colored eyes that darken as they get older. I had blue eyes in all my baby pics, and now they’re hazel.
I’ve been told that eye color is based off predispositions to illnesses and such. Not sure how much stock there is in that, but I have brownish hazel-grey eyes in the winter, and in the summer when my allergies kick in, they start getting green. The worse my allergies are, the greener they are. It’s odd.
I’d guess your eyes only look more green when allergy season hits, because your eyes would be getting red and puffy. Red and green contrast, so the redder your eyes get, the more the green stands out.
Eyes don’t change colours once you are grown. Light reflects and makes them look a bit different, but they will not actually change.
I know my eyes look different colours to me at times, and I know people will argue this and are sure their eyes change colours.
But they don’t. I’ve been told this by an optometrist.
This is practically a human universal (probably multi-species, actually) that babies are lighter in hair, skin, and eye color and darken with age. Some ethnicities start with totally blond hair that goes completely dark-brown by adulthood.
That would be me. But I’m generically white.
Same. So very, very white. (Almost entirely Anglo-Gaelic, ethnically speaking.)
I was blond as a toddler. Only my eyebrows still are.
I’m pretty darn black from black parents and I came out looking like an ‘Eskimo baby,’ according to my mom. Maybe that’s the Native American showing up, but yeah, an Asian family probably could have taken me home by accident and not noticed anything for a while.
Hmm. “(apperently) born”? So, you are not sure if you were born? What are the alternatives, hatched? summoned?
I… Kinda never noticed.
I…still don’t really notice
She’s referring to Walky’s attitude, not his skin color.
She’s stereotyping to make her point.
It’s a very confusing bit of stereotype, as I’m not sure what “race” Sal’s supposed to act like.
I’m guessing a lot of this is pretty much all irrational.
Given her father’s comment about how he preferred her hair straight, I think that it’s not irrational at all.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Sal’s mom did a lot of bongoing about Sal’s hair being harder to comb when they were children and started putting relaxer in her daughter’s hair early. I’m also sure Sal heard the term “good hair” thrown around more than once when she was around her dad’s side of the family.
^^^^^ This.
No kidding! Thanks for pointing it out.
I don’t think it is attitude, no. It is not like Sal herself “acts black” either, after all. The key is most certainly the hair. It is probably why she is so protective about it.
At our high school (yes, high school, so this is probably terribly, terribly skewed and wrong, whatever) “blackness” is a sliding scale that everyone at the school understands. We have people who, by skin tone are blacker than the social implications of strong racist undertones, are generally accepted as “white”. Same the other way around; for a more popular example, Macklemore is white, but our school regards him as “black”.
As near as I can figure, it’s a culture thing, and black and white are just the terms for the culture. And by our rules, Sal is blacker than her brother by a hell of a lot, and her brother is nearly as white as us anime club bronies who don’t do parties or drugs.
Sal has a fro, and Walky has naturally straight hair. When she was a kid she probably didn’t straiten it so the damage was already done.
Unless Sal also bleaches her skin, she looks the exact same colour as Walky.
Well, in the Walkyverse it was established that Walkys inability to dance is because of his white genes. Now, I have no proof that Sal can dance, but this could be how he’s whiter.
So does that mean that if you look black but can prove that you cannot dance or jump, you gain automatic white status? This new knowledge can change EVERYTHING! 😀
Shhhhh, keep it down. I’ll lose my black card if that info gets out
exhibit a
i can totally picture walky doing the carlton dance to the ending credits song for dexter and monkey master season 4. is it just me?
So if you have two skills- one white-specific, and one black-specific, you can switch races back and forth by proving you are not a member of one race and then the other?
Or would that just make you raceless?
Biology is confusing.
But you have to keep people who saw proof A from seeing proof B (and vice versa), else you will be something worse.
Sal can twerk with the best of them. She can also get down, boogie, and back dat ass up.
Twerking is something done by idiot bimbos who want to be cool and aren’t.
Sal is much too cool to do it. Not to mention far too dignified.
All black girls have a little bit of twerk in them. It’s just back in the day we called it Booty Shakin’.
Anyone with some bootay and working hips can twerk, it’s just that you are better off not seeing 99% of all the twerks ever done.
The Twerk resides within us all. Embrace it. EMBRACE THE TWERK.
But I’m scared of the twerk!
My ass consists of memories, nightmares, and skulls.
That sounds ASSinine.
Yotomoe you need to Buttout with these B(p)uns of yours.
Everybody’s twerkin’ for the weekend. Even Sal.
no? it’s a dance created by black women with a long cultural history? that’s a super not okay thing to say- and even if it didn’t have the long heritage it has, it’s not cool to shame women for being ‘bimbos’. please don’t say stuff like that.
I once did the twerk.
It didn’t work.
…. so Walky and Sal were both born dancing, with Sal dancing better, and Mom hated the better dancer?
Actually, that makes a bit of sense. A kicking baby must be bad enough without one of the belly-bounties having twinkle toes.
hooboy
Well…the comments on this should be interesting to say the least.
Well, my reaction was “holy shit.”
I wouldn’t worry too much about that, if the comments are too offensive, Willis will go all Orwellian Editor on their asses.
Black people are what’s wrong with america! They’re just so beautiful and overachieving it makes everyone else feel inadequate.
This is the most racist I can get.
throw the n- word in that’ll really “class” it up
…
PUT A HOLE IN THAT ~~~~~~
There, there, Yoto, that was still technically racist. You can be just as racist as anyone else. [pats Yotomoe’s head]
Everyone’s a little bit racist …
Oh come on, you’re not even trying!
White people are secretly devils made of pure distilled evil by an insane god named Yakub.
Yakub forgive this poor soul, he knows not how he insults your grandness.
Schnapp’s the word.
No, “Schnapps” is the word for Billie, not Sal. Sal’s not the alcoholic.
You’re right.
Hoopiddafoopidda is the word.
Bird you.
Excellent cliff hang.
Walky’s whiter?
That confused me too. I always assumed the favouritism was based on the usual ‘son is more important’ bullshit.
I think there may be some of that going on, too.
His hair is straighter, she means.
Oooooooh. That makes a lot of sense. They’re definitely the same (or very nearly) the same skin-tone, and she does seem to be very uncomfortable with the way her hair naturally is. But Ithinkeel like she might also be talking about their personalities, that Walky acts “whiter” than her.
Walky doesn’t have to straighten his hair. They’re fraternal twins. There are differences.
Maybe it’s a case of *ACTS* whiter.
And what would “acting white(r)” would entail exactly ?
Smoking pipes and wearing monocles, I presume.
Leoneu, I really shouldn’t have to spell it out for you. Just look up the definition of the term “Uncle Tom”.
That doesn’t help.
I could also mention the derisive term “oreo” (black on the outside, white on the inside), but apparently my street slang is outdated.
First;
I am equally upset by all use of the terms “acting white” and “acting black” in his comment thread. It’s unfortunate that I called upon it
when talking specifically about the former. I now regret not having responded to someone saying Sal acts “black” or, even better, having asked about both
at once. I don’t like these terms because they sound discriminatory, like it’s in the ethnicity of people to act one way or another.
Secondly;
I’m not sure how to apply Uncle Tom to this situation. Given his interaction with Joyce and Dorothy, Walky really doesn’t strike me as someone with
internalized racial-inferiority. I do not think he is an Uncle Tom.
It is strongly hinted that it may be the case for their parents. But if their favoritism is only based on their son having more caucasian features, then
it is not about how Walky or Sal act; not until Sal’s rebellion and Walky’s good grades gradually reinforce the preexisting favoritism.
Or did you mean that Walky is favored because he fits more to society’s expectations ? First with its physical appareance being whiter, and probably also male,
and then by being a good student ? Then I think you should not use this phrasing.
My problem is this: When you say “Walky ACTS whiter” you also says that Sal is acting “Blacker”, which translates as “being a juvenile delinquent, having
poor grades and defying authority equates being a black person”. When you say Walky ACTS like an Uncle Tom it almost sounds like you’re saying “being good at
education equals betraying black people”.
It does not sound right to me.
According to Sal, the walkerton parents just took a bullshit excuse to favore one of their children. Just read the comment below from Leah Rockshar (posted at 10:05 am), expecially the last sentence.
^ THIS.
Sal is not “acting black.” Walky is not “acting white.” You can’t act what you already are (and they are both BOTH), and those are nonsensical terms that mean nothing in the first place.
Cut that shit out.
Really well done, thank you!
It may have been more apparent when they were babies.
Also, has DoA ever dropped the F-bomb before? Or is this a first?
No, it has before.
that line was crossed pretty early in the comic. Pretty sure Billie has the most profane vocab–she also snagged the first profanity overall award in her very first appearance!
I know other DoA characters have dropped it repeatedly. I’m not sure if Sal has before, though.
Sal has. She usually does cut herself off or bowlderize herself, however. Though she doesn’t seem to have any problem with using other profanities.
On the other hand, just browsing back through the “sal” tag looking for other instances, I ran across no less than five Billie F-bombs.
It also occurs to me that it’s probably not coincidence that both of Sal’s full-up F-bombs have been dropped on Walky. Not only is he able to – inadvertantly or deliberately – aggravate her more than anyone else, she probably feels less need to disguise her real self in front of the guy she shared a womb with than anyone else in the world.
That combination of closeness and antagonism is making me love the way Willis is handling their sibling relationship in this universe.
The F-bomb blew up and destroys all of the campus. No survivors. End of DOA.
I think Billie is trying to pull that trick Sarah does where when no one’s looking directly at her, she slips out of the strip.
Time for her to visit her Canadian girlfriend… 😀
She doesn’t have enough Dina in her.
Billie/Dina ship?
Dina does it the other way around. When no one’s looking, suddenly Dina.
Billie can’t do it because she wants people paying attention to her too much to be able to turn invisible.
Her boobs don’t allow her to hide behind doors well.
Oh shiz.
Kinda wanna punch Walky there in that third panel.
I think Sal just punched his heart in the face.
“If your life had a face I would punch it. I would punch your life in the face.”
“It would die from facepunching.”
“Face-punches would be the cause of death for your life if ever were I to punch it in the face, the action of which I strongly desire to pursue at this very moment.”
“I am gonna punch your face!
…In. The. Face.“
NOOOOOOOOO squeakier voice oooooooooooooooooooo!
Yup, things just went there. I look forward to an even handed and respectful discussion of the issues in this comments section.
oof, and I thought BBR! was rough
that is, today’s bbr
I know the catch-phrase around here is “Damn you, Willis”, but in this case I’m directing the blame squarely at you, rachel. When I first got here to DoA I decided that I would not read any of Willis’ other stuff so that I would not have all those alternate universes crowding in and interfering with my enjoyment of this strip. But then you sandbag me with that link.
I don’t see how difficult it would be to separate one multiverse from an alternate universe. O_o
It’s not hard, just a lot of people make references to the other universe.
I make an effort to avoid those posts entirely.
damnit ! Bill, I am sorry! Gah! Over at the other no-longer-to-be-linked comic, it seems like most commenters have read all of it already and are jus along for the ride with Willis, so there are some spoilers, which I try to avoid as I haven’t read it before, and I’ve even said, “down with spoilers y’all please” and, just, fuck, I completely ruined a big thing. I am sorry! Craaaaap. I would be madsadpissed in your shoes. : (
If I knew you in person I would buy you an apology beer!
Apology accepted, rachel. As much my fault as anyone else’s; I didn’t have to click on the link, and if I had known that BBR meant “Bring Back Roomies” I wouldn’t have.
Aaand I hadn’t seen this when I posted, lol. Ignore me!
Don’t deflect your own responsibility onto rachel. You clicked the link, and then I’m guessing you chose to stay at the website it led to rather than leave. THIS IS A MONSTER OF YOUR OWN MAKING! BWAHAHAHAA!!!
heh… I honestly feel she’s just talking about the hair texture at this point… it’s the only thing that would make Walky “whiter” than her- his hair doesn’t curl, hers does….
also… love poor Billie awkwardly getting sidelined here and half showing up in two panels
oooh….. XD I love my Dina gravatar! it’s so cute!
Well he could have been of a lighter shade when they were younger. You sometimes grow into your skin tone.
very true. when I was in elementary school, our neighbor’s grandkids totally confused me. the older one (she was in her teens) was distinctly AfAm, but her full sister (like two, three years old) was at least five shades whiter. several years later, when I saw them for the last time, there was maybe a two shade difference. however, I wouldn’t expect twins who, as young adults, have the same skin tone to have been born with different skin tones… you know?
as we say in Canada:
“….Le fuck?”
More like “shwa-shwaaa?”
“Pardon my language”.
And the “le” is silent. 🙂
But their skin looks exactly the same.
I think that’s really not what Sal means at all.
^ This.
Just because it’s the same now that doesn’t mean that was the case when they were babies.
Unless one of them has a rigorous tanning regimen and the other doesn’t, I’m skeptical that this changes much over time…
Trust me. It can. And it does.
I should show you my baby pictures. I look like I changed races entirely.
Well, that escalated quickly.
But….they’re illustrated in the same pantone. Like, the exact same shade?
“Whiteness” is not just about skin tone. They were talking about hair, remember?
Yeah, but that’s about her coping now, not when Walkie was born. Newborn babies’ peach fuzz doesn’t vary much from one to another. Unless Willis isn’t acknowledging that, I can’t imagine what it could be BUT skin tone on a shriveled, screaming raisin baby covered in goo.
“Back when we were babies” is more “As far back as I can remember”. It’s not like she really does remember when she was 3 minutes old.
fair point.
Well, it’s not true that babies’ hair is all the same. But I think Sal is simply trying to say that it’s been this way for her as long as she can remember. The key here is that the juvenile crimes were about her response to her parents’ favoritism, not the cause of it.
Well, ignoring the points of ‘when we were babies’ being a turn of phrase (how do you turn a phrase?) and the already pretty well detailed hair issues, skin color can change on babies, especially darken. Walky may have been lighter in color at first.
I really doubt that’s what Sal means, though, and it probably has more to do with other parts of her appearance (like her hair) that aren’t shared with Walky, or even Sal just deciding that those differences must be why her parents don’t love her as much.
Even if she weren’t probably exaggerating, some babies are born with full heads of hair.
yeah. that’s true…. When I was born, my hair was jet black and thick. So much so that my grandparents walked right past me thinking I was a Native American baby!
Seriously, babies can be born with lots of hair or none. As much as we know walky’s hair is kinky when its short, an example of this being true from the beginning could be him having no hair and sal having kinky hair.
As mentioned, there can be baby pictures.
Treating differently + looking at the pictures that are from day one easily equals “from the moment you came out whiter” for real.
And as others say it could be a turn of phrase as well, but its nothing stopping it from not being.
I think it’s less of a “Willis race commentary” thing an more of a “Sam’s (mis)perceptions” thing.
Who’s Sam?
Sam I am.
They clearly meant Sal, don’t be deliberately obtuse.
I’m pretty sure I’m being acute.
I am…uncomfortable with this, if these next few strips are going to be Willis talking about race, especially with mixed-race children, because I have a very uneasy feeling that the man may not necessarily know what he’s talking about. Coming out ‘whiter’ and blaming all of Sal’s delinquencies on her being the ‘blacker’ twin, makes me, a child of mixed-race parents (and therefore mixed race myself) incredibly uncomfortable, as I am not sure where Willis is writing from in this particular strip. He’s not let anyone down before, and he’s done brilliant commentary, but this feels like it’s pushing the ‘writing about experiences completely outside my own’ just a bit.
also assigning ‘white’ behaviour and ‘black’ behaviour, if this isn’t about skin color, is also really…not great.
I don’t claim to speak for all mixed race people, but I am just saying, as a mixed race person, this leaves me uncomfortable.
In his defense, I feel he’s going to go more into how Sal is using the race thing s a bit of a scapegoat for why she (perceived or no) was treated unfairly by their parents. Willis isn’t saying they were treated differently because Sal was the “blacker” one. Sal is saying that. Remember that.
But who is putting Sal’s words in her speech balloons?
“The moon is made of green cheese,” said Bob.
Bob said it. I wrote the words. Does it follow that I, SDGlyph, must also believe the moon to be made of green cheese?
But the moon is made of green cheese. That’s why the US Flag turned white. Green is the color of radiation! So the moon is Radiated Cheese!
It’s possible she was darker before, and their skin tones evened out. People have also been talking about her hair making her “blacker.”
I suspect it’s going to be shown that because she perceived he got better treatment she acted out for parental attention.
As a mixed race person myself I’m very intrigued by this storyline. There is something problematic though about a white man writing about life experiences he’s never had and trying to put himself in the point of view of a mixed race woman…there is the potential to not “get it.” I’m sure he’s going to do the best he can though. But there’s also the fact that this kind of situation DOES happen and it is entirely possible that Sal could have been mistreated by her parents and eventually realized something that they aren’t entirely aware of themselves about how they feel about the child that came out “blacker”. Sal’s mother is a white woman. Sal’s father is a black man who chose to marry a white woman so that they could subconsciously value whiteness over blackness…it’s entirely possible. It’s also possible that Sal was just looking for something to blame for her and her parents not having the relationship that she wanted and she looked at herself and looked at her brother and decided it was because she wasn’t white enough. We won’t find out until the story is told and we give it the chance to be.
This isn’t an autobiography. You don’t need to have the actual experience to be able to write about it. How well you do with it is dependent on your ability to convey your message, and how believable it is.
Did I say he wasn’t allowed to or that he wouldn’t be able to? No. I merely pointed out and I stand by what I said that when writing about a life/cultural experience that is not your own you have to tread lightly and be respectful which I’m sure Willis is aware of.
I suspect he’s aware and will be deft. It seems to me like he listened a lot before he wrote Jocelyne, after all.
I don’t think it is about behavior either. I don’t see where you are seeing it.
You seem to have jumped to a conclusion that’s not really supported by the dialog or context, since it’s Sal herself that’s making the assertions. It seems unlikely that she’s going to proclaim herself a criminal because of her racial makeup.
I’m pretty sure the commentary is going towards the idea she was treated second best by her parents because of [superficial reason], and thus ended up acting out in delinquent behaviors in response to it. Race is irrelevant beyond filling in that blank between the brackets.
I feel the need to second this. Willis isn’t “blaming all of Sal’s delinquencies on her being the blacker twin.” Sal, the speaking character, is perceiving her parent’s favoritism of Walky as being due to subconscious racism. The fact that she became delinquent is irrelevant to the situation at hand, which is Sal’s point with her comment: when Walky tries to make it about the robbery, Sal immediately drives it back to what she perceives as the real source of the issue.
Yeah I agree with this.
I’m not mixed race, but I do have a sibling who came out whiter than me. This kinda thing does sometimes happen. Not that I don’t respect caution here.
I’m the favored child by my step dad but on my mom I’m the least favorite. My sister is second best for both parents. My brother is my opposite.
Favoritism is an odd thing, I am (consciously) the favorite. I am more responsible, better with my parents and do not invest in illegal business ventures.
But my brother has always gotten more leeway when it comes to punishments, more opportunities to do things (suggesting he join the boy scouts, after telling me they “don’t feel like driving me every day” is one example), and yes even getting a bigger room with more toys…..
though I doubt it has anything do to do with him being more “whiter than sour cream” than I am…
100% chance that your brother is the younger child. Your 2nd paragraph is all common older-sibling complaints. His greater leeway doesn’t have to do with favoritism, it’s cause he came later, after you softened the parents up a bit.
ugh I was acting as though I know your family better than you do. Sorry about that. That’s how it is in my family, your mileage may vary, sorry for mansplaining.
That’s how it was in my family, too. I started doing my own laundry, making lunches, etc when I was 7. When I wanted to learn to play guitar I had to buy the instrument myself, find a teacher, and figure out how to get there. My parents refused to drive me, and it was over 10 miles to the nearest bus stop. When my youngest brother was in high school, my mom did his laundry, made his lunches, and drove him to all his (marching band) practices including getting expensive hotels when they had BOA competitions out of state. She would never EVER have done that for me. Part of it is my parents had more time and money (it’s hard and time consuming to take care of 3 little kids, they’d gotten more established in their careers) and part of it was that he’s the BAAAYYYBEEEE and they’ve always coddled him. (part of it was also sexism, I’ve always been expected to do WAY more female-gendered chores around the house, including taking a week off of work (unpaid) to take care of my mom when she had her hip replaced, because apparently neither my dad nor my brother who was living at home rent free could do that.) There’s a VAST difference in the way kids are treated in a family, based on complicated interplay of birth order of the kids AND the parents, gender, and more.
Yeah Leorale, i am the oldest and for a while him being the BAAAYYBEEE was part of it. But at the point where him just randomly having friends sleep over (I was never EVER allowed) and getting in trouble with the law and getting a slap on the wrist, it seemed a little much. And don’t worry it wasn’t too mansplany 😉
Brigid, I know that feel. Your story actually fairly similar to mine.
It’s not so much a mixed-race thing, as it is sibling (and in this case, twins) rivalry and favoritism. It happens a lot, and the fights can be about ANYTHING. Even in one-race it could be about the colour of your skin. It’s illogical for the most point, but kids can get some weird reasoning, and it can stick in your head.
By that logic, Willis should stop writing women.
…Willis is also not a Gay man or lesbian woman either (pretty sure) but he writes about both. If people can only write what they personally experience or have dealt with this comic would be a lot shorter.
The most important thing is to be sensitive to the material, and more importantly, to the people that are actually affected by it. And to do your research! People who put in the effort to get to know issues that don’t affect them directly can write them well, but it’s very, very easy to be disrespectful and offensive unintentionally.
Again I never said he couldn’t. Where are people getting the idea that I said he couldn’t? A;; I said was be fucking respectful about it. Jesus.
You know what I’m tired and reading over my comments I’m no longer sure I’m responding to comments that were directed at me though I stand by my whole “be respectful” thing regardless I think I’m going to go to bed.
Totally wasn’t directed at you from me 🙂 I hope and have a lot of faith Willis will handle this respectfully it’s how he does things. I was referring to this “uncomfortable with this, if these next few strips are going to be Willis talking about race, especially with mixed-race children, because I have a very uneasy feeling that the man may not necessarily know what he’s talking about. “
“may” being the key word here I think 🙂
The problem is, the suggestion that “be respectful” doesn’t go without saying, when there hasn’t been so much as a hint of non-respectful-ness, is a bit of a backhanded insult, so it’s hard to blame people for assuming what you really mean is “white guy shouldn’t write about non-white issues”.
Like I’m very hopeful for this story line, but I’m also nervous and you raise some excellent points. given that you have lived experience with this, it’s beyond fair for you weigh in and express unease. it’s not like you outright condemned it- you expressed concerns. I don’t think it’s fair for people to be getting on your case for a legitimate and nuanced response. 🙁
Absolutely agree, I know this is from a long time ago but I just want to weigh in for future people’s sakes?
I’m more than pretty sure that Willis isn’t both.
And isn’t it funny that the group of people he’s most often accused of misrepresenting, i.e. christians, is the group he does write from experience. 🙂
Whoa!!! Well, that is some serious shit. Not going away anytime soon…
Walky’s caramel goodness is about to be busted up into bite-sized chunks.
Sal just basically accused Walky of being more carob than caramel.
Sal is embracing her Cacao heritage.
Sal just needs to say cacao to cacao.
…This actually sounds kind of racist in context, but I really wanted to make that reference.
OMG! your avatar! Is that supposed to be Jocelyne (after transitioning) with Joyce? Awesome! Where can I see a full sized version?
Wow…I can’t wait to see where this conversation goes from here.
Walky, this is one of those times where you might be better off keeping your mouth shut.
Are you high? This is Walky we’re dealing with, remember? You know – open mouth, insert foot?
Walky enjoys the taste of his own feet.
Almost as much as Dotty enjoys his sweet, caramel nipples.
Man, I didn’t even think about how weird Danny saying that about his ex would be.
Sadly, Danny makes everything sound weird.
Love your new Jocelyn avatar.
arigatou
“Ok honey, let’s both agree to like our son more because combs don’t break in HIS hair. Agreed?”
“Yes dear.”
Real talk. I flippin’ hated getting my hair combed. So now I got dreadlocks. I BEAT THE SYSTEM!
^ Ha! 😀
Obvious rebuttal: Get the wallet out and stop buying cheap fine-toothed dollar store combs!
Or, do one better, go Yotomoe’s route and stop using combs altogether!
I detangle and finger-comb my hair in the shower when it is wet, thankyouverymuch.
It probably has before, but this comic definitely passes the race version of the Bechdel test. (Two named PoC, having a conversation, not about white people.) Also interesting that everyone in this room is mixed race.
Well, technically, they are talking about their mom, who is a white person.
I guess it does work better if you ignore the mom and focus on the dad.
Giving what we know about their parents so far, I would think the mom is the main culprit her, actually. In fact, if you go back to the strips where Sal is with their parents, you can see the dad is really trying to connect to her, while the mother is ignoring her in favor of Walky.
Yeah, I agree. I just didn’t think it through when I first posted about the test.
I am honestly kinda surprised I haven’t seen speculation about Linda being a racist. She strikes me as the type who’d make that kind of judgement about her kids and not really care about the consequences.
I take umbrage to referring to someone as “A Racist,” like it’s just a thing you either are or are not, with no shading. People can have racist thoughts, say racist things, and hold racist beliefs, but there’s nothing that makes them, fundamentally, “A Racist.” Every racist perspective can be redeemed, every racist belief can be countered – not every person will allow themselves to change, but there are those that can and do, and we’re not helping by using “racist” as a fixed trait like “blue-eyed.”
I’d argue then they’re all racists then. Until they fix their fundamental beliefs.
Ah. That’s why there’s no one discussing it. Because you won’t let them. Got it.
There’s also intentional, malicious racism, which Linda clearly doesn’t display, and then there’s subconscious, accidental racism, which can be even more insidious and just as harmful. That’s what’s probably happening here.
Last time we saw them together, Charles was being disappointed in Sal because of the way her hair grows, and Linda was ignoring Sal’s existence entirely. I’m not sure which is worse.
Charles maybe thinks he was being sympathetic, so I guess that’s something? Maybe?
Sal spends exactly one strip in the company of her parents & during that strip she has her dad’s full attention. Dad’s reactions:
– says he’s glad to see her. More precisely, he expresses happiness at seeing both of his kids together, which I take to mean that he a) would like to see more of her & b) doesn’t have a favourite.
– takes notice of her appearance.
– says she looks pretty. He *does* have a preference for straight hair on Sal – which is not necessarily a preference for straight hair per se – but this is a preference that Sal shares. For all we know, he merely expresses his support for a conscious choice that Sal made earlier.
– looks sad upon learning that Sal won’t be with them for the rest of the afternoon.
Mom, on the other hand, fails to acknowledge Sal’s being in the room at all.
– http://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/comic/book-3/04-just-hangin-out-with-my-family/appointment/
He actually does not say she looks pretty. He says she looks pretty when her hair is long and straight. Which it naturally is not, and which by all appearances she has chosen not to maintain (she says afterward that it’s her preference to keep it straightened, which may or may not be true, and if it is true, may only be so because of negative associations from her parents’ obvious disfavor).
That is not being supportive.
He doesn’t express happiness at seeing both his kids either. He simply says it’s been a long time since he has.
I’m sure that for Walky the message was clear. Walky didn’t feel the need to dress up to meet his parents though. Walky lived with his parents until a few weeks ago, and presumably received affection fairly regularly.
Sal probably requires a more direct “So happy to see you! How’s life been treating you?”
This “It’s been a while. I notice your hair’s not pretty anymore.” business isn’t cutting it.
“Walky didn’t feel the need to dress up to meet his parents though.”
Er, he actually specifically chose to wear one of the shirts Dorothy picked out for him in order to be more presentable. Of course, it’s definitely not comparable to the Catholic school girl get-up. /nitpick
Are you sure? It seemed to me that him wearing decent clothes that day was just a happy coincidence.
Wasn’t it Dorothy’s idea?
/shrug
I suppose it doesn’t really matter that much. Their treatment of him would likely be no different either way.
Thank you for saying it!
Excellent blocking,too. Their mom is literally outside the panel, busting up their moment.
Interesting hypothesis, but her dad’s really on board with her straightening her hair, remember. So he’s invested in altering her appearance to more of The White Ideal, too.
It still passes. Billie and Sal talked about their roommate agreement, and they’re both mixed.
Heh, it passes in the third strip when Billie, Walky and the girl behind the counter talk about Billie’s alcoholism.
And even that girl had a name (Asma).
I’m not sure if Asma really counts as a named character. I mean, she’s got a name, but I only know what it is because she’s tagged. I don’t think it’s actually been mentioned in the strip yet.
Yeah, but you still have Walky and Billie. Several of their earlier interactions pass, with them talking about how much Billie despises him or about Sal.
Besides Walky and Billie we have Sarah apologizing to Raidah for punching her, Sarah and Dina talking about Jurassic Park, Dina and Billie talking about sharks, Billie and Sal talking about how cool Sal is (and making a motorcycle ride awkward) and Sal and Walky talking about pyjama jeans. …Maybe I should go to sleep or something.
Does it make a difference that Billie and Sal only talked about the roommate agreement because a white person ordered them to?
I don’t think that matters. Otherwise, 2 PoC talking about investment banking wouldn’t count, since the banking system is white-man controlled.
The banking system isn’t controlled by white people, it’s controlled by rich people. The rich people are mostly white, for historical reasons, but that’s not their most salient feature.
Apropos of this thread, while I totally ship Sal and Jason (though it’s probably not a good idea or ethical or legal), and Walky and Dorothy (without reservations), I’d be down to see a black couple in this strip. Can I get anyone else on board the Good Ship Sarah-Jacob??
Joyce ships it! Personally I don’t think Sarah can be bothered to be in a relationship.
And now we go down this road…
I keep refreshing, hoping to see tomorrow’s strip, but I know that won’t happen for another 24ish hours. Argh.
Slow your roll, there rusty. It will come, in time…
In time…
It’s so difficult! I’ll settle for rereading today’s comic one or two hundred time and thinking about how the others may act and what may have happened.
Ok, I can’t be the only one who said “WHOOOOAAAA” aloud at the last panel, right?
Makes me wonder if this was planned ahead of time or if this came about from that straight-hair line her dad said from a few dozen strips back…
Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd of course my random avatar is the side-eyeing super Christian.
It’s perfect timing for the side-eyed Uber Christian.
How often do the gravatar images change?
Pretty sure Willis waits to just when you start to love your gravatar before shifting it without warning (RIP Mike gravatar)
I guess Dorothy’s wide-eyed optimism is appropriate for my newcomer status.
Well guess brigeedaerocks is stuck with Mary unless she becomes anywhere near likable.
I think you got the better deal in the “RIP Mike Gravatar” party.
The beeeest.
Now with added hostility!
Randomly, whenever a new image is added to the rotation
I said ” oh shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii”, which is probably close enough
Ooooooooooooooooh shit.
JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT THE FAMILY DRAMA WAS OVER.
The drama tag was pulled, the drama is never over. Also, Joyce with a condom on her head killed me. XD
Oh my god. How did she kill you…
Di-Did she stab you with it?
Yeah, I penetrated him good.
Hahahaha, oh man, I could barely finish that sentence before I started laughing.
It was Joyce in the bedroom with the condom hat! :O
This is more than drama tag. This is full on Drama Llama
ALL HAIL kING LLAMA DRAMA
It’s a Drama Llama Bomb.
Quick! To the Drama Shelter!
Better hope it’s a Drama Fallout Shelter, because this is a Drama Llama Tsar Bomba.
Guys, it’s not an issue of skin colour, it’s more of which child ACTS more white.
(unless Willis has other plans entirely)
I grew up in an incredibly racist society and people making comments of who was more white and who was more black were commonplace and normal.
It was not enough that your skin was lighter (but it certainly helped) but you had to act and talk as if you were on a different echelon of society than the poor, the uneducated, the darkies.
My grandma had two sisters and their parents separated them into “the white one, the darkie and the black one” (keep in mind none of them were white or black, just slightly different shades of brown skin). THEIR OWN PARENTS. And they treated each girl differently according to the colour of her skin. The one with the lightest skin colour eventually grew up talking and behaving in a completely different way than her sisters.
I’m guessing that what happened with Sal and Walky would be a less extreme version of this. They perceived one child as “better” because he was “less back” and treated him differently.
I’m pretty sure it’s the hair that differentiates them. Walky himself said that Sal takes more after their father while he’s more of a “generic brown”. Also, she naturally has extremely fluffy and kinky hair, unlike Walky who has straight hair. Also, their dad greeted her by saying it was a shame she was wearing her hair naturally instead of straightened because it looks so much better that way.
Could be, but I still think it’s also an attitude thing.
I guess we’ll have to wait and see what Willis brings out in this storyline.
Where you are seeing the attitude thing? Neither Sal nor Walky seem to act particularly “white” or “black” to me. Furthermore, Sal take the trouble to make her hair looks “less black”, which doesn’t strike to me as someone who is proud to act according to her heritage. Given we already know she have issues with heir hair, I would agree with Schwartz Sal’s cometary is about hair and not attitude.
The attitude thing is my interpretation of what happened in their childhood. What we know of Sal is that she makes an effort to change her hair, most probably because she wants to win the approval of her parents.
I’m basing my comment on my own experience growing up in a racist society. I could be wrong, since Sal and Walky obviously grew up in a different society in a different decade. We don’t know yet.
“There’s no such thing as acting white” I say as I listen to Regina Spektor.
People in my childhood tried their best to convince me otherwise.
This is so babies… Badum tss
Twin babies?
“Well, robbing a convenience wasn’t going to help! Then you were just playing into stereotypes!”
I can’t decide if it should be Walky or Billie who says that.
It should be billie; it wouldn’t feel right if walky said it. It’s not like him.
I hate everytime I fit into a stereotype.
Damnit Dad.
I never understood why we use the word stereotype,it sounds like a way of describing a sound yet it isn’t
That’s because you associate the word stereo with sound. Not your fault that happened though.
RACISM NOW IN REVOLUTIONARY DOLBY DIGITAL 5.2
This was the racism on the stereo at my house, growing up:
Hmm, we’ll try that link a second time:
This was the racism on the stereo at my house, growing up.
A stereotype was a type of photograph from the late 19th/early 20th centuries which you would use a special viewer to look at, which had the illusion of depth.
Hating Stereotypes is a stereotype. :O
No it’s not?
Just a point I feel has to be made. Sal isn’t speaking for Willis or the strip in general. She’s going to be talking about her own perceptions on how she was treated. So don’t take her saying that as WILLIS saying it. Too many of the first few comments seem to center on Willis taking it in a racially weird direction. But we really can’t say that, based on one troubled teen’s comment.
Walky really can’t let the whole robbing convenience stores go, can he?
In any case, it’s probably that Walky is really a misplaced target of Sal’s anger. Yeah, he’s more favoured, but in a sense it’s not his fault entirely, she should really be yelling at their parents.
I’m hoping that whatever comes out of this, Walky will get a clue and signal to their folks that Sal actually feels neglected. If anyone can send a clue to parents that play favourites, it might be the favoured child.
Yeah, right. Get back to me on that one when that actually works.
Now now, lets not bicker and argue about who robbed who
I held some people at gunpoint, You pressed some police buttons, We all had a good laugh. Can’t we just drop it?
This is supposed to be a happy occasion!
This has taken a racist turn, it feels as if she needs someone pin all her anger on so shes blameing him
Unlike me. I just blame the economy!
THANKS OBAMA.
walkys like obama looks black but acts withe
He looks black but acts like a twig? What?
So that happened…
No it didn’t. You are dreaming.
And to think this all started because walky lost his shoes this morning. As far as “White guy” problems go this is about the worst.
That was like…a week ago man.
Yeah, this morning was when he was walking around with his junk hanging out. And then Mike’s mom hugged him.
Totally different white guy problem.
If it was a black guy problem he’d be more worried about tripping over it.
… Walky’s whiter? Sorry if this sounds stupid and/or racist, but they don’t look any different in skin tone. Maybe my eyes arent working right or it’s really subtle or something. Does skin color change when growing up like hair color?
He’s whiter where it counts on the inside.
With all that cholesterol!
It’s probably the hair. Walky’s hair is naturally more like white people’s hair. Sal’s is naturally more like black people’s hair.
Yeah, looking through the comments and reflecting on the hair stuff that happened previously in the comic, I can see that. Still seems weird to me, but I’m a white guy who’s never really cared about hair (though has really curly hair myself), so I guess my ignorance on the subject is expected.
I think it’s more about Walky having naturally straight hair than any difference in skin tone. But no worries, I thought the same thing initially. c:
Actually, it does. Males darken more with age, as far as I know, while women tend to retain their childhood coloration a little more.
^ Um, what?
He’s like a Cadbury Egg.
So brown on the outside, white on the inside, but yellow at the core? Deep down, Walky’s a coward!
Nah, there’s just a little bit of Asian in him. How do you thing he gets such good grades?
Well, I think I’ve reached my terribleness limit for the week.
That’s Sal, put it right out there, to the not so oblivious brother. Walky knows and he still likes to stick it to her? Brings my opinion of him down quite a bit.
I know he tends to live in his own world and I know brothers like nothing better than to piss off their sisters (and vice versa). But there is a limit, he knew his sister was trying to get ‘good notice’ from bongo mother and not all there daddy: Walky commented on it when he walked in the room and made a face at the dress. He KNEW. And he still says ‘…well I didn’t rob a convenience store?” Shit, I’d of decked him for that one.
I think you are giving Walky too much credit. I think he genuinely don’t know about any of that.
Think about it. You are treated nicer. Your sibling robbed a store. If that’s all you think about or know, what is your conclusion?
Have to remember, this has only ever mattered to one of the two. Walky quite likely has literally never given this more than a moment’s thought. Sal’s the one who’s been silently stewing about this for years. Sal’s the one who probably got to lay awake at night in her boarding school, thinking about how she ended up here, when it all began.
Not to mention she’s gotten lectures as to how she’s a failure from her parents, which added to the stewing and the thoughts.
The confusion in the comments section is really weird. This has been set up since it was first pointed out that Sal has more traditionally black hair and goes to great lengths to straighten it to a more assimilated and acceptable form, while Walky’s is more naturally straight. With the parents preferential treatment of Walky and his more straight laced (i.e. “white”) attitude and lifestyle, it seemed to me that this type of reaction from Sal was obviously coming sooner or later.
Maybe it’s because in black communities, we’re acutely aware this kind of thing because of its constant prevalence (dark vs light skin, “acting white” vs black, curly hair vs straight (or “good hair”) are huge points of derision), but it’s almost hard to fathom that this is surprising to so many.
I hate that though, cuz I act “white”. And I get my balls busted SO MUCH around black people about it. My self esteem is abysmal and part of it is because of this.
Was 1 of the 3/150 black kids at my white high school during puberty, aka your formative years. Fill in le blanks.
Don’t you have dreadlocks, Yotomoe? I’m pretty sure that would balance out any whiteness in your personality, unless you listen to One Direction, buy from Sears, and desperately try to adopt a foreign culture while knowing nothing about it.
The dreadlocks help.
That said I’m tired of people calling me Whoopi (as in goldburg)
Who has problems with people using the word “axe” instead of “ask”.
Course, she has no problem with swearing, so it evens out.
What’s so white about buying from Sears??
… they have good sales from time to time… *mutter*
I like this comment.
Not really, I’m white and I’d bet that honestly probably a pretty big chunk of the readership is too. A lot of them probably aren’t even aware of this stuff.
I will have to give you that it’s probably true a lot of people who identify as white have no idea this sort of thing happens, though they’re not completely alien to the concept, and then there are some of us who are fully aware of it either from direct contact with it via friends, family members, etc., or actually from different classes now that I think about it (and here I mean “classes” as in school/education, not social strata).
Not trying to toot my own horn as a “special snowflake” or anything, but if you ask anyone who knew me while I was growing up, they would tell you quite honestly that I was blind to race until about my mid-teenage years. By that I don’t mean that I didn’t have friends who were from other races or mixed races but rather that I was friends with anyone as long as they were a good person – I didn’t care about physical features at all. It is only as an adult looking back and now knowing how the world perceives and focuses on such differences that I realize just how diverse my general friend “circle” was in many ways.
I also have to laugh at a moment around my early/mid teenage years that a couple of young black men made some comment about my dear friend Tunji hanging around with “that white chick” (meaning me) and Tunji replied “Who (name)? She’s translucent. She can’t even see race man.” Ironically, that was also one of the unfortunately many times I encountered the more/less race issue. The two started to insult Tunji about “how white he was becoming” when Tunji finally snapped (that wasn’t like him, he was a very kind person usually) and asked them what part of Africa their parents were from. They laughed but then Tunji continued by saying where *his* parents were from, because he was literally African-American and had the passport to prove it. That made them leave him alone but Tunji confided to me that he hated using race as a “one-up card” to win that sort of argument. Honestly no one should have to deal with that regardless of race. Now as an adult, I can’t tell you how many times I have been dismissed out of hand because “oh she’s just a white B—-” : – (
Anyway, now I’m rambling on, I’m sorry. To comment on the original comment, I agree, this was foreshadowed in the story and may I just say I *love* how Willis weaves storyline threads throughout multiple arcs. My main surprise was at Sal just coming out and saying it, but then – that’s Sal. That’s her personality, so it completely works. I can’t wait to see where this goes next, because even just having some semi-similar conversations with my own siblings where we remember childhood events *very* differently, there are many ways Walky could react to this.
Holy jeez I wrote a lot more than I thought, I’m sorry o_o It’s late/early and apparently I got bit by the ramble bug.
Oh wowwww. That hit me right in the feels. Sal, bb, come here and lemme hug you. Or go and punch something, that might be more your style. But seriously. Just. Ugh. FEELS.
Sal, are you sure it wasn’t because he came out with a wing-wang rather than a hoo-ha?
I thought it was because they new Sal would come out badass, while Walky would be a walking dork-sicle.
When Sal was born, her first act was to strangle the doctor.
Her second act was to rob the doctor of his gloves. And wear them.
Her third act was to cut the fingers out of the gloves.
Her fourth act was to grab the nearest wheelchair and use it to pop wheelies.
The fifth act was to grind on the rails with said wheelchair.
Her sixth act was to crash through the window on the wheelchair, without getting cut.
Whoa, it looks like the gloves are about to come off!
What am I saying. This is Sal. The gloves always stay on.
No glove, No love.
But what about self-love? Even if she’s got hella hydrophobic coating on those gloves, I still think that she’d want to remove them, for reasons of hygiene, control, and tactile feedback.
What if the gloves are like engies single glove. Both her hands are mechanical!
That’s why she keeps them on. It helps her pretend it’s someone else doing it.
•…• This is still better than seeing amber’s dad (way better)
So, I don’t have any experience with this type of situation, but I do have a friend that has mentioned in passing that her and her siblings sometimes have these types of issues, except that her family seems to think she’s ‘too white.’
Real Talk.
Panels 1-2 are really good arguments for Black and White people.
Or men and women.
Cuz I legit know people who don’t think black people have a harder time than white people.
“Man it’s so unfair! Why do you have a whole Black History Month!? Where’s White History Month!? And Affirmitive Action!? And all these BLACK COLLEGES!? Why do black people get everything?”
God I hate the people who say, “Where’s my Straight Pride Parade?”
That reminds of two lines from a poem; Pride by Joanna Hoffman. “So when my friend asks me why there is no straight pride parade, I tell her. / You can’t be proud of something you never had to fight for.”
Oh, that’s good. Very good.
There’s always Valentine’s Day.
The other day I heard this legit sentence from a dude in my (irony alert) gender and discrimination class: “My gym has Women Only days for the sauna. That’s crap. Why aren’t there Men Only days!?
Same argument. Same idiots, probably, who say all these things. Siiiigh, some humans.
Uh, I actually don’t get this one. What do saunas have to do with gender rights?
It’s not about the sauna, it’s about the “Women Only days”.
I know what caesaria82 was trying to say, but I don’t really understand why complaining about there being no “men only” days for a sauna is sexist. Obviously, the other things pointed out in this particular thread are prime examples of male/white/straight privilege, but this one doesn’t make sense to me.
Well I imagine because in a sauna you tend to wear a towel at most, and most women are uncomfortable being naked around unfamiliar men, so most saunas are by default men only.
So basically, the women are scared away by the threat of harassment? I guess that makes sense… Wish it wasn’t so, though. /one day hopes for all bathrooms to be unisex
Yeah, my point was that the Women Only days are obviously there
because there was need for them. Because every other day is
basically Men Only day already, in terms of how comfortable you feel.
Women Only day is like once a week. Because women needed a safe
space in an environment where they could be made to feel uncofortable
on normal, mixed days. Plus ‘Men Only’ days sounded so ‘Men’s Rights’-y that it pissed me off lol.
Mm, I see. Thanks for explaining.
I can’t wait ’til unisex facilities are the norm, though!
That’ll happen when people stop being transphobic and misogynistic, when rape culture and the kyriarchy are dismantled.
We got a ways to go.
I looked up kyriarchy and learned a new word.
(by which I mean, thanks for spreading the awareness to me, Araceli)
I had to look it up too. Way to go, feminist Joe.
Yeah, we really do, but what can I say, I’m an idealist. ; w ;
It’d still be cool if the incidence of unisex bathrooms was higher though. I have to keep using my sex’s bathroom, even when identifying as the opposite gender, which is really hnngh.
Morgan Freeman said the same thing.
I said out loud, “Holy shit.”
Probably woke my housemates.
But really. Holy shit.
Please take all sensitive subjects and make them into a comic strip. Kthx.
Like, I can’t even begin to tell you how many of the story lines bring up subjects relevant to my graduate studies. It’s fucking beautiful.
Tell us anyway!
Let me guess… sociology? If so, welcome to the club!
I agree with the earlier poster, that if the ‘favored child’ had nudged the parents and let them know they were ‘ignoring the less favored kid”- the parents may have paid more attention or realized what they were doing.
But: I don’t believe it.
The parents know very well what they are doing. And the favored child likes being favored and children aren’t known for their charity -especially to their siblings.
Although my brother and I had a good relationship and parents who tried hard not to show favoritism, we both knew he was the favorite. But, they tried and we loved each other.
We both had friends who had parents who did not even try. One family in particular had 3 kids, and the middle kid was treated exactly the way Sal is being treated by her parents.
Shit happens. You learn to live with it, or you rob convenience stores. And one day, stomp on the favored sibling.
Hope someday she takes that anger and smack her mother across the head with it. Her father too, just for shits and giggles. He know what the mother is doing but he doesn’t have the equipment to do anything about it.
Walky enjoys his favorite status. Often the favored child deliberately remains oblivious to the pain of the non-favorite child, identifies with the parents, and plays into the whole game. It is very normal for a disfavored or invisible child to blame their siblings….and rightly so. Poor Sal. Even today her dad told her that her natural hair made her less pretty than when she gets it processed.
I am of a mixed race family and was raised white. I did not figure this out until my mom met up with a black cousin when I was 19. I was the one with the Sal hair and having it was torture. They started processing and thinning my hair when I was five. I was the girl in the family and my younger brother was the golden child….nothing to do with my “bad hair” but all to do with being a lowly female.
I don’t think it’s right to blame your siblings for something they had no control over, and I’m not sure that Walky deliberately remains oblivious to Sal’s hardships. Being pissed off at a sibling for being an asshole about their favorited status is entirely different, and there I would say “rightfully so”. However, I’m not convinced that what’s going on here is that, either.
It’s a difficult situation. Walky isn’t being an asshole about his favored status because he likes being favored (though I’m sure it plays into it), he’s being an asshole about his favored status because he genuinely feel it’s deserved. In his mind, he’s a better kid than his chain-smoking, convenience-store-robbing sister. He’s still an asshole in this moment, the cause is different. Though you’re definitely right that Walky probably isn’t deliberately oblivious about his sister’s hardships but that somehow makes it worse. How do you not notice your twin sister‘s difficulties when you are growing up side-by side?
Walky strikes me as being pretty self absorbed. No more than you average teenage boy though. When you also consider his revulsion towards all things feminine I wouldn’t be surprised if even before she was sent away he went out of his way not to be close to his sister when they were growing up. So maybe in his mind any of Sal’s complaints about their parents were blown out of proportion because he wasn’t being treat that way.
You don’t have to blame someone for something to be angry about it. Rationally, you might know that it’s not their fault and they don’t intend any harm, but that doesn’t make you any less angry about it.
My grandfather had seven grandchildren who were all “Number One” in his eyes. It takes a lot of effort, but it can be done.
It doesn’t matter if her parents meant anything by the little comments and actions, it’s the meaning that Sal read into them. Hearing the same minor gripe about a physical trait for years can have a devastating effect on a child. When she started considering herself the less loved child, the gulf between them was born. And it only widened with subsequent actions.
i knew it FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT
violence is never the answer so…
Fight Fight Fight
Reading the comments makes me dizy. Circular much? But to reiterate it probably has less to do with race than with the fact walky is the favored child. My aunt is the same way about my dad. He was born second, he was the boy, and expectaions werelower for him that her.
The parents of walky and sal must have made her feel less than walky and in her mind it must be because of him having better hair, being better looking, whiter or whatever and she acted out because her family made her feel less than her brother over an accident of genetics.
This is why im glad my brother came first, he got to be the bad child and get baked into a pie, and i entered a family with lower expectations.
Way to make this all about you.
The argument that Sal is putting forth is about *why* Walky is the favored child. She states that race is the reason why he is the favored child. The comments are discussing whether this is true or not.
I know it’s not the same at alllllll, because it’s got nothing to do with race, but as the sibling who was, in the eyes of my parents, ‘lesser’ physically, looks-wise, not as beautiful, athletic, skinny, classically good-looking, etc etc., I can relate to Sal in my own little way and it brings back all kinds of painful memories.
But Sal’s deal is obviously a whole lot more complicated with all the implications. Man. Poor Sal. Poor, oblivious Walky as well, because I feel like his whole world view is about to collapse any minute now.
Shitty parenting, ruining kids’s self-esteem since always.
shiiiitt!!
And now walking really gets a glimpse on why Sal acts that way about family…
Only if he doesn’t choose to remain oblivious.
I feel for you Sal T.T unfortunately this is a thing still pretty damn prevalent in our society. I still remember being told by my mom to straighten my hair for my first job interview and for the first day of school. She told me that it would make me look more white and thus less ‘other’ to my future employers and teachers.
wait, really….wow
i hope Joyce enters in soon that will really mix things up
Interesting. I am glad and intrigued to see this discussion being raised. Something tells me most people are unaware of it.
Oof….I knew, as I waited for this comic to load and saw it had 250 comments already (it’s only an hour and a half after it has been up) that it was going to be a good one….I was not wrong. This is some real stuff right here….
Wait… they both have the exact same skin tone…
i believe it is a matter that is deeper than skin
Specifically the hair follicles.
I was gonna say…
A lot of people seem to be taking this comic really, really literally. Hint: It’s not about what color they are in Photoshop or Sal’s memories of her own birth.
I haven’t seen it mentioned yet, but Sal may not have had a revelation about her upbringing until she spent some time at a Christian school in a more southern state. Even if she realized the underlying cause for her parents favoritism at an earlier date, I can imagine the relocation being all the more hellish because of that.
Also, I’m glad more people are getting an education on “good hair” stereotypes and “passing” in America. I mean, if Michelle Obama’s hair can make news, more people should know about it.
I really feel bad for Sal. She’s carrying around all that anger at her family, Walky’s so oblivious that it’s basically not worth bringing up, I’m assuming their parents just kind of gloss by the topic, afraid to acknowledge it. Alone and angry. It’s a crushing weight.
I hope Willis writes some nice-things-happen-for-Sal type stories. She’s doing a good job of not sluggin’ Walky, so there’s that, I guess.
YES! Finally, I’ve been waiting so long to finally get a glimpse into Sal’s mind, especially her relationship with Walky. It was something that was seriously lacking in It’s Walky, so much stuff happened but none of it was explored. Granted, I won’t like her any more after this, understanding her problems doesn’t change her actions or her personality and suddenly make her likable to me, any more than learning about Ruth’s life made me hate her any less. But at least there’s understanding, I can get who they are and why they act like this and that makes the comic so much more enjoyable.
Not that I ever want anyone to realize that, but I’m glad she knows. I honestly believe that it may not be all of the issue, but that it is a founding issue. And knowing your parents are racist may be better than trying to find an internal reason. Poor Sal. I don’t expect Walky to respond well. It threatens his self esteem and worldview too much.
Run Billie, run! Do you really want to be the sole witness of Sal committing fratricide?
Yeah, go get a camera!
And blackmail Sal into making out with you.
Speaking from a psychology point of view…
It doesn’t matter whether or not actually discrimination occurs by the parents, it’s the perception that counts. Sal has obviously for years felt like she wasn’t getting the attention.
In fact her entire personality shows it. When parents ignore a child that child either becomes a wallflower or starts trying to get the attention. In all likelihood the only reason Sal robbed convenience stores is she wanted ‘some’ kind of attention even if it was the bad kind.
When her parents responded by sending her away, Sal basically ‘gave up’ and hardened herself from further disappointment. She became the ‘rebel who doesn’t care about anyone’ – except like all masks it wasn’t really who she was. Sal actually cares ‘too much’ what other people think of her.
BTW to anyone who thinks that Sal’s making this up, her hair is but one way that Sal has tried to effect being ‘whiter’. Her accent is the other believe it or not. She’s taken on the accent of a ‘southern white’ rather than ‘southern black’. And there really is a difference without any racism intended. She went out of her way to learn to talk like a southern belle.
If anyone thinks I am wrong about her accent being contrived to appear whiter… take a real close look at the 4 panels from today. The angrier she gets the more she transitions away from the fake accent and the more she transitions into the accent she hates. Note the difference in her pronunciation of the word “and” from the first two panels to the last panel. You’ll also notice a difference if you’ve got a good eye in how the words flow. The angrier she gets the less ‘southern belle’ her accent retains. Proof positive of a fake contrived accent.
As a Canadian who doesn’t hear Southern accents that often, can you explain the difference? It usually sounds all the same to me.
Well, first off you should know that there isn’t a singular southern accent period. Different parts of the south have slight differences in pronunciation and word flow. Whether you’re from the Ozarks or the Bayou or the Carolinas just to pull up three quick differences.
In this case, the accent normally pulled off by Sal kills off the D’s at end of her words, replaces ‘I’ with ‘Ah’. It’s a very popular contrived southern-esque accent.
Actually it’s so common and the ‘losing’ of the accent because of anger is also so common that I recalled there being a trope dedicated entirely to the fake southern accent slipping shtick so I did a quick google search and here you go (apologies in advance if I mess up this link), Ooh, Me Accent’s Slipping
It took me a while to find a copy of this old History Channel program about the Dixie. You Don’t Know Dixie.
If you want to watch the full 87 minute video instead of just that 3 minute chunk I have linked above then go Shop at the History Channel”
Cool, thanks for sharing the video.
Not to sounds a bit…odd?
But I’ve been TOLD by people that don’t live where I do that we mostly sound the same down here (coast of MS). In fact, I’ve had racist and crude remarks about my accent from people. “Why do you talk like a >>>>>(fill in the blank).”
Down here, when I was young I was told by people down here I sounded like a “belle.” So seems to be schematics.
I DO think there is a fundamental difference in how the vocal cords resonate.
But other then that I don’t see or hear a difference unless you speak of Hickville, USA talk – which tends to be rather….uneducated (and I’m saying this about some of my own relatives further north in MS…bless them but they ignorant…and some are just…racist ughhhhh). Makes me glad I live and grew up BELOW the Bible Belt….
Maybe I’ve just lived down here too long, but I have moved away and come back – and I had to “get rid” of my accent due to people misunderstanding me (seriously, how do you get “marginal to sh*ttang” from “manager to cosmetics” I have no idea).
‘Course as you said, it comes back if I’m overly emotional (or I slip back to it intentionally).
Not saying this ISN’T what Willis is doing here – since as you said it is the “fake” southern accent.
Which is hilarious because when I intentionally slip back into my accent people say it doesn’t sound right – because it isn’t the fake one.
Like I said may sound odd…I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night so I might be reading what you’re saying wrong – in which I apologize ahead of time.
Good catch on the accents! I hadn’t noticed, but now I see she also switches from “hafta” to “have to” and “friggin” to “fuckin.”
Have to admit, my first thought was “Huh? Their skin tone looks the same.” Then I hit myself in the head because oi.
Hey, I’m Sal now! At least she’d agree with me hitting myself in the head for that.
Run Walky! Run for your life!
Here’s a thought:
Look at all the African-American women you know. How many of them let their hair grow naturally vs. how many of them straighten it out and “whitify” it?
It’s our whole culture that does this. If your hair is black and curly, you are not “pretty.”
I quite like curly hair.
Yeah, if you take care of it, it can be gorgeous. Then again, that applies to all hair. :B
Hr’s not actually talking about whether or not curly hair is objectively pretty he’s talking about the fact that we as a society value long straight hair over it because we pretty obviously do and this is a thing that black women have to think about. Whenever I spend over an hour flat ironing my hair, whenever I pay money to get damaging chemicals put into it to make it temporarily straight and whenever I just say “fuck it” and do neither and just let it be I have to ask myself am I doing this because I like it myself or because other people are telling me I’m not pretty enough unless I do. Black women/Mixed women whether they want to or not make statements with their hair and there’s a reason there’s been decades long movements trying to tell us our hair isn’t some kind of burden and can be just as beautiful as everyone else’s. So yeah good for you two fro thinking curly hair is pretty but way to ignore what the comment is actually discussing. Your personal opinion is irrelevant when battling against society.
Or she or they. Sorry to just assume your gender when not directly stated.
Woooah there, I was responding specifically to that person (Vash, not Ridureyu). I completely agree with you. It’s possible to talk about frivolous things without denying a real cultural phenomenon.
(have you seen my other posts…?)
I’ll look them over. Sorry if you feel like I was being harsh. This is clearly something I’ve been putting a lot of thought into lately before this comic even came out.
Nah, I can see where you’re coming from. Though I do happen to be ridiculously privileged (even though I kinda shouldn’t be… I’m mixed, bigender, and a bisexual/gay person), I’ve tried my best to learn about all this stuff. Sadly, I’ve been guilty myself of giving my black characters straight hair, but it’s mostly because kinky/curly hair is really freakin’ hard to draw. orz It’s less of a problem with my non-visual characters.
I apologize for coming off as insensitive to this issue, though. It’s hard to tell exactly how others will perceive your messages, y’know?
Er, um, that’s not to say that I continue to design my black chars with straight hair. It’s mostly what I did in the past.
(yeesh, that came off badly)
*Googles invective*
I’m guessing here (and please PLEASE correct me if I’m wrong) that Sal perceives all of her familial problems as stemming from her hair. It probably started super young with her mom struggling to care for it (as DanielleM pointed out in the comments earlier). It may have been compounded by relatives making comments, e.g. “Oh David looks so cute today! Pity Sal didn’t get her mother’s hair.” Also, Walky calls Sal black and refers to himself as generically beige, so this may be a family in-joke that Sal sees negatively.
Furthering the idea that Walky’s been the favorite child, it’s been mentioned that he’s never had a problem with grades. I’m guessing that Sal started acting up to try to get her parents to notice her by purposefully getting bad grades, then eventually escalated to the aforementioned convenience store robbing. So while I don’t think that Sal’s messed up relationship with her parents is due to her hair, but rather her resorting to pretty extreme measures that got the cops involved, I do think that she perceives her parents as being unconsciously bigoted.
Again please point out anything I got wrong. I am a white girl with no experience with these issues.
As a mixed kid with a bunch of mixed cousins let me tell you that you never know what color a mixed kid is gonna come out as
my aunt has white white white features and brown brown brown skin
I…. I don’t see a difference between the two….
like they look like Willis used the same color palette on the pair.
Walky’s hair is waaaay less kinky, for one (to the point where it looks straight even this short). I’m not sure if there’s anything else, but I might just be missing some details.
There is, a distinct possibility that this is all in Sal’s head.
I feel you all are taking it more literally than she meant it.
the hair thing didn’t even ping off my brain (cuz it was like 3 am when I saw this) until i read other comments and i saw other people mention it. that being said, this kinda thing doesn’t really just pop up without a reason, so i’d say that there is support for her feeling that way.
Perhaps their skin tones have changed over time
Woah… feels.
I happen to be mixed myself (1/4 black), though I look very, very white. However, my sister looks like… something else. She doesn’t look particularly black to me, but she’s definitely not white. I’m not sure how much that’s actually affected her – we’re middle-class and privileged as fuck, and our parents generally don’t play favorites – but jeez… I can’t even begin to imagine what it’d be like to be in Sal’s position.
Any of you ever read Jacob Have I Loved? It’s a terrible book, all about this girl who wastes her entire childhood and youth pointlessly hating her twin sister for being prettier and more socially adept than she is. She’s self-centered and controlling almost to the point of being a bully, and spends most of her time brooding on how unfair her life is, but somehow we’re supposed to feel sorry for her because she ‘can’t find her place in the world.’
This is the vibe I’m getting here.
lol you’re jacob
Not at all. I was the third of six kids, as ‘middle-child’ as you can get. Moreover, I WAS that brooding, unhappy child who would deliberately sit apart from the other kids, and then feel ignored and unloved because they didn’t drop everything to come pander to me. But about the time I hit teenage-hood, I realized that the world didn’t revolve around me and I was never going to be the constant and sole focus of everyone’s attention, so I’d better get off my butt and focus on something other than self-pity. Despite living on her own and supposedly being ‘cool’ and in control, Sal is still wallowing in self-pity.
I, um, was talking about your grav.
I love Jacob =>
…….. oh. *ahem* right. How about I just admit that I’m no good with names and then crawl under a rock to hide?
haha, it’s fine
Makes sense. As a kid, I read that book and thought “Her family is evil!” As an adult, I went back and realized that she’s an unreliable narrator…
I read that book when I was 12 and I was supposed to be thinking about unfair families or whatever but all I remember is that the narrator and her boyfriend did top stuff in his car. Oh, burgeoning sexuality.
I think this is first time that that a comic has given me a full 10+ second jaw drop.
This is the best freshmen family day…..EVER!!!
Wait, they are black by american standards?
That’s weird.
Since America is the melting pot there are some group of people who believe it depends on the mother. For example my brother and sister are physically white due to my Step dad’s genes but by the standards given before they would be considered Hispanic. Now using the Sal and Walkie twins they would be considered White due to their mother.
Threehundred years of the one drop rule, baby.
If you’re white and ___, you aren’t mixed, you’re ___.
(And if one of your parents is white and the other is white and ____, then that parent is ____, which mean’s YOU’RE ____.)
This isn’t really the standard these days, of course, but it’s skewed the range of what’s perceived as black, which is why you have Hispanic immigrants who were viewed as white in their country of origin that are shocked to discover in America, they’re black. (Basically the reason Hispanic was invented as a separate racial category, because Hispanics wouldn’t stick to the American perception of race.)
The only exception to this is the mulatto thing. If your mother was white and your father was black, you’re mulatto. But if it was reversed, you were black.
Of course, then we stopped calling people mulatto and started calling all mulattos black because we can’t be bothered to find someone’s ancestry before we typecast them.
People still say mulatto. Well white people still say mulatto in my experience. I’ve only ever been referred to as one the few times I have in my life by white people (one a teacher in front of my classmates) when I finally just answered the question of what my ethnicity is. Although I’m not sure if anyone makes the distinction with the mother. My mother is the black parent my father is the white one. I have heard that racial identity comes from the mother thing but that was said by my mother. Honestly I find the term mulatto to be incredibly dated and should be lumped into the same category as calling a black person colored or negro.
My understanding was that mulatto is already an outdated and racist term (because of its associations with slavery and colonial oppression). Creepy word.
It also basically just means mule for some added dehuminization.
Wait, Walky is whiter?
I don’t see it. Hahah.
Oh my god does ANY commenter here read the existing posts before posting?!?
What, and miss the chance to broadcast their ignorance? Never! 😉
She doesn’t mean colour. Their colour code is exactly the same.
You’ve been pretty drama-heavy for the last few strips, Willis. Has the tag been pulled here too?
The drama tag came pre-pulled in DoA.
Drama of Age.
My guess is that, actually, Sal was just the more difficult baby/toddler/preschooler….
You see this a lot in sibling groups. Some kids are just HARDER. They push limits more, they’re less cuddly, they take more discipline and work, they’re more prone to haul off and hit someone.
And so they get grounded more. And then blame the parents for ‘liking’ the other sibling, who never gets grounded because he’s just easy going and never argues, more. But they never connect their actions with the parenting decisions. It’s just “You like him better, because when I disobeyed (by hitting that teacher) I got punished more than he did when HE disobeyed (By forgetting to take out the trash because he was busy with legos.)”
It happens in every family. In this case, Sal is using race as an excuse not to come to terms with her own hard personality….
I don’t know. Sometimes for sure yeah. But I was the favorite over my sister growing up and it was completely due to me being a boy. All the talk of “Oh you get to carry on the family name!” and stuff like that. My sister totally resented my preferential treatment (I got away with a lot, she did not). We’ve long since mended fences as I clued in eventually.
Guess there are lots of reasons for one kid to be favoured over the other.
The weird thing is, I think I was the favourite child, and I made my parents try so much harder.
I think that parents just really like the smarter child. Or at least the one that’s more visibly smart. There is an intelligence difference between fraternal twins, in case you were asking. My sisters totally smarter than me, just in a different, less visible way.
It really does vary from family to family. Parents pick favourites based on who’s smarter, better at sport, prettier, more in-line with their own opinions/tastes, more popular at school, easier to manage, more interestingly spirited… People are people, kids, parents, all, and what people look for in others isn’t cookie-cutter.
We can’t know for sure, as we only have a vague notion of Sal and Walky’s upbringing, but do remember that this is the same Sal who dressed up in a Catholic school girl uniform, all sweet, with a huge smile on her face, when she went to meet up with her parents. And her parents didn’t even care. Charles was obviously happy to see her, but Linda brushed her off to pay attention to her (incidentally) male, straight-haired son. If Sal was such a difficult child, why wouldn’t they be surprised at her attitude and demeanor? To me, that speaks volumes: she’s likely had to do this before just to appease them and keep them from becoming even more disappointed with her. I don’t think this started with her delinquent behavior.
Couldn’t agree more!
Run Billie, run! And take poor clueless Walky with you.
No!! Let Darwinism run it’s course!!!!
Ohhhhhhh shiiiiiiiitttt 😮
Let it all out Sal! You’ll feel better!
Now kiss him, you fool!
Wait, no, didn’t think that one through at all.
Eeeeew.
Whenever I see race issues in America, I immediately start laughing and waving a Canadian flag.
Then the Orange Lodge burns down my house because I’m an Irish Catholic.
Yeah, because there’s no such thing as racism in Canada *cough*TREATMENTOFFIRSTNATIONS*cough*
*cough*NOVASCOTIANCEMETARYREFUSESTOBURYABLACKCHILD*cough*
*cough*ACADIANEXPULSION*cough*
Nope. No racism in THIS country, no sirree. /eyeroll
lol, the end of line three should have read: “BLACK CHILD *cough*” 😛
Green=Irish Catholic
Orange=Irish Protestant
What does White equal?
Coming from an Orange.
I similarly don’t ‘get’ race issues the way Americans do.
Here in Europe white people hated each other for ages, and a black or Asian person has a lower chance of being a filthy Kraut or a nasty Russkie. “Whites” being one people is a silly colonies’ invention.
Seeing all white people as roughly the same (for a subjective definition of white – Italians, Jewish people, etc need not necessarily apply) is how white privilege is maintained in North America, so it’s their benefit.
I think it’s because our whole nation began as a colony of a country that still exists today. America’s actually pretty inclusive (unless you’re some shade of brown).
Plus, I’m not actually sure how you tell the difference between nation of origin…? I tend to assume every person I encounter is American, born and raised. I may be wrong in extrapolating it to the general populace, but it’s been my impression that society basically views it the same way*.
* White people, anyway, in the case of the racists and xenophobes among us.
Usually it’s not that hard to tell. Britons look slightly different from Danes or Ukrainians etc.
I lived in Europe for a year, and this is COMPLETELY against what I saw and heard. I knew several racist europeans. They considered european whites to be more familiar whereas those of different skin-color where exotic and different (often spoken of as inferior). When I asked one if he would ever adopt a child he literally said “I don’t want a black or a yellow.” Then look at the struggles with muslim immigrants…. My impression was not that Europeans were less racist, they were just presented with less opportunity for racism.
MMmm yes they can be very racist, but they can also be very ethnicist, as such. Depends on the country and location within that country what matters / how much it matters (and sometimes whether you play football. Sometimes that doesn’t help.)
Billie should probably just quietly slip out the window.
Poor Sal. She’s the most miserable/frustrated of the college kids by far. But at least she’s getting some hot lovin’ from the math assistant . . . which only leads to more frustration since it didn’t help her grade.
Sal is NOT delusional. There is, in the little we’ve seen of her parents, a LOT of evidence to support the favoured-son idea, and it does seem possible that it did, however unconsciously, start with race.
She’s not saying Walky “acts whiter”, you lot. It’s the hair. There’s always been this thing where black women are shamed or considered less pretty for having naturally kinky/poofy hair. They have to use relaxers and straighten the fuck out of it until it looks like white people’s hair before they can be beautiful/accepted/considered respectable. It’s a fucked up societal thing that’s been going on for a long time.
Walky’s hair is straight, like a white person’s. Sal’s looks nothing like her mother’s and is naturally curly like her dad’s. Earlier today her dad expressed disappointment that her hair was in its natural state. That was about all he said to her, and her mother too busy talking to Walky to even notice Sal. It didn’t even occur to them to ask Sal to reschedule her hair appointment and spend some time with them.
Sal robbed a convenience store and has been pretty openly rebellious for years. Walky never fell into those habits. Why? Why did a teenage girl who seems to want nothing more than her parents’ attention and acceptance rob a convenience store?
I don’t think it started with the robbery. I think the robbery was a symptom of how Sal felt constantly ignored in favour of Walky. Whether it’s because of race, gender, or some other factor we don’t know about, her parents fucked her over.
But Leah, what if she just likes to have straight hair? Jeez, you crazy race-baiters, always playing the race card! Privilege is a fairy tale dreamed up by anti-cswm* bigots and racism doesn’t exist anymore!!!!! Why do you hate white people?!!?! ヽ(≧Д≦)ノ /whinewhinebongobongo
*Cis straight white male. But what does cis even mean anyway?!!? It sounds like a term made up by feminazis!
Kerry, I’m pretty sure this is supposed to be thickly laden with sarcasm. However, you’re up against Poe’s Law here – there actually are people online who seem to sincerely believe exactly what you’re saying…
Yeah, I was worried people would take it seriously. Which is why I included the “/whinewhinebongobongo” part.
I don’t think there are many of these types actually reading DoA (or at least, not any that are commenting), but I’ve seen them over at SP!, and certain relatively innocuous comments in this section (among others) belie a similar mindset.
+1
Parent’s weekend is going to be a gift that keeps on giving. Glad that Sal is being open here. Unlikely to settle things, but time for Wally to become a bit more aware of things. Not sure I like this Wally so much. Sibs will push each other ( I am two of seven) but should know which buttons must not be pushed.
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2010/comic/book-1/02-uphill-from-here/helmet/
He hasn’t talked to her much in like five years. He hardly knows her, let alone has an intimate knowledge of what her buttons are.
Believe me, siblings *never* are at a loss when it comes to pushing each other’s buttons, regardless of how many years it’s been.
Man. I have siblings. That’s not a unique thing for you to be sharing your expertise on.
Personally I’ve gotta say that I’m pretty close with my sister. I needle her occasionally, all in fun. I know when I’ve crossed a line and need to back off.
My brother and I sort of grew in separate directions, stopped talking to eachother much despite being regular figures in eachother’s lives. These days I can quite honestly say I have no idea what bothers him.
Doesn’t help that he can be a bit silent and moody at times. Hard to tell if he just stopped feeling talkative or if you’ve pissed him off and now he’s silently fuming about god knows what. Sal seems like she could actually be a bit similar in that department.
Of course given all that I wouldn’t try to poke fun at him, but I’m not Walky. Walky does that with everybody. He was doing it to Joyce all of 2 seconds after meeting her. Not really specifically a part of his sibling dynamic. You’ll notice that Sal’s never reciprocated this behavior.
Being a twin myself, I find it strange that they aren’t more close. However I suppose being opposite sex twins does create a larger divide than being a same sex twin like I am.
I find it more likely that their parents really wanted two boys and the ‘female disappointment’ is what started them treating Walky more favorably and Sal less so over time. They probably (unconciously) praised him more for good behavior and scolded her more for bad behavior, thus contributing to her increased desire for attention and her subsequent robbery attempts.
I sense Mr Willis was very, very careful colouring Sal and Walky in this strip precisely so we could have this little conversation.
I think it makes absolute sense. I have seen this kind of prejudice in my own family . . .
My white/black and white/Egyptian mixed cousins can attest to how they were treated by our grandparents and other white family members as opposed to those of us who were fully white. Although I’m sure we were all loved even I saw that I and my siblings and white cousins were treated as favorites.
All my mixed race cousins had a term for themselves, they called themselves “The Basement Kids”. When we would all spend summers with our grandparents all the white kids got the upstairs bedrooms and all the mixed ones shared the basement bedrooms.
I didn’t notice it at the time but looking back . . . . I can see how unfair they were treated in almost every aspect of their familial lives.
This commentary has reminded me of a pair of siblings that went to my high school. They were mixed race, and about the same skin tone, but their features were different. One had stereotypically blacker features, and the other had stereotypically whiter features. These features definitely played a role, as the former hung out with mostly the black kids and the latter hung out with mostly the white kids. You can definitely be the same skin tone and be seen as “blacker” or “whiter” than one another, and not just because of “acting black/white”. (I will say that there didn’t seem to be any animosity between the siblings I’m talking about, it’s just how they worked. But it’s pretty easy to see how favoritism by race could have been developed…)
I’m surprised that no one drew the connection between Amber’s childhood robbery trauma and Sal’s robbery of a convenience store. While it is quite circumstantial this wouldn’t be
There’s been speculation in the comments before that those incidents were one and the same.
There’s a strip early on where Amber eyes Billie and Sal nervously as she passes them in the hall. At the time I chalked it up to Amber being worried that Billie, who she had, a couple days earlier, carried away from a fight with Ruth and had a brief conversation with, would recognize her as Amazi-Girl, but after Amazi-Girl’s origin began to be revealed, it seems plausible that it wasn’t that Amber was worried that Billie would recognize her, but that she recognized Sal.
Woah, I didn’t even notice that! That’s insane. You guys are crazy observant.
Billie: “I’ll let you touch my boobs if you both stop arguing”
Sal or Walky?
Both, of course
Making my first comment ever to say I literally gasped and clutched my pearls at the last panel.
Or I would have clutched them, if I had any pearls.
If I wore a monocle, I’m sure it would have popped off when I saw this strip.
Wow. This is the first time I’ve even commented, but I just had to today because I’m pretty sure that this just became one of my favourite DoA strips ever.
Sal looks a little paler to me in this strip
Probably the lighting.
They are both the exact same colors they have always been since their first DoA appearances.
Yes, but colors look different based on the colors in the room. The room is lighter, so their skin similarly looks lighter.
That tends to work the other way around.
So is Sal wrong then, or is it not supposed to be visible to the audience outside the narrative?
Do you guys not read the rest of the comment section or something? It’s the hair. Sal’s hair is like her father’s (kinky), while Walky’s more like his mother (essentially straight).
Whiter doesn’t necessarily mean lighter skin. Walky has “white” hair.
There’s more to race than skin pigmentation.
It’s an optical illusion!
/unforgotten realms
One thing I love about you, Walky: you don’t shy away from controversy. I am looking forward to seeing where this goes.
She’s definitely talking about hair. Girls usually want to relate to their mother. Sal sees her perfer Walky, doesn’t know why and reaches for the closest explanation, ie the hair. She probably looked at her mom as a kid and thought something along the lines of “mom’s hair is pretty, why can’t mine look like that?”.
Combine this with the fact that she seems to have some learning disabilities compared to Walky who is just naturally good at school and he just ends up becoming the favorite.
She spends twice as much time to get a D than he uses to get an A. So her mom who might be a tiger mom latches onto Wally causing problems for her kids.
Sal starts acting up, while Walky starts to act immature because he has the opposite problem of hating the attention given to him. He wants to do things at his own pace.
No one wins from favoritism.
I doubt Sal’s mother is blameless in her daughter’s hair issues. If she took the time to put it into her daughter’s head that her curly hair was just as beautiful as her brother’s straight hair then this could just be Sal’s on insecurities coming through but I’m sure her mother more than once bongoed about how time consuming Sal’s hair was (because hair like Sal’s takes time and effort to tame) and pushed her daughter into chemically straightening it the second she was at an appropriate age. Sal’s mother doesn’t strike me as the type to really be sensitive to her children’s emotional needs/wants/insecurities when she clearly ignored the child that obviously needed her more in every way.
I’m not saying her mother is blameless, but the hair is just one part of her insecurity involving her parents, but I don’t really think that it’s about her hair. She’s just trying to find anything that she can blame Walky for because he can’t directly emote to her folks.
I really hope by the end of the year, Sal doesn’t straighten her hair anymore. Or at least learns to accept her hair as is, even if she decides to keep straightening it.
I think it’s starting to sink in for Sal that she keeps her hair the way she does more for other people (society, her parents) than herself. The last comic where she was listing her reasons for liking her hair straight sounds more like her trying to convince herself than being true to what she wants. Once this really sinks in for her I wouldn’t be surprised if she gives the natural look a try and explores her hair options a bit more.
We’ve seen her trying to wear her helmet with curly hair. If she decides to keep it curly she’ll at least have to cut it shorter, for safety.
I think Sal’s hair causes her a lot of grief for a lot of reasons. For one, I think she genuinely does like it straight for the reasons she stated, but at the same time, feels like she’s betraying a big part of herself by conceding to something she feels fits her mother’s (and others) beauty ideals. She doesn’t know if she’s chosen this hairstyle for the right reasons, or if she’s subconsciously agreeing with her mother and saying there’s something wrong with her natural hair.
I don’t know if it’s her mother’s ideal of beauty, but it’s definitely her father’s.
Walky, yell back
Or Male-er.
It’s also easier to decide his future for him, lacking the drive and depth to get why he shouldn’t just let it happen.
Either way, it’s kind of on your creepy parents, Sal. They’re ignoring you because being your honest-to-God parents isn’t in their, and by ‘their’ I mean your Mother due to your Dad being a glorified Sidekick of a man, agenda. Oh HELL YES, it sucks, but it’s kind of all on them….
Your Stumble-Though-Life-Like-He-Shouldn’t-Have-To-TRY-With-Anything TWIN Brother going along with it like it’s karma armor or something, now THAT might be a less-than-lost cause. He *did* say he was interested in catching up here in college, didn’t he? Be ready to be called on your dramatics, is all…
Billie, steal Sal’s Amazi-Girl outfit and head out the window.
Then again, it seems Amber stole the outfit first, so find Amber, steal back the Amazi-Girl outfit, and then break up this fight.
Funny story that my mom and uncles used to pass around is that when I was born, I looked “straight up Chinese.” Hair texture, complexion, features, everything. My uncles would tease my mother and tell me that they were not sure where I even came from. Of course, as I grew, everything changed by the time I was one or two years old, when I darkened up to a refreshing shade of Kraft caramel, the kinkiness of my hair became apparent, and generally I looked a whole lot more like my parents. I am pretty sure this is common with a lot of babies. My sister looked black from the get-go, however, so there were many sighs of relief. 🙂
For reference, my parents are both black Caribbean (Guyanese, specifically with some Bajan thrown in), so there is probably a big ol’ smorgasbord of races up in there (I only know for sure that my maternal grandmother is half east Indian, my mother and sister both have a genetically inherited Mediterranean blood trait (Thalassemia), and I have a Swedish family name from my father’s side, and do not know of any other black Guyanese with Swedish family names besides my own SPECIFIC Swedish family name, and I am likely related to them all. There may be a pinch of Amerindian (Arawak?) in there as well). Guyana has a Guyanese-Chinese population as well, but I do not think there is any Chinese ancestry in my family. Admittedly, I still know very little about my genetic smorgasbord (and specifically about my father’s side), and I could be wrong.
Regardless, if a missing person’s report was put out on any one of us (mom, dad, sister, granny, uncles, aunties, cousins), we would ALL be described as “black.” Which we all are.
I love confusing people. 🙂
Oh man Guyana has crazy stuff going on! (Said badly, I already know about this, and am excited for a specific personal story from it.) Have had some other fun ones over the years too, definitely one of those western hemisphere countries where the nationality doesn’t even sort of give you an idea what looks are gonna be.
welp I wasn’t expecting that.
I can’t help but wonder how much effort Sal goes to, to avoid sunlight/tanning.
….AAAAAAAWKward.
Yeah…Billie, it might be time to sidle towards the door, run like hell, and ask Ruthless if it’s okay to kip on her floor for a few nights.
I just thought they were really tan
I guess I didn’t even notice Walky’s dad when he was there
They’re both one quarter black.
Walky even calls Sal black: http://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/comic/book-3/03-answers-in-hennessy/kinky-2/
Yep, that is another place I don’t like Walky particularly. Black unlike me.
I have wonder if part of this isn’t all in Sal’s head.
Not all of it, obviously she feels the way she does for a reason, but so far we haven’t really seen any preferential treatment. We’ve seen walky’s mom planning out his future for him, and we’ve got her dad commenting that he liked her hair straight. They even showed disappointment when she told them that she couldn’t spend the day with them.
Not that they are completely blameless, but I think she’s digging her own well of despair in part.
Read the two strips again. Not once does her mom look at her, let alone talk to her. Her dad says, after greeting her, that she looked better with straight hair. He seems disappointed she has to go, but doesn’t try to stop her from going. Her mom ignores her presence even as she leaves. Also notice they went to Walky’s room instead of Sal, and don’t even ask Walky how Sal is doing or where her room is.
That seems like the biggest difference. They came to Walky. Sal had to come to them.
Even dad may have been “disappointed” to see her go, but not enough to step away from Walky for two seconds and take a walk with his daughter. Two parents, but only enough resources to get up to date on 1 kid’s life.
Remember too that they saw Walky naught but three weeks ago. You’d think that an opportunity to visit Sal would take priority since they don’t see eachother that often. They spent the whole day with Walky though. They proactively sought not just Walky’s company, but also that of the people in Walky’s life. Literally they spent more time trying to meet Walky’s sort of girlfriend than they spent trying to get in contact with Sal.
I think maybe there is a parental bias… but Sal may be misinterpreting just what it is. Unless of course Dave really DID “come out whiter”, but then darkened up… much like some kids are born with hair that’s either a lot lighter or a lot darker than their adult colour.
Instead, I’m figuring it more as sexism. Wouldn’t that be a more likely bias? Maybe even simply because they didn’t get a girly girl and disliked having a tomboy, rather than actually preferring male to female outright?
Incidentally, colour values from using the GIMP picker:
Panel 3 in the next strip … Sal, 205/167/126 RGB or 31/39/80 HSV. Walky, the exact same.
Panels 1, 2 and 5, Walky, same. Panel 7, Sal… same!
(though their surroundings make them look slightly different)
This strip, all panels: Not a single bit out of the 24 changes…
So whatever their skintones at birth, they’re exactly the same as each other now, which is quite remarkable given their differences in lifestyle and where they’ve been living. Even myself and my brother aren’t the same shade of pasty WASP white, and I’ve been on a package holiday where a fellow Brit of strong West African heritage (but with a very strong Essex accent) spent a lot of her time out on the sun lounger actively darkening her own skin tone because she felt life at high latitudes had bleached it to beyond what was healthy for someone of her genetic makeup.
P’raps it’s all in the hair?
In fact, one would expect Sal’s lifestyle to have given her more of a tan than Walky … so there’s every chance that if placed in conditions with identical sun exposer, she would actually turn out the paler of the two…
For comparison:
Jacob – RGB 197/153/119 (HSV 26/40/77)
Joe – 215/193/171 or 30/20/84
Walky!Mom* – 238/216/190 or 32/20/93, so light-pink she’s practically a soft-tone lightbulb. Close to, but not the same as the Dean (245/221/201)
Walky!Dad – 178/133/85 or 31/52/70
* As Walkerton is their surname, and David/Sal!Mom would be unwieldy, I don’t feel too bad using this shortcut.
Thus their kids are almost but not quite the average of them (which, let’s face it, would be too obvious). Slightly less red (-3), less green (-7.5) and a lot less blue (-11.5). So darker than average overall, BUT a touch pinker at the same time. Yay, Mendel.
(However, strangely, going by the HSVs: overall hue is as close as it can actually get – as mom and dad are only 1 point different anyhow, and officially the kids are dad-hue. They have a -deeper- colour than the average, and are just a tiny bit darker…)
I don’t even know where I’m going with this.
Walky!Dad is quite possibly the darkest guy seen in the strip so far, at least that I can recall, though; even if he may be only 50% himself, he’s still decidedly darker skinned than Jacob. In fact, Jacob is lighter than the halfway point between Dad and Kids for all three channels.
OTOH, Joe is almost exactly halfway between Mom and Kids, in terms of overall brightness, but is a rather different shade, as Red is lower, Green is about even, and Blue is higher.
Still not sure what this even achieves, but if anyone wants to make use of the data, it’s there.
Right, I’m going to go see if this office building has any showers in it, because all this racial profiling, even if for a neutral-good cause and with results showing that the strip is reasonably diverse, is making me feel itchy.
To come: Sarah’s values, once I dig up a strip with her in.
Other values…
For anyone wondering why I didn’t go thru and scrape all the values for the whiter characters, I think we’ve got a reasonably good handle on just how ghostly pale some of them can get; I’m trying to see how dark-skinned people can be in the dumbiverse, so we can calibrate the Walkerton family against them.
tl;dr version: FAAAACE http://www.dumbingofage.com/2010/comic/book-1/01-move-in-day/face/
These have all been normalised against a known other character, to guard against per-frame colour shifts (such as when the sun was going down). These are all the colours when “normally” lit. However, I have dropped the normalisation lines for brevity and clarity. Values are RGB followed by HSV, as measured using the GIMP colour picker.
I think “nameless guy” might actually be the darkest, but, eh, I have other things to go do now, so draw your own conclusions.
sierra – 139/132/105 or 48/24/55
joe!dad – 215/193/171 or 30/20/84 (yes that’s exactly the same as joe 🙂
sarah – 175/139/118 or 22/33/69
asma – 217/185/147 or 33/32/85
dina – 230/198/138 or 39/40/90
nameless guy in front of dina in flu shot line – 125/92/80 or 16/36/49
raidah – 198/146/115 or 22/42/78
chan – 146/106/45 or 36/69/57
and for the heck of it
billie – 248/237/205 or 45/17/97
char – 210/184/169 or 22/20/82
joyce – 238/216/190 or 32/20/93
I’m all for over-analyzing fictional issues, but the way you went about this is incredibly creepy. For what Sal is saying it really doesn’t matter whether their skin is the exact same hue or how they compare hue wise to the other characters. What were you trying to accomplish exactly?
What matters is that Sal felt her parents were disappointed with her for as long as she can remember. There are any number of factors that could have affected the way they saw their daughter, but at an early age she began to suspect it had something to do with race and her parents never did anything to refute that feeling. Even if their preference for Walky had nothing to do with race, better parents would have picked up on Sal’s discomfort with her hair/appearance and made her feel proud rather than ashamed.
Tahrey – as a general rule for life, categorizing people by their skin tone is creepy. Like 18th century slave owner creepy.
i think i hate you
I think I love you
But… they’re the same shade.
You might want to read the comments because you are not the first person to think that.
Hell, he might even want to read the comic.
Yeah, I’m going to read nine hundred comments.
It’s only 673(4 now)!
It’s not really the race issue that hits me here, it’s the “Favorite” part. Regardless of whether or not it’s true, when kids (or adults) feel that their sibling is their parents’ favorite child, it hurts. I’ve seen it around me all my life, esspecially with my cousins. And every time I see it now, I thank the gods that I am an only child. Because that kind of sibling rivalry is just awful. It makes both the “second-place” child and “favorite” child feel like crap, and if the parents get involved, then they’re stressed and anxious too. I’m lucky to be an only child, where my mom can hug me and say “You’re my favorite” and no one’s upset about it.
I’m not going to say that she’s for certain wrong about a parental bias or a racial basis behind it, but I expect there’s every possibility that it’s just in her head. A great number of kids are insecure, think they are the least favorite, concoct reasons why that might be the case. Also a lot of well intentioned parents are bad at noticing their kids are insecure or that they might be unintentionally doing things that cause their kids to be insecure.
It sounds like she turned into a little delinquent as a cry for help and the reaction that resulted was the opposite of what she needed, perhaps.
Man. These two got more issues than Amber has stashed in her closet.
But they’re literally exactly the same color
That’s what I was thinking.