Chris and race
It is believed by some that Chris's racist tendencies can be traced at least partially to his Southern U.S. heritage. However, certain other factors seem to imply that the rest of his worldview on race comes from stereotypes depicted by popular culture. In some cases, however, Chris seems to be completely unfamiliar with even the stereotypes.
His racism probably comes from several sources: his parental upbringing, television, naïvete, and complete ignorance of everything that isn't him.
Blacks
- Main article: Niggos
Chris demonstrates many instances of intolerance and racism, both intentional and unintentional, towards black people in particular, hence his use of the words "nigger" and "niggos."
Asians
In the comics, Chris portrays Punchy Sonichu as a kung fu master with slanty eyes, raised in a dojo. When a fan criticized this stereotyping, Chris claimed that Punchy was "NOT of Asian origin."[1] Outside of the comic, Chris also misattributes the origin of kung fu to Japan, when in actuality it comes from China. He does a racist impression of a Chinese person, and claims Japanese and Chinese people sound the same.[2] In a leaked series of e-mails, it is shown that Chris simply does not seem to know that China and Japan are not the same, as he calls the Japanese account Chinese, failing to realize that they are separate countries with different languages, writing systems and currencies.
In his real-life dealings, Chris seems to have a positive or at least neutral view toward Asians. He has stated that he would not exclude Asian women from his Love Quest, and at one point believed Emily to be part-Asian. However, he also said that meeting her was like having a Pretty Girl Sailor Moon character leap out of his television; a real Asian woman probably wouldn't be pleased to be imagined as animu wank fodder. It is also possible that Chris's view of "white" is simply "a person who isn't black".
Chris also mentioned receiving a graduation gift from Reverend Shin C. Kang (sp?) of Korean Hope Presbyterian Church of Richmond in the church audio.[3]
"Turdijerk" from "Off-Target" has a vaguely South Asian appearance and the name may also be based on a stereotype of an Indian accent.
Ching Chong
In the Captain's Log, Stardate April 28th, 2009, Chris presents us sincere apologies for having scared a small Chinese girl that Ivy tutored in art. The child, known only as Ching Chong (程鍾 Chéng Zhong) is now traumatized due to her witnessing a video of Chris drinking his own "navy" while innocently browsing Encyclopedia Dramatica. Chris never made a follow-up on the girl and never asked why her name was a known racial slur towards ethnic Asian communities. In the Wedding Comic, Ching Chong is seen as a flower girl.
Native Americans
- Main article: Cherokian Clan
As stated in the main article, despite claiming to have at least one Cherokee ancestor, Chris is completely ignorant of Native American culture. However, unlike other minorities, Chris's opinions and representation of Native Americans are a misguided expression of "pride" for his "heritage".
In Sonichu #2: Episode 7, Chris tries to tie in his "Cherokian" heritage with Sonichu lore. He depicts Cherokee characters in his work as white-skinned and blue-eyed, and wearing Ancient Roman-style armor (Joseph Smith would be proud). The Wasabi Clan unsurprisingly also bear no resemblance to Native Americans.
Chris has also embodied his ignorance of Native American culture in a physical form. For a brief time, Chris blurred his gender roles and began to collect and customize "My Little Pony" dolls. One of the dolls he crafted was the infamous "Cheroki-Chan", a Native American pony. While there is nothing overtly racist about this abomination, it is probably not how Native Americans want to be represented. In the end Cheroki-Chan is just another Mary Sue for Chris, and pales in comparison to Chris's most infamous portrayal of Native Americans.
In a shocking display of ignorance, Chris attempted to emulate what he perceives as "Native American culture" in a War Paint Video. In this video Chris wears water-washable paint (and a "muscle bra") and wields a plastic gun in an attempt to frighten trolls into submission. True Cherokee wore vests most of the time, and there is little evidence to suggest they owned muscle bras. They also notably did not go to war with toy guns, but instead with bows and arrows, which Chris lacks the strength to use.
In a Facebook post, Chris announced that the prostitute whom he hired to be his virgin-taker was part Cherokee, a fact from which he seemed to derive a disproportional amount of pleasure despite the vague implications of incest. [4] It is almost certain that the prostitute mentioned this because Chris did first, believing she would be interested.
Jews
| “ | I hope that God will forgive you for being so heartless and cruel Michael Snyder!... JEW! | ” |
| Chris | ||
Chris displays open antisemitic tendencies, many of which are believed by Christorians to stem from his fondness for South Park. A similarly fat, privileged manchild in the show displays similar tendencies, and given Chris's tendency to copy mannerisms and things from even the shittiest things he's watched, it's entirely possible that this is, in fact, the original source (Chris has shown before that he has never been able to comprehend the satire and pro-tolerance undertones of shows like South Park and Family Guy, even using quotes from Family Guy in an attempt to justify his homophobia).
Regardless of where it comes from, Chris has a long history of veiled antisemitism. In "A Sonichu and Rosechu Christmas", Chris describes how Jews living in CWCville celebrate Hanukkah. On December 12, members of the CWCville Jewish diaspora set up "Menorah candles" (the "Haunaka" Menorah candelabrum has seven candles in it, while the traditional menorah used on Hanukkah IRL, called a Hanukkiah, has nine) instead of Christmas Trees, with dreidels lying under them. Since the candle-related symbolism is very much present in the RL Hanukkah rituals, it's in good taste to give CWCville Jews anything candle-related as a gift. e.g., when Sonichu's daughter Cerah Rosey baked cookies for her friends, she decided to make her Jewish friend Kevin a candle-shaped one. Because Jews surely love to be distinguished from other people on any occasions based solely on their faith, and would take deep offense in receiving a normal nothing-special-shaped cookie as a gift! Also, Hanukkah is the only Jewish holiday, and so candles (especially single ones not on a Menorah) are super-important to Jews!
Cerah also makes the flavor vanilla, just in case poor Kevin had any nut/chocolate allergies. Instead of simply asking if he's allergic, she just assumes it. Because Jews are sickly Melvins with many allergies, you see.
On 25 November 2009, Chris was presented in the Mailbag with a drawing of a fan made Jewish Sonichu character named Harvey Bulbastein. The character had a large nose and seemed to show a liking for money, evident by him holding a bill in his hand and being the owner of the CWCville bank.[5] Chris thanked the mailer for sending him the drawing and said he would consider incorporating the character into his comics, suggesting that the anti-Semitic tone evident in the drawing went over Chris's head. On 18 February 2009, while conversing with Julie, Chris was asked by her to imitate a Jewish person. Chris decided to imitate Mort Goldman,[6] a stereotypical Jewish character from Family Guy.
Near the beginning of Chris's latest (unsuccessful) attempt to be unbanned from the The GAMe PLACe, he casually pointed out that Michael Snyder was probably Jewish (although "Snyder" is a very common German last name, meaning "to cut"), using his last name as a point of reference. Of course with Chris being the idiot he is, it ended with him angrily calling Snyder a Jew. Given the use of the word as an insult, and Chris using it in context with other words denoting a type of sin it shows just how tolerant he is of other religions. In a later video (100 2178), Chris appears to restrain himself from calling Snyder a "greedy Jew".
If Chris's antisemitism was veiled before, it becomes extremely apparent in an email he sent to Katie Bay while impersonating Samantha Thaddeus. While talking about Michael Snyder, he refers to him as a "son of a bitch Jew" and a "pigheaded, stubborn Jew".
Hispanics
Aside from his rather tenuous grasp on the Spanish language, Chris has created a somewhat racist caricature in the form of Espanolic. It's a Grass-type Pokémon that resembles an anthropomorphized sombrero in front of what appears to be the flag of Bolivia or Ghana, and its main attack is confusing its enemies with its "strange language". Its evolved form, Vegaton, has an attack called "Spanish Fly", that puts its enemies to sleep.
Hilariously enough, Nintendo would later create similar Pokémon named Lombre and Ludicolo, which, despite being obvious stereotypes, were handled far more tactfully than Chris could hope to do.
So far, the only Hispanic character in the comics is Heather Iglesias, the lesbian nanny of Sonichu and Rosechu's children. Chris is probably trying to be inclusive here, but he isn't creative or intelligent enough to think of anything besides a stereotypical occupation for Hispanic women.
It may also be notable that oftentimes, Chris refers to Hispanic people as being "Spanish". While not totally inaccurate, the word "Spanish" is usually reserved for people actually from Spain, whereas "Hispanic" is used for peoples from countries that predominately speak Spanish (a good comparison would be referring to people from the USA as "English").
Chris has shown in the past a willingness to befriend and date Hispanics.
Other "white" ethnicities/cultures
Chris has not shown outright malevolence towards other white cultures, but is often offensively ignorant of their customs and nations. In Tito Got No Luck Against We Brits, Irish and Scots!, Chris plays an Irish song while wearing a kilt and pretending to be Scottish, then mentions a shillelagh. His interactions with PandaHalo revealed that he knew almost literally nothing about Australia or Australians, climactically thinking Panda had died in the Black Saturday fires which happened almost a thousand kilometres from where she claimed to live. He holds the bizarre notion that Leonard Bearstein misinterpreted his name because he was British (certainly told to him by his parents, as he was too young to think that way).
Julie claimed to be from a fictional country in Eastern Europe, as did her brother Max. Chris hardly asked any questions about this non-existent country, nor did he (or Bob) question the fact that both Julie and Max spoke with American accents. There are of course many other relevant cultures and ethnicities, but owing to Chris's total failure to understand abstract descriptions of places he hasn't been to physically, he is either unaware of or indifferent to their existence.
Parental influence
Given that his father Bob Chandler grew up in the southern United States before the civil rights movement and has claimed to have acquaintances in the Ku Klux Klan activity growing up, perhaps he had some racial prejudices that were passed on to Chris. In a 2010 prank call, Bob said "I’ve seen crosses burning, fella. I've seen 'em. And you don’t wanna see it." Of course, he was being constantly bothered at by prank callers, and may have just made comments to intimidate them into stop calling him. Chris claims he got a slightly racist joke from Bob.
Barb has not been publically observed to hold racist opinions, but, as with so many subjects, seems to have done nothing to correct Chris's opinions about it, meaning she is at least guilty of being passive about racism. It is possible that she may have some prejudices not revealed to the public - the Michael Snyder anti-Jew paranoia, for instance, was very unlikely to have been abstractly contrived by Chris, and Barb was an enthused participant.
Also, both Bob and Barb graduated from racially segregated high schools (and in Bob's case, a racially segregated college), suggesting that they experienced racism head-on during their childhoods. Although this does not necessarily mean that they were racists during their younger years, they do seem to have ludicrous hillbillyish ideas about foreign cultures, such as believing and telling Chris that Leonard Bearstein misinterpreted his name because he was English (even though Christopher is an English name), and Bob being unfazed by a purported Eastern European speaking English fluently with an American accent. In the same vein, they have both expressed anti-LGBT sentiments, a prejudice usually accompanied by racism. Also, Chris himself is very racist, and he frankly had to learn it from somewhere.
Chris and stereotypes
Chris's views of cultures besides Southern white Christians can also be traced to the television he watches. The typical Adult Swim cartoon includes gratuitous use of stereotype-based humor. Chris takes The Boondocks' satire of black stereotypes at face value. He also portrays nearly every person of African descent that appears in Sonichu with bald heads and either round, bulging eyes or glasses that resemble such. Finally, he does an impression of the stereotypical black accent, which he apparently confuses with the Jamaican accent, in Mumble 4.
His exposure to anime fuels his misguided views on East Asians. Asians, in his views, excel at random-access humor and martial arts.
Chris, despite claiming Cherokee ancestry, doesn't seem to know what a Native American even looks like, as he portrays the Ancient leader of the Cherokee Clan as an overtly European person wearing Greco-Roman garb. He also tramples all over their actual rituals and culture simply to implement the Anchuent Prophecy into his comic. Chris most likely has no idea what kind of rituals took place in Native American culture. If he did, he would know that some tribes slit their cocks to please their gods.
Not a racist?
| “ | And I am NOT racist, and I like Jews. | ” |
| Chris, in response to a rejected mailbag email | ||
| “ | Blacks...are good people too. | ” |
| Chris, in the disclaimer for his Mr. Popo video | ||
Chris does not want to be considered a racist. He claims to respect blacks as equals, saying that in CWCville "they can even vote", but at best he merely tolerates their existence so long as they stay away from him. Or if they can help him get his inane and idiotic video game made. Also of note, every single black person in Sonichu is depicted as a villain, a criminal or otherwise undesirable. However, he does genuinely like two black people: Kenan & Kel.
He did mention more than once that the reason he doesn't want black girls (but any other race is okay) is because he thinks God told him that his future daughter Crystal must be white, too. In an IRC, Chris said he has no problem with dating an Asian. Later, in Mailbag 35, he wrote he would date "Asian, Native or Hispanic women, as well as women of all other countries" (except the ones being black).
Realistically, Chris's racism doesn't stem from white supremacy, or anything cerebral - it's simply a phobia of people and cultures he doesn't understand. Like most things in his life, Chris has no real knowledge and bases everything off what he's seen on TV, so Chris's perception of minorities is only what the TV shows him, since encountering them in real life is something that rarely occurs.
Improved race relations?
—Lars |
—Chris, code-switching in solidarity with the niggas |
An image leaked on 26 September 2009 showing Chris having sex with three young ladies, including an African American woman. In the Captain's Log of 10 October 2009, Chris clarified that the woman with whom he's performing sexual intercourse is "Half And Half" (mixed ancestry). This proves to us that, even if he's ready to touch the genitals of a black woman, he is unable to imagine the sexual intercourse with someone not sharing white ancestry. In fact, there's evidence that shared ancestry may be a turn-on for Chris.
It seems that the futility of his love quest has lead Chris to lower his ridiculously high standards even further, as he did with fat chicks (which he dropped for Sarah Jackson), and red heads (as he did with Ivy).
Nope, no improved race relations
If anyone had any misconceptions that Chris had evolved into some sort of post-racial autistic, they should be aware that he ended Sonichu Day by calling Tito a "nigger" in "Chris Drops the N-Bomb" and in the Surfshack Tito E-mails, making him an official racist. (The repercussions of this event included Jack Thaddeus removing his ads from CWCipedia and Mao taking over the site for a short time, leading to a massive amount of vandalism.) He later performed a song in blackface for his sweetheart Jackie.
In the new pages of Sonichu 11 which were uploaded in 2015 Blake is mistaken as black and goes on an angry rant about how his skin in not "sunburn color". Keep in mind that 2015 is a year in which Chris became more openly supportive the LGBT community. Given this it is not unreasonable to assume that Chris is still racist towards black people.
Minority characters in Sonichu
- Kevin (Jewish, good, never seen)
- Ancient leader of the Cherokee Clan (
PalefaceNative American, lawful good) - Wasabi Rival (
CaucasianNative American, evil) - Queen of the Cherokian Clan - (Native American, good, probably the whitest of all Native American characters in the comics as she's not only blue eyed but also blonde)
- B-Manajerk (black, evil)
- Barack Obama (half black)
- Blake (black, evil turned good)
- CADD Chef (black, evil)
- Florance Fisher (black, good)
- Jerkhief (black, lawful evil)
- Occasionally other Jerkops are shown to be black as well. No other minorities are apparent.
- Punchy (Chinese-Japanese, good)
- Silvana (black, evil [said to turn good])
- Turdijerk (Indian?, drawn with tan skin, evil)
- Constable Louis Perez (black, TRUE and HONEST police officers)
- Inos (black, tobacky smoker)
- Heather Iglesias (Hispanic, lesbian, good, never seen)
- Bill Schwartz (possibly Jewish, worked for Giovanni but later on changed sides)
- Ching Chong (Asian, appeared in the Wedding Comic as a flower girl)
- PHI Spring Break reporter (Black, appears in Sonichu #8) - despite only appearing in one panel, Chris manages to make her into a stereotype, addressing the audience as "Sistas and brothas."
In the Mailbag, when Chris is confronted about the lack of minorities in his comic he claims that all of his Electric Hedgehog Pokémon are considered "minorities" in CWCville, implying that he completely missed the point of the question.
Sources
| Chris and... |
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