Perrin Aybara is Black (and that’s a big deal) (in progress) 2021 , still working

Black nerds got problems, but you already know that, or should..hence the website. Over the years those problems have largely remained the same. But there has been one problem that has plagued us more than the rest, for the longest amount of time. Representation. In the words of the great New York philosopher Buggin Out YO SAL!?!? WHY CAN’T I GET NO BROTHERS ON THE WALL??? For the most part publishers and authors have responded much like Sal, they either ignored us or made lame excuses. Like the one that goes something like this. “Western European settings are the influence for most high fantasy so it makes sense that the characters reflect that reality.” Discounting the Moors and their influence on Spain and the entire Ottoman Empire, what you are tleling me is that its easy to imagine: dragons, witches, warlocks, the multiple courts of fae, magic systems, entire races of non-humans, like dwarves, elves, orcs, goblics, kobolds, et al, but imagining black people in fantasy is a bridge too far. This is not an indictment of fantasy alone, the entire publishing world has been to dealing with the issue of representation and the lack there of for decades. It been on their collective radar Ever since Nancy Larrick brought it up/shoved it down their throats  in a 1965’s article called The All White World of children’s books. It’s been well documented in scholarly articles, think peices and blogs galor. But recently weve sarted to see change. Some of the change is due to authors of c…