Why I stopped doing these videos…

aTokenism, tokenization and race swaps in comics: why I rarely talk about it anymore, and why arguing with bad faith critics is a waste of time.

For years this channel was known for breaking down tokenism in comic books and movies. Race swaps, gender swaps, and the heavy reliance on legacy characters instead of building new ones. You may have noticed I hardly make those videos now. There are two reasons why.

The first is where I am in life. I run a business now. I no longer keep a pull list or spend hundreds of dollars a week on corporate comics. Running the Rippaverse day to day leaves no time for that, and griping about what other companies are doing is not professional for a business owner. To be fair to myself, a lot of my reviews were positive, including the last corporate comics review I did.

The second is natural progression. In my mid to late 20s I made a ton of this content, and I laid out my position clearly in Tokenism & Tokenization Explained. I defined my terms, gave examples, and made the case. Not all tokenization is equal. A new character like Miles Morales is preferable to simply making Peter Parker black. Early on I understood some of these moves, even from a legal and copyright standpoint. Over time it just became boring, and I got turned off by it.

My position has not changed. People want original characters, and it is on creators to make them and find their audience. But a significant part of the audience prefers the black or female version of an existing character, and that is their business. I said everything I could say. Those videos are evergreen.

What I will not do is keep arguing with people who are hell bent on misunderstanding you. If someone thinks opposing a race swap means you hate black characters or female characters, they are not arguing honestly, and you are not going to change their mind. That is not a fruitful conversation.

The Rippaverse is a living, breathing example that people will support completely original characters. People used to justify tokenization by saying nobody would back new black characters or new female characters. We proved otherwise. With social media, new characters can catch on faster than ever. We should be in a creative Renaissance right now.

Watch the original video: Tokenism & Tokenization Explained