If coat colors don't define race in MLP, what about EQG's skin colors?

[KillerKingBakudan 702]

I remember Lauren Faust responding to an idiotic complaint about the MLP intro where a pair of "black" guard ponies were standing beneath the throne where an elegant "white" pony queen sat (maybe that's why they decided to put Luna next to her for later seasons?). Lauren said that coat colors are not indicative of race. Canonically, unicorns, pegasi and earth ponies are the only "races" that exist, with alicorns being the only mixed race. Regardless of what hair style they wear, or what dialect they speak in, or what culture they're from, they can only be classified as one of those four things.

The humans in the EQG world don't have physical traits like wings and horns, but their skins still retain many of the coat colors their counterparts would have in Equestria. Would that be enough to separate them into races, or are they too individualized? I'm curious to know if there could be such things as "purple supremacy" or a "green lives matter" movement if racism ever became a problem.

[GeekySonic 1,150]

Absotute-ly-utely not. It's a cartoon; it's an idealized world. It's a spinoff of Friendship is Magic. Rainbows and magic and impromptu musicals and everything.

[Will Guide 21,365]

I seriously doubt it! No one in the EQG world ever complained about color of their skin, so why should we?

[Crypty Scribbles 5,547]

Nah. They are too multicolored. I guess there's lack of concept of race in cartoon in general.

School you are studying in does matter, kek.

[Kyoshi Frost Wolf 41,933]

It seems they are like the ponies in that they just go about their day, not noticing color or minding it in terms of their skin. It would be kinda hilarious though if it somehow played into an issue of racism, just because there would have to be like, 15 million different civil rights movements in that world. If they actually did touch on sensitive issues like this and others, it would at least make the world of EqG less boring.

[cmarston1 5,960]

Hasbro probably decided to keep the EQG characters with their pony counterpart's colors in order to avoid controversy regarding the nationality and ethnicity of the cast if they were to give them real human skin tones instead.

[Steve Piranha 29,451]

I don't think there's such thing as discrimination by skin color in EG considering all of them are of different skin color each  

[Meeps 298]

Along the lines of what everyone else already summed up nicely, one could even think of the ponies colors' as being an extension of the colors real equines can come in. A single type can come in tan, palomino, chestnut, grey, brown, etc while not being different at all!

[Brony Number 42 10,075]

It corresponds to flavor.

[Tilgoreth 1,915]

It's still the same as the show. Granted Applejack, Big Mac, and Filthy Rich(along with others) all have natural skin colors in EQG. Which in Big Mac's case is because they can't have a red skinned man walking around. And I guess Applejack would look silly as a orange skinned human. Also keep in mind that if race existed in eqg there would literally be hundreds of different skin colors. Which I guess would mean racisim would be non existent? I mean Applejack is basically white but Granny Smith is still green(I think). 

[Tiny Hoofs 201]

The only thing that's analogous to "race" in My Little Pony is probably 'kinds.' Pegasi, Unicorns and Earth ponies could be seen as the show's equivalent of different races.

Ironically, the different kinds of ponies probably have more basis in biology than human conception of races because being of a specific kind of pony in the show grants you different powers, abilities and even appendages. Most scientists will tell you that "race" is a social construct and not a valid biological taxon or group. Not that people don't look different and are more likely to posses specific traits in different places in the world, but scientists often prefer to group humans using things like ethnic groups, haplogroups and clines instead of by race.

As for Equestria Girls, I think the choice to make them multi-coloured like in the show was a deliberate choice to stave off controversy. People tend to be really hung up about things like representation of different races. Just look at all the arguments that occurred prior to Equestria Girls when fans created humanized versions of the Mane Six. I don't think the characters in Equestria Girls are supposed to conform to any specific race. It was probably a smart move from a business perspective because it matches each character with their respective pony form and it doesn't risk alienating anybody.

So my best guess is that the humans in the world that Twilight visited don't identify by any race. They're all just human.

[ZethaPonderer 2,200]

So contextually speaking in the most exaggerated and sarcastic manner @Tiny Hoofs, The Equestria Girls Franchise is similar to the cartoon show Doug where everyone has radiation poisoning XD. Feels unnatural, but hey anything to stop dem bigoted soccer moms for making such a stink out of it, the easier it might be to sell it.

 

[Mesme Rize 15,687]

Does it matter?

seriously, why does an innocent show like friendship is magic need to have a race talk? It's already over the top with other shows these days.

 

[Tiny Hoofs 201]

8 minutes ago, ZethaPonderer said:

So contextually speaking in the most exaggerated and sarcastic manner @Tiny Hoofs, The Equestria Girls Franchise is similar to the cartoon show Doug where everyone has radiation poisoning XD. Feels unnatural, but hey anything to stop dem bigoted soccer moms for making such a stink out of it, the easier it might be to sell it.

 

Yeah, that's a good way to explain it.

[ZethaPonderer 2,200]

32 minutes ago, Mesme Rize said:

Does it matter?

seriously, why does an innocent show like friendship is magic need to have a race talk? It's already over the top with other shows these days.

Initiate Exaggeration and Sarcasm Mode:

We can go one step beyond and declare EVERY cartoon show and fictional characters that exists are RACIST by default. Anime is RACIST since everyone's 'Japanese' even though they look like caricature depictions of Western people e.g. Europeans and barely any Japanese features such as a flat nose. Jackie Chan Adventures is RACIST for having Chinese stereotypes. Static Shock is RACIST for African American stereotypes. American Dragon is RACIST for the same reason as Jackie Chan Adventures. Lilo and Stitch is RACIST for inaccurately portraying the Hawaiian culture. Disney's Aladdin is RACIST for inaccurately portraying Arabian culture and how EVIL Arabs look e.g. Jafaar.

END

I can go on, but please note I'm just exaggerating the ridiculous claims people make all day throughout. It's best to ignore such people and put a stop to their foolish claims before they hurt themselves from all that BRAINPOWER they're exercising to come up with Bullst like this. Is there a bias towards how people want to portray other races, bloodlines, nationalities, disabilities, species etc? Of course. What matters is the context of how that portrayal of the aforementioned topics are done and the author's intention.

 

Does it really matter in the long run? We bleed the same color (Red) despite all the biological and technical aspects of blood. We're all equal in this life and nobody should have the nerve to look down upon each other.

Edited July 31, 2017 by ZethaPonderer

[TS Lightner 269]

Eh...for me...it's just an animation choice...in reality, they have normal skin tones.

Ponies from Equestria = White/American&Canadian&European

Zebras = Black

Saddle Arabia Ponies = Indian

Buffalo = Native American

Griffon = Mexican&Spanish?

Changeling = .......uhhh.......Pigman?

 

[Concerned Bystander 2,904]

On 7/29/2017 at 4:32 AM, KillerKingBakudan said:

The humans in the EQG world don't have physical traits like wings and horns, but their skins still retain many of the coat colors their counterparts would have in Equestria. Would that be enough to separate them into races, or are they too individualized? I'm curious to know if there could be such things as "purple supremacy" or a "green lives matter" movement if racism ever became a problem.

I'm pretty sure the only reason (apart from recognition) that they maintained the colouring of the characters in EQG was to avoid the inevitable shitstorm that would have descended on Hasbro if they had gone with human colouring.

No matter how hard they tried they would get flak from the fandom for making Twilight white instead of asian, Fluttershy the wrong shade of brown, Applejack for being too stereotypically southern or whatever.  The point is, whatever race they made the characters, they would be wrong.  Better to avoid the issue altogether and keep the familiar colour schemes that everyone is more or less happy with.

Ultimately I'm certain that the skin colours in EQG do not represent race, but rather the characters are all members of a single visually diverse race in a world where skin colour means nothing more than eye or hair colour do.

Edited July 31, 2017 by Concerned Bystander