POC in Europe Masterpost

gcvsa:

disneyforprincesses:

“There were no POC in Europe during the medieval ages!!/they probably never interacted with the whites!!”:

The last one is actually during 16th century I believe,but you get the idea. Most of these are Moors who traveled to many of countries in Europe including, GASP Scotland.

Considering that Africans Muslims conquered most of the Iberian peninsula in the early 8th Century CE, and ruled there for nearly 800 years, until the Reconquista finally overcame the last Muslim state in 1492, I’d say it’s more than just fairly likely that people of color were frequent visitors to Europe. 

Also, Marco Polo’s journey’s to Asia took place in the 13th Century CE. Given what we know of cultural dissemination (look at the history of India, for one thing), there is no reason to suspect that there were no travellers in the other direction, as well.

Trade, of course, has been taking place between Europe and other lands for a very, very long time. It is well-known, for example, that gunpowder and firearms were invented in China, and gradually made their way west to Europe. The Arabs acquired the knowledge of gunpowder in the mid 13th Century CE, and around the same time, European forces found themselves facing cannon and guns for the first time.

We know that Arabs were quite proficient with sailing, and by the medieval period had established themselves throughout most of the known world in the Eastern hemisphere.

Clearly, the idea that the people of Europe rarely, if ever, encountered or interacted with people of color from Africa, Asia, the Indian subcontinent, and/or Arabia, perhaps even the archipelagoes of Southeast Asia/Oceania is ludicrous.

Yet, whenever a story is told that includes people of color where white people have been led to believe there were none, we hear creys of historical inauthenticity or anachronism.

iamthespacecadet:

kimbbearrrrrrrr:

also holy cow you guys if you play mass effect 3 with a shepard who is not white be warned: there are a lot of scenes where the lighting was obviously probably not tested on dark skinned shepards. i mean in me2 there were a couple scenes where the lighting was so so dark that i could only see the whites of my shepards eyes (but knew form my white femshep that youre.. supposed to be able to see them), and i remember when the clip with steve’s romance came out i remember being like “wow i can hardly see him” because the lighting in every scene is just.. weird and i feel like really awkward.. but in me3 the beginning scene with the reaper attack, when shepard gets knocked over, there is a shot where my shepard basically looked like his skin color was like the second lightest skin tone in the game, rather then the darkest. it wasnt like “oh its prob just the lighting” he was. white. completely white. it was bizzare to see and kind of super discerning!! hopefully that is the only scene of like.. white washing by reapers 

Man that’s nuts. My shep is dark but she never got whitewashed, the real issue for me was that ME3 has REALLY bad lighting throughout there’s a lot of times when you actually can’t see your shepherd at all it’s really infuriatingly bad I got a headache squinting at the screen for my whole playthrough.

It is also really weird in Dragon Age 2 (another BioWare game)! First of all, I had to download a mod to even get some decent dark colored skin, and then half the time you can’t see her facial expressions, the lighting is so bad. Like, I don’t think they even tested for a dark skinned character, nope it looks good when they’re pale as fuck that’s all that matters. :<