“It’s someone who is wielded or utilized . . . and then recedes into the background.” The way Brandy Monk-Payton, an assistant professor at Fordham University who specializes in race and ...

Science-fiction author N.K. Jemisin loved “The Jetsons” as a child, fantasizing about taking a flying car to school thanks to its space-age vision of the 21st century. But while watching reruns as an ...

The first Black video game characters were more stereotypes than … well, characters. Street Fighter II’s Dee Jay was probably seen as a course correction, but he might as well have been called Jammin’ ...

Anime’s global rise has pushed the medium to broaden who gets to stand at the center of its stories. As fandoms expanded beyond Japan, creators increasingly embraced characters who reflect a wider ...

Anime isn’t known for having a lot of representation for black people or other minorities, which is more understandable than people might think. Not only are most anime either set in Japan or built ...