So.....
Egyptian/people of North African descent aren't necessarily white. Except for like...white afrikans whose abcestry traces back to British and Dutch colonialization, etc.
The point is.. Egyptians aren't white, which is what they were going for in the redesign.
So how is she white washed? She's not white.
'Whitewashing' also describes significantly lightening the skin of a previously dark-skinned character, whether or not it makes them literally white.
As for the general discussion, I do think that it's safe to call Tanya 'black' since she is and always has been, MKX initial model aside, clearly based on real world humans with black features and coloring. It doesn't seem like a reach to me. It's similarly reasonable to say Superman is white. 'White' and 'black' aren't ethnic designations, like European or African or Asian -- they're physical phenotypical ones. There is actually more DNA diversity
among 'black' people than any other peoples on Earth, because human life began in Africa. We only call all those different groups of people black as one collective ethnic group because they look phenotypically 'black' to us.
The problem isn't whether or not Tanya is literally African, since obviously she's not, it's that people used 'well she's not human' as an excuse for lightening her skin. We exist in a real world with no Edenians, just humans, and lightening the skin of any dark-skinned character is messed up because of our real world context. There are also so few video game characters of African descent that refusing to let black people identify with a character clearly patterned after a black woman is kind of rude. Let people claim her if they want to, IMO.
I was one of the people badgering NRS all over social media to make her dark again and I'm very happy they listened to us. I didn't like doing it, but I felt it was important.
ANYWAY!
I expect Tanya will come out on Tuesday. Fingers crossed! I'm planning to main her and I hope she's great. If they save her for the first week of June I'm worried that'll mean Predator/Tremor in July and August, and I want these four to come out fast so we can maybe get more DLC.
