Recently, I've noticed an unfortunate detail in melan Machoke's design that, while undoubtedly unintentional, ends up bringing to mind certain racist caricatures of black people. While most of the sprite is fine, and I actually quite like the colour scheme in particular, it's a small detail about the face that, I think, is the issue. That being, the pinkish lips that contrast with the dark skin, something that unintentionally makes the design fall into the similar pitfalls that Jynx's old design fell into I think it might be wise to tweak that area somehow to avoid conjuring such imagery, as I doubt the site really wanted to invoke this sort of uncomfortable imagery. Pros:

• Would be a relatively easy change to make, it isn't like anyone would have to redo the entire sprite just to fix that one detail
• Would prevent that image from being used in malicious ways by other people.
• Could help make other users, especially black users, feel just that bit more comfortable if they're not being reminded of racist imagery

Cons:

• Might be hard to figure out how exactly to go about tweaking this, as the lip area for Machoke's sprite is very prominent even normally.
• Would still be more work for the art team

I don't know much about any this to be honest. I'm not an artist on here to even try to give ideas. I do have a few things that I do know though. 1) That is Machamp not Machoke ^.^ 2) It may seem easy to change but I've seen in the past when they want to tweak one sprite means that they have to tweak the whole line and most times the Albino line as well (dunno why that would be for a Artist Staff member to answer). 3) If anyone is using a PFQ Sprite in malicious way on PFQ please report them! I'm not sure if anything can be done off site (again Staff could answer that).

Thank you for the corrections! I wrote this in a half-asleep state because I was worried if I went to sleep and tried to remember to write it in the morning, I'd just forget because I unfortunately have ADHD, so those sorta mix-ups are bound to happen lol . In hindsight, I could've made a note of it for later, but my medication had long since worn off at that point, and Unmedicated Indi (TM) does NOT have the same sort of foresight I usually do. And, yeah, I understand that tweaking the entire line would most certainly be a hassle, and I really don't want to put too much strain on the art team. This was just something that's been bothering me for a few days now, hence why I thought it was important enough to write about it at 11 PM, when I should've been going to sleep.

Quite honestly I didn't even see it like that until you pointed it out, and Im really curious to know if there is anyone who was affected by the sprites, this is the first time I've seen a suggestion about this

Howdy there. I'm a black person so I'm going to speak for myself. I stared at the Melan Machop line, and I can't say that really sparks anything that offends me when it comes to Machamp. I have seen my fair share of blackface and honestly this doesn't come anywhere close to it. I'm kinda scratching my head trying to work out how this compares to the old Jynx sprite or any other form of blackface.

i’m not black but i’m with howlingcat — i don’t see how it could be taken the way you’re seeing it, not only because it’s a very far cry drom the jynx incident, but also because it’s very clearly purple? usually when you think of blackface, you’re seeing actual black and brown with red or pink lips. i don’t think that the intentions here were racist, nor does it look that way at all?