Karkat being someone who is opressed due to his (blood) color, in which the people are literally killed for simply existing and who in Post-canon, literally fights for the reproduction rightsand against the concentration camps, slavery and genocide of his people something that can very easily be read as racialized. However theres a billion diferente races and ethnicities that can be associated with the things listed, so why am i choosing to read Karkat as specifically black coded?
Well, Karkat takes the position of Geromy, a black character, in Sbahj, this is made explicit in the Homestuck Snapchats where Karkat literally dresses as Geromy and once again in the recente HSBC update where Karkat is once again in the role of Geromy in Dave’s book that is essentialy a sbahjified version of Dirk’s funeral. And Karkat is heavily associated with Obama, first trough Dave’s love of Karkat, Obama and WV(literally a black guy on the roler of a “progressist” political figure) all having similar racial implications; and second, the Meat Epilogues literally begins with DAVE wanting to put Karkat in the position of presidente, as aone that can represent the now racialized Trolls along with talking about the importance of the Economy and directly citing and comparing it all to Obama. And third the Candy chapter scene in which after spendi ng 15 years in a shitty heterossexual marriage, Dave finally comes out as gay to his lover, Obama, who in this case is an obvious stand-in to Dave’s repressed love for Karkat. Plus, In homestuck, Lime is a color that is associated with White, while red is associated with Black, while this is refeces the literal colors, its not unusual for homestuck to associate the literal color black to the race black or the literal color White to the color White. An example of this is how WV is associated with Obama; or how the Horrorterrors, on the dark side, are demonized and villainized by characters meanwhile all they want is to protect themselves from the active genocide of their people; How “black magic” is used to justify said discrimination against the horroterrors and agaisnt real life black people; how “White magic” is used as a weapon associated with White supremacy (Eridan, who even specifically killed two racialized women and the literal double lightning having Cronus); The blackness of the Nymphs; How the genocide of limebloods can be read as a play on the idea of a “white genocide”and so on and on. Beforus Karkat pretending to be a limeblood can even be read as White-passing, the act of mixed or lightskinned black people attempt to assimilate into the White majorit as a way to receive more privileges or escape from opression.
What this has to do with Sickle Cell disease?
Well, Sickle Cell Disease is a recessive genetic disease, in fact the most common genetic disease globally, born from a genetic mutation that affects in the vast majority of the time the black population. The disease causes the blood cells to become Sickle-shaped, causing obstruction of the blood, which means that body tissues cant receive oxygen, causing tissue injury and cell death, leading to a bunch of different symptons. I heavily suggest looking more into it, but in this post I’ll focus only on the social-political aspects of the disease instead of its medical aspect.
Obviously, Karkat’s sickle is directly based on this disease, which is interesting when you consider the previous established black coding of the character. For one, its a disease that primarily affects the black population, as the mutation occured in Africa and was brought to the american continent trought slavery. People with the disease often have a much shorter lfiespan, depending on the type and severity it can be to about 20 years, while others live for longer, which matches the fact that Karkat’s life span is relatively short due to his blood. And more importantly, the disease was historically used to justify racial segregation and both codeem interracial couples and encouraging it as a means of whitening the population, depending on the region. As a way to deal with the disease, both extremista groups like the KKK and actual public health and governments have tried mass sterilization of the black population, straight up eugenist practices. People with Sicle Cell Disease suffer immense stigmatization both from inside and outside their communities, being seen as sick, cursed, punished by God, dirty and so on to the point many families upon finding out a member got the mutation tries as hard as possible to hide it and begins dimisnighing intimacy with that member. Kids with the disease are discriminated and excluded due to their symptons. Theres a high association between the disease and social exclusion both due to the symptons itself and the racism, ableism, and stigma that follows.
The way Karkat’s mutated blood results in him being persecuted, discriminated, fearing his life and having to hide his condition greatly reminds me of how the black people who has Sickle Cell are treated, especially when you consider the eugenist context of the Trolls with the mutation. Karkats fight for the reproductive freedom of the troll population in Earth C even reminds me of how those with that disease only got testing, rights and healthcare due to the constant fight of the black movement, like the black panthers in the USA. Here in Brazil in the early 2000’s we were about to implement a program of disencouraging the reproduction of black women who carries the trait and we only avoided that by the huge fight done by the black, feminist and many other more movements. Theres much more that can be said but this post is already huge
Its an extremely interesting and importante topic, if youd like to read more about id highly reccomend the article "Racismo, eugenia e doença falciforme: o caso de um programa de triagem populacional"
