Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT
WCDT strips 3931-3935 (4th to 8th February 2019)
TheEvilDog:
An even quicker search tells me that there are 50,000 Lebanese people living Germany. So its quite likely Brun's parents lived in Germany or were from Germany before moving to the States.
Tai Fanboi:
--- Quote from: BenRG on 08 Feb 2019, 04:31 ---So, here's a little bit of trivia obtained through Google and Wikipedia (so, blame them if I'm getting this wrong :-P). Lawrence, Massachusetts appears to have a past strongly linked to Germanic immigrants. So, if Brun was born there, a given name of 'Brunhilde' is not entirely unthinkable.
--- End quote ---
Add in that Germany and Lebanon have been quite friendly diplomatic wise since the late 1700's - 1800's. It was considered the "Switzerland of the Middle East" and was a prime location for many German businessmen and a popular vacation spot. Many hotels in Lebanon were opened and run by German business men who brought in other's for cultural exchanges and tourism, and co-partnered teams of Lebanese and German archaeologists excavated the ancient sites of Baalbek, Anjar, Tell el-Burak and Kamid el-Loz. Germany also provided support to rebuild after the Lebanese Civil War.
94ssd:
I didn't need a reason to love Brun more, but now I have one.
+1 for representing Arab characters and being casual about it without making their religion a huge deal. Growing up I was never able to see Arabs represented in popular fiction other than as villains or at best victims.
eschaton:
--- Quote from: BenRG on 07 Feb 2019, 23:26 ---This is one of the strips that makes me love Brun a little more. She really has the most healthy attitude about ethnicity. She's not Lebanese-American, she's Brun from Lawrence whose family, when she thinks about it, are Lebanese (FWIW, I wouldn't be surprised if they came to the US as refugees in the 1980s when Lebanon was a lawless war-zone). Everything about her ethnic background is just set-dressing for her because who she is as a person defines her.
--- End quote ---
Lawrence MA has a Lebanese community IRL, which dates back to around 1900. Almost all Lebanese Christians, FWIW, so it's very unlikely Brun is Muslim.
I'm honestly a bit surprised Brun got this question though. Most Lebanese people I've known IRL (I've known a bunch) are pretty much physically indistinguishable from Italians or Greeks, and are basically given white privilege in the U.S.
94ssd:
--- Quote from: eschaton on 08 Feb 2019, 05:50 ---
--- Quote from: BenRG on 07 Feb 2019, 23:26 ---This is one of the strips that makes me love Brun a little more. She really has the most healthy attitude about ethnicity. She's not Lebanese-American, she's Brun from Lawrence whose family, when she thinks about it, are Lebanese (FWIW, I wouldn't be surprised if they came to the US as refugees in the 1980s when Lebanon was a lawless war-zone). Everything about her ethnic background is just set-dressing for her because who she is as a person defines her.
--- End quote ---
Lawrence MA has a Lebanese community IRL, which dates back to around 1900. Almost all Lebanese Christians, FWIW, so it's very unlikely Brun is Muslim.
I'm honestly a bit surprised Brun got this question though. Most Lebanese people I've known IRL (I've known a bunch) are pretty much physically indistinguishable from Italians or Greeks, and are basically given white privilege in the U.S.
--- End quote ---
I don't disagree that having a lighter skin tone does give advantages over other minorities. But I'd dispute the notion that that translates to 'basically having white privilege.' I've dealt with harassment and bullying all my life, related both to my skin tone and my unmistakably Middle Eastern last name. I of course am more fortunate a. being half Arab and b. living in today's society, in the sense that my grandfather had to deal with being attacked when he was young, and having his business vandalized after September 11th. He of course grew up in a different time, and his skin tone is unmistakably non-white, not dissimilar to how Brun is drawn (although to be fair to your comment, he is much more tanned than most other people from the Levant I've met, including my grandma, now that I think about it). I've also been harrassed based on people's assumption that I'm Hispanic.
I'm sure it depends greatly on where you live, and the fact that I live in the South doesn't help. But there are things that happen.
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