April's ethnicity moving forward

[sdp]

With Rise of the TMNT we got our first black April and we've had plenty of debates linked here of whether she was ever black (TLDR; not really but kind of). But Rise is changing things up and I like that, it should change as much as it can to be different. But how would you want to see April in future incarnations?

I think if a movie gets made and Rise is still in the air we'll get a black April in the movie. Same thought if Rise is cancelled prematurely then likely a future incarnation won't have a black April but if it's a success it's more likely. Me personally I want red headed April back, I prefer an original character that is black who I can like instead of forcing a race on another, also all the red headed characters are always the ones being made into black and we barely had enough red headed characters.

When I saw this headline I kinda laughed and I said, "Oh, this is ridiculous. Yet another person claiming it's racist to have a white April." And by the way, for all you kids reading at home, April just is white. But these persons are maybe just arguing that we should also have a black April. But, you know, April is what she is, and just so you know, we're just debating this because someone wrote about it, kids.

Just because it makes you feel uncomfortable doesn't mean it has to change. You know, I mean, Santa was a white man too. He was a historical figure; that's a verifiable fact—as is April, I want you kids reading to know that—but my point is: how do you revise it, in the middle of the legacy of the story, and change April from white to black?

[snake]

I don't care. I prefer her as a redhead, but she's literally a non-character in most incarnations. It's not like she has any defining characteristics outside of "sometimes is a reporter".

[Andrew NDB]

I wouldn't cry if she was made black or even Latina in other stuff.

[FredWolfLeonardo]

Any race, as long as she's attractive.

[Candy Kappa]

I too prefer a redhead April, but she never was a redhead until 2012 show, and Mirage April albeit partially based of a Black person and might have had some Black coding in the art was intended to be White. Saint Nick was most likely a Moor, but Santa Clause who's a mixture of St. Nick, Father Time, the Norse God Odin so while he's usually depicted White but this fat Fey creature can be any ethnicity.

And like Santa, April can be any ethnicity (she's a blank canvas ready to be drawn). Nothing ties her down to race or job for that matter cause she's a everyday person thrown into a crazy ass adventure with the Turtles. And I doubt April will be Black forever after Rise, I'm sure after Rise we'll prob fly get a more "back to usual business" cartoon where April is white (maybe a redhead) and Leo leads with Shredder and Krang at it again.

Maybe next show has her as a Black redhead in her twenties and we all win

[IndigoErth]

Given the last name, I prefer the Irish route. But that doesn't mean she can't also be mixed race with Irish roots on dad's side.

[FredWolfLeonardo]

I know it is unlikely, given her name and history, but I would be curious to see what a Japanese April would be like.

[Candy Kappa]

Next April could pull a Lou Jitsu and get a new name

[CyberCubed]

Make her white again. There's no reason to change races at all. I don't think anything Rise does will stick with any future version anyway.

[Redeemer]

Originally Posted by IndigoErth

Given the last name, I prefer the Irish route. But that doesn't mean she can't also be mixed race with Irish roots on dad's side.

I voted for Irish April, but this could be done as well.

Honestly I just don't like it when people change character ethnicity or race. This was done with Baxter Stockman already and *almost happened with shredder. If you want to make a cast more diverse just introduce new characters.

I think Spider-man is probably the best example of this. They have introduced two iconic characters in recent years with Myles Morales and Spider-Gwen. They could have just made Peter-Parker black, but instead they made this new amazing character in Myles Morales.

I wish Rise did this especially given how different the series is. This would have been the perfect opportunity to introduce a new female allies or protagonist or maybe even try to re-introduce Venus

[Roseangelo]

I honestly don't care.

[Leo656]

It's a Celtic surname, so she should probably be white. Being non-white or mixed-race invites too many questions and Logical Somersaults to explain away her backstory, when as others have said nobody can even really figure out who "April" even IS (or should be) as a character. Things are complicated enough without explaining why someone would have such an overwhelmingly Irish surname despite not physically looking like an "O'Neil". And it would, and does, beg an explanation. If someone can't even have a coherent Present, they shouldn't have an over-complicated Past or Pre-History.
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I'm not sure why so many people have such an aversion to April being a reporter. Perhaps it makes her "too active" in the stories, or more "glamorous" than she ought to be, but I'd personally argue that it's not only the most memorable version of April, but the only time she's ever been interesting.

Like, what else is there? In Mirage she was a lab assistant for 5 minutes, and then... ummm... the next thing I remember, there was Time Travel Shenanigans, and aside from being revealed as a Pencil Drawing Pinocchio, she got turned into a roach and f*cked other roaches, and then I stopped giving a sh*t what happened to her altogether because the story was terrible.

She's definitely in desperate need of an "Official" history. I absolutely HATE when a character has such a ludicrous mish-mash of conflicting "origin stories". If you ask someone, "Who Is ______?", there should be ONE answer, maybe two if they've been around for 5 or 6 decades, but that is IT.

April O'Neil isn't a "character", she's a visual that people remember from a cartoon show. That being said, I don't see why elements from the only memorable version shouldn't graduate into being "canon" status, to some degree.

[victory_angel]

I don't mind either version of April. I don't see any sort of agenda with changing her skin color. Most versions of April have been Caucasian and given her Irish surname that is sort of an expectation. So making her African American is how the production team wanted to depict her this go round. One's skin color doesn't reflect what sort of character a person has, it's usually the environment and he upbringing one grows up with that determines a person's character.

So April in this version could be white, but that still wouldn't make her any less obnoxious. Just like she could be black in one the other versions and still be the cool-headed maternal/big sister figure she is often depicted as.


As to why she would have an Irish Surname when she's anything but has two plausibilities. One when people were brought over from Africa to sold into slavery, they were given the surname of their owners.

For example, take Alex Hailey's biography "Roots" His maternal Ancestor was named Kunta Kinte, he was abducted from his home in Gambia and was bought by a man with the surname of Waller. He is then given the name of "Toby Waller" Later on he becomes the slave of a man named Raynolds so he becomes "Toby Raynolds" Then when his daughter Kizzy is sold off to a man named Thomas Lea she becomes "Kizzy Lea" ect.

So one of April's ancestors could have been a slave by someone named O'Neil and that surname was passed down through the generations following the abolition of slavery.

The other possibility is that since we have never seen April's parents in this version, she could have been adopted by an Irish-American family which is why she has the Irish Surname.

In future generations of this series, I do think that Irish American April will be a common characterization, but there will also be other incarnations where she will be depicted as African American, or maybe both races.

[IndigoErth]

Originally Posted by Redeemer

I wish Rise did this especially given how different the series is. This would have been the perfect opportunity to introduce a new female allies or protagonist or maybe even try to re-introduce Venus

Agree. Especially with 'Rise' trying to go supposedly younger, it would have even worked fine to go back to classic April as an adult who comes into their lives later on, should the series last that long, and have the same-age girl they changed April into be another new friend who comes into their lives sooner. Missed opportunity.

edit: And had she not been April, then it might have been fun to someday see an older version of the TMNT finally and bring her back as a young adult as well. Ah well.

[Xav]

Originally Posted by Candy Kappa

I too prefer a redhead April, but she never was a redhead until 2012 show, and Mirage April albeit partially based of a Black person and might have had some Black coding in the art was intended to be White.

Are you trying to tell me, Archie April, 2k3 April, and 2k7 April weren't redheads?

[Dejablue]

Originally Posted by Xav

Are you trying to tell me, Archie April, 2k3 April, and 2k7 April weren't redheads?

Nope they were definitely red heads.

[Candy Kappa]

Originally Posted by Xav

Are you trying to tell me, Archie April, 2k3 April, and 2k7 April weren't redheads?

Archie has more auburn hair, 2k3... magenta is not a real hair color so not really. I’ll give you 2007 April, I forgot about her existence when I wrote my post.

[Dejablue]

Originally Posted by Candy Kappa

Archie has more auburn hair, 2k3... magenta is not a real hair color so not really. I’ll give you 2007 April, I forgot about her existence when I wrote my post.

Sweetie honey, auburn and magenta fall under the spectrum of "red" .

[neatoman]

Well to be fair, can we really say that a character who is canonically a figment of someone's imagination brought to life, actually has an ethnicity in the first place? The only explicit deviation from that is Nick April, who was part Utrom.

[Sumac]

Originally Posted by neatoman

Well to be fair, can we really say that a character who is canonically a figment of someone's imagination brought to life, actually has an ethnicity in the first place? The only explicit deviation from that is Nick April, who was part Utrom.

By that logic, Turtles can be turned into Old Magical Karate Hamsters, since they are just a figment of someone's imagination.

Fictional characters, while not real, has some traits which define them. Not only in terms of personality, but also in terms of appearance. And yes, race is a part of those traits. This is why changing character race, with no explanation other than filling the quota, is stupid. It's like changing inherent part of the character. And whether their race is significant for their story or not is irrelevant.

Characters are defined in their entirety, not in "separate" interchangeable parts. You might change some parts of the character, but they are certain things, which should be beyond changes.