We’ve all seen Kickstarter projects get cancelled because they didn’t get the appropriate funding, and that’s all well and good. That’s the game you play when you go with Kickstarter. Crowdfunding is a risky business, and sometimes it pays off (lots of the time it pays off, really). But this time, a couple of young men who thought they were being cute really were just being racists.

Now, I honestly don’t think anyone would have been this kind of racist on purpose, per se. I think they thought it was humorous, and cute, and that people would appreciate it. Plus the art is pretty good. Just saying.

The idea behind Shaniqua-no-Ho was that these two guys would turn on the traditional Japanese idea of adventure and sports and wham! Market it to young men instead by…uh…making sexist, racist jokes that only encouraged everyone who read the comics to continue to perpetuate cultural stereotypes that African Americans have been trying to escape for years.

Shaniqua has a “raging beast” inside of her, which actually just means she likes sex a lot. Her bff is Big Lips Dorothy who is the local prostitute in addition to The Vice Squad and some other ridiculous characters like “Pimpsferatu,” which I do admit is a pretty damn hilarious name if the character behind it wasn’t so disgusting.

Really, Scott and Greg (the lovely inventors) just wanted to make a bad joke. That’s what it was all about. They wanted to turn Manga as we know it on its head and make it something different. But considering that they cancelled the Kickstarter and apologized profusely afterwards, I figured they learned the error of their ways.

Wacky Beast, the company owned by Scott and Greg that is responsible for the comic, wrote that they was “naïve, privileged and stupid.” Yeah, I think that’s a pretty good sum up, gentlemen, especially since you’re just a couple of white boys that have no idea what it means to live in the ghetto, much less be black.

This project has been in the works since June or July of last year, and it took them almost an ENTIRE year to figure out it was probably a bad idea.

Here’s some brain candy for you, the description of the comic itself:

A Ho in Shaniqua’s world (is) like an MMA fighter, Miss America, and Jedi master all rolled up into one. They defend the world from rampaging monsters that burst out of people’s pants. Of course, hos aren’t alone in the fight. They often work with pimps, men and women who form special bonds with their crotch monsters and command them in battle. Unfortunately being a ho or a pimp ain’t easy because they all have to deal with the Vice Squad, an army of fanatics sworn to wipe out crotch monsters, hos, and pimps.

….Uh-huh.

“Despite our efforts, we did not check privilege nearly enough when considering this project,” the Kickstarter said, “and we completely deserved the angry reactions it produced.“

You know, I honestly don’t think it’s all that bad. If they had independently produced this without trying to get people to Kickstart it, would it have been successful? By the end of the comic’s run, it had over 5,000 supporters and just as many likes on Facebook. Good, wholesome things on Kickstarter often don’t get that kind of support. So while I agree that we really shouldn’t be enforcing the idea that black people are dumb and only worthy of trailer parks, I also don’t think a silly comic like this would have really defined the African American presence here in the US. I’m white, and if this comic had instead been about white trailer trash and sluts running around without any pants, I’d be okay with that. I don’t really care all that much, because I’m a strong, independent white woman, and some comic isn’t going to tell me otherwise.

[Image via Kickstarter]