I’ve noticed that there are not a lot of black zombies on the Walking Dead. The only two I really recall were Michonne’s pets from a few years ago. According to Wikipedia 30% of Ga is black or Africa na American. 3 out of 10 zombies should be of African American descent, but I only really recall two or three.
So, I’ve come up with several theories.
Black people taste better to zombies than white people, so they eat the whole thing and there is nothing left to zombify.
White zombies are racist and don’t want black people to enjoy the benefits of zombification (such as they may be.)
Most of the black people are still alive and were smart enough to go somewhere else.
There is some sort of social message being built into narrative, maybe something like white people are the mindless despoilers or something. I noticed something similar about consumerism in the Dawn of the Dead, but I’m not sure I quite get whatever message is being sent by the Walking Dead’s writers.
Maybe it’s really hard to do makeup that makes a black person look like a good zombie. maybe it’s hard to make the pallor of death look good on black people.
Something else?
I might be wrong but I’m pretty sure black people as a demographic are underrepresented in the undead community in the Walking Dead Universe.
I’m sure the explanation is closer to #5 than anything else, but it is worth pointing out that while 30% of GA is black some counties are <1% black in that state. IIRC, much of the narrative is set in Northern Georgia and Eastern Tennessee, both of which have very low black populations.
Well, if one were to fanwank, it’s possible we’ve seen numerous zombies who were black in their former lives, but the zombification process destroys melanin so zombies tend to pale over time.
I took a locations tour once with an extra who’s played a couple of zombies. He said that the show’s producers deliberately look for skinny extras now. Their rationale is that almost all of the zombies came from the initial outbreak of whatever disease created them. By now, the ones that still survive (so to speak) have lost limbs, organs, body mass, to decay. That makeup is easier to do with slender actors. Within the story, the fat zombies have all rotted their way to a healthy BMI.
Season One, Atlanta. The rest, in and around Senioa, Georgia. Including the current story in Alexandria - that set is a block from downtown Senioa, which is immediately recognizable to any WD fan as “Woodbury”.
Uhmmmm, no. According to the writers and producers of the show, there are no “zombies” on the Walking Dead. And how could a dead person be racist? By definition, they’re dead.
Can we expect a chapter of the Zombie Black Un-Dead Lives Matter to shamble across the set anytime soon?
Yeah I heard a few seasons ago that they look for skinny people. The explanation then was that zombies are supposed to be emaciated because they look scarier that way. I think that, especially considering the location, more than half of the zombies should be fat. I can only remember one fat zombie (in Herschel’s well), and that was pretty much for comedy.
I don’t buy the makeup story. (Well, it’s certainly cheaper to make appliances for skinny actors.) It takes as much work to do one as the other.
::Snerk:: My wife and her co-workers (of both races) have a quiz called “Are You Black Or White?” Questions include, “Does your dog live inside with a cloth collar, or outside on a chain?”, “Have you ever worn a sweatshirt with shorts?” “Does your mama wear a hat to church?” and “When you were a child, did you drink red Kool-Aid, or cherry?”
I make no warrant to the truth of what my tour guide said, I jus’ tells it as I heard it. But the walkers do rot, right? I don’t watch the show, so I don’t really know all the details. If they do, it does makes sense that most of the fat ones would be emaciated now, unless they were freshly killed. How much time has passed between the start of the zombie apocalypse and where they are now?
Purple Kool-Aid is for everyday. Thanksgiving was RC cola or during a good year Shasta.
a little too close to home for me.
::Snerk:: My wife and her co-workers (of both races) have a quiz called “Are You Black Or White?” Questions include, “Does your dog live inside with a cloth collar, or outside on a chain?”, “Have you ever worn a sweatshirt with shorts?” “Does your mama wear a hat to church?” and “When you were a child, did you drink red Kool-Aid, or cherry?”
that pretty much ALL applies to me. My grandma must have owned thirty hats, and every one went right back into the box Sunday evening.