I Can't Be The Only One Who Noticed A Certain Flavor Of Racist Undertone When It Comes To People Comparing

I can't be the only one who noticed a certain flavor of racist undertone when it comes to people comparing JonDami with TimKon and SuperBat.

Like, people writing that when it comes to either Tim or Bruce being kidnapped or in mortal danger, both Clark and Kon would suddenly become the scariest mf on the planet until they got them back.

However, when it comes to Damian, Jon would be telling the kidnapper to let him go because "Damian would get bored and stab them to death" or something?

Another example is when the Supers are describing their respective Bats.

Both Clark and Kon would lovingly describe Bruce or Tim as 'smart' or 'beautiful' or 'equivalent of a God' or 'the smartest detective on the planet' while Damian.... Has rabies. Okay.

It doesn't help that Clark and Kon would often be drawn to have darker skin tones, while Jon's skin tone is lighter than Damian's (a canon thing).

Maybe I'm being the friend that's too woke, but that's as if they're conveying how POC/people with darker skins can either be the one who longed for their white/lighter skin partner, else it's the lighter skin partner that's being 'very tolerant'.

Absolutely, and you’re not being "too woke"—you’re picking up on a real pattern that’s worth talking about.

There is a noticeable difference in how jondami is often written or perceived in comparison to ships like timkon or superbat, and that difference frequently carries subtle (or not-so-subtle) racial undertones. In fandom, especially with legacy characters, there’s a tendency to center whiteness—or proximity to it—as the default for softness, gentleness, and emotional complexity. So when you see stories where Tim is treated like a fragile genius angel and Kon is the unyielding force of nature willing to burn the world for him, it's not just about character traits—it’s about who fandom allows to be loved that way.

With jondami, there’s a clear shift. Damian, who is canonically Arab and Asian, often gets flattened into tropes: the feral child, the knife gremlin, the “rabid” one. That’s not just quirky characterization—that’s racial coding. Instead of getting the same emotional depth and admiration that Tim or Bruce get, Damian becomes a punchline or an object of Jon’s tolerance, not his adoration.

Meanwhile, Jon—drawn lighter than Damian—is often the “sweet” one, the one who brings light into Damian’s life. That’s not inherently bad, but it gets weird when the dynamics start implying that Jon’s patience and warmth are extraordinary because he’s putting up with a darker-skinned partner who’s wild and violent. That plays into a longstanding racist trope of the “civilized” white (or lighter-skinned) person taming the “savage” POC.

And when you combine that with how people don’t write Jon going feral over Damian in the same way Kon or Clark do over Tim/Bruce, it’s not just a writing choice—it’s part of a pattern. Fandom often doesn't extend the same romantic or emotional softness to POC characters, especially those with sharp edges like Damian. That reflects broader racial biases in media and fandom culture.

So no, you're not imagining it. You're just noticing the kind of bias that slips under the radar unless someone points it out—and you're doing exactly what fandom should do: look critically at how we portray characters and ask, why is this dynamic only happening when the character of color is involved?