Definitely think you took this entire piece the wrong way. Plenty of animated characters are coded by viewers to be something they aren’t explicitly stated to be (see the legions of folks who claim the green alien Piccolo as Black). Then there’s the issue of there being so few black voice actors (or minorities of any identification) in leading animated roles. Consider Yuffie in FFVII Remake. Gaia isn’t explicitly our Earth, but Yuffie clearly takes on Asian characteristics and was appropriately cast as such with Suzie Yeung. Should we not celebrate that diversity?

Honestly, sometimes it’s nice to see people who look like you (read:me) in roles that normally aren’t reserved for us. Like I said at the end of the article, Knuckles being black doesn’t have to mean anything to you, but it can mean something to me.

Thanks for reading 😉