I've been reading comic books for most of my life. I was always proud of the progressive tradition of racial and gender equality being presented by said books. I remember being very young and getting warm fuzzies when I realized that "Storm," a black woman, was just as good a leader (and sometimes stronger and smarter) as her male counterpart "Cyclops," a white man.
Storm won this battle with Cyclops and became leader of the X-Men. The white man was just wasn't in the frame of mind to lead. The black woman was better fit to rally the troops- go X-Men!
I'm not discounting the chauvinistic and racist moments that do exist in comic history, but I thought that as a geek culture we'd moved past a lot of prejudices.
I guess not.
Dwayne McDuffie, a comic book author and a black man, recently posted a preview of one of his upcoming comics. It featured a few black characters as integral parts of the story line. Some of the "fan" responses were quite disturbing:
“…how many blacks did McDuffie manage to sneak onto the team this time–five? (I bet DC editorial gave him the same order as Burger King in that lawsuit–to “lighten things up around here.”)”
“Why don’t they call this the “Minority League”? ”
“I don’t think anyone will support an original black “mainstream” character. I know I won’t.”
“Couldn’t they get Static, Black Lightning, or one of his daughters instead of Dr. Light on the cover of BET League of America? Ha!”
“Maybe they should establish a separate league for all the negro superheroes. I’m not saying kick them ALL off. One would be okay. (Doesn’t Hollywood have some kind of law that says every movie has to have at least one black in it?) I just think they’re going overboard with all this diversity stuff. I mean, how many comics do minorities read anyway?”
Wow. Thanks for being progressive and accepting fanboys. Heaven forbid a black man writes black characters.
Apparently there's too many "minorities" on the cover...
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6 comments:
I read the comic where the Joker kills Robin. The Joker is the Ambassador of Iran. It's pretty anti-Arab.
Also, in the U.S. it's still okay to be racist against Mexicans. Maybe Pup should be a Mexican in KoP.
I am well aware of the tolerated racism against Mexicans and latinos in this country.
I already had an idea about that...
Nicholas,
First . . . that was a cool Cyclops-Storm battle. She beat him without her powers.
The racist and chauvinistic attitudes that exist in society at large are also prevalent in geek-fanboy culture. From video games, Hollywood to comics books it has been there and still remains. Sure some strides have been made, I thought DC Minx imprint was a great step in the right direction but I guess the comic book industry but then take a look at how Marvel (Joe Quesada) handled criticism of Divas.
" . . . I mean, how many comics do minorities read anyway?”
This comment really highlights fanboy's ignorance. The commenter might as well ask how many books, magazine or blogs does minorities read?
How about the fact that pretty much every native american superhero has a feathers-and-fringe costume?
That's a good point my anonymous friend!
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