“Imagine if there were real superheroes or vigilantes, every
time they tried to fight crime in black neighborhoods they would be called
racist and people would want them arrested.” I responded to this by saying, “Superheroes
wouldn’t give a F—k what they were labeled, they would continue to work outside
the law to help people.” That was the end of that geek argument, but with
current events putting law, race, and perception at the forefront, there is a
real debate to be had on the subject. There will never be anybody in a Bat suit
that goes out and stops hand to hand crack sales in East Baltimore. There will
never be a guy with a Skull on his T-shirt that Punishes a dude that tries to
steal blunts from a corner store. There will never be a God of Thunder that
follows behind a teenager in a hoody because he looks suspicious. However, in the fantasy world of comic books,
these real life events could be used to help current and future generations to
understand each other in a real way. Comics work as allegory in order to
discuss difficult themes, but recently, it seems as if the big two, Marvel
& DC, are happy to bow out of the social commentary in terms of race relations
in the United States, an act that is grossly negligent and wildly irresponsible.
50 years after the Civil Rights movement America is still
very much a racially segregated country. From the communities, to the malls, the
school cafeterias, even on social media people migrate towards those that look
and behave like them. Consciously and unconsciously generation after generation
continue to self-segregate for various reasons, not all having to do with
bigotry or racism. The question remains, how do other races view Black America?
The politically correct BS answer is, “We’re
all progressive enough to see a person before we see a color.” That’s very
John Lennon, but it’s a naïve blanket that doesn’t open up conversation or move
the issue forward. White America as well as other races living in the United
States view Blacks through the lens of the media. News and Entertainment to be
exact. Movies attempt to diversify, but aside from films about slavery or the
BIG 5 Black actors that transcend, Blacks are still background players. Coming
in to drop a hip-hop slang word, support their white best friend, or play the
role of Thug #3 in a random crime movie. Black culture’s biggest influence is
music. All genres, even country, have felt the hand of Black Culture over the
years. The biggest genre being Rap. White America has embraced hip-hop, and
some actually understand and feel its message or sometimes lack of… Others hear
the cursing and still regard it as noise. Nevertheless, the stereotypes remain because the
cultural representation is inconsistent. Ask someone white to do an impression
of a Black person in private, it will not be based off their friend Anthony from work, it’s
based off some media stereotype because Anthony isn’t how they see the race, he's an exception, it’s
the stereotype that remains as the ultimate representation.
One form of media that I want to focus on is one that no one
brings up, Comic Books. While not as influential as they once were in the
shaping of young minds, they still have an impact. When a white pre-teen or teenager picks up a comic book, how will they
view Blacks? Let’s take away his Will Smith movies, his Jay-Z CD, and keep
his TV off of BET or VH1. Let’s say this 14 year old white suburbanite only has ten Blacks in his entire school, and his only exposure is from new coverage,
Action Movies, and his graphic novels. How does this Marvel or DC Comics fanboy
see Black America?
The answer is, he doesn’t. Comic books show Blackness by drawing a character and coloring him
light or dark brown. There is nothing besides that colorist’s choice of hue
that represents Blackness! This isn’t a slight at those writing comics
today, as they try their best to incorporate racial and gender diversity as
best they can. But making the “Fake”
Spider-man brown or reimagining Wally West as Black, doesn’t bridge the divide.
Many of these creators grew up in the 70’s and 80’s and they don’t understand
current black culture and never will. A white person can read 20 issues of Ultimate
Spider-Man and be impressed with the storytelling and have empathy for that
character, but that character is only black on the surface. It’s a fantasy
representation that doesn’t have roots in reality. Therefore, as soon as a
white Ultimate Spidey fan walks down the street and a guy that looks like Miles
Morales walks towards him, his heart will skip a beat. He doesn’t see
Spider-man, he sees A Black Man.
Black Man is more
Scary than Bullseye, Mr. Sinister, and all the Goblins combined, because unlike
those characters, a white fanboy doesn’t understand Black Man. Comic book
heroes and villains are given origins and backstories to make you understand
that this isn’t about right or wrong, it’s about their life’s journey. No
matter if it’s Thanos murdering his classmates or Rogue running away from home
after nearly killing her boyfriend, these characters are given proper backstories
so that you empathize with their struggle. Black people, as a whole, have never
been shown as real characters in comics, or given authentic backstories that
aren’t contrived or generic. “I’m from the
hood and want to join Luke Cage to fight The Man”. FOH! They are white
washed, slang spewing, hip-hop referencing, C list players. Or they get updated
and given personalities that are indistinguishable from their white counterparts
.
I’m not raging against Black superheroes, I’ve already done that. What I’m raging against is Black
representation across the board. F—k the Black Hero, where are the Black
Villains? Go down Batman’s rouge gallery a few randoms—but nothing major since Eartha Kitt. The
Black Manta is an Atlantien, he may as well be an alien. Marvel has such heavy
hitters as Tombstone who is pasty white and dumb as a brick. Let’s not forget
the legendary Man-Ape… a Black dude in Africa that battles in an ape suit.
There can be an argument made for Apocalypse since he was Egyptian, but who
knows if En Sabah Nur was Cleopatra “Greek Egyptian” or North African. Either
way it’s never been brought up, nor will it ever be brought up in the X-titles,
where they continue to march Storm out like, “See. Power to the people!”
Right now in Ferguson Missouri, the country is experiencing
yet another crisis of race that will further divide us in terms of how Blacks
are portrayed in the media. No matter the news coverage, there will be other
races that duck their head into the sand and ignore the story or shrug it off.
There only response, “Well wasn’t he some thug.” Or “Fuck the police, I’m with
you brothers.” The role of Blacks in
America is ignored because no one knows what to say. If you point out the
crime, you’re a racist. If you point out Oprah and Barack Obama, you’re naïve. It’s
not about either or, it’s about the whole of the people and that’s what’s not
being represented in comic books today. I challenge Marvel, Image, and even the
happy go lucky DC Comics to do something about this in their medium.
Gotham City is supposed to represent a city that’s overrun
by crime. Yet, when you pick up a Batman book, the gang members and hoodlums he’s
fighting are this multi-colored bunch of street punks. The big bad he’s
fighting is still generic Mafia bad guys or deranged psychos freshly freed from
Arkham. Batman doesn’t fight Black D-boys (I challenge anyone at DC to define D-Boy). The Court of Owls weren’t former
Black Panthers looking to take back the city. For someone fighting urban crime
24-7, why doesn’t Batman take on Black supervillains? Gotham is pretty much
Chicago, yet DC Comics doesn’t address urban gang crime like that of the Latin
Kings or Vice Lords. Why must he be
shown attacking the rainbow crew? Because DC Comics feels that Batman going
after a Black criminal would be racist. It would send the message that
Black people are criminals. No! What’s racist is whitewashing the situation and
not showing true diversity. Gotham city, like Ferguson was once predominately
white, these days, the vast majority of that city is most likely Black or
Latino. All the Whites have moved to the suburbs or gone off to the bright Boy
Scout guarded city of Metropolis. DC doesn’t have to create a Black Batman to
make people happy, but you show the social/economic impact of a big city where
people of a certain ethnic background don’t have jobs and don’t have family
structure and why some feel a need to go left while others go right.
Gotham city could be a perfect metaphor as to why some Black
communities are angry. You have high crime, which means easy money. Why work
for Wayne Industries when you can sell dope? That’s a real situation for a lot
of people in the inner city, but it’s not represented. Gotham city is decaying
with corruption and has a massive death toll due to sh*t like the Joker gassing
people at random. You mean to tell me, that wouldn’t drive pissed off
minorities who lose family members and make them resent the Police and follow their own
laws? Those are the stories that need to be told, not Nightwing having Daddy
issues. You take one of these Gotham citizens, a Black man that feels he can’t
get ahead, have him rise to the top of the criminal world beyond Oswald Cobblepot,
and you make us feel his struggle the same way you made us feel Harvey Dent’s
torment. You don’t have to redeem this character for the sake of race
relations, but you must show that even though he’s Black, he has a reason to be
doing what he’s doing. At that moment
when you can show a Black character good or bad, being written with the same complexity
as Bruce Wayne himself, that’s when you can claim you believe in equality.
Marvel comics needs to step their game up as well! It’s not
enough to put a black person in a Captain America suit and call it a day.
Marvel plays in the real sandbox of New York, they can use the real Chicago.
Yet like the DC Comics, they choose to show this multi-ethnic gang BS. Why does
Marvel do this? Because they don’t want to offend. Stop worrying about who you
offend and tackle the reason that Blacks in New York may not F—k with
Spiderman. Why Blacks in New York don’t think rich boy Tony Stark represents
them. Why Blacks in New York don’t trust a White man with a club that dresses
like a Devil. Why Blacks in the Marvel universe would get to the point where
they take to the street because Frank Castle shot an unarmed Black man?
These are only stories, but people learn through
entertainment and media. There will always be independent movies that show
another side of Black life not shown in the big budget Hollywood films. There
will always be rappers that let you in on the good, bad, joy, and pain of life
as a Black American. TV will always throw an Olivia Pope to balance the playing
field of the ratchet reality TV shows.
Comic book stories inspire morality at the youngest age, so when will they
accept the challenge and show Black Heroes and Black Villains in a realistic
light that makes people of all races understand what life is like for a Black
American???? When will they stop being afraid to be racist, and start having
these iconic heroes tackle the cultural problems of the real world? When will
Peter Parker’s New York be Eric Garner's New York? When will Bruce Wayne’s
Gotham reflect Hadiya Pendleton’s Chicago? When will Marvel and DC use their
fantasy to help us understand each other on a real level? The days of Xavier’s
dream are fading, we reached the mountain top that Martin Luther King spoke of
and that Stan Lee used as a metaphor in those X-Men books. Now we have a new
mountain top to reach and new racial struggles to overcome, and it’s time that
comic publishers took up the charge.
I ask that everyone send this to @DanDidio1 and @TomBrevoort
ask that do their jobs as Americans, not just editors.
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