Tags
comics, ethnicity, getting past racism, marvel, post-racial, race, racism, s.h.i.e.l.d., shield
So, I, as a rule, am someone who I would call a “post-racialist.” Which means, in addition to my abuse of commas, that I really do not see skin color or race when it comes to life. I acknowledge and value ethnicity, but I really don’t give a crap about what your race is (unless someone is making a big deal or letting someone slide because of it). I don’t even care about what gender you are.
And that’s one of the things I like about Marvel comics. They don’t tend to make a big deal about stuff like that too (beyond a rare exception every now and then). So when someone say something like this, I have to just both quizzically turn my head and go “huh?” and get kind of annoyed.
Someone was talking about a major cast announcement for the new SHIELD series and they ended with this:
EXCUSE ME?
Is this the same Marvel comics I read? Oh wait, I’m sorry, I forgot. A friend of mine and I were talking about this and it turns out that because Marvel does the exact same thing that we are supposed to be doing in society, they don’t count when it comes to things like racial diversity, gender equality, and so forth.
Why?
Because they don’t make a big deal about it. Sue Storm, one of the strongest Marvel heroes who is on one of their premier teams the Fantastic Four (Where it’s acknowledged she is the strongest member) is hated and ignored by feminist because she isn’t a “Strong Female Role model.” What are the reasons? She’s on a team with three guys, her powers are invisibility, and she’s a stay at home mom who takes care of her children in her off time.
google. Also: Not, apparently, a strong woman to be emulated.
But I got off topic on slightly. See Marvel has a lot of Gay superheroes. It has a crap tone of strong female superheroes. What happens? They are part of Teams. You know, groups that come together to form bonds of brotherhood and respect, regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, or what have you, where no one person gets too much of the lime light (though some do get more than others) and everyone gets to be accepted?
Yeah. Apparently that means not enough “racial diversity.”
But wait a minute, isn’t Marvel one of the most racially prolific comics out there? I mean, getting past the whole “skin-color” thing, you have humans, mutants, Aesir, Vanir, Jotun, Skree, Krull, Shi’ar, meta-humans, Svartalfs, Alfs, Dwarfs, Watchers, Planet eating ententies, and dozens upon dozens of other races of beings out there.
THE HEL YOU MEAN NO RACIAL DIVERSITY?
Oh, I’m sorry, are you only seeing in terms of skin color? Do the colors green, purple, svart, and so forth not matter? Are they not to be considered? It has to be these paltry and false “racial” concerns of you mere mortals that there aren’t enough “headliner” of certain “races?” Really? You’re gonna discount someone’s “Race” based on their “skin color” and ignore the fact that everyone is pretty much managing to live in a world where they rarely care about skin color?
How positively progressive and enlightened of you.
Son of Hel 
Hi, I’m sorry to have angered you but I think you misunderstand what I meant. In that sentence I was referring to the MCU, the Marvel Cinematic Universe that exists within the current movie franchise, not the comicsverse at large. In fact my frustration came from the fact that Marvel comics are very much diverse in every way, and the movies are still mostly about white guys.
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Did I miss Nick Fury played By Samuel L Jackson becoming white or something? Is Storm not played by Halle Berry? The Majority of the Marvel Movies thus far have included characters who are WHITE! Peter Parker is WHITE! Bruce Banner (who turns green) is WHITE! i in the comic. Would you prefer to have them completely disregard the comic books while they’re making the movies just to satisfy your strange sense of misproprtioned racial injustice by making Hawkeye Indian and Agent Hill Taiwanese? Or how about we nix the current selection for Antman Nathan Fillian in favor of Will Smith? Would that sooth your outrage?
I know I’m probably coming off as bitch and sarcastic but I have a valid point here Lady Saika. Your sense of outrage for a predominantly white casting of most Marvel Movies is misplaced since they are obviously trying to follow the Comic Books which have a predominantly white cast with several very notable exceptions (see Black Panther) As for the supporting cast I reviewed my copy of Avengers and Thor and golly but there were a lot of black supporting cast and ‘filler cast’ People who just mill around in the background. I’m fairly sure if I’d been looking more closely there might have been a sizable handful of Asians in there too.
I can understand why you might want to be outraged over it but as Morgan Freeman (One of my favorite black men ever) said “I don’t want a black history month. Its just history. Until we stop seeing everything as black vs White no one is going to be happy or equal.”
Morgan Freeman is black as tar and one of the smartest people I’ve ever heard. (Hells I even cast my vote for him for President). So maybe we should take it from a black man who has a brain in his head and make like the Asians who you don’t hear complaining and just get off the race horse huh?
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Again, I’m referring exclusively to the Marvel Cinematic Universe produced by Marvel Studios; I’m unfamiliar with the X-Men movies, and they’re not considered part of that canon because they were developed by a different studio.
I don’t want to get into a huge fight over racial representation because we’re not going to change each others’ minds. But I do want to point out that I don’t ask that the studio change the races of currently well-known superheroes. But I do want to point out that as badass as Nick Fury is, he is still a supporting character and unlikely to headline a film spinoff. There are plenty of awesome minority heroes who, if they do get to headline their own movie, aren’t going to be doing so for at least another four years (given Marvel’s ‘Phase Two’ plan). And as for ‘the Asians I don’t hear complaining’, I would like to leave this link to Racebending.com, a well-known and respected pop culture website that deals with minority representation, where an Asian writer has complained about this very issue. http://www.racebending.com/v4/featured/marvel-mandarin-marginalization/
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There actually are plans in the works for a Nick Fury movie.
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That’s awesome then, and I’m excited to see it if it does happen (and there have been many plans in the works for a lot of movies for a while, like a Runaways or Black Widow movie, that continue to be tabled, so pardon me if I don’t hold my breath). It will still be one minority-led movie after twelve that mostly feature white guys, though.
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Who cares if they are “White?”
Do we watch them because they’re awesome, or because of the color of their skin? Is it their stories that matter, or the fact that they had grand parents and great grand parents who lived in Europe? Do we care so much about skin tone that we can’t just enjoy a good tale and share in the brotherhood of awesomeness?
Thor isn’t even a human. Where does that fall in the whole “racial” issue? Does he count as “white” when he isn’t even a mortal? Is the obsession with skin color so great that even non-humans are now a mark of how “racist” something is? Gee, if we want to talk about “Racist” actions, let’s talk about making Nick Fury and Heimdall black? Certainly, the whole “race-lift” thing cause enough problems and is considered a terrible crime (see racebending) but apparently the reverse shouldn’t be bothered with?
I don’t care about it. Sammy J is an awesome Nick Fury. I don’t care that he has been white in the comics for the last 5 decades. Hel, I don’t care that Heimdall got made black. I had an issue with their reason for it, but not with the actor nor the role. IT was wonderful.
Who the Hel cares what the “race” of an actor is that is playing an awesome character and is in a great story?
Only a person who apparently is so racist, they can’t let racism out of their system.
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Also, “Racebending” is a messed up site in its own right (that seriously is a bit racist in its own right) that so ticked of M. Night that he destroyed the Avatar movie to the point where there will never be another cinematic version of the Airbender series ever.
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I don’t think M. Night needed any help to screw up the Avatar movie. And I’m unsure how calling for more non-stereotyped portrayals (and more portrayals in general) of people of color in the white-dominated film industry is racist, but feel free to keep thinking that. As I said, I realize I’m not going to change your mind.
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Maybe it’s because most of these people don’t even read the comics and are actually just thinking of Hollywood. Rogue was one of my heroes as a kid… a badass, super-strong girl (and with funky absorption power!) that flies around saving people (also, she was from Mississippi and I was from Georgia). Plus, she spent some time as an evil-doer (ummm, bonus points for being redeemed by self-preservation and/or preservation of sanity as the motive for this rather than some love story?)
But then, in that first X-Men movie, they made her a wimpy girl that needed rescuing. I mean, I get that she was supposed to be a teenager in that, but damnit! I mean, there’s a time or two where she needs to be rescued in the comics, but she does a lot of rescuing herself. She was such a badass in the comics and even in the old cartoon, so why did she have to be a wimpy little girl in the movie?
Another interesting thing about writing stuff like this is…. racism is such a heavy-duty issue today… If I were a writer for Hollywood, or Marvel, or whoever, I’d be feeling damned either way. I mean… Do we want to see more stuff coming out of Hollywood that includes other races and women who are more than just sex toys and damsels in distress? Yes. Are the (mostly) white males in Hollywood actually qualified to write about/create characters from those other races? Probably not. And yes, people do complain about it if your portrayal of another race is a little off. If the character is either too stereotypical or too “white”, you’re back where you started.
It seems like there’s just no winning with these emotional topics. Unless we can somehow make this rational and/or quantifiable, we’re damned to keep going in these circles over and over again.
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Actually, Rogue started out like that way in the comics. It wasn’t until years later (and absorbing Ms. Marvel’s powers to the point of killing her) that Rogue actually became the flying, indestructible bad-ass who could absorb people’s powers. So that’s six of one, half a dozen of the other.
You’re right though, as a writer in hollywood, you’re damned either way.
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