Racism, Stereotypes and Comic Books Part 2: The Blackquel

I read an interesting article. I liked it however I did not agree with all of it. It is about racism and stereotypes in comic books. I think the writer is correct that racism is a part of the fabric of American society including comic books. This quote is very telling from the article.

Some people might say: What about Black Panther and Spawn? The argument for that is simple: The characters are covered from head to toe to hide who they truly are. Anyone could be under the that costume. In fact, when Spawn was created everybody thought he was white. Don't lie, you thought he was white. I did too, and the big gimmick became that he's black. Not that it matters, cause his face looks like rotten flesh. He doesn't look black, which shows you that white people would rather take an ugly monster looking creature as their savior than a black person. The Legion of Superheroes have a bunch of characters that are monster-like and up until recently, did not have any black heroes in it. This can be parallel to Star Trek. who has all kind of monster-looking creatures on their show, just so they can avoid putting blacks on TV. My friend and I used to laugh at the fact that Captain Kirk screws every known creature in the galaxy from purple to green to blue, but never a black chick. Yes, I'm aware that Kirk and Uhura was the first interracial kiss on television. Though if you've seen the episode, you'd realize that it only happened because Parmen forced them to kiss. As if no white man would ever want to be with a black woman unless if he was forced. They tried to fix that argument in the new movie by showing Kirk drooling over Uhara. Comic books need to do something of that kind to fix the damage they have done. The best way they can do this is to make some of the more prominent characters white in the comic movie. Just another example that every industry has to hold the black man down one way or another. While I am no fan of Will Smith, I think he would be the perfect man to play Steve Rogers. After all, you did promise black people forty acres and a mule, but since you have renege on your promise, we will take Captain America instead.

I admit it. I thought Spawn was white. And he has the point about Star Trek, and the fact that Spawn does not look black and makes it easier for Spawn to be accepted by white people. However, I think that it's not true that Black Panther is not identifiably black because he is covered from head to toe. I would say that Black Panther cannot be anything else other than a black man. I also don't think it makes sense to change the race of characters that are already established. This makes no sense. Will Smith should not play Captain America and Beyonce should not be Wonder Woman. Not because they are black but because the characters are not black. We have black characters that could be adapted for movies and television.

Racism, Stereotypes and Comic Books Part 2: The Blackquel