Spiderman should have been Black (and Green Lantern too)

You should have been expecting this one. It was only a matter of time before I'd bring out racial problems in nerd culture. More specifically this is about the lack of racial diversity in comics and comic movies and how we are failing to fix that problem.

Donald Glover of Community and Derrick Comedy fame started an internet campaign to be the new Spiderman a number of months back. Donald Glover is a black man. The role eventually went to an up-and-comer Brit who is white. Here is a lost opportunity for racial diversity in the superhero movie genre.

I want to start with this. First, asking for a white character to become another race for the sake of racial diversity is not racist. The other way around, making a non-white character white, is racist. BECAUSE ALL THE OTHER CHARACTERS WILL BE WHITE. This is a non-issue now people. And the flimsiest of excuses I have heard.

The race-bending fiasco of the Airbender movie is only one example of a non-western-inspired culture being co-oped by white people. The creators of the cartoon specifically made those characters Asian. They have said so in interviews. It doesn't matter than the director is of Indian descent, and made the creative decision to cast mostly white people. The only major character to retain his ethnic origin was the 'bad guy.' Way to go Hollywood. We are being robbed of positive representations of people of color.

Back to Spiderman. There are plenty of arguments against changing the race of a character. Color-blind casting can often lead to unrealistic portrayals of a racial/ethnic/cultural group and accidental stereotyping. Sometimes characters would not work as one race/ethnic/cultural aspect. Magneto must always remain a Jewish victim of the Holocaust because it is so ingrained into his story. Without that aspect he would not be the same character at all. There is nothing in Peter Parker/Spiderman's origin story that forces him to be white. He is a young man who lives in a lower-middle class family raised by his aunt and uncle. He is a brilliant student (ie. nerd) and is seeking to make his life better. Bitten by a radioactive spider, he uses his gifts to save the world. That could easily be a man from any racial background. Spiderman doesn't have to be black or white, he can be Asian or Middle-Eastern or American Indian or anything else.

I am not making the argument that white Spiderman is not a worthy candidate for a movie. Just because I would prefer the change, does not mean the other loses any less value. The historically white Spiderman has merit. The same can be said for Green Lantern, Hal Jordan. From what I understand, they went with the nostalgic angle when deciding what story to tell. But I think they could have done so much more with the story if they had chosen John Stewart instead. John Stewart is just as good a Green Lantern as Hal was. John Stewart is also the Green Lantern of 90s childhoods. We are in a 90s revival aren't we? And he has the added bonus of being another positive representation of a black man.

Most of the best known comic characters were written a long time ago. They were written by white men and reflected the times they were created in. And while alot of people are very used to their childhood heroes being mostly white men, we have to move beyond that now. More and more people of color are becoming active in the nerd community. They need to see themselves on the screen. Not only see themselves, but see themselves outside of the stereotypical roles usually given to actors of color. Not see themselves as the criminal or the idiot or the sidekick. Countless studies on racial issues confirm this. White people have to think harder to understand that concept because media is so inundated with their images. White people can see themselves reflected in countless roles because white actors are given a range of roles. It's time we gave that chance to everyone else.

Luckily some strides are being made. People seem to accept the awesome that is Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury. Idris Elba was cast as Norse god Heimdall in the upcoming Thor movie. Jason Momoa is the new Conan the Barbarian. But that is not enough. These are mere token roles in films full of white actors.

Nerds need to lead the way in racial diversity. We need to demand better characters of color who don't fall into unoriginal stereotyping because creators are too lazy to flesh out a real character. We need to spotlight the characters of color that already exist. We will never have a shortage of stories about white superheroes. So why do some us of hold on so strongly to what we remember from our childhood? What is so wonderful about a white Spiderman or Hal Jordan?

In other news, if a Wonder Woman movie is ever made, I hope Gina Torres in on the short list. Who says the Amazons have to be Greek? The original descriptions of the Amazons changed depending on who the Greeks were fighting at the time anyway.