odinsblog: Dr. James Peterson on Stereotypes and the Myth of the Black Superman Ever since I came ac
Dr. James Peterson on Stereotypes and the Myth of the Black Superman
Ever since I came across this 2010 interview several years ago, I’ve always had conflicting feelings about it. Don’t get me wrong, in this short three minute interview, Dr. Peterson nails a plethora of problems with the comic book industry - most of which all come back to not enough black writers having the opportunity to write about black characters. What we get instead is a distorted form of “Blackness” as imagined through the eyes of a white person who has never experienced racism, and who may not have ever heard of the Tuskegee Experiment. And when Blackness is depicted through such a narrow lens, with no reality based reference point, stereotypes and racial tropes are all but unavoidable.
Except with Jack Kirby. Somehow, even though a deeper critique reveals that Kirby was also another white (Jewish) man bound up in some of the racial politics of his day, somehow despite that fact, Kirby still managed to get so many things right with the Black Panther.
When I was a kid, one of the best things to happen to me was when I came across some of my father’s old comic books. From the moment I saw Kirby’s artwork, I was hooked - at first on what I initially thought was a weird style of art, but later as I began drawing myself, I would come to learn just how solid his art really was, and from there, my appreciation for the man himself, his artwork and his rather tragic life story began.
For anyone who doesn’t know, Jack ”the King” Kirby created the Black Panther, Captain America, the Fantastic Four, the Hulk, Thor, Silver Surfer, the X-Men, and hundreds of others, including quite a few notable DC characters, like Darkseid and the New Gods. But due to non-existent ownership rights for artists, and the laws of the time, Kirby was not always credited with all of the comic book characters he created, and this injustice would lead him into such a depression that at one point in his life, he was emotionally incapable of even walking into any place that sold comic books, sold toys, or showed movies about the characters he himself created. Like I said, his backstory has enough triumph and tragedy that his life is worthy of it’s own Marvel movie. (SN: If you’re a comic book collector and you ever get a chance to visit a Jack Kirby exhibition, please do yourself a favor and go).
But, getting back to Dr. Peterson’s analysis…I understand the desire to have black characters in media represented in a positive light to combat centuries of negative stereotypes, and perhaps help undo generations of racist tropes. That’s a problem white characters simply do not have. Black criminals are representative of all black people, but non-stereotypical, idealized black heroes like Ororo Munroe, for example, are “exceptional” and not seen as the norm. A bad white character is an individual who does not represent their entire race. When white characters are jokers, mass murderers, gangsters, or virtually any type of criminal, they are never representing their entire race, as is almost always the case with black characters who are flawed or criminals. That individuality is the benefit of white privilege. White characters who are bad actually get sympathy that black characters don’t. Dr. Peterson nails that down too, noting near the end of the interview that ultimately, more of our stories being told is the solution.
When enough black characters get to be written by black writers and represented in a myriad of well written, fully fleshed out roles, and as we humanize ALL manner of blackness, only then can we escape that nagging need for all of our characters to be portrayed as Kings and Queens or “respectable” doctors and engineers. Only then will we be able to be more complex individuals who, just like anyone else, gets to have good and bad attributes, without being seen as a stereotype who doesn’t exist until the plot calls for a white character who needs an exotic, one dimensional “black friend” to spice up their otherwise bland existence.
Initially I said that I was conflicted about Dr. Peterson’s analysis, but that was a mistake, because at first I took it for dragging Luke Cage with just a pinch of respectability politics added in. But that isn’t what it was. The critique was all about taking white writers to task for their obsession with stereotypical, trope-ish portrayal of most Black male comic book characters. He was critiquing the stereotypes of Black masculinity, not necessarily the Luke Cage character, nor black men who have been wrongfully imprisoned. And again, as Dr. Peterson hinted, the answer is more stories, more access, and more representation at all levels. More black writers and more black artist and more black colorists, telling more stories about all kinds of black people, with more diverse roles filled with more black characters and actors.
And that’s just covering the black male characters. If you want to get an idea of how badly Black women are represented in comics, then without using Google, try to name just ten Marvel superheroes who are Black women. Go on, name them. I’ll wait. Lol, not even Google is going to help you find ten Black Marvel super heroines in comics, because unless you start counting “they just showed up for that one story arc” or the Jr. sidekicks of Jr. sidekicks, there aren’t ten, and that’s sad.
If you want my hot take on Luke Cage, there’s a little more beneath the cut.
Thu, 19 May 2016 23:56:01
