celldog
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"Black Skins" and White Masks: Comic books and the secret of race
African American Review, Spring, 2002 by Marc Singer
The stereotypes through which American popular culture often interprets and represents racial identity operate not only as tools of defamation but also as vehicles for far more subtle manipulations of race. In his 1946 essay "Twentieth-Century Fiction and the Black Mask of Humanity," Ralph Ellis on observes that stereotypes of African Americans, whatever other purposes they might serve, become a means "by which the white American seeks to resolve the dilemma arising... between his acceptance of the sacred democratic belief that all men are created equal and his treatment of every tenth man as though he were not" (28)--a means, in other words, of reconciling the contradictions between an ideology of democracy and a history and practice of prejudice. Whether these stereotypes assume the form of unrealistic portrayals of racial minorities or an equally unrealistic invisibility, they often fulfill this double function of oppression and reaffirmation.
Comic books, and particularly the dominant genre of superhero comic books, have proven fertile ground for stereotyped depictions of race. Comics rely upon visually codified representations in which characters are continually reduced to their appearances, and this reductionism is especially prevalent in superhero comics, whose characters are wholly externalized into their heroic costumes and aliases. This system of visual typology combines with the superhero genre's long history of excluding, trivializing, or "tokenizing" minorities to create numeorus minority superheroes who are marked purely for their race: "Black Lightning," "Black Panther," and so forth. The potential for superficiality and stereotyping here is dangerously high. Yet in recent years, some comics creators have demonstrated that the superhero genre's own conventions can invite a more nuanced depiction of minority identity. Race in contemporary comics proves to be anything but simplistic. If some titles reveal deceptively soothing stereotypes lurking behind their veneers of diversity, then others show complex considerations of identity.
I found this to be an interesting article. A lot of sterotypes still plague some characters. Luke Cage is still wearing the skull cap and shades in the hot Jungles of the savage land, in New Avengers.
I don't know which Falcon we're gonna get. Brubaker gives an articulate Sam Wilson, in Captain America. But in New Avengers #21, I almost expected Falcon to throw in a "Jive turkey Sucka'" remark. LOL
"I'm down brotha'. I ain't buyin' what they're sellin' and I ain't movin'"
I like Hudlin's handling of T'Challa.
Most black MALE charcters are pretty much just glorified athletes.
Rage
Falcon
Black Panther
3D Man
Black Lightning (minor power)
Luke Cage
The best change lately has been in the Spectre. A black man finally gets power on a cosmic scale.
African American Review, Spring, 2002 by Marc Singer
The stereotypes through which American popular culture often interprets and represents racial identity operate not only as tools of defamation but also as vehicles for far more subtle manipulations of race. In his 1946 essay "Twentieth-Century Fiction and the Black Mask of Humanity," Ralph Ellis on observes that stereotypes of African Americans, whatever other purposes they might serve, become a means "by which the white American seeks to resolve the dilemma arising... between his acceptance of the sacred democratic belief that all men are created equal and his treatment of every tenth man as though he were not" (28)--a means, in other words, of reconciling the contradictions between an ideology of democracy and a history and practice of prejudice. Whether these stereotypes assume the form of unrealistic portrayals of racial minorities or an equally unrealistic invisibility, they often fulfill this double function of oppression and reaffirmation.
Comic books, and particularly the dominant genre of superhero comic books, have proven fertile ground for stereotyped depictions of race. Comics rely upon visually codified representations in which characters are continually reduced to their appearances, and this reductionism is especially prevalent in superhero comics, whose characters are wholly externalized into their heroic costumes and aliases. This system of visual typology combines with the superhero genre's long history of excluding, trivializing, or "tokenizing" minorities to create numeorus minority superheroes who are marked purely for their race: "Black Lightning," "Black Panther," and so forth. The potential for superficiality and stereotyping here is dangerously high. Yet in recent years, some comics creators have demonstrated that the superhero genre's own conventions can invite a more nuanced depiction of minority identity. Race in contemporary comics proves to be anything but simplistic. If some titles reveal deceptively soothing stereotypes lurking behind their veneers of diversity, then others show complex considerations of identity.
I found this to be an interesting article. A lot of sterotypes still plague some characters. Luke Cage is still wearing the skull cap and shades in the hot Jungles of the savage land, in New Avengers.
I don't know which Falcon we're gonna get. Brubaker gives an articulate Sam Wilson, in Captain America. But in New Avengers #21, I almost expected Falcon to throw in a "Jive turkey Sucka'" remark. LOL
"I'm down brotha'. I ain't buyin' what they're sellin' and I ain't movin'"
I like Hudlin's handling of T'Challa.
Most black MALE charcters are pretty much just glorified athletes.
Rage
Falcon
Black Panther
3D Man
Black Lightning (minor power)
Luke Cage
The best change lately has been in the Spectre. A black man finally gets power on a cosmic scale.
