Silly Rabbit, Comic Book Roles are for Whites!

 

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Over the last few days, I have been making comments here and there about Michelle Rodriguez’s comments. In truth, I actually mostly agree with her comments made online after her run in with TMZ. I was more turned off by her initial TMZ comments, which in hindsight could have just been her being sarcastic… Overall, I was most uncomfortable with the idea of nonwhite folks “stealing” from white people. That rhetoric is too often used to describe nonwhites; we always seem to be accused of stealing something.

I also was not too thrilled with folks online echoing the idea that we are somehow taking something that isn’t ours. I have personally spent many hours with pop culture that I thought I was welcome to experience; I grew up with all this stuff just like everyone else. The idea that for some reason me wanting to see actors that I like, who happen to be not white, be a part of the pop culture I like is somehow stealing, somehow criminal… just didn’t sit well with me.

I think what everyone is forgetting is that “Green Lantern” is neither a white nor a male role. Many have wielded the ring and they tend to make up new Lanterns all the time.

No one asked if Michelle was playing “Hal Jordan,” they asked if she was playing “Green Lantern.”
Obviously she doesn’t want to play any franchise character because she wants to be her own new hero (which I respect and support) I just wanted to point out how that they did a Green Lantern film, they had a white guy play Hal Jordan and it didn’t do well… Maybe they are looking to use one of the dozen other Lanterns that have guarded sector 2814.

However, even if she were to play some gender/race swapped version of the other characters,

So what?

I am sure most people are not trying to be bigoted, or racist. However, the issue of skin color and comic book roles should have been over when Eartha Kitt played Catwoman back in 1967.

I honestly can’t believe we are still debating this.

I am not writing this to demand that more people of color be allowed to play characters that were originally white. I am writing mostly to remind everyone that it has already been happening since before many of us were born.

Oh and whites tend to play a lot of nonwhite roles too…

I have seen two white guys play Bane, a South American character. Dean Cain played Superman on TV while still being part Japanese. Wentworth Miller is part Black and Gay and he plays Captain Cold who is a very white and very straight character in the comics.

I could sit here and type out every time a Film, Cartoon, or TV show changed the look, race, or gender of a character. However, I would be here for a week because it happens… a lot.

Get over it.

There is much to be said about Hollywood green-lighting projects that are already written to include female and nonwhite leads.

Ghost in the Shell, Lone Ranger, or the recent Exodus film would have been a great opportunity to cast nonwhite people, However Scarlett Johansson is playing Japanese, Johnny Depp played Native American and Christian Bale played North African…

So maybe we all should just be quiet since Hollywood is going to do whatever they want.