DC Africana Appreciation: Vol. 2

[J. D. Guy]

I have no proof of this other than Bendis being aware of Milestone, but I have had the sneaky suspension that Miles came about as a sorta pastiche on Static; with the latino aspect of the character added on to change it up from the inspiration. iirc Miles' identity as afro-latino wasn't even as integral to his character under Bendis.

Bendis' post-Secret Wars run that began right after Miles joined 616 did. We even got to see his maternal grandmother, among a few other aspects. That said, prior, it wasn't too much of a factor beyond his mother Rio and The Morales family taking Rio's last name.

That said, I do recall hearing about that bio-electricity wielding spider before. That's actually pretty clever to base a powerset off of. This facet isn't really brought up in-canon or in fandom like it outta, though, so I admit to that reference to the source of Miles' powers still going over my head.

[J. D. Guy]

I don’t think the main argument was how a society judge skin color but how Hollywood/pop culture has a bad habit of favoring light skin. To the point of actually lightening the skin of a traditionally darker skinned character. I think it started because of what happened with Bumble Bee.

This. But to be clear, it goes back much deeper than the recent iteration of Bumble Bee.

That said, and to be perfectly honest, how a society judges skin tone actually is a factor. That is one of the systemic roots that has led to places like Hollywood to continuously deem those choices as worth making.

[mace11]

This is was posted awhile ago too in x forums.

Quote Originally Posted by remydat View Post
The fact is Hollywood movies are still largely dominated by dark skinned black actors and actresses when compared to their light skinned counterparts. You can see that in nominations for oscars, golden globes and sag awards.

and here is a reply.

There are more dark or darker skin families shown on tv in america then light skin blacks.Dark skin blacks are the majority of blacks in america.
Now over time light skin and bi-racial black light skin families have been shown more often then they were in the past but dark skin blacks in american beauty commercials,movies and tv shows are still shown more in america.

Some of those american black families shows would show dark skin,medium tone or light skin family members,so there are black family shows that have shown dark and to light in the same family sometimes too.

So there are plenty of dark skin actors in roles in Hollywood.You tend to see more black medium tone and black light skin women more then medium tone and light skin black men but most of the black actresses are dark skin.You tend to see more dark skin black men then dark skin black women however in Hollywood roles.

So yes there is still colorism to a certain extent in hollywood because hollywood is in america(this should be obvious because of america's race history problems and whites are still the major group, duh) and that needs still needs to be dealt with but don't go overboard to say it's in full effect because it's not.
Most black actors are still dark skin,more so the men however.

​ Fernicus Maximus quote-

Basically what they are saying is that darker people are less attractive.

No they are not.
Lighter and medium tone skin actresses are just happening to apply more for roles and more are being qualified for it but most of the actresses still in hollywood are dark skinned.
By the way some actress and actors you are calling light skin are not really light skin at all.Some are medium tone skin blacks.

[J. D. Guy]

that's why I don't buy into post racial "I don't see color" nonsense, because it's a gaslight. when dealing with black characters their skintone, the actual color of them, is important to their character because in real-life their skintone will affect their treatment; as these characters demonstrate. imagine being a dark skin person being told you're ugly just because of your skin, or that your pretty "for a dark skin person". then you see Storm or Vixen for the first time, two beautiful dark skin characters, but when you see them on screen and they're played by light skin actresses because the "standard" is light-skin = beautiful; it's problematic. again, it isn't the fault of the actresses and actors, they're just still being used to perpetuate a problematic standard.

And just to add into this for reference to the relevant, the tone of the skin is just one part. There's also facial features and the color and texture of the hair that's important. It's why the Bumblebee example also called out the creators/character designers changing the texture of her hair to a wavyer brown one over her original color and texture.

[J. D. Guy]

This is was posted awhile ago too in x forums.


and here is a reply.




​ Fernicus Maximus quote-

Err... This feels way too much like some sort of a distraction. Justifying ongoing bad habits and clear signs of systemic racist bias in this fashion never does any good or right. Such takes are only meant to obfuscate and perpetuate these issues. Those quotes also have a lot of vagueries (and some wishful thinking) meant to be taken at face value sans any individual context, which is dangerous.

[Robotman]

This. But to be clear, it goes back much deeper than the recent iteration of Bumble Bee.

That said, and to be perfectly honest, how a society judges skin tone actually is a factor. That is one of the systemic roots that has led to places like Hollywood to continuously deem those choices as worth making.

Oh I totally agree. I was just clarifying how the current conversation got started.

[iron chimp]

Err... This feels way too much like some sort of a distraction. Justifying ongoing bad habits and clear signs of systemic racist bias in this fashion never does any good or right. Such takes are only meant to obfuscate and perpetuate these issues. Those quotes also have a lot of vagueries (and some wishful thinking) meant to be taken at face value sans any individual context, which is dangerous.

To be fair you are just talking in vagaries too.

[J. D. Guy]

Oh I totally agree. I was just clarifying how the current conversation got started.

Fair enough.

To be fair you are just talking in vagaries too.

If you really believe so. (Again, this misses the point. Or obfuscates it. I dunno which, but in conversations like this one, it's not good either way.)

[AtheistInRed]

So there's this CBR article where John Ridley had this to say when asked about the Electric Negro trope:



what's y'all thoughts? While i think it can pretty compellingly argued you can point Black Lightning as directly being the progenitor of the "trope", I do think he makes an interesting observation about the seriousness (for lack of a better term) of it. While the trend of black characters having electricity in their powerset is a odd happenstance, it isn't nearly as deliberate, limiting, or insulting as tropes like the Kung-Fu Asian or the noble savage shaman of First Nations people.

I'm sorry man but I want to point this fake trope out.

The "Electric Negro" trope is a myth. There are more and many white characters with electric/lightning and yet we never see anyone say things along the lines of "Electric Caucasion" or "Electric (insert race here)". (And I want to clarify, that this isn't just a black or white thing, characters with electric powers comes in all races and colors). I don't blame comic fans for buying into that misconception, I did too until I realized that It wasn't just a black thing. Personally it was never negative, in fact I thought pretty cool and uplifting seeing characters who look like me looking like DBZ characters. Haha



Card_1017410_artwork.jpg

[kurenai24]

So there's this CBR article where John Ridley had this to say when asked about the Electric Negro trope:



what's y'all thoughts? While i think it can pretty compellingly argued you can point Black Lightning as directly being the progenitor of the "trope", I do think he makes an interesting observation about the seriousness (for lack of a better term) of it. While the trend of black characters having electricity in their powerset is a odd happenstance, it isn't nearly as deliberate, limiting, or insulting as tropes like the Kung-Fu Asian or the noble savage shaman of First Nations people.

It does seem like some promiment black characters have electric powers although I don't think there is as many of those characters as we think.

I personally have no problem with this trope, if it even is a trope b/c there isn't a bad connotation connected to it especially in comparison to other minority groups.

[Killerbee911]

The "Electric Negro" trope is a myth. There are more and many white characters with electric/lightning and yet we never see anyone say things along the lines of "Electric Caucasion" or "Electric (insert race here)". (And I want to clarify, that this isn't just a black or white thing, characters with electric powers comes in all races and colors). I don't blame comic fans for buying into that misconception, I did too until I realized that It wasn't just a black thing. Personally it was never negative, in fact I thought pretty cool and uplifting seeing characters who look like me looking like DBZ characters. Haha

It is not myth when you consider how many black heroes they have/had around. Beside You have just given the police brutality answer hey look those all white people getting abuse police, Police Brutality targeting black people is not a thing because it is happening to more white people hey ignore it is happening at a higher percentage to black people who make up a smaller percentage. Anyways back from my small political detour I bet you if took the top 20 white heroes and top 20 black heroes I am fairly certain they will be maybe one(or two) heroes with electric powers in the white list where as large chunk of the black list would have electric powers( a good other chunk them with have tech based powers)

It is trope but it isn't a innately bad or hurtful thing the problem lies in power fantasy aspect of it imo. Where certain characters get passive/reactive power or power that suppose to be cool ei the electric powers but they never come anywhere close to use it their full potential. And the power that isn't used to the full potential is also the reason the character can't be made any more powerful. Static is the anomaly for the black character with electric powers because he was written as power fantasy and he use electricity to its full creative potential and he is has been at high tier strength wise of electric powers. Most cases black electric power guy was basically a stun gun and did nothing cool with a power that is suppose to be really cool or powerful. I am not even going to talk about how amazingly few if any of them are superpowered Bricks.

Do yourself a favor go read off Static power list of the thing he can do with electricity better yet just go and watch or play the game Infamous. Then ask yourself why you never see the electric users being talk about using their powers in that way. I like electric powers in fact I have story idea in my head for black character with electric power but this character is cross of Static and Luke Cage powers. So the trope isn't bad always how the characters are used as well. To end on your first point sure you are going find electric users from every race probably more overall but they are so many white characters it is blip on radar while with few black characters around it is way more noticeable if group of them have the same power. I mean Static, Black Lighting, Storm, Aqualad, Mile Morales, Lighting Lad, you see how many that is already.

Then more importantly look at this Flash is the most amazing speed user imo, Superman is the most amazing strength/ power guy imo,etc. Where is the most amazing electric user? The character that so amazingly powerful with electric powers that stand out clearly as a top hero just on their sheer power. And that is the problem with the trope. Where is the stupidly over power black electric character that fans love and hype up?

[Vordan]

May be called Strange Adventures, but damn if Holt hasn’t been the real MVP. This sequence shook me up.

[mace11]

many white characters it is blip on radar while with few black characters around it is way more noticeable if group of them have the same power.

There are many black characters looking at the varied comics book companies and comicbook lists but i guess you are saying the percentage for black characters with electric powers is higher or more noticeable in the more black characters or more popular black characters then then white characters.

[Killerbee911]

There are many black characters looking at the varied comics book companies and comicbook lists but i guess you are saying the percentage for black characters with electric powers is higher or more noticeable in the more black characters or more popular black characters then then white characters.

Keeping it real they are way more black characters around today and the trope is way less of thing now BUT among the easily recognizable characters it is a thing. Plus you get these weird "coincidence" like Jamie Foxx Electro or Lighting Lad were there is race swap to character who electric powers. You aren't going to notice a trend white characters because it is way bigger and more varied sample pool even with the families of characters having the same power. You will easy notice a trend when it small pool of characters.

Again it is not some bad trope attached to a stereotype like Asian Martial artist or Magic Native Americans, Plus A big part of trope is they are bunch characters that are rip off Black Lighting. But the trope is weirdly a thing even though it is less visible as we have gotten more diverse in comics.

[Sutekh]

Again it is not some bad trope attached to a stereotype like Asian Martial artist or Magic Native Americans, Plus A big part of trope is they are bunch characters that are rip off Black Lighting. But the trope is weirdly a thing even though it is less visible as we have gotten more diverse in comics.

For all the black lightning users in comics, I'm surprised there haven't been any tied to Shango yet, the way Vixen has been tied to Anansi. Probably for the best. The 'magical native' trope is pretty dire anyway, whether it's native American shaman, or 'inscrutable oriental mystic' or 'aborigine all about the Dreamtime.'