On the Delicate Subject of Race

This is gonna be a weird installment of My Opinion (as opposed to my regular ones) because it's more or less me venting about some minor crap that's bugged me over the past few days, and it's probably better I avail myself of my annoyance here, lest it boil into outrage and I start flipping tables and turning into a Hulk. Groovy? Alright, here we go.

So recently, I've been seeing stuff crop up about race and representation of people of color in the media. Or rather, I've been seeing some backlash to those things, which is kinda bugging the hell out of me. The first was yesterday, with reactions to a commercial for Coca-Cola that aired during the Super Bowl (Incidentally, WOO! SEAHAWKS!). Said advertisement (seen below) featured a compilation of singers doing a rendition of "America the Beautiful" in different languages. Apparently, this was a bad thing for reasons that are stupid.

See, apparently singing a song about a country built on the principle of taking in people from foreign countries being sung in languages from foreign countries is a bad thing. It'd be one thing if these were just some a-holes on Twitter who have a subconscious desire to be featured in Yes, You're Racist, but actual news organizations were reporting on the "controversy" and weighing in on the notion that a commercial for a soft drink offended their sensibilities.

I don't have to tell you why this is asinine, right? Right, you people are smarter than this. No, what I want to focus on here is a phrase I've heard before that's starting to get on my nerves: "Multiculturalism being shoved down our throats", or some variation thereof. This phrase also popped up way back when a Cheerios commercial featuring an interracial couple went viral, and frankly, it's mind-numbingly stupid. Despite whatever outrage may be behind it, the phrase really does boil down "I don't like it when I'm reminded that people who aren't white exist in America."

That's it. That's all it is. There's nothing more to it than that. So if you ever hear that phrase or some variation thereof (which you probably won't, since I doubt what few followers I have are in Fox News' demographic), just discount anything the person says. Their opinion has invalidated itself.

The other big thing that got at me that probably shouldn't was more in my purview than a drink commercial. Recently, the CW has ordered a pilot for a TV Series based on the iconic DC Comics character, the Flash. Now, since this is a spin-off from their still ongoing series Arrow, I was initially worried. Arrow hasn't made the best impression on me. However, the show has improved as of late, and since the Flash is an inherently goofier, more out-there character than Green Arrow, I have hope that the showrunners will have a better idea on how to handle the character.

Barry Allen, the Flash himself, has already been cast as Grant Gustin, who did a decent job when he showed up on Arrow and I think he'll be a compelling leading man. As the pilot has gotten nearer to production, we've received more casting news, including Barry's love interest Iris Allen (Candice Patton) and her father Detective West (Jesse L. Martin) (btw, why does every character's love interest have a dad who's a cop now? What's up with that?). What's notable is that the Wests (or at least Iris, since her dad was created for the show) have been traditionally depicted as white, but are now black in the adaptation.

I like this. I like it when people who work in media take extra steps to create more diverse casts. But I have heard a few complaints about race-swapping and changing races in adaptations. Not many, fortunately, and the fact that other people on message boards have argued against such assertions that media outlets are "too PC" is very nice to read, but the complaints still exist, and I feel I should respond to them, if only for my own sanity.

See, here's the thing about Western fictional characters, particularly the ones who have lasted a long time: these were characters who were created when white, straight, Christians were more than just the default, they were pretty much the only option for protagonists and love interests. When Barry Allen was created in 1956, I doubt Robert Kanigher, John Broome, and Carmine Infantino were setting out to create a great white hero. Race probably didn't figure into it. However, some later comic book characters who are minorities like Luke Cage, Black Panther, and Storm, were deliberate attempts by creators to shift the balance and demonstrate some diversity in comics that is true of the real world. So when people ask why it's okay for a black actor to play a white character but not the other way around, the answer is simple: Because there's a reason these characters are minorities. Because there's so, SO many white characters already, but comparatively, there are terribly few characters who are black, Asian, Latino, Arabic, First Nations, etc. Because representations of people of color matters.

I know this is obvious to everyone reading this, but I still want to say it. I still just want to vent about how stupid and backwards people can be, especially when confronted by something as innocuous as a foreign language or a POC. I think I'm more sensitive to this because of my background and my family, but that doesn't it's not still a problem, right?

Thanks for tolerating this. Next time: something more fun. Hope you enjoyed it, or learned something, or whatever, and I'll see you next time!