Brightest Day and Racism

[kingrockwell]

Brightest Day #1 is out this week, and while the jokes have already been made about the White Power rings supposedly shipped with it, the book itself displays some very troubling racial politics.

This is about four pages out of thirty.
Writers are Geoff Johns and Peter J. Tomasi.
These scenes are, I think, penciled by Ivan Reis and Patrick Gleason (they don't really credit any of the beats individually).

The second beat picks up off the coast of Somalia, where Deadman's found himself on a boat of slavers herding abducted children. But let's take a look here.


Now isn't that nice? The slavers are all black while every one of their captives is white. What is that supposed to say?
The children are saved by the mighty-whitey team of Aquaman and Mera, as has been posted already, but a scene from the aftermath is also worth examining.


Can you guess who this guy is?


If you hadn't figured it out yet, this guy returns to the ocean to resume his criminal career as Black Manta at the end of the issue. Now, the Aquaman/Black Manta relationship is problematic on its own, but Black Manta's history only makes it moreso (especially given that he doesn't even get a real name). Bringing him back in a book called Brightest Day that already has a mark against it is just...inadvisable.

Also, note the black woman among the victims. So far, if you're black in this comic, you can only be a villain or a victim. And what if you try to be a hero?

Well, dear readers, that's where Jason Rusch comes in.
If you'll recall, in Brightest Day #0, Jason tried punching Ronnie Raymond (who's apparently a complete tool now, thanks Geoff Johns!), only to have the two of them merge into Firestorm.
I don't even have to tell you which one's the floating head.


"Someone like you"? And just what is that supposed to mean, Ronnie?


So, Jason's not only had his role stolen by the white guy who used to have it (which is already a disturbing trend throughout the DCU, especially in Johns' work, as Chris Sims at Comics Alliance has also observed), but now he's trapped in that guy's head? Classy!

Any one of these would be problematic in itself, but all three together in the same issue adds up to a tone deaf and racist mess. A kick-off like this does not bode well for where Brightest Day is going.

Ookay, technically there was one black guy who got to be the hero in BD 1.
...The guy in the Colgate ad. He aced it!

Comments

[mullon]

I don't know, seems like a bit of a stretch still. If they had one more instance, or if this kind of thing continues to the next issue, then it's creepy(er).

[punishermax]

The only one that really bothers me is the Slavers and the white kids because that really does smack of some racism.

The "Someone like YOU" thing could easily be about her personality and how it conflicts with his, I never read Firestorm so I don't know her or him, and it seems like a stretch.

[sandoz_iscariot]

"Her"?

[thanekos]

I guess if you want to see it, it's there.

[protogarrett]

Agreed.

[mynondw]

I have nothing to add, except that I see what you're talking about, kingrockwell, and I think you're exactly right.

[afghanant.wordpress.com]

I completely agree with you.

[thebigapricot]

Brightest Whitest Day at DC Comics? Not a surprise given Johns' love of Silver/Bronze age heroes and the replacement of most of the replacement heroes with white characters (Ray Palmer I am looking at you).

[espanolbot]

Heh, reminds me of a fancomic that has Hal Jordan declaring proudly that the day had been saved due to White Power at the end of Blackest Night.

[tahngarth.livejournal.com]

Simplistic black-and-white morals and stereotyped characters to the degree of caricatures in a Geoff Johns comic?

Well, color (no pun intended) me surprised!

[espanolbot]

Hm, I thought that children being kidnapped to sell into prostitution and illegal adoption is meant to be a problem around the Med. It's meant to be one of the theories behind the disappearence of Madeleine McCann a couple of years back.

Admittedly from the way it's pronounced here it does appear to be racist, but it kind of reminds me of how people complained about the Nigerian gangsters in District Nine who are actually meant to be like that.

[punishermax]

Yeah, but why does the group of kids have to be totally white? It really seems to convey the "evil foreign people wanna hurt our precious white children" thing.

[shadowpsykie]

I could be wrong... but isnt Ronnie supposed to be Latino? i could have sworn one of his parents was latino....

[kingrockwell]

You're prolly thinking of Kyle Rayner, and that was a retcon.

[thokstar]

Now isn't that nice? The slavers are all black while every one of their captives is white. What is that supposed to say?

That the pirates are black is meant to tie in with the recent Somalian piracy problems. I don't have a problem with that.

But I agree the focus on the children is skeevy, since the pirates are generally interested in ransom, rather than rape.

Black Manta flipping out like that doesn't really work for the character.

[kingrockwell]

There's a difference between making a reference to Somalian piracy problems and having them run a white slavery ring.

[crabby_lioness]

These aren't the only examples of race-based problems with this comic. More are listed here: http://www.comicsalliance.com/2010/05/06/the-racial-politics-of-regressive-storytelling

I agree with the longer list. A high degree of racial insensitivity is on display in DC's recent decisions, probably unintended but still present.

[kingrockwell]

That isn't so much a longer list of problems in this particular comic so much as an expansion on the point I was making about Jason and how it's a company-wide trend. I actually linked that article in the OP.

[tsunamiwombat]

My mental image of Black Manta - which is the right one - would be overjoyed at the return of Aquaman. Black Manta need's to be the Ahab to Aquamans Moby Dick. Black Manta has always been a kind of undefined, thug character. He needs to be given some depth.

What leads a man to cruise around the ocean in a hightech death ship being a pirate? What about the Nemo backround - he's a displaced national from a 3rd world country, overthrown and driven out by the economic and politicla manipulation of 1st world nations like the adventurist united states. Black Manta's piracy then becomes about striking back at corrupt national policy and corporate greed, as fishing trawlies unopposed legally, suck up all the fish that should be feeding small Nigerian villages.

Which makes an interesting conflict of interest for Mr. Savior of the Sea's aquaman.

[thokstar]

Black Manta's piracy then becomes about striking back at corrupt national policy and corporate greed,

I've always felt that Black Manta has always used his blackness as a manipulative tool. He doesn't really care about black pride, but he knows that it's an incredibly useful tool for him to get followers that do care about the issue and don't recognize that Manta is just playing them.

In my mind, the right way to progress Black Manta is to have him "franchise" his technology to 20 or 30 different suffering African villages, so he has a bunch of squads that he can use to terrorize the seas. Manta picks these villages so they are truly better off with him them without him (they have better nourishment and are somewhat more empowered), but he also does things like play mind games in order to promote infighting between the various squads.

[deepspaceartist]

Yeah, I can see a few problems here. But I'm pretty sure Ronnie's "someone like you' line isn't really about race. Would you want to share a body with someone who wrongly blames you for killing their girlfriend?

[afghanant.wordpress.com]

That's not the issue here - the issue is why would Geoff kill an innocent Asian girl and demote a black superhero to a voice in a white superheroes head. It's extremely racist. Especially since characters like Jason are well received by fans.

[thatnickguy]

I sure do love how "Brightest Day" includes potential racial controversy, seeing guys get their throats cut out and child slavery.

Yep, glad to see DC is getting back to brighter, less dark stories.

[crabby_lioness]

I scratched my head at that myself. If this is supposed to entice me back, it's not working.

[zemo]

That's stretching things a bit, I think...

I mean, Somalian pirates ARE black, it's the truth. They aren't pirates because they're black, but they're surely black while being pirates.

Also, your logic is a bit faulty here. On the one hand you complain that the children are all white, and on the other you complain that in this book, the blacks are either villains, or victims. So is it BAD now that the victims of the pirates are all white? Or is it good? @_@

Can't say anything about Black Manta, but if he's always been black, the writer can't really do anything about that.

Oh yeah, and the whole Firestorm thing: Classical version being supported over the new version, happens all the time in DC. Green Arrow comes to mind.

So yeah, no problem with pointing out racism where it's due, but we don't really have to force it onto things.

[punishermax]

It's bad because the "Evil brown skinned man" is standing over the "pure innocent white children" and threatening to rape them. It's might not be intentional but the implication raises a shit load of flags.

[intertobamf]

As an aside, am I the only one who sees the new Firestorm face as a combined Jason and Robbie face? The skin color seems to be a light brown color that Robbie doesn't have, but I'm probably just crazy.

[afghanant.wordpress.com]

That's in your head but his costume is a mix of the two.

[flidgetjerome]

For all the talk about DC not having thought five seconds about how this was going to come across, remember that Jason Rusch and Ryan Choi both debuted as part of DC's big, heavily-publicised push to diversify its cast.

It's not like that's distant history, either, that was 2006.

[hurricane-jam.livejournal.com]

Three things:

1. Oy, *facepalm* that pirate scene is so bad it threatens to overshadow Aquaman's awesome-ness. Massive racefail.

2. Black Manta is black!?! O.o

3. I feel like a heal for saying this considering the subject of this post but, I LOVE U RONNIE! STAY LIVING NOW, YOU HEAR! :DDDDD

[intertobamf]

2. Black Manta is black!?! O.o

Yeah, they revealed his face in 1977 when they also gave him a "Black people need their own land! Underwater will do." motive that turned out to be pretense to manipulate a group.

He was introduced in 1967 and we still don't know his name.

[3goodtimes]

Yeah, all this smacked me in the face too. I wasn't comfortable with it.

But maybe I'm just making it up because I love it when my comics are all racist-y. *eyeroll*

[lencannon]

I think the dangerous black man imperiling poor defenseless white children trope displayed by the pirate scene is a valid issue. I think everything else pointed out is not racist and there are some odd leaps made by the original poster.

But I think I would like to address the issue of minority replacements being removed in favor of their white originators. I think the problem is not an act of racial malice but perhaps a problem of white ego. DC had recommitted itself to diversity and decided to replace B-list characters with new, minority characters taking over the role.

"Oh, you never really liked Firestorm much? Well, get ready to have your mind blown- how would you like Firestorm... if he was black?"

They missed an opportunity to create brand new characters while adding a splash of flavor to the whitebread world of the DCU. When you replace a franchise character, there's a better than 50% chance that someone, where where will eventually wan to go back to the good old days and bring back their favorite hero, the newbie's race notwithstanding.

[werehawk.livejournal.com]

And Johns is replacing Wally with Barry (both white) from the good old days, although Wally's wife and kids are Asian American and half-Asian American respectively.

[jcbaggee]

I dunno, the pirate thing strikes me as geographically accurate, as someone already said.

The Firestorm thing didn't bother me that much either. I figure a) Jason's highly emotional right now, so he's not going to have as much control and b) Ronnie has a stronger connection to the matrix.

I'm not saying it isn't there, just nothing here struck me as racist. But your milage may vary.

[shewhohashope]

I tend not to comment here, but you have my full support in your opinion that this is shitty and racist.

[ada_c]

Do they ever specify where the children are from? I can buy them being white as there's a good deal of human trafficking in Eastern European children, but the girl speaking English is what throws me.

Then again, would it have been any better if the children were all black or all South Asian, etc.? Generally traffickers are of one ethnic group and they ferry victims of a specific ethnic group (not necessarily their own). There's not a lot of mixed race trafficked peoples.

And if none of what I just said is relevant, I apologize, I've been working on this organized crime project for a very long time and my brain is full of trafficking routes and gangs.

[big_daddy_d]

As a black guy myself, I gotta be honest, I'm..what's the phrase..I guess you can say I'm more 50/50 when it comes to this here. I don't outright see anything intended to be racist but I do also understand where you're coming from so I'll keep my mind open here.

One thing I will say. Black Guy. Black Manta. Hmph..this.. I do have to admittedly address. Last I remember, the true face of Black Manta was a guy with a fish face in Green Arrow: Quiver. Then there was that other Black Manta in the Aquaman series where San Diego became Sub Diego..so... just where in the blue hell did this come from? I'm confused so can someone give me some Black Manta history here?

[lencannon]

Dude's been black (and more importantly, a hardcore sociopath/... autistic*) for a looong time.

*what.

Re: "Privilege?"

[nothingbutcake]

Okay, people saying, "Well, Somali pirates are black!"?  Somali pirates also have not kidnapped, enslaved, and raped children.  The whole true-to-life thing falls apart there.  These are fictional pirates who then are also made all black.

You also cannot isolate each incidence for analysis.  You cannot say, "Well, are you saying black men can NEVER lose control and slaughter a shop full of people???" and "Black men can NEVER victimize white children???" and "Black men can NEVER lose their superhero roles to white men???"  This is exactly the problem with how racism is perceived: It is not about isolated, intentional incidences.  These things are complex patterns and systems; you read the whole work and analyze as such.

And "the whole" includes the context in which the work is made, because creative works are never made in a vacuum.  I mean, if you take a good literature class, you have to learn to contextualize the work in the author's greater body, in the author's time period and culture, the work in the course of literary trends.  It is the same thing here.

Re: "Privilege?"

[punishermax]

I'm really glad someone was able to make this point because I really could not phrase it.

[khamelea]

"Black Manta is black" was pretty much always a suspect idea, anyway.

[jlroberson]

It is interesting that the arch-nemesis of the whitest most Aryan DC superhero is black.