Anonymous asked:

"As for your ridiculous Perry White analogy, I had no idea that MAN OF STEEL was set in the 1930s." ... It's not about that. It's about seeing the characters on the big screen as they are in the comics. Perry White is not black in the comics, just like Johnny Storm is not black in the comics. It's not about skin color from my side. It's about the authenticity of the characters. I cried rivers, when I found out that Bane was not going to be hispanic in the movie. Or Tonto not Native American.

brevoortformspring answered:

I’d really like to see those buckets, for I suspect thou dost protest too much.

And in terms of presentation, is there anything about Perry White or Johnny Storm that makes it impossible for those characters to have been black? I don’t think so. Of all of the problems one could have with MAN OF STEEL, I don’t think the casting of Perry White would or should even make the top 50. 

But you feel the way you feel. So if you don’t want to watch those movies, or read those comics, or whatever, that’s totally up to you.

Saying “it’s about the authenticity of the characters” and citing the 1930s is only a hair’s breadth away from telling me that it was wonderful when all of those black folks lived somewhere else where you didn’t need to see them all the time–separate but “equal”.

It’s not the 1930s, or the 1960s anymore. The world has changed, time has marched on, deal with it.

[awyeahmrb]

What the fuck is it about a black Johnny Storm that makes him in any way less authentic than a white Johnny Storm???

[cpt-tightpants]

The major difference between casting white characters as PoC and casting PoC characters as white honestly lies in two major facts:

1) There is a drastic statistical gap. There are far more white male characters than anything else, especially when we are talking leads. I’m sorry, but there is no way to argue this.

2) What Tom has starting towards- Whereas most PoC characters’ race/ethnicity is central to who they are as a character (Black Panther, Luke Cage, Dani Moonstar, Kamala Khan, etc), it really doesn’t affect most white characters at all (Johnny Storm, Perry White, Jimmy Olsen, Ben Urich). Most white characters could change to literally any other ethnicity without it changing any significant parts of their character. The only real exceptions to this that I can think of are Matt Murdock (his heritage as an Irish Catholic is significant), Magneto (Jewish history with WWII), maybe arguably Steve Rogers (as he was destined to ironically look like the übermensch). But 95% of the time? It doesn’t really affect their characters.