By Arturo R. García
You would think that a discussion of comics and diversity on The Nightly Show would be a home run.
You would be wrong.
We hate to call into question fine sites like Remezcla and The Mary Sue. But after watching the episode twice, it’s hard to imagine what show they were watching this past Thursday.
Larry Wilmore’s introduction sets the uneven tone for the rest of the episode. While he rightly describes the crux of the discussion — race, gender and pop culture — he refuses to do so without regurgitating the most played-out stereotypes about people with geeky interests, with lines like, “Hey basement dwellers, tell mom she can tuck you in later” and a banner reading Dork Diversity behind him.
On the bright side, panelist and renowned artist Phil Jimenez inadvertently(?) undermines Wilmore’s material during the discussion.
“It seems strange to me that we would partition race, gender and nerd, as if they were distinct things. All human beings are this combination of experiences and ideologies,” Jimenez says. “The idea that somehow being a nerd is separate from one’s religious or moral or political beliefs is strange to me. We all bring everything to our decision-making on a daily basis.”
Wilmore’s Othering of fandom bigots/misogynists hurts the discussion on multiple levels. His insistence on attributing their violence to “fear of change,” for example, minimizes the very real threats and abuse levied against fans who are not cis-white hetero males — like Batgirl fans, most recently, Batgirl fans. As Vox reported, it’s tough to describe offenders as outliers when white people in the U.S. already think race is discussed “too much.”
Marvel Content and Character Development Director Sana Amanat runs with the “fear of change” theory during the discussion.
“They don’t like it when their toys are played with,” she explains. “I don’t. I like my Barbies. I still have them. I’m okay with that … We’re just trying to show that we’re not trying to take away your toys, we’re just trying to show them in a different light.”
While the successes of not only Ms. Marvel, but the new woman Thor are commendable, it must be pointed out: one of the reasons white fans feel entitled to keeping “their toys” intact is because Amanat’s company, along with DC Comics, chose to build their part of the comics industry by making the white toys seem more important.
For decades, white characters, creators and executives have been placed at the forefront of both companies. And when called on it, the company line went something like this:
Without acknowledging that context, corporate comics makers can’t be trusted to lead discussions on race any more than, say, coffee-making conglomerates
To be fair, the episode didn’t seem built to handle this. With roughly 7 minutes of panel time to spread among four guests plus Wilmore, there was no chance to follow up on Jean Grae’s remarks on being introduced to comics by her older brother, emphasis mine:
“I didn’t really get to see anyone who looked like me or represented me,” Grae said. “I’m from South Africa, so everyone was like, ‘Right, right, Storm, Africa,’ which is kind of the reason why I didn’t choose that as my name.”
That’s a great starting point for talking about why that matters to fans of any age and any community. But it gets lost as the show transitions to the “Keep It 100″ segment, which took it easy on the panel, compared to other installments.
At the same time, Wilmore provided the show’s strongest moment early on when he takes down Michelle Rodríguez’s decision to join the Patricia Arquette Corps, as well as her laughable attempt to claim she was taken “out of context” when she said POC should “stop stealing all white peoples’ superheroes.”
“I do see your point,” Wilmore says. “Minorities should come up with original projects, instead of relying on lazy franchises. And by the way, make sure you catch Michelle in the seventh installment of the Fast & Furious franchise, Furious 7.”
At a time when race-related panels at conventions can get awfully 101 awfully fast, some of that kind of justifiable bite might have boosted Thursday’s discussion and forced the Big Two to truly Keep It 100 regarding some of their past choices. Let’s hope that, like anything fandom-related, we get a sequel to Thursday’s show that’s closer to Wrath of Khan than Into Darkness.
The panel discussion can be seen in its entirety below.
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The post An Empty Panel: On The Nightly Show’s Diversity In Comics Discussion appeared first on Racialicious - the intersection of race and pop culture.
