After the whole King Grayskull-gate, the usual "progressive" folks are complaining that people Hate these lazy race swaps. While, yes, there are racist folks criticizing these changes, there are plenty of Non-whites that are criticizing the changes too. The main reason against these "Lazy Hand-me-downs" is that these characters AREN'T US... remember that I am a BiPoC Latino, therefore not white. THAT'S why I include myself on those who are criticizing the "lazy colorization". Accepting those kinds of characters is similar to Stolen Valor. We deserve diverse characters, but not white characters in insert color here-face. Even if it means having to use D-list characters or create new ones.
By being OK with these creatively bankrupt changes, we're telling Hollywood to keep quarter-assing stuff. That's not stepping forward, that's stepping backwards. Yes, there are some non-whites who are OK with getting these scraps, but they are wrong in this situation. They're giving the OK to have Hollywood be lazy and not truly inclusive.
 |
| This is a black man. |
 |
| KG, but "Better"! according to "creatives". |
Teela's New Sidekick looked like an interesting new character that could've brought so much to the mythos. Instead all we have is a brand new character being forced into Lt. Andra's box... Not remotely what I meant!
This distinct new character is now forced to play the role of Andra. I don't care that the original was basically the Ken to Teela's Ryu, or that she's a D-list character. Swapping this new character into Andra doesn't help the new character. Her standing is still the bottom of the totem pole. In fact the change knocked her further down, since she's now a symbol of all that's wrong with modern Western Cartoons based on older properties.
With King Grayskull, we have an even worse situation, since they're changing a Key player in the lore that has Blood ties with He-Man. I'm well aware of people looking White AF and having black Grandparents, but this is a work of fiction and if Adam is invoking Grayskull's power to become He-Man, shouldn't he resemble his ancestor a bit more? This racial change was NOT well thought out. I've mentioned that this before, but I'm not a fan of race swapping in general. IF it has to be done it needs to be well thought out... something that didn't happen here. IF Grayskull had to be racebent, then the only suitable race is Asian. Think about it: the only 2 Asian characters are evil and are borderline racist caricatures. With King Grayskull becoming Asian, you:
Added the "Diversity" to fulfill quota.
You "Redeemed" the "Asians" by having an Asian Hero.
Some of the vintage He-Man figures looked like he had some Asian Features. So, there's even some "vintage toyline justification" for an Asian KG.
Then there's a slightly more controversial reason. I detest this line of reasoning, but I had to look at it from multiple angles. As an Asian his skin tones wouldn't be AS dark as a Black KG, which would brought less backlash from people. The backlash would still be there, but it wouldn't be AS bad because there was more thought put into the changes than "having two Blonde White dudes with power is bad".
The point is that these types of changes can't be done willy-nilly. In fact, they SHOULDN'T BE MADE!! What we need is adding characters AS NEEDED. I need to make emphasis of this, because if a story is set say, in Poland in 1236, then There should be Zero Latinos or Black characters. Or Japan in the 1720s wouldn't have lots of White People in their stories.
Now going back to adapting existing works: You want diversity? Check if there are existing characters that can fill those checkboxes AND FREAKING USE THEM! If there are none see what characters can be added to the story in an organic manner and doesn't feel like you're adding this character for the sake of diversity. In MOTU's case see Dekker, Dakon, Melaktha, Mendor, Sir-Laser-Lot, etc. Pretty much all of these were NOT original MOTU Characters that were created for their respective medium.
I understand that this requires work, but this work will pay off in the long run. I mean look at Mendor, all he did was being a Field Medic on the DC Comics MOTU from a few years ago and pretty much the entire fandom liked him Dude was black. All he did was Mend wounds, hence the name Mendor. Before it was revealed that he was King Hsss in disguise, people still wanted him and all he had was a few panels. Mendor even made it to a MOTUC Wishlist from The Fwoosh. A brand new character that was compelling enough for fans to become interested in him and he made it into a BIG PAGE'S wishlist... The Fwoosh is read by more than thousands of people... that ain't no tiny blog read by barely 20 people. Race swapping KG adds nothing to the brand.
If they truly cared about diversity and representation, they would've found a way to ADD it without alienating existing fans of the property. Also, isn't it a bit funny that all their talk of diversity is making a white dude black and adding a black girl with the name and role of a white girl. REAL Diverse... where are the Eternian equivalent of Asians, Middle Easterns, Pacific Islanders, Indians, Native Americans, Mesoamericans, etc? It's all hollow gestures and posturing.
I could understand if this was the first show that tried diversity and representation, but diversity and representation has happened for over 40 years. If in 2021, racebending is the best you can do for diversity, just don't even bother.
For the less intelligent members of the audience here's a simplified version for you:
Racebending is NOT diversity.
Real Diversity is adding different characters to the story in meaningful roles.
Diversity, when done right, is fantastic.
Racebending, genderswapping, etc. Is bad and wrong.
I want more effort to be put by these "creatives" in order to get Great characters that happen to be "Non-whites".
I don't want lazy reskins or token characters defined by a single attribute (their skin, their gender, their orientation, their disability, etc.)
I want Respectable representation. Not hollow gestures or Hand-me-downs.
No comments:
Post a Comment