And now a dangerous discussion about race and pop culture icons

For those of you who do not follow such things as closely as I do there are two race related developments in the world of superhero culture in the last two days. The first being the big reveal that the new Spider-man is half back and half Hispanic teenager named Miles Morales. Now don;t worry, this isn't the real Spider-man, but the Ultimate version of the Marvel character. What is an Ultimate Spiderman you ask? Well you don't really care, and it's not really important, since the real Spider-man, Peter Parker, the original is still alive and well and webslinging like he always does. This fact of course did not stop people (read, web commenters) from becoming enraged that such an iconic character had been so drastically changed. Now that's all I'm going to say about that because as I said, it's not the real Spider-man that has changed, and a little diversity never hurt anyone.

The new Spidey (kinda)

Lawrence Fishburne

The second issue arose when it was announced the Lawrence Fishburne (Morpheus from The Matrix) would be taking on the role of Perry White in the new Superman movie. Perry White, surprisingly is a WASPy character, and Lawrence Fishburne is black. This has upset some people who feel beloved character is being altered so that a film that would have a predominantly white cast can appear more politically correct. There are two sides to this argument.

Perry White

One is that this is true (to an extent), and the other is that this is bullshit.

Before going any further I'd like to direct you to this link. This is the article that inspired this post, as did the comments that went along with the article. Normally, I avoid reading comments at the end of articles or posts (unless it's one of my articles or posts) because I feel they do little to add to what has been said in the article. However my curiosity got the better of me, and although there were only 14 comments when I first read, it was enough to make me a little upset that the race of an actor is still such a problem to some people.

Now in Mr. Frannich's article, he makes some good points, as do some (read few) people in the comments section. The main issue is that these are not real people we are discussing. However, this does not necessarily mean that race is not an issue. A someone pointed out, they would not cast a white male in the role of Luke Cage or Blade. However, the point this commenter misses is that those characters were created specifically for an African-American audience in response to a lack of such characters in mainstream comics. It would be disrespectful to cast a white male in either of those roles. But here's the thing about Perry White:
1. It's Perry White, if we're listing significant Superman characters, he probably falls somewhere towards the bottom ten, behind Ma and Pa and just ahead of let's say, well somebody else. I find it hard to believe there is this much uproar over a character whose screen time will probably amount to about fifteen minutes (if not less).

[Sidenote: I really shouldn't be surprised though since the same thing happened when Idris Elba was cast has someone named Heimdall in Thor. And while, it was a little weird to see an African-American in a Norse dimension, Elba was badass, and owned the character who most people  didn;t even know in the first place.]

2. Perry White has been around since issue seven of Action Comics a time when almost almost all comic characters were white, and if they weren't the were an offensive stereotype of another race (generalize much? yes, yes I do). A African-American could not hold the position as editor of a major newspaper when the character of Perry White was created.

Here's my main point, race is not important to a character as long as it is not a defining aspect of the character. And I think most people would have a hard time arguing that for Perry White. I look back to last summer when Donald Glover was simply looking for a chance to audition for the role of Peter Parker. He knew he wouldn't get the part, but he just wanted a chance to audition, to at least start breaking down this unrealistic barrier that has been set-up that says character's must play to their race. It's funny that no one has a problem that we have a Brit playing Batman, Superman, and Spider-man now. Really there's no reason for them to be white males. The fact that they are white has nothing to do with what makes them great characters. This is not to say there aren't certain characters that need to have their ethnicity respected. Take Wolverine for example, whose Canadian...ness(?) is an essential part of what defines his character's history.

I'm not trying to start a personal crusade here, just trying to let people know we need to chill out about some of these issues. Personally I'd love to someday see a black Batman or Spiderman or James Bond for that matter. And to these small steps with minor characters will slowly work their way inward, until we are simply left with the actor or actress that will bring the most to the role.

Agree? Disagree? Hit the comments and let me know if I'm hitting the mark or way off base.