Ack, My Privilege Is Showing...

I was reading the Civil War YA and Runaway tie-in when I had a rather strange realization. The skrull character, Xavin, is a character I've been liking a lot in the few issues of Runaways I'd sat down and read. But I only today noticed today that he's remarkable in a different way.

He's (She's?) naturally a skrull of course, but his default human form is that of a black man. And I'd never really thought of it before, but when it comes shapeshifting alien type beings in sci-fi/fantasy/comics who take human form, I think 95% of those characters tend to take the form of caucasian people.

It's a little weird to stop and consider, but (except for Xavin) off the top of my head I can't really think of any shapeshifting character who's preferred/default form is that of a black or asian character. I'm sure there are a few and I'm just drawing a blank, but off the top of my head, I'm having trouble thinking of them.

It has some unpleasant implications though. I mean, when I stop and think about it I can't think of any reason that a shapeshifting alien couldn't be any race. Usually the story is specific about whether the character should be male or female, but race usually doesn't enter into the picture. However, the vast majority of shape-shifting characters become white people. Is it because of an unconscious sort of racism in which many writers/artists/casting agents automatically consider white to be the "default"?

(I suppose one slightly insulting explanation is that they want to blend in with the rest of the cast. Who tend to be white as a majority. Which is irritating because in most of the cities where these stories are supposed to take place, there usually are fairly substantial non-white populations...even if we don't see them on screen)

I definitely don't think it's a conscious racism, I think that there is another reason that we tend to see the shapeshifters-as-white-people most often. That is, we white people are chickenshit.

Okay, that's a little harsh. But I think white writers/directors/casting agents tend to be very wary in general about how they cast non-white characters. In some cases, this has a lot of merit. Especially considering, say, Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers in which we ended up with an Asian "Yellow Ranger" and a black "Black Ranger".

I personally tend not to notice always when things are questionable like that. I can ignore it because I'm white, I think. I remember reading David's critique of Young Avengers and actually bristling a little. I love Young Avengers and Eli's one of my absolute favorite younger hero characters. (I've always liked strong leadership characters.) I thought that David was reading too much into Eli's use of the drugs. Eli wasn't doing it out of an addiction or desire to become high, he was doing it so that he could be a hero and save people. He was proactively pursuing that ability, in a way, that really didn't seem much different to me than Steve Rogers using the super serum in the first place. Except that his wasn't permanent. And by the end, he did end up infused with the serum properly. I thought it was a shame to dismiss such a great character because of one part.

But then...I'm white. And as bleeding heart, guilty liberal as I tend to be, I really don't know what it's like to be a black man. I've heard stories, of course, of the offensive assumptions people make. But I don't have to live them and thus, I can afford to be somewhat oblivious to them. Eli's drug-storyline doesn't hit the same nerves for me that it might for a lot of other people. In a similar sort of thing, I'm not sure how many people (male or female) can really understand why characters like Kitty Pryde, female characters that seem designed more as a compilation of traits that certain male writers find really attractive/cool than as a functioning individual, irk me. We all have our trigger issues after all.

My reaction to David's entry was pretty telling though. I was defensive and shocked. I hadn't even considered that one of my favorite characters could be taken that way and for a minute or two, I was even offended by the implications. (I'm not proud of myself for that.) The motivations, I'm 95% certain though I've never met or spoken with Allan Heinburg, were not racist! I'm certainly not a racist for liking Eli...am I? These were all thoughts jumbled up together in my mind.

Coming face to face with one's own privilege is never a very comfortable experience.

I think as a result, when white creators do end up thinking about race they go overboard. "If I cast soandso as a non-white person and he dies, will I be giving off a racist message?" "If this-guy has some of the negative stereotypes of his race, am I being racist?" Something like that. In the case of shapeshifters, I can't help but think of specific critiques of that stupid black/white show in which it's pointed out how stupid it is to expect a white person to get the idea of what it's like to be black through wearing make-up. At the end of the day, they can wash it off, and be white again. (Jenn over at Reappropriate has done some great reviews of the show that addresses this in depth).

So then, there's the question, "Well, since the character could be any race he/she wants, is it then more like wearing blackface/yellowface?" Does the character really count as our black/hispanic/asian/or-other-race character if he/she doesn't have to be? Is it cheating, in a sense, to include them?

Of course, all this liberal guilt whining does ignore a very simple solution. Which is: if you're worried about racist messages in your non-white character, why not make more than one non-white character? (This goes for women, homosexual characters and others as well...for example, as Steven pointed out Freedom's Ring's storyline would have probably been fine in Wildstorm.)

Anyway, I'm not sure I have a point to all this really. I think I'm just taking this opportunity to muse about a topic that I usually don't talk about.