Can someone look up 'New' in the dictionary? Or, you know, 'Apartheid'?

Okay, I'm going to admit, in full disclosure, that I haven't been reading a lot of DC comics lately. My interest in Blackest Night faded. I follow JSA: All Stars religiously, GLC, and will follow Guy's new comic. And that's about it right now.

I kind of think I miss Dan Didio at the helm. Stephanie Brown might have gotten killed off, but I think there was a certain joie de vivre that the current DC seems to be missing. Countdown was dreadful, but it still had something that so far, I'm not seeing in Brightest Day.

And there are definitely some unintentional but seriously problematic elements to current comic events. Chris Sims has a great post about it here.

That said, this article pisses me the fuck off.

Okay, let's get to the title. "New Apartheid"? Really? Because that's exactly the comparison I think is appropriate. Unpleasant racist undertones in comics is EXACTLY like the systematic, governmental and social oppression of an entire race of people resulting in atrocities and death. There's a way to criticize without being stupidly offensive. This is not that way.

Now the actual article is just a list, introduced as a "striking overall theme." And as far as I know, the fates are accurate. The introduction is general enough, he's tracking the fates of non-white heroes. Okay, cool.

But the implication of the title is that it's a trend, right? "New Apartheid." And it might well be a trend, but something I noticed while scanning the list? He included Beth Chapel. Yolanda Montez. Fucking VIBE.

And while I'm not familiar with every character on the list, I was pretty sure that those characters all died about 20 years ago. So I went to Wikipedia, and decided to look at the dates.

William Everett III WAS killed by the Mist in his first ill-fated adventure. In 1998. Twelve years ago.

Beth Chapel was killed by Eclipse. In Eclipso #13. In 1993.

Joshua Clay was murdered in 1992.

Hector Ramirez was killed in 1997. Yolanda Martinez in 1993.

Celsius died in Invasion. You know 1988.

Dr. Mist in 1995.

Gan and Tavis Williams...1995.

Bushmaster, Impala and Thunderlord were all killed by Fain Y'onia circa 1994.

And Vibe, Vibe died in 1987.

And that's not even counting the fact that he's got listed characters who AREN'T EVEN DEAD, like Hero, Jet, John Standing Bear (Morrison's quoted as saying he'll show up again at least), Jai West (no Iris? His twin doesn't count?), Osiris and KYLE FUCKING RAYNER.

Maybe I'm conservative in my estimation, but if you're going to be claiming a fucking "New Apartheid" shouldn't most of the bad fates take place more recently than fifteen or twenty years?

I mean, some of these deaths happened during the same time as the ACTUAL APARTHEID. I'm pretty sure a "new" version of something has to come AFTER the original.

It's annoying particularly because all of these old deaths are drowning out the parts that are actually legitimate. There IS a move toward nostalgia heroes right now. Replacement characters ARE being killed off, shunted aside, neglected. John Stewart hasn't had a good plot since before OYL. Jason Rusch is now secondary to Ronnie Raymond. Cass Cain, Connor Hawke limboed. Lian, Ryan? Dead. And the oath to a White Power Ring is pretty comedic in its "You guys really didn't think this out, did you?" implications.

There's no need to pad the list, guys. They've provided us with plenty of ammunition. So if we're going to critique a current trend, let's stick with the CURRENT activities.

(This is not to say that a list like that isn't useful for historical analysis purposes, but let's take out the people who aren't dead and the people who are currently pretty fucking prominent in storylines, okay? Oh and add dates. That's kind of important.)

Also, let's stop comparing it to real world atrocities? It just makes us all look bad. If it's bad enough that we're critiquing it, it's bad enough that we don't have to Godwin ourselves in order TO critique it.

Perspective guys. It makes our critiques stronger and gives our arguments more weight. Let's use it.

(Edited to add: I've spoken a bit about my personal opinion re: nostalgia in the comments below. They're tangential to this post, but if you're curious, feel free to read.)