“If you tell a kid he’s worthless once, you won’t really cause much damage. You tell a kid he’s worthless every day for six months you’re going to mess with his head.”

The person who said that to me wasn’t discussing anything to do with comic books, mass media, pop culture, or politics. It was just a simple statement about children. I wouldn’t have connected that quote to this subject if not for an email conversation which was nitpicking a previous debate about race in pop culture. I’d failed in convincing my debate opponent that the comedic sidekick who talks a good game but falls to pieces at the first sign of trouble was a racist stereotype. She did not believe me, and likely still doesn’t even after I pointed out that the cowardly black guy has been around since before the Civil War because there are white comedic sidekicks and black competent sidekicks.

But here’s the thing, if you look through television shows and books in the adventure category aimed at general audience of any age, you will find that the majority of them feature white heroes and that most of the black characters fall under “sidekick.” And while I like a lot of television shows, comic books, and storybooks that fall into that formula I can’t say that’s all right. Because the formula is so prolific it basically sends the message to black children “You are a sidekick, not a hero.” And when you get that from the vast majority of stories you’re exposed to growing up it gets ingrained.

So, when you show a white guy in the comedic sidekick role, its not really going to screw with the mind of a white kid watching that. More often than not the hero is white as well and even if he isn’t, there’s a whole slew of white heroes aside from that one movie so the kid sees he’s got more options than that. But, show a black guy in the comedic sidekick role, the hero will most likely (not always, but in an action-adventure movie most likely) be a white person. And when you look around for a black person in the heroic role, you tend to find more sidekicks unless the movie is a movie where almost the entire cast is black. So the options for a black kid are “comedic sidekick” or “competent sidekick.”

Of course “competent sidekick” can be a blessing compared to “background character who shows up for plot purposes.” See John Stewart in Green Lantern. He’s effectively sidelined enough that he’s not a proper buddy or a partner, he’s Hal’s sidekick if he’s a notable character at all. He gets a couple of moments to shine but he doesn’t get much influence on the story (Guy gets more when he guest-stars, and Guy leads his own book) or any real spotlight (Kyle gets the spotlight automatically in specials and miniseries like Rebirth and the current crossover).

This is why I cringe at the reaction I run into about John in the Justice League or even his being used in the cartoon series. There’s an almost all-white team out there, that’s very high profile and needs a Green Lantern. They can easily add a little diversity by using John, and allow the character to transcend the competent sidekick/emergency backup stereotypes he’s relegated to in the main franchise. But to some fans this is a horrible injustice and Hal must be given the job even though his fans can pick up Hal’s own book and see him whenever they want now, or Kyle must be given the job even though that character is currently starring in half of everything DC publishes and has a tendency to take over the story when he does show up.

To be fair, not everyone who complains is just a disgruntled Hal or Kyle fan. Just the other day I heard that John wasn’t a good choice for the cartoon (and subsequently, the comic) because he was characterized as a stereotypical serious bald black man rather than the intellectual social crusader he was designed to be. I could almost get behind that because I prefer the intellectual John, but I can see intellectual John in the cartoon. He still had the razor-sharp mental focus of a scholar, and people calm down as they age (today’s fiery crusader is tomorrow’s calm, collected and experienced debater). Besides, John’s role in the main Lantern-book just adds more crap to a steaming pile of sidekicks, where in the Justice League he gets to be an equal team member and have adventures of his own. Both are stereotyped, how is the second a step down rather than a step up?

Ideally, this wouldn’t be an issue. We’d have enough variety in the culture as a whole that it wouldn’t matter if all of the heavy hitters and major names on one little comic book team were white, or if this one particular character was ignored for a few years. But we don’t, so it does. So rather than create a cipher that will be discarded after his run or use someone with a following but without much flexibility or power, DC decided to bring a useful, powerful black hero connected to a major franchise. At the same time, they saved him from a few more years of secondary character duty. Leaving out the white guy who already has his own book is small price to pay in this case.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 21st, 2007 at 11:52 pm and is filed under Just Past the Horizon. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.