Tonight, The CW closes out the first season of their latest superhero series, Black Lightning. Over the course of these 13 episodes, we've seen a hero of color that we can be proud of. The series not only brought Black Lives Matter and the importance of having an education to the forefront, but it did so with authenticity, giving viewers a black hero they could believe in. For POC comic book fans, who have long had many reasons to abandon the medium altogether, this is a significant advancement.
Like most forms of entertainment, the comic book industry has long been in the hands of white guys. That fact, paired with the terribly racist history this country has endured, has resulted in some of your favorite characters involved in racist or, at the very least, very problematic storylines. Hell, Black Lightning is legit from the Southside of Metropolis.
With that truth in mind, here's a look at some of the most racist moments in the history of comics. From poor "White Savior" tales to the vilest depictions of black people in popular comics, your favorites have been on some bullshit. Let's continue to do better.
Tonight, The CW closes out the first season of their latest superhero series, Black Lightning. Over the course of these 13 episodes, we've seen a hero of color that we can be proud of. The series not only brought Black Lives Matter and the importance of having an education to the forefront, but it did so with authenticity, giving viewers a black hero they could believe in. For POC comic book fans, who have long had many reasons to abandon the medium altogether, this is a significant advancement.
Like most forms of entertainment, the comic book industry has long been in the hands of white guys. That fact, paired with the terribly racist history this country has endured, has resulted in some of your favorite characters involved in racist or, at the very least, very problematic storylines. Hell, Black Lightning is legit from the Southside of Metropolis.
With that truth in mind, here's a look at some of the most racist moments in the history of comics. From poor "White Savior" tales to the vilest depictions of black people in popular comics, your favorites have been on some bullshit. Let's continue to do better.
Black Lightning lived in the Southside of Metropolis
Comic: Black Lightning #1
Year: April 1977
We know everyone has to come from somewhere but did DC's black superhero Black Lightning have to come from the "Southside of Metropolis," which was known to many as "Suicide Slum"? Sure, black folk do come from crime-ridden areas, but why do we need to see the two-sides of Metropolis painted this way? White AF Superman wouldn't go to the Southside, so they needed their own hero to police things? Leaves a bad taste in your mouth. Thankfully, The CW did away with that backstory in their live-action series and had Black Lightning hail from a city called Freeland.
Falcon might have been a pimp
Comic: Captain America #186
Year: June 1975
DC isn't the only offender; Marvel's done some shady shit when it comes to black people, too. Sam Wilson, better known as Falcon, debuted in September of 1969 as an equal to Captain America. In fact, years later, Falcon would be Captain America. He's one of the few black heroes who doesn't have "Black" in his name (props to you, Stan Lee), but that didn't stop Steve Englehart from rewriting Falcon's history when he took over the series. He took the Harlemite social worker who has a way with birds and gave him a phase as "Snap" Wilson, relocating him to Los Angeles and making him operate on the shadier side of the law.
While it's never actually stated that Falcon was a pimp at any time in his life, he was no doubt working for the mob. This means he could have been robbing people, beating people, setting fires, shaking down businesses, and, ultimately, killing people. Even if he wasn't a whole pimp, why the hell did Sam Wilson's backstory have to retcon him as a thug? I'll let you answer that yourself.
Whitewash Jones embodies every black racial stereotype
Comic: Young Allies #1
Year: Summer 1941
Back in 1941, Marvel gave Captain America's homeboy Bucky Barnes a squad of his own: the Young Allies. They were essentially his sidekicks, but one of them was a heinous racial stereotype brought directly to ink. While his given name was Washington Carver Jones, the character was sadly known as Whitewash Jones, which is not only odd but racist as hell.
Whitewash, while part of the crew, was apparently only good at "de watermelon" and could "make a harmonica talk." He looked like the worst minstrel show rendition of a black person and was a bumbling idiot to boot. He'd say shit like "gosteses" instead of "ghosts," and was drawn to look more like a monkey than an actual human being. At least he was fighting the Nazis?
Years later, Marvel retconned the whole damn comic book, saying that the series was sensationalized propaganda that even went as far as depicting Bucky's squad as 12-year-old kids as opposed to the grown men they really were during that era. Kudos to them for that, but what in the actual fuck?!
Captain Marvel owned a slave
Comic: America's Greatest Comics #2
Year: February 1942
Similar to Marvel's Whitewash Jones was DC Comics character Steamboat, who looked and felt like the racism from minstrel shows had bled into the pages of a children's comic. Not only was Steamboat Captain Marvel's actual slave, but everything from his exaggerated speech to being drawn like a cartoonish chimpanzee made Steamboat feel like he was conceived by a KKK member. The weirdest shit is that Steamboat never seems to pick up on the fact that Batson is Captain Marvel, the guy he literally spent the most time in the world with. Why? Probably because he's an ignoramus.
The X-Men are (stereotypically) diverse!
Comic: various
Year: various
While comic book publishers should get props for striving to be inclusive and diverse, back in the day, they missed the mark far more than they hit it.
Just look at the X-Men. Mutants, in general, were a way for Marvel to bring the civil rights movement to the pages of their comic books, but they relied on lazy tropes when it came to building stories for their non-white characters. There was no surprise when the Native American character James Proudstar was introduced as their "tracker," which seems to be a common thread for most Native American characters in pop culture (as if the only thing a Native American character can do is use this method of hunting and surveying land to find their prey). Similarly, the Japanese character Sunfire used the honorific "san" more than necessary; given the use of "san" in pop culture by white people as a derogatory statement, its overuse in comics can be deemed as offensive. And when you consider how few and far between non-white characters there are, it makes these glaring failures to properly represent them even more hurtful.
Lois Lane becomes a black woman
Comic: Superman's Girlfriend, Lois Lane #106
Year: November 1970
In one of the most insane pieces of comic book content, ever, a 1970 comic featured Superman's girlfriend Lois Lane literally becoming a black woman for a day. Why? To help her understand the plight of black folk for a story she was working on; one that she hoped would get her a Pulitzer.
After arriving in Little Africa (aka Metropolis' Harlem), Lois realizes that none of the people in the (predominately-black) town want to speak to her. She happens upon Superman, who has a great idea on how to help Lois out: he has a machine that would effectively put Lois in blackface, so she can better speak with the residents of Little Africa. The new, "black" Lois Lane now lives life like a black person, starting off with a taxi not slowing down for her (which she calls her "first lesson in the meaning of Black"). Lois even felt some type of way when she pressed Superman about possibly marrying her if she was a black woman and he chumps her off. He actually tries to compares his being an alien from another planet to the black experience in the world, as if he doesn't still work and operate in the white world.
While the story is an intriguing mirror of the cultural appropriation we see in music and movies today, it also simplifies the black experience in this country. Nothing about being black can be understood (or, worse, rectified) by playing dress-up for a day.
Did Batman only kill Asians?
Comic: various
Year: various
The Caped Crusader might be one of the most recognizable superheroes ever, but that didn't stop him from being on some wickedly racist shit. Take the above sequence of panels, for example. Batman is someone who has a vow to never kill...but has no problem falling from a building and landing on a guy that he repeatedly refers to as a "Chinaman." He's also flat-out thrown massive statutes onto groups of unsuspecting Chinese people as well.