Representation Matters
The characters we show, the stereotypes we reinforce, the artists we hire, the writers and directors we support – it makes a world of difference. There’s almost no way for a white American to identify with that, but I have seen its impact on those I care about. For Black History Month, we’re swiping a concept DIRECTLY from a college friend of mine and highlighting some Black figures and creators in the comic space.
Day One: T’Challa – Black Panther
Adilifu Nama, Super Black: American Pop Culture and Black Superheroes
“What makes the Black Panther such a significant figure in American popular culture—as well as Black popular culture—is its groundbreaking representation of Blackness as more than a stereotypical and racist trope of inferiority. We have to keep in mind the historical context of the superhero’s first emergence—in 1966, against the backdrop of the civil rights and burgeoning Black Power movement. That becomes important because in many ways [the emergence of a Black superhero]…marks a racial transformation happening on a political and social level.”
1990 Interview with Co-Creator Jack Kirby:
“I came up with the Black Panther because I realized I had no blacks in my strip. I’d never drawn a black. I needed a black. I suddenly discovered that I had a lot of black readers. My first friend was a black! And here I was ignoring them because I was associating with everybody else. It suddenly dawned on me — believe me, it was for human reasons — I suddenly discovered nobody was doing blacks. And here I am a leading cartoonist and I wasn’t doing a black. I was the first one to do an Asian. Then I began to realize that there was a whole range of human differences. Remember, in my day, drawing an Asian was drawing Fu Manchu — that’s the only Asian they knew.”
