Why was almost every black man in comics back in the day always written as a contrarian that was angry at everything? Like, I could understand them being mad during situations involving racism or social issues, but they were simply mad at everything all the time and would always be dicks to other heroes.
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Black Lightning was actually justified here, if this is the issue I'm thinking about. The JL 'tested' him by pretending to be villains or created a situation where he thought villains were messing with him. He was annoyed because the JL never subjected other potential members to that.
Agree, he was in the right at not accepting their invitation.
"The Other History of the DC Universe" actually expands on that.
>Upon his return to Metropolis, he noticed that nothing had changed in Suicide Slum. Pierce decided it was time to make a difference and, indeed, back at his old alma mater Garfield High School, he quickly made an impression when he kicked a drug pusher off the premises and followed suit by humiliating three members of the criminal organization known as the 100. In retaliation, the gunmen killed Earl Clifford, one of Pierce's students, and left his corpse in the GHS gymnasium. A distraught Pierce related the tragedy to Peter Gambi, who urged him to fight back in a persona that wouldn't invite counter-attacks on his students and presented him with a costume.
>Equipped with a force-field belt that enabled him to generate lighting bolts, Black Lightning was born. While in costume, Pierce played to the era's stereotypical perception of blacks by affecting a jive-talking speech pattern and wearing a mask/wig combination that gave him a large Afro, simple devices that deflected suspicion from a well-educated school-teacher.
>At Green Arrow's recommendation,[1] Black Lightning is considered as a prospective Justice League member but the other heroes disagree on his admittance. Meanwhile, a new super-villain surfaces in the person of The Regulator, a former research scientist who has the power to command armies of rats and other vermin. Unaware of the threat he poses, the Justice League continues with its test of Black Lightning's abilities. Disguised as villains, they battle him while Superman serves as judge of his initiation. Although he passes the test, Black Lightning declines to join the team, claiming prior responsibilities to his solo career.
>Black Lightning is considered as a prospective Justice League member but the other heroes disagree on his admittance.
Why did they disagree?
I like how the monkey lady is not only wearing a metal bikini but also has high heels.
See, I like his concept. Too bad writers can't do that anymore.
I have feeling it was more that the writers were criticizing affirmative action quotas, rather than sam wasn't qualified for the team.
>I have feeling it was more that the writers were criticizing affirmative action quotas, rather than sam wasn't qualified for the team.
Yes, it was a story about Hawkeye losing his job as an Avenger because the government wanted an affirmative action diversity hire, and Falcon leaving the Avengers pretty quickly because he didn't want to be there just to be the government-mandated black guy.
Most of these writers didn't have much actual experiences with black people. But they knew how my much it might mean to a kid to see someone who looked like them alongside their favorite heroes. It was a flawed yet earnest attempt as t trying to be inclusive.
OK, but that still doesn't explain why they would write black people as angry at everything all the time.
They didn't know how to write black people and I'm assuming their only frame of reference would be a few blaxploitation films. So they boiled the personality down to being "fighting the power" which translated to "this guy is just kind of an butthole all the time" instead.
They were trying to convey (to white people) that they keenly understood the black struggle and took all the “Whitey’s on the moon” shit seriously. It was proto virtue signaling, and tweedy middle aged israelites trying to seem hip and with it.
because they are?
>Why was almost every black man in comics back in the day always written as a contrarian that was angry at everything?
>back in the days
Gee, I wonder. It's almost as if they were living in a time where things were frustrating for them.
>things were frustrating for them
Because they got their own exclusive benches?
Did they need waiters serving them drinks too?
Well nowadays we have divercity review teams that review everything for bad depictions and pushes to have blacks write blacks. Even the blacks in the commercials are angry.
So I can only assume it's just reflecting the reality that blacks ARE angry all the time. It's probably a combination of savage genetics that comes from high aggression and low impulse control and the frustration, tension, and feeling of unfairness that comes from being inferior.
What are you talking about? Modern depictions of black people in media go out of their way to make them as inoffensive and nice as possible.
But what about Keith David, anon?
I admit that I do like him as an actor and that he has chosen some good roles over the years.
I still believe that this anon is correct about the source of black anger though.
Remember when Falcon was actually offended over the idea of being diversity hired?
I really don't understand what the writers were thinking with this one. They couldn't just have Falcon join normally like Black Panther did, they had to make it an in-universe government mandate?
Is it possible that Falcon joining the team was an editorial mandate the writer didn't like so they made it an in-universe mandate as a form of protest?
Well, the weakening of the Comics Code meant writers were suddenly free to add pointed social commentary. Not all of them knew how to handle that freedom at the time, so some of their attempts came off as clumsy, such as with the original Hawk and and Dove series which somehow managed to make bot of them unsympathetic. I suspect this trend was an outgrowth of that.
This provides some evidence for my idea.
Hgh4
If you had superpowers and the desire to use them for good, and most of the people around you STILL treated you like a second-class citizen for no better reason than the color of your skin, wouldn't you be angry? I sure as hell would.
Who are the other people on that cover?