Reflections of a Queer Artist

phoenixtawnyflower:

lierdumoa:

I was reading this article that was complaining about people should be more focused on bringing characters that were originally conceived as POC to the screen than on recasting white characters as POC. 

Which I actually agree with.

But in the same article the writer complained (I’m paraphrasing) “If you cast a black guy as Tony Stark, no one will think of him as Tony Stark, they’ll always think of him as Black Tony Stark.”

I have to point out a big flaw in that logic:

Children.

Everyone in the older generation thinks of Obama as “the black president.” You know who doesn’t think of Obama as “the black president”? 10 year olds. Obama is the only president they can remember. He got elected when they were two.

There are children who listen to Fall Out Boys’ “Centuries” and don’t know they borrowed the opening riff from Suzanne Vega’s “Tom’s Diner.” As far as they’re concerned, that’s Fall Out Boy’s riff.

There are children who don’t remember that The Rock was Dwayne Johnson’s wrestling name.

My favorite version of  A Christmas Carol is The Muppet Christmas Carol. I don’t care how Bob Cratchit was written in the original story because as far as I’m concerned, the real Bob Cratchit is a bright green frog puppet that’s my canon you can’t stop me.

There are a dozen incarnations of every possible comic book character. And every vigilante superhero we read about today is based on the original vigilante superhero – The Scarlet Pimpernel. There is no real version, there is only your favorite version. Every version that isn’t your favorite is going to feel fake to you.

But it’s going to feel real to someone.

Haven’t y’all read the post where the little girl doesn’t want to watch the original Annie because “Annie is supposed to be black”?

Also wasn’t Fury white in the original comics? Is there a fan alive who would dare tell Samuel L. Jackson that he’s the “black Fury”?

(via ciiriianan)