I wrote a piece about my disturbed disappointment with the fact that the new Fantastic Four movie is casting an African-American male as the originally (for 50 years) Caucasian Johnny Storm. In my mind, I am not complaining because of racism... I believe it is a crime to change the races of characters that have been around for decades.
I was accused of being racist because I used the term cross-breeding of character’s identities in the mind-set of the new producers of comics.
This is the reason why I sometimes dread writing on this format because anybody can instantly write back and give their twisted retorts to what another person writes. Then, others read the twisted retort and follow that derision like puppies following a fluttering leaf over a cliff into a racing river.
Let me tell you... those of you who want to take my King James English and twist it into the broken idiocy of people who have zero control of Grammar, Syntax and subject-verb agreement... and then propose to tell me they can decipher what I am writing, and thinking -- I say think about what you are reading before you call somebody racist!
You sound really stupid when you speak without thinking about what you do not know!
(now to the actual response)
Well I'll say this once, and I will not repeat myself... To those of you are stupid enough to take the term of "cross-breeding" in my missive to the level of racism, then you are the racist. I NEVER inferred racism in my written piece. How is it racist to say I want Johnny Storm to stay the same Caucasian character I have known for 50 years? Why change the fundamental character of the group... just to appease those of you who have no loyalty to the brand.
Actually, I run a blog titled Plants Are People, Too... and in my mind I was thinking about the cross-breeding of plants. And I will not back away from that word... because YOU decided to go to racism, not me, before asking me what I meant... since you obviously were confused by my words.
If you, +Nick Hunt and you +Manuel Oliva have no problem with these Fantastic Four changes... well, good for you. Me, I want my comic books to retain their SAME RACIAL MAKEUP.
What is wrong with that? I’m racist because I want a comic book character to stay the same white character he has always been... instead of being gratuitously changed into an African-American character? That makes me a racist man?
Talk to me, young men, about racism when you are a 6 year old child in North Carolina in 1965 and you are taken to the old oak tree down the dirt road where you become a part of the crowd crying and wailing as you are terrified because a black man is hanged, lynched, on a high tree branch. Experience that, young ignorant people, and then come back to me and talk to me about the things that give you the right to call ME, a 55 year old black man, a racist.
I’ve earned my life stripes as a black dude living a long life in America to know what racism is... over the course of a life time. And, I’ll tell you what racism is. You will not tell me what racism is.
Back to the subject that started this lecture -- Comic Book Race Identity.
This is a small part of my collection!
These are a few issues of The Fantastic Four.
Why would you want to embrace the change of changing a white character into a black character... especially for the wide appeal of the movie audience?
Next, should the powers that be change Luke Cage into a white character. And, why? For what reason?
Here... in The Official Handbook Of The Marvel Universe -- The Fantastic Four are white people.
And you know what? This black man writing this article has not one problem with them remaining white people. Obviously, you don’t. And so, I will not watch the new movie if it is made in this way. Because... I will fall back on the 50 years of the characters the way Stan Lee wrote them in the first place.
And if you, +Nick Hunt and if you +Manuel Oliva continue to consider me racist... again, when you develop an inch of my life experience with racism, then I will entertain being affected by what you say, beyond this letter.
Until then, you go your ignorant way and I will continue on my life path that began decades before you were even a concept in your grandmother’s womb!
Oh, and I will continue to enjoy my The Fantastic Four the way I love it... the way Stan Lee created it.
Finally, someone mentioned that FOX, not Disney, decided to go black. Disney OWNS The Fantastic Four. If the executives at Disney told Fox not to change the races of the characters, you can bet it would not happen! Period!
RLJ
