Expert: LM - 11/30/2002

Question
Dear Lemaas
I'm a student at Birmingham University (UCE) in England studying visual communication. I'm currently writing my dissertation on ethnic superheroes concentrating on African Americans. I'm looking at racism, equality and stereotypes. You may not be familar with comics but I would be very interested on your views concerning the portrayal of African Americans on media in general. Do you think comics still stereotype ethnic superheroes? and Do you also think black superheroes should identify exclusively with African Americans? I will also look at gender, adolesence, and superheroes as role models from an ethnic point of view.

thankyou for your time.

John Harrison

Answer
I studied at the University of Leicester in England for one year abroad.  While there, I took a course called "African Americans Since Slavery."

That was one of the most enriching experiences that I've ever had in terms of Black History, etc.

What I would NOT recommend is your coming to the United States to study any type of Black History.  It seems that a lot of Black Studies Departments turn everything into a political issue, and it is most tiring.  

That said: The portrayal of black people in the media is VERY negative. Recently, I lived in Taiwan and had the experience of seeing that. There are Chinese people there, the same as there are in the Mainland, but the latter group don't have (such) a problem with black people. In Mainland China, the government does us the favor of censoring the television programs. So only acceptable things are available for the population to view. It is not that they censor negative things about black people in China, per se. What I believe happens is that they neglect all mention of black people. So the Chinese know that black people exist inside the US, but since they have not seen television from this place they don't have any negative viewpoints. And believe you me: If the Chinese government did decide that black Americans had fallen into disfavor with them for some reason, EVERY single person in China would think bad things about us. (They seem to like to be told what to think by the government.)

If you move over to Taiwan, then you will have some serious problems. And they speak good English there and have a lot of American programming. Actually, those are the only two things that I can see as differences between the Mainland and the Taiwan Province.  In one place, you have corrupt Chinese people managing the government from Beijing. And in the other, they manage it in Taipei. They speak and write the same language and have a lot of the same notions. But in one case, they have free television, and in the other, it is censored. In one case, the perceptions of black people are very negative.  In the other, they are neutral.

As far as the effect of the media INSIDE the USA: My countrymen are some very simple-minded people. They do not do well with complicated explanations of things. So if they see it on television, then it is enough to be "true." When you watch television over here, the characters of black men are very rarely like Peter Benton on "ER" (an emergency room drama). And very rarely can I think of any cerebral black male characters. But you will see a lot of black people in jail or as criminals on different programs.  And definitely almost NONE as superheroes.

One book that I've read not too long ago that I recommend that you read is: "Losing the Race:Self Sabotage in Black America" by John McWhorter.  There is a strong tendency to be a part of the counter culture amongst blacks here, what with the knee-jerk response to obsessively label everything as either "Black" or "White."  So, on one hand, the media shows blacks in a very unflattering way. But on the other, most of us are very determined to behave in way that is NOT "White" and therefore not associated with any of the more positive aspects of life. For example: We live here in the same country but have different accents. Two people can grow up in the same town but one raised by black parents will have a different accent to another raised by white parents.  For someone who is from the UK (where people on a show like East Enders will say something like: "I wan a be wif you and de baby, Kaf, but I can't stop me drinking"/ "Grant dudn't deserve a bruvvah loik you, Fil"). This is a small matter to you to hear different accents in the same country. But here, they are not based on geography, but instead on color. Huh? Huh? Huh?

I really may be getting sidetracked here trying to answer your question, and this is really something that you'd have to be here to understand. No book will do it justice.

But just read the McWhorter book and you'll get a better working idea.

Hope I answered the questions.