Quote:
I’m especially vexed that the man behind this is Mr. Brian Michael “My Spider-Man doesn’t see what so important about him being Black in a world that loves Blackness but hates Black people” Bendis.
Look, the second you take a legacy character of color and you decide that they’re going to express discomfort with the fact that people are excited by them being a person of color, you’re not someone I want writing any character of color.
By having Miles say that he doesn’t want to be the “Black” Spider-Man in direct response to seeing someone on television freaking excited about him being brown in a world where white superheroes crowd the skies, Bendis has ended up on my **** list.
(Note also that there’s definitely a “mock the supposed average tumblr user” vibe inherent in the language and character used as a foil to Miles just wanting to be “normal”.)
Bendis is white. Super white even. Sure, he has two adopted Black daughters (one who is African-American and another who is Ethiopian), but, as evidenced in his work, that doesn’t mean he knows **** about Blackness.
Things that happen to Black people, happen around him.
Over-average police brutality? Being followed around in stores because of your blackness? Having people refuse to date you because you’re black? Being labeled a “fast tailed girl” the second you start to get a hint of breast tissue?
He never grew up hearing the talk about what to do when the police confront you in order to have some hope of surviving. He watches news reports of Black people being killed by the police (122 so far in 2016 with the death of Alton Sterling) and knows that it will NEVER happen to him.
Bendis won’t (can’t) have access to the painful parts of Blackness, but he also doesn’t have access to the joyful parts of Blackness.
These are so many things that Bendis will never experience, that he just straight up cannot bring to the table when he writes a Black character, because the closest he comes to Blackness is through his daughters.
Bendis writes Miles being unaware of what it means to be the “Black Spider-Man” when people of color in public spheres talk constantly about how they strive to provide representation to children like them who grew up without seeing themselves in movies or shows.
In his books Miles is adrift, removed from Blackness and his Puerto-Rican-ness due to being orphaned and leaving his universe. He doesn’t interact with or exhibit Blackness in any meaningful way being being dark skinned. Miles exists in whiteness that’s nearly unbroken except for his friendship with Ganke and occasional hangouts with Nick Fury.
Remember what I linked to about “[URL="http://ohsoang.tumblr.com/post/144901889915/advanced-racism-ending-the-digital-minstrel-show"]digital brown paper dolls[/URL]” in the Dragon Age fandom?
Miles is fast becoming one of them with Bendis’ colorblind approach to blackness.
I can only imagine that his take on Riri will also lack nuance and understanding of what it means to be a Black woman in a world dominated by white male heroes and villains.
And that’s messed up considering how he’s being tapped to write these Black legacy characters when he has no actual idea of what it means to be Black in America.
I’m annoyed at how Bendis keeps being handed opportunities to write young black people in comics when he has exhibited (via Miles) that he has no experience with or understanding Blackness in its many forms.
His writing is clearly coming from a place of white privilege and I am beyond pissed that Marvel keeps refusing to do the legwork and get Black creators (especially Black women) on their books that are about character who are Black.