"Why Batman Can't Be Black"

[robkelk]

I discovered this from it being mentioned in the blog associated with Dresden Codak:

http://www.portlandmercury.com/Blogtown ... t-be-black]Why Batman Can't Be Black
Posted by Bobby Roberts on Mon, Aug 5, 2013 at 12:54 PM

The article makes some good points about just how ... shall we say "conservative" ... fandom can be in our assumptions. Objections and rebuttals:

• "You can't just change somebody's skin color willy-nilly!" If Batman was a real person, that would have merit - but Batman is fictional. You can re-imagine him with the stroke of a pen, and many writers have re-imagined Batman.
  
• "Bruce Wayne has too much back-story - you can't make him black." DC reboots every decade or so - what back-story?
  
• "Why can’t you just create a new character?" Because most readers know new heroes usually don’t gain much traction - so this is actually saying "just create a completely separate black superhero, and put them in their own book, because that way I can easily ignore them."
  

And it isn't just Batman. Remember the hue-and-cry when a blond man was cast as James Bond - this is also why Bond can't be black. Or why The Doctor can't be female.

So, yeah - fandom isn't as open-minded as we like to think we are. Considering how many of us here write for fun or profit, what can we do to help change this?
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012