Poll: Would You Mind White Actors Portraying Typically Black Super Heroes?

[HigherTomorrow]

I truly need to ask this to see if you PC people have any sense at all. Please. Many people complain about how it's racist to keep a black actor from playing Peter Parker or Super Man, but what would you do if Luke Cage was portrayed by a white actor? Applaud? Scream racism? Would you have a double standard to this?

You see, the portrayal of a character does not, in fact, matter only acting-wise. A character needs to look like the character they are portraying. The Black Panther should never, I repeat, never be portrayed by a white man, and it should be the same thing around (Unless of course, we're talking about another character entirely, for example, Hank Pym's Goliath VS Bill Foster's Goliath, although a white actor should play Hank Pym and a black actor should play Bill Foster.) for white people. Obviously there are exceptions to this; Ultimate Nick Fury, AKA Samuel L. Jackson is infinitely cooler than the original Nick Fury. And I would be sincerely disappointed if Pavitr Prabhakar, the Indian-alternate universe version of Spider-man was not portrayed by a Indian looking character.

Changing around a character just to be politically correct is just the opposite.

 

[Radeonx]

Actually I'd disagree with Ultimate Nick Fury.
Sure, Sam Jackson made him a badass (Honestly, even in roles when Sam isn't trying to be a badass, he is still always the most badass person in the movie), but the original Nick Fury is far superior to the Nick that Sam portrayed.

But if they do a good job, they can be whatever race they want. I'd prefer for the skin color of the actors to correlate with the actual comic characters (I mean, the Ultimate Marvel characters and the change in the Justice League [Green Lantern, etc.] were random, and in my opinion, politically correct bullshit), but a good job is good enough for me.

 

[Mr. Omega]

Would I be pissed due to racism? Hell no.
Would I be pissed as a comic nerd? Hell yes.

 

[KalosCast]

Yeah, I don't think anybody has ever said that it's racist to not choose a black actor to play a white character (well, outside of trolling).

I don't care how good you are, if I'm going to write a movie about a native African, I'm gonna pick an actor who looks like a native African. If I make a story about a white super-hero, I'll cast a white super-hero. If I write a story about ninja, then by god I'm gonna be looking for Japanese guys.

In fact, I see plenty of complaints complaints about Hollywood "white-washing" non-white characters, but I've honestly never heard anybody making a serious complaint about the other way around.

 

[zenoaugustus]

Honestly, I don't really mind one way or another. As long as it can be entertaining, I have no complaints. It never really made a difference to me if the Green Lantern was black or white, and the same would go with pretty much any super hero.

 

[capin Rob]

A white Blade? hmmmmmmm. NO. I don't really mind. but in some characters it would be bad.

 

[Joshimodo]

I'd much prefer it if the actor was as similar to the original character as possible, race included.

 

[HigherTomorrow]

Yeah, I don't think anybody has ever said that it's racist to not choose a black actor to play a white character (well, outside of trolling)

Or, outside a majority of this Off Topic Board recently.

 

[Snake Plissken]

Actually I'd disagree with Ultimate Nick Fury.
Sure, Sam Jackson made him a badass (Honestly, even in roles when Sam isn't trying to be a badass, he is still always the most badass person in the movie), but the original Nick Fury is far superior to the Nick that Sam portrayed.

Quote for truth.

I don't care how cool Samuel L. Jackson might be,

Spoiler: this man

is far cooler and would have been a far superior Nick Fury.

 

[RedEyesBlackGamer]

Would I be pissed due to racism? Hell no.
Would I be pissed as a comic nerd? Hell yes.

Pretty much this. Seeing a white guy playing Static would send me into a nerd rage. Nothing to due with race. A black Robin would equally infuriate me.

 

[Biosophilogical]

I guess it depends on the character. Some play to racial stereotypes, so if you had someone of an alternate skin colour, they wouldn't be "The character" they'd be some try-hard rip-off playing a racial role that conflicts with their actual race ... does that make sense? Like if the personality of a black superhero has roots in black stereotypes (tough guy, slight 'gangsta' accent, etc), than having a white guy play the character would come off more as a tool than someone with attributes affected by their background.

Anyways, back to the point. I think race should only matter when race is a factor. So if it is an element of the character to come from a racially hostile background (Blacks vs Asians, Whites vs Mexican, whatever vs whatever) where stereotypes are more accurate, meaning that the character's attributes are clearly from a cetain racial group, then the character should be played by someone of the appropriate race.

So yeah, race only matters if race has an impact on the character being portrayed.

 

[Blue_vision]

I don't really see much of a problem. As long as black, asian, latino, etc. actors have sizeable parts (i.e. black superheroes portrayed by white actors, but no white superheroes portrayed by black actors,) then I don't get why it'd be a problem.

Of course, unless it makes up a part of their character, like having to deal with racism, or a certain background that would just not make sense with a white superhero.

But then again, I'm not a comic book nerd, so many I'm not in a position to say it's okay. I personally find it kind of unfortunate that there still seems to be a large white majority in Hollywood (which is kind of the world's movie producer, not just the US'.)

 

[Helmutye]

I truly need to ask this to see if you PC people have any sense at all. Please. Many people complain about how it's racist to keep a black actor from playing Peter Parker or Super Man

Who complains about this? I live in a pretty liberal, sometimes embarrassingly PC town, and I have never heard anybody demand a black Superman. I've heard people complain about the portrayal of black people in a lot of comic books (rightfully so), and I've heard people poke fun at the fact that even though Superman is an alien from another solar system he looks like a dark haired Aryan and is able to blend flawlessly into white America. But I've never heard anyone claim that its racist to always cast Superman as a white guy.

As far as my own personal opinion goes, I think it depends entirely on how the particular movie or comic is written. If you're trying to make a screen version of the original comic book, you should probably make everything look as close as possible--cast a white guy, have him wear the funny blue, red, and gold suit, etc. But if you're playing around with the idea of Superman--a morally superior alien in a society of fallible humans--it could be very cool to change things up. Imagine if Superman was black and had to contend with racism and prejudice growing up--it could be very interesting exploring the idea of what a black man would do if, after going through the difficulties of being a black person in the US, he was given virtually unlimited power to do what he wanted with the world. Or, if you wanted to keep him as a white guy, what would Superman be like if he had landed in Africa or India or some other region instead of American farm country?

 

[chozo_hybrid]

If you make something with a character with a defined race and background then I think the actors should look the part.

Otherwise, just make a new character?

 

[Dags90]

I don't really see much of a problem. As long as black, asian, latino, etc. actors have sizeable parts (i.e. black superheroes portrayed by white actors, but no white superheroes portrayed by black actors,) then I don't get why it'd be a problem.

Of course, unless it makes up a part of their character, like having to deal with racism, or a certain background that would just not make sense with a white superhero.

But then again, I'm not a comic book nerd, so many I'm not in a position to say it's okay. I personally find it kind of unfortunate that there still seems to be a large white majority in Hollywood (which is kind of the world's movie producer, not just the US'.)

This is pretty much my position. If the person's race (or gender, or whatever) is central the character's story, it should be preserved. If you have a plot revolving around a woman bearing a child while homeless, it's just kind of silly to switch to a man. This also isn't a simple "As long as it can go both ways." The big issue is that tends not to go both ways evenly. You see far more instances of white-washing than the reverse. The individual examples are small compared to the trend. Things have gotten better for some minorities, but others lag painfully behind.

 

[Ashcrexl]

i think the simple fact is the actor needs to somewhat resemble the hero in terms of looks and very much resemble in terms of personality. can a black guy pull off peter's college guy, everyman, bantering type with a load of responsibility? go for it. can a white guy pull of luke cage's cool, yet gruff tough guy vibe? go for it.

on a side note, i know they're two different characters, but i love jon stewart way more than hal jordan.

 

[Blue_vision]

Such racial issues are the cause of the rise of liberalism.
The former "victims" have become extremely self important for lack of a proper description.

It's simple, white people play white characters, black people play black characters and so on and so forth.

I had no racist intent in this post dears, it merely angers me how far Political correctness is going these days.

There are two problems.

First is that if a bunch of older comic characters are white (due to past racism or social norms,) that doesn't leave a lot of room for black characters (or east asian, or indian, or middle eastern, or native american.)
Second is that ethnicity shouldn't really matter to what a person is. Comic book characters aren't based on the colour of their skin, they're based on their actions. So if you've got a black actor who can do the role better than a white actor can, why does it matter that the white actor's white?

 

[Antari]

Would I be pissed due to racism? Hell no.
Would I be pissed as a comic nerd? Hell yes.

That about sums it up for me.