Mindy Newell: Politically Incorrect
Saturday, I met a very nice young man named Moses in my local comic books shop. We got into a conversation about *duh!* comics and he was very frank in stating that he was not buying many DC comics because – and I’m paraphrasing here, since I didn’t happen to have a tape recorder on me – everybody in the office is white so it’s impossible for them to understand the black experience. I told him that I didn’t agree with any part of that, but that is Moses’ perception, and perception is everything. Isn’t it?
Yesterday, I read Marc Alan Fishman’s latest column here at ComicMix, Affirmatively Actionable Comic Equality, in which he referenced J.A. Micheline’s August 4th piece over at Comics Alliance titled Why I’m Boycotting Marvel Comics, which I linked to and read. In her own words:
“Marvel, you and I are taking a break. It’s not me; it’s you – and you made the decision really easy. In the past two to three weeks, I have watched you disrespect and disregard marginalized voices and I’ve had enough.”
Then I Googled “diversity of comics creators” and found an article by Laura Hudson published over at Wired on July 25th of this year: “It’s Time To Get Real About Racial Diversity In Comics.” She writes:
“July in particular has been an interesting month to ponder that question, thanks to a series of recent events that offered a prismatic lens on the complex friction between race and representation in the field. Not only did the Marvel variants spark discussion, but this month, DC Comics announced that Milestone Media – an imprint created by black creators and focusing on black superheroes – would be returning to the larger DC Comics fold, along with most of the black artists and writers who had created it. Meanwhile, Boom! Studios released Strange Fruit, a comic made by a white creative team that dealt with racism in the American South, prompting discussions about when works by white creators are erasing the voices of the people they’re writing about.”
Jon Stewart asked us to do something on his last show: “If you smell something, say something.”
Okay, Jon, I will.
It’s about fucking time that people stopped creating these stupid fucking artificial lines.
To be brutally forthright – and quite politically incorrect – I don’t give a damn what color, what religion, what ethnicity, what nationality, or what sex a creator is.
The only thing I care about when I’m reading a story, the only reason I’m reading it, the only reason I continue to read it, be it comics or prose, is that I’m enjoying it, that I’m sucked in, that I can’t put the goddamn thing down, whether that means reading it at work while on a break, or at home while eating dinner, or reading it on the toilet wherever that toilet may be.
So Strange Fruit, a series about racism in the South, was written and drawn by Mark Waid and J.G. Jones, two white guys. So what? I think they should be applauded for writing about it. I think the premise, about a super-powered alien who looks like a black man in 1927 Mississippi, is great, and I’m putting it on my list to buy. And by the way, Quantum Leap did an episode in the very first season in which Sam jumped into the body of an elderly black man in the pre-Civil Rights South (“The Color of Truth”). Nobody objected that it was produced by a white man and starred two more white men.
And if a story about racism was so important to you, African-American creators, why didn’t you go out and create it?
Oh, wait. You did.
Maya Angelou. James Baldwin. Octavia Butler. Amiri Baraka. Toni Morrison. Ralph Ellison. Zora Neale Hurston. Lorraine Hansbury. Langston Hughes. Richard Wright. Alice Walker. Alan Paton.
Oh, you mean comics?
Christopher Priest. Michael Davis. Damion Knight. Matt Baker. Reginald Hudlin. Darryl Banks. Denys Cowan. ChrisCross. Kyle Baker. Jamal Igle, Malcom Jones III, Mark (M.D.) Bright. Billy Graham. Keith Pollard. Brian Stelfreeze. Ron Wilson. Larry Stroman.
Dwayne McDuffie.
Okay, what’s wrong with this list?
No women.
But they do exist.
Charlie “Spike” Trotman. Carol Burrell. Barbara Brandon-Croft. Afua (Lakota Sioux) Richardson. Alitha Martinez. Cheryl Lynn Eaton.
Yes, I admit, these women were a little harder to find. And that’s bullshit, too.
Still, obviously, I managed.
You could, too, if you wanted to.
I could write a whole column about that. But then I might be accused of being a white Jewish woman who has no business writing about the black woman comics creator, because, you know, that’s not politically correct.
But if any of these women would like to have a dialogue with me on these pages, you’re very welcome to get in touch with me. In fact, I’ll ask Editor Mike to be our liaison (mike@comicmix.com).
See, I think making it in a profession that is your passion takes talent, sweat, blood, tears, aggravation, patience, aggressiveness, stick-to-it-iveness, and luck.
A whole lot of luck.
The truth is that luck is the goddamnest wild card.
And that’s a truth that is politically incorrect to say out loud.
Great column Mindy!
Despite the avalanche of comments from people whose names I’ve never seen here before, I still think this was a great column.
You know, I remember Don McGregor’s Black Panther stories in the 70s. I didn’t think about his race when I read those stories. I enjoyed Quantum and Woody about 20 years later and didn’t think about Christopher Priest’s race.
Apparently Dr. Ben Carson doesn’t think about race either. Here is quote from him during last week’s debate:
You know, I was asked by an NPR reporter once why don’t I talk about race that often. I said, “It’s because I’m a neurosurgeon.” And she thought that was a strange response . . . I said, “You see, when I take someone to the operating room, I’m actually operating on the thing that makes them who they are. The skin doesn’t make them who they are. The hair doesn’t make them who they are. And it’s time for us to move beyond that because . . . our strength as a nation comes in our unity.
It is a sad fact that, in many professions, the first part of that holds true.
Also, based on observable results in many professions, the second part is also true.
Some people get tired of battering their heads against that brick wall.
Some don’t.
It’s just a stunning coincidence that the “luckiest” people always turn out to be white dudes.
That’s the only explanation for it. “Luck”.
I’m not a white dude, Jeff.
Neither are the names listed in the column.
So you think that because you were able to Google a couple of black authors that there’s no disparity between black and white authors in the comics industry? I’m sorry but this disparity is ingrained in our culture, it is not just down to luck. I find it worrying that you are so dismissive of what is quite a widespread problem.
Leanne, I know and/or have worked with more than half of the people on the list.
The sad part is that I had to google the names of black women creators.
hey, this article is dumb as fuck. i know this is a flippant comment, but i think it’s at least as thoughtful as you’ve been in attempting to discuss this.
was the nice man named moses or matt? which one? at least proofread your ignorant garbage and make it consistent before you post it for public consumption.
His name was Moses. Why is that strange?
i find it strange you referred to the same nice man by two different names in the same paragraph. instead of checking to see if you made a mistake, you reply “his name was moses. why is that strange?” perhaps if something like that happens you should check for a mistake instead of someone else having to do your editing for you.
Marie, it was a very weird typo, that’s all.
Alan Paton was white. And South African. So describing him as “African-American” is only half right, and even then, not in the way you meant it.
Well, FUCK ME! How did I get to my old ripe age and not know that????
Thanks, P.K!
P.S.: Doesn’t that prove the point?
I mean, a white guy wrote one of the great classics about racism.
Mindy, if you had it to do all over again, you could write this column and be less knee jerk and defensive. The most talented people on the world aren’t all white men. So when you see white men getting 90% of the chances, THAT is when you “smell something,” not when people ask to tell their own stories, finally.
I saw a web hack recently that changed “political correctness” to “treating people with basic respect.” That hack makes it REALLY clear how mean-spirited and thoughtless your column is.
Oh, and if you had it to do all over again and went into screenwriting back in 1971, you’d no doubt have been shuffled to the back behind tons of white boys. Maybe you’d have learned something. But I’d think a nurse would understand not to reopen old wounds.
“The most talented people on the world aren’t all white men.”
No shit, Sherlock.
Oh look – someone alerted the trolls!
Yeah, isn’t it fun?
Sic ’em!
Might i suggest disemvoweling for the most egregious cases?
Interesting to see that all negative comments come shortly after The Mary Sue posted about this. Maybe that blog is just full of hateful people wanting to share how open-minded they are by bashing anyone they disagree with?
Wait, so, your list of a mere handful of names is enough to make everyone give up, go home, racism is over kids, look see I found all of 50 black people in comics! Sorry, there’s about 100 times that many white people in comics. Maybe more. And they continually use and abuse the voices of the black people to get ahead without bothering to give the black folks the time of day. Racism is not over – especially the subliminal, subconscious kind. Especially when stories that are explicitly about the black experience get walked all over by white creators.
Your “ignore the racial lines!” diatribe is laughable. It only comes from a place of power – that you think whiners should shut up, because you have it good enough. Well it’s not done until everyone has it good enough, based on their merit, experience, and work.
Yeah, I have it great, Macca.
I really didn’t read that as “ignore racial lines!” Is that what you meant Mindy? I read that line as a call for inclusiveness. I seem to have read a totally different article than half these commentators (obvi the pissed off half)
Of course, Adriane.
Ok. Everyone calm the heck down! I see A LOT of people commenting here drawing their own suppositions on what is being said.
She hasn’t even read Strange Fruit yet, so stop jumping on her about it like she said it was THE BEST THING EVER. Maybe she’ll agree with you that its a bad idea, or bad execution or whatever. You all just come across as trolls who are shouting down the book and not actually reading what she wrote. SHE DID NOT ACTUALLY ENDORSE STRANGE FRUIT.
Also, I’m pretty sure she’ saying stop making imprints and lines of comics and just tell good stories. Not give it an asterisk because its “the black imprint”
So people want to be heard. Want to be represented.
How is she saying they SHOULD NOT be??
I also don’t care what the person who writes/draws/inks/colors/letters my comics is, I just want to be entertained.
That said I actually hate that every time DC (just for example) launch a female character title they assign a chick to work on it. Women can’t write or draw Superman or Batman??
I can understand that people have experiences specific to themselves and stories those experiences inprire or enrich, but a lot of these comments do kinda come across as “White dudes can’t write about xyz dammit only people of xyz can!” To that I say let me know what you get a alien sentitant tree to write that next Groot comic.
Also if everyone in the DC offices is white, did anyone tell Jim Lee? I’m thinking he’ll be surprised to learn it.
But yeah there is some bad editing in the piece, was the guy’s name Matt or Moses??
His name was Moses. What’s so odd about that?
It’s not odd but you call him Matt later in the paragraph where you named him Moses
I edited the piece so the trolls can stop screaming about the name descepancies at least. Now they’ll scream about how we went in and changed it.
Adriane, just went back and checked the original piece. You’re right, I did write Matt instead of Moses. Very weird typo.
You’re right about the screaming.
Lee Hoffman was a Big Name Fan in the days when SF fandom was almost exclusively postal-based. She intentionally didn’t reveal her gender because fandom was pretty much a He-Man Woman-Haters Club.
Catherine Moore – one of the better writers of her era in fantasy – used the byline “C.L.Moore” for much the same reason.
I’ve suspected that Davin Grayson went by “D.K.Grayson” in her early days writing comics for similar reasons. (And, to be frank, since she was writing “Nightwing”, i wondered if it was a smartass pseudonym.)
Ditto.
Apparently, women can’t write male characters – and female characters aren’t good enough to get headliner status in movies. If they could, Warner would have long-since given us a DTD Wonder Woman film.
argh. I KNOW how to spell “Devin”. Apparently my fingers don’t know how to type it.
Glenn Hauman once said – in response to me apologising for a particularly horrid typo – words to the effect that “Typos are in invisible pixels until you hit “SEND”. Then they turn International Orange.”
..”Davin Grayson went by “D.K.Grayson” in her early days writing comics for similar reasons. (And, to be frank, since she was writing “Nightwing”, i wondered if it was a smartass pseudonym.)”
I thought it was a smartass pseudonym too!
Glad to know my mind isn’t the only one that works that way.
Me, too!
Holy shit.
I’m glad I found this article. I need some time to digest it, but wow. Lots to mull over.