# Black characters and creators in sci-fi, fantasy and horror (1996-2006) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 10, 2006, 9:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-characters-and-creators-in-sci-fi-fantasy-and-horror-1996-2006/360187 "2006-06-10T09:18:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2006, 9:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-characters-and-creators-in-sci-fi-fantasy-and-horror-1996-2006/360187/121 "2006-06-15T09:02:19Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > It was interesting when there was a thread on Neil Gaiman’s latest, _Anansi Boys_, and somebody came in to bitch about why were these all white people hanging out with African myths and bumming around on Carribean islands acting like they were black people, why couldn’t they just _be_ black people, and it was pointed out gently that one assumes they _were_ black people, but their skin was never mentioned. I guess people just assume that if nothing is said, then a character is white. (Eventually I think late in the book somebody’s skin is described as chocolaty or whatever, but it wasn’t until you were way into it.) Well, anyone who read\* American Gods\* would at least know that Anansi is a Black man (or a giant spider, depending), so assume his sons are also black (given the setup for their mother’s background) Speaking of Gaiman - there are, if I recall, at least 2 Black characters in _Neverwhere_ - well, definitely Hunter, but I think also the Marquis. > [@Wendell Wagner](#): > > The Eloi were all played by Polynesians in that version of the movie. Smantha Mumba is not Polynesian. She’s biracial Zambian/Irish. And very tasty. ---
**Author:** ![Askia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2006, 9:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-characters-and-creators-in-sci-fi-fantasy-and-horror-1996-2006/360187/122 "2006-06-15T09:55:58Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Well, anyone who read\* American Gods\* would at least know that Anansi is a Black man (or a giant spider, depending), so assume his sons are also black (given the setup for their mother’s background) > > Speaking of Gaiman - there are, if I recall, at least 2 Black characters in _Neverwhere_ - well, definitely Hunter, but I think also the Marquis. One of the things that made my mouth drop in shock watching the BBC adaptation of _Neverwhere_ was seeing the Marquis played by **Peterson Joseph** , who not only played it as a dandy, but a distinctly gay fop. Somehow I had missed the possible racial connotations of the brief description of the first appearance of the marquis in the novel: _’ “Mine, I believe,” said the marquis de Carabas. He wore a huge dandyish black coat that was not quite a frock coat nor exactly a trench coat, and high black boots, and beneath his coat, ragged clothes. His eyes burned white in an extremely dark face. And he grinned white teeth, momentarily, as if at a private joke all of his own, and bowed to Richard, and said, “De Carabas, at your service, and you are…?” ’_ Actress **Tanya Moodie** plays Hunter, and British comedian **Lenny Henry** also has a co-writing credit for the original BBC series (and also does the reading of the audiotape for _Anansi Boys_, which, along with **MrDribble’s** assertion, helps support THAT argument). Besides, Anansi is explicitly described as a black man in _American Gods_, although the gods of Egypt in Memphis (Tennessee) are given a terrific racially ambiguous description… which… I can’t type, because after I paused just now to grab the books from my shelf, while I see my copies of _The Day I Swapped My Dad For Two Goldfish, Coraline, Good Omens, Stardust, Neverwhere, Smoke and Mirrors_ and assorted _Sandman_ trades, I don’t see my copies of _American Gods_ or _Anansi Boys._ Or _MirrorMask,_ for that matter. How trebly odd. ) Apparently Gaiman has talked of writing a short story to resolve a minor plot hole from _Neverwhere_ to be titled, \*How the Marquis Got His Coat Back. \* ---
**Author:** ![Askia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2006, 10:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-characters-and-creators-in-sci-fi-fantasy-and-horror-1996-2006/360187/123 "2006-06-15T10:26:29Z")
> [@Left Hand of Dorkness](#): > > Oh, that reminds me. Speaking of “steaming jungles, bloodthirsty cannibals, and dark gods long forgotten by the civilized races,” I don’t think anyone’s mentioned _King Kong_ yet, have they? > > Daniel Certainly in the original. It’s a bit debatable whether the natives seen on Skull Island are meant to portray postmodern stereotypical black natives in the remake; I think a pretty strong argument can be made either way. I will point to **Evan Parke** playing the capable sailor/hunter Mr. Hayes in Peter Jackson’s remake (whom I correctly had pegged as the movie’s Sacrificial Negro.Parke has also appeared in bit parts in _Planet of the Apes, Nightstalker, Charmed, Medium_ and the cancelled TV pilot _All Souls_, about a haunted hospital. Speaking of _Planet of the Apes_, I don’t know how we got this far without explicitedly mentioning **Michael Clarke Duncan.** We have? Oh, well. I’ll do it again. He’s done numerous memorable roles in sci-fi and fantasy movies since his breakthrough role in 1998’s _Armageddon_, including _The Green Mile_, the _Apes_ remake, the _Scorpion King, Cats & Dogs, Daredevil_, lots of TV animation and video game voice work, _The Island_ and the upcoming _Transformers_ movie. ---
**Author:** ![Askia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2006, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-characters-and-creators-in-sci-fi-fantasy-and-horror-1996-2006/360187/124 "2006-06-15T10:36:17Z")
**Angela Bassett** in \*Strange Days, Supernova \* and \*Contact. \* **Sanaa Lathan** in \*Aliens Vs. Predator. \* **Kelly Rowland** in _Freddy vs. Jason_. **Usher** and **Brandy Norwood** in \*The Faculty \* **LL Cool J** in _Halloween: H20_ and \*Rollerball. \* ---
**Author:** ![drillrod](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@drillrod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drillrod)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2006, 11:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-characters-and-creators-in-sci-fi-fantasy-and-horror-1996-2006/360187/125 "2006-06-15T11:06:11Z")
> [@Askia](#): > > One of the things that made my mouth drop in shock watching the BBC adaptation of _Neverwhere_ was seeing the Marquis played by **Peterson Joseph** , who not only played it as a dandy, but a distinctly gay fop. Somehow I had missed the possible racial connotations of the brief description of the first appearance of the marquis in the novel: > > _’ “Mine, I believe,” said the marquis de Carabas. He wore a huge dandyish black coat that was not quite a frock coat nor exactly a trench coat, and high black boots, and beneath his coat, ragged clothes. His eyes burned white in an extremely dark face. And he grinned white teeth, momentarily, as if at a private joke all of his own, and bowed to Richard, and said, “De Carabas, at your service, and you are…?” ’_ > > Actress **Tanya Moodie** plays Hunter, and British comedian **Lenny Henry** also has a co-writing credit for the original BBC series (and also does the reading of the audiotape for _Anansi Boys_, which, along with **MrDribble’s** assertion, helps support THAT argument). Besides, Anansi is explicitly described as a black man in _American Gods_, although the gods of Egypt in Memphis (Tennessee) are given a terrific racially ambiguous description… which… I can’t type, because after I paused just now to grab the books from my shelf, while I see my copies of _The Day I Swapped My Dad For Two Goldfish, Coraline, Good Omens, Stardust, Neverwhere, Smoke and Mirrors_ and assorted _Sandman_ trades, I don’t see my copies of _American Gods_ or _Anansi Boys._ Or _MirrorMask,_ for that matter. How trebly odd. ) > > Apparently Gaiman has talked of writing a short story to resolve a minor plot hole from _Neverwhere_ to be titled, \*How the Marquis Got His Coat Back. \* An interesting side note - in the comic book adaptation of _Neverwhere_, published by DC’s Vertigo line, the Marquis is depicted not as black, as in of African heritage, but rather as truly black. He looks like a shadow, except for his eyes, mouth and clothing. Unfortunately, I can’t find a picture of the comic version online. ---
**Author:** ![Askia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2006, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-characters-and-creators-in-sci-fi-fantasy-and-horror-1996-2006/360187/126 "2006-06-15T11:18:06Z")
> [@drillrod](#): > > An interesting side note - in the comic book adaptation of _Neverwhere_, published by DC’s Vertigo line, the Marquis is depicted not as black, as in of African heritage, but rather as truly black. He looks like a shadow, except for his eyes, mouth and clothing. Unfortunately, I can’t find a picture of the comic version online. I read the first issue of the VERTIGO adaptation and decided that, as Gaiman project’s go, I’d pass. That’s an interesting interpretation of the Marquis visually. It does make the marquis’ resurrection from being killed at the hands of Valdemar and Croup a lot less of a surprise and quite a bit less ingenious if that’s the case, though. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2006, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-characters-and-creators-in-sci-fi-fantasy-and-horror-1996-2006/360187/127 "2006-06-15T13:11:09Z")
MrDribble writes: \> Smantha Mumba is not Polynesian. She’s biracial Zambian/Irish. And very tasty. Hmm, you’re right. Samantha Mumba is the daughter of a Zambian father and an Irish mother. What’s more, the Eloi in this film (which came out in 2002, not 2001) were played by quite a mixture of people. It appears to me (although this is just a guess from the IMDb entries) that they were chosen to each be multi-racial. A bunch of them are people who work mostly as stunt people. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2006, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-characters-and-creators-in-sci-fi-fantasy-and-horror-1996-2006/360187/128 "2006-06-15T14:00:45Z")
Excuse me, that should be “MrDibble”, not “MrDribble”. ---
**Author:** ![Askia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2006, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-characters-and-creators-in-sci-fi-fantasy-and-horror-1996-2006/360187/129 "2006-06-15T14:02:03Z")
> [@Wendell Wagner](#): > > Excuse me, that should be “MrDibble”, not “MrDribble”. It is? \*:: Checks post. :: \* Oops. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2006, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-characters-and-creators-in-sci-fi-fantasy-and-horror-1996-2006/360187/130 "2006-06-15T14:04:35Z")
> [@Askia](#): > > … **Brandy Norwood** in \*The Faculty \* Also the “I Know What You Did Last Summer” franchise, IIRC. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2006, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-characters-and-creators-in-sci-fi-fantasy-and-horror-1996-2006/360187/131 "2006-06-15T14:08:37Z")
> [@Wendell Wagner](#): > > Excuse me, that should be “MrDibble”, not “MrDribble”. I can generally tell when people do it deliberately rather than absentmindedly, so no worries. But thanks, **Wendell Wagner** 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2006, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-characters-and-creators-in-sci-fi-fantasy-and-horror-1996-2006/360187/132 "2006-06-15T14:18:36Z")
**Askia** Remember that at one point, Marquis asks if Hunter can also pull off that little trick. She says she could if she wanted to. Whatzizface (the guy with the rope coat and all the birds- Rook something?) also knows exactly what’s in the box when he sees it. I got the impression that most people could do it, but don’t. Isn’t there also a mention of the Marquis’ skin when he meets the sewer people, and when Rook uses what’s in the box? I always pictured the Marqui as a black man with his hair in braids- both for a flashy appearance, and so that he could unobtrusively hide things in his hair. IIRC It doesn’t come up in the book. But, he struck me as the kind of guy who might hide lock picks, a razor blade or two, a few small bills, and a pen and paper on his person. ---
**Author:** ![Dorjan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dorjan/32/12440_2.png) [@Dorjan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dorjan)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2006, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-characters-and-creators-in-sci-fi-fantasy-and-horror-1996-2006/360187/133 "2006-06-15T16:56:08Z")
This is a bit out of the time range that you requested (96-06), but the Arthur C Clarke _ **Rama** _ series has Nicole des Jardines, a black cosmonaut. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2006, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-characters-and-creators-in-sci-fi-fantasy-and-horror-1996-2006/360187/134 "2006-06-15T19:58:57Z")
> [@](#): > > Smantha Mumba is not Polynesian. She’s biracial Zambian/Irish. And very tasty. OK, then, she would count. And I agree on the tastiness: That movie had many flaws, but she wasn’t one of them. Come to think of it, in that same movie, the library hologram guy was also black, but he wasn’t so big a character. And I’ve never read _Small Gods_, but I thought that everyone knew that Anansi was an African trickster god, in the form of or associated with spiders. Maybe I just knew that because my mom was an elementary school teacher, big on teaching her students about world cultures (so there were always kids’ books about Anansi and other such interesting characters lying about the house). ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2006, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-characters-and-creators-in-sci-fi-fantasy-and-horror-1996-2006/360187/135 "2006-06-15T23:44:52Z")
Chronos writes: \> The Time Machine movie of a few years ago (2001?) had all of the “Eloi” brown- \> skinned, and the “Morlochs” pale albinos, a reversal from the more typical \> depictions. It’s not very easy to say what the “typical depiction” of the Morlocks is. In the book, the Eloi and the Morlocks are both scarcely human. Both the 1960 and the 2002 movies changed that, partly I suspect because they wanted to cast the role of Weena with some flavor-of-the-month hot young babe. In the 2002 version, the Eloi are played by actors that I assumed for some reason to be Polynesian. In fact, they seem to all be racially mixed. In the 1960 version, they appear to be cast to look like new-Agey California surfer dudes and chicks. I kept expecting someone to yell, “Cowabunga, dudes, surf’s up!”, and they would all rush to grab their surfboards and head for the beach. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2006, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-characters-and-creators-in-sci-fi-fantasy-and-horror-1996-2006/360187/136 "2006-06-18T23:42:43Z")
. . . and I hope I’m not repeating anything someone else has said, But my friend Terry Taylor is a sci-fi/horror/fantasy writer (just starting out in the field after years in public television). He’s in a new collection, Dark Dreams, and will be in the follow-up, too. When I asked him about this thread, he gave me a list of current “writers of color” (though the color seems to vary somewhat) in that field: > [@](#): > > Kobo Abe \* Linda Addison \* Isabel Allende \* Celeste Rita Baker \* Gregory Bernard Banks \* Kevin Brockenbrough \* Steven Barnes \* Tobias Buckell \* K. Tempest Bradford \* Octavia E. Butler \* Alejo Carpentier \* Pearl Cleage Ted Chiang \* Samuel R. Delany \* W. E. B. Du Bois \* Marcia Douglas Tananarive Due \* Minister Faust \* Robert Fleming \* Jewelle Gomez \*Hiromi Goto \* Andrea Hairston \* Pauline E. Hopkins \* Nalo Hopkinson \* N. K. Jemisin \* Charles Johnson \* Mary Soon Lee \* Claire Light \* Karin Lowachee \* Brandon Massey \* Mary Anne Mohanraj \* Toni Morrison \* Walter Mosley \* Gloria Naylor \*Nnedimma Okorafor-Mbachu \*Ben Okri Helen Oyeyemi \* Ama Patterson \* Salman Rushdie \* Kalamu ya Salaam \* Kiini Ibura Salaam \* Charles R. Saunders \* George S. Schuyler \* Nisi Shawl Vandana Singh \* S. P. Somtow \* Luke Sutherland \* Terence Taylor \* Sheree Renee Thomas \* Luis Alberto Urrea \* Alice Walker \* Ngugi wa Thiong’o \* John A. Williams Any disagreements, yell at Terry, not me! ---
**Author:** ![lee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lee/32/7455_2.png) [@lee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lee)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2006, 10:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-characters-and-creators-in-sci-fi-fantasy-and-horror-1996-2006/360187/137 "2006-06-22T10:47:32Z")
I reread Snow Crash this week and realized that Hiro Protagonist is black. I don’t know how I missed it the first time as it rather matters in some parts of the plot. His father was an American black in the Army and served in World War II. His mother is Chinese. He is a computer programmer, and the worlds greatest sword fighter, says so on his business cards. ---
**Author:** ![Askia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2006, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-characters-and-creators-in-sci-fi-fantasy-and-horror-1996-2006/360187/138 "2006-06-22T11:41:57Z")
**Eve** , thanks for that list. Some writers, like W.E.B. Dubois, Charles Johnson and Gloria Naylor and Atlanta writer Pearl Cleage I’m very familiar with, but I was not aware that they’d written sci-fi, fantasy and/or horror. (Though I suppose strictly speaking Johnson’s _Middle Passage_ and _Oxherding Tale_ can be all three, and also in a humor section, because they’re often funny as hell.) ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2006, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-characters-and-creators-in-sci-fi-fantasy-and-horror-1996-2006/360187/139 "2006-06-22T14:28:47Z")
> [@Askia](#): > > Gloria Naylor I have here an interesting flyer which mentions Nayor’s 1996 as a _factual_ account of her struggle against government mindcontrol. A look at mindjustice (dot org left out to avoid a trackback), confirms that it was not intended as fiction. ---
**Author:** ![zamboniracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9a140/32.png) [@zamboniracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zamboniracer)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2006, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-characters-and-creators-in-sci-fi-fantasy-and-horror-1996-2006/360187/140 "2006-06-22T14:56:31Z")
Apologies if she was already mentioned in this thread, but there was the black character Original Cindy in the “Dark Angel” TV series which starred Jessica Alba as the title character. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-characters-and-creators-in-sci-fi-fantasy-and-horror-1996-2006/360187.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-characters-and-creators-in-sci-fi-fantasy-and-horror-1996-2006/360187.md?page=8)