My impression is actually that he was surprisingly non-racist. OK, The Sign of the Four had a rather despicable African villain, but beyond that, he’s much more tolerant. He’s humbled by his error in “The Yellow Face”, and there’s another story where he goes head-to-head against the KKK.
Chronos: In The Sign of Four, Toby comes from the Andaman Islands, not Africa. Johnathan Small is the main villian and Toby acts at his behest. I also don’t recall Holmes making any disparaging remarks about Toby, although it has been a while since I’ve read the book. Also, Holmes and the police inspector (Athelney Jones?) clearly don’t like Small, who does say something to the effect “you don’t know what it’s like to be in a prison where all the black men are intent on taking it out of you.”
In “The Adventure of Three Students,” it’s Watson who’s suspicious of an Indian student who doesn’t want to spend much time with the detectives and was pacing the floor back and forth because, in Watson’s eyes, he might be guilty. Holmes points out that it’s quite reasonable that a student studying for an important exam doesn’t want to waste time with strangers and many students often pace when memorizing material.
I know it was a different era, but old school Wonder Woman comics are some of the most racist stuff I’ve ever seen. If the entire world is that racist, she is going to be racist - off the clock or not.
"E-EEK! A gallopin’ ghost! " is a good example. Then there’s this one, which I think is my favorite. It manages to be racist, sexist, and offensive to fat people all at the same time! You just can’t find high quality prejudice like that any more.
Not african – he was an Andaman Islander. The Andamans are off of India. Interestingly, some tribes there are still free of contact.
- There’s a fallacy of one-directional progress here.
- Those who’ve been around a long time have probably had their horizons broadened with age, whereas it is the young and relatively inexperienced who fall back on stereotypes.
- Some of the older comic-book superheroes were pretty much developed by Jewish guys when Jews were a despised & in some places quite persecuted minority, and are consciously anti-racist.
Barry is believable, but that’s sorta like the people who think that Clark Kent as a white rural guy would be prejudiced.
Technically, it was Ultimate Hank who was the massive wife-beater. Mainline Hank struck Jan once that we know of, he was going through some massive stuff at the time, he was embarrassed by it, and he and Jan eventually (after years) reconciled.
But yeah, Hank and Barry both suffer from that “1960’s whitebread blond second-stringer” stereotype, so are great candidates for this sort of thing, unfortunately.
His wife and his business partner would seem to argue against that.
Kyle’s Jewish now? I heard he was retconned from Gaelic-Irish to Mexican, sorta, but when has he been Jewish?
I couldn’t tell you when it was first established, but whenever I’ve seen him do the religion thing, it’s been Jewish services.
Hawkeye. When Henry Gyrich fired him and replaced him with the Falcon–this was around 1978, and was referencing the Bakke “reverse discrimination” case–Hawkeye took his frustrations out on Falcon, not Gyrich.
Inspector Gadget.
Agreed, he seems to consider ‘black unrest’ as an issue requiring superhero intervention.
Not really because even those who were not racist in the past would express it in a way that modern people would find offensive most likely. That doesn’t mean they were racists in context, just that they aren’t familiar with modern sensibilities.
Hell this happens right now in the modern world, http://www.japanprobe.com/2011/08/08/brazilian-soccer-team-uses-slanty-eyes-photo-to-advertise-japan-match/ each culture has its own sensitivities and blind spots.
Rom, Spaceknight. At least if you’re a Dire Wraith.
I’m guessing Hercules isn’t a big fan of [del]Persians[/del] Iranians.
Then, of course, there’s the High Evolutionary, maybe even got to Adam Warlock…
Thank you for the correction.
I still think Hank Pym is … not a great superhero.
And I was always in love with the Wasp.
Some of the recent Black Panther I’ve read has seemed kind of anti-white. It may just have been those few issues.
Is this your argument?
I’ve never really seen Superman say or do anything particularly racist, though. Superman likes everybody.
I found it pretty…bigoted an argument myself.
Although from my limited exposure I thought Krypton was a civilization of superior “racist”(specicist?) imperial oppressive assholes. I mean Jor El chose Earth so his son would have some inferior subjects to lord over as a god king, while still having potential concubines close enough to Krypton as to not be gross on a visual level.
From Smallville mostly:
Jor El seems like an asshole, Kara expressed some…insensitive comments about her new home’s residents and from Clark’s discussions with the Phantom Zone prisoners when he was inside it seemed like Krypton was an authoritarian hellhole.
Wow… that is a heapin’ helpin’.
Dredd is actually probably the most pro-mutie Judge in Mega-City One, responsible for laws letting them in.
Not exactly, but that was hilarious. “Green Martians are like the White people of Mars!”
Except Japs…
Except that, if we judge by Hank’s portrayal in the comics (and what else do we have?) racism is about the only character defect he doesn’t have.
The only time I can recall the matter being addressed is in Avengers #32–33 (1966), where, when his lab assistant and friend Bill Foster (who later went on to become Goliath himself) was attacked and beaten by the racist organisation, the Sons of the Serpent, Pym was the Avenger who seemed to be most violently opposed to their “insidious poison”.
Well, no he isn’t, and he knows that himself. And that’s what makes him a great comic book character. His feeling of inadequacy in comparison to other Avengers, and his need to prove himself, are what have driven him for nearly fifty years.
I’ve said before that I think Pym isn’t really a superhero at all: he’s a stereotypical mad scientist, who just happens to have decided to fight crime rather than, you know, blowing up the world, or something. I think there’s a good chance the other Avengers know he’s a bit crap as a hero, but they encourage him in it for fear of what he might do if he went the other way.
What’s not to love?
Except maybe that bit where her boyfriend suffered a psychotic break and developed a dissociative identity disorder, and instead of getting him professional help, she used it as an opportunity to trap him into marriage, almost certainly contributing to his later psychological problems which resulted in disgrace, divorce and imprisonment. 