# Why can't Spider-Man be black? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 27, 2010, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-spider-man-be-black/544704 "2010-06-27T20:07:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2010, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-spider-man-be-black/544704/21 "2010-06-27T22:38:49Z")
> [@Cumberdale](#): > > I recall years ago that a black actor was playing Jesus in JC Superstar. The theater got a lot of angry calls, letters and I believe death threats, even though if Jesus even existed he’d probably look more black than the usual blond white guy he is usually portrayed as. > . I remember that. I’m a Christian and can’t imagine why anyone would care what race of person played Jesus in a play. I think it was at a Christian school, actually. I haven’t even seen JC Superstar, but is that something a conservative Christian School should be putting on in the first place? I mean, it’s not Christian, is it? ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2010, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-spider-man-be-black/544704/22 "2010-06-27T22:42:02Z")
Long story short: the fans of the original work (all of who are self-proclaimed non-racists) would go [batshit insane](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0480249/board). ---
**Author:** ![MyFootsZZZ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/myfootszzz/32/12580_2.png) [@MyFootsZZZ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MyFootsZZZ)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2010, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-spider-man-be-black/544704/23 "2010-06-27T22:43:59Z")
What about Catwoman? ---
**Author:** ![MyFootsZZZ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/myfootszzz/32/12580_2.png) [@MyFootsZZZ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MyFootsZZZ)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2010, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-spider-man-be-black/544704/24 "2010-06-27T22:47:17Z")
What about Catwoman? Peter \*is \*Peter, if they wanted to make him black, to me, that would seem like someone doing it for no other reason to get a cheap ‘reaction’ from it. Not that I care, I hate most comic book heroes. ---
**Author:** ![MyFootsZZZ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/myfootszzz/32/12580_2.png) [@MyFootsZZZ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MyFootsZZZ)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2010, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-spider-man-be-black/544704/25 "2010-06-27T22:50:11Z")
Mexican Jesus! (Posting Problems Here) ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2010, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-spider-man-be-black/544704/26 "2010-06-27T22:58:27Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > I’ve never been been by a radioactive or genetically modified spider, and I have “tremendous spiderfighting abilities.” I’ve found countless spiders and killed them all. Skald the Rhymer, Skald the Rhymer Does whatever a rhyming skald can. squishes spiders any size, that’s why there are so many flies Look out! Here comes Skald the Rhymer. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2010, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-spider-man-be-black/544704/27 "2010-06-27T23:00:13Z")
Because a culturally white, but black Peter Parker would not be plausible for his origin story. In order to have a black guy from New York who has a ton of money problems, you’d have to portray him as being a street kid. For him to have adapted to white culture, you’d have to make him more affluent. Or have him live with white people, and spend a bunch of time explaining that rather than getting to the story. The one thing you are counting on by making Peter as close as he can be to the comics is that people, via cultural osmosis, will not need everything spelled out to them. It sucks, but changing a main character’s ethnicity comes across as a bigger change, becuase you’ve changed the visual. Finally, you’ve got to remember that, after the movie, the comic book characters will gradually shift to look like the movie characters, because the popular idea of what they look like will have changed. How the heck can you have Peter change ethnicity? You can’t just put that in and hope no one notices. (And how would people react to a black 40-year-old bum who is unmarried and lives with his parents? You’d better bet that would be perceived as racist.) ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2010, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-spider-man-be-black/544704/28 "2010-06-27T23:03:31Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > squishes spiders any size, > that’s why there are so many flies I LOLed. **Skald** can keep _that_ super power! ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2010, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-spider-man-be-black/544704/29 "2010-06-27T23:17:31Z")
> [@Flying\_Saucer](#): > > Kevin Costner is an American from California. He’s not English and not a noble, but he _played_ one as an actor. Why couldn’t a black actor play an English noble? Cary Elwes was the greatest Robin Hood ever! > [@Lakai](#): > > That was my problem with the remake of [The Honeymooners](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0373908/). You can have black actors play white characters, but the characters can’t suddenly become culturally black. If you do that then it changes the story. In the case of the Honeymooners it made it much worse. What about All In the Family? ![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/p1K1IDbmSIA/maxresdefault.jpg)https://www.youtube.com/embed/p1K1IDbmSIA?feature=oembed&wmode=opaque ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2010, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-spider-man-be-black/544704/30 "2010-06-27T23:19:06Z")
If Michael Clark Duncan, who I’m pretty confident is black, can play Kingpin, I don’t see why a black actor couldn’t play Peter Parker. Then again, there had better not be any bitching if a white actor plays Luke Cage. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2010, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-spider-man-be-black/544704/31 "2010-06-27T23:22:03Z")
**[Robin Hood](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000144/)**: As my first order of business, I would like to appoint a new Sheriff… my friend Ahchoo. **Crowd** : A black sheriff? \*\* [Blinkin](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0087578/)**: He’s black? \*\* [Ahchoo](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0152638/)**: And why not? It worked in Blazing Saddles. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2010, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-spider-man-be-black/544704/32 "2010-06-27T23:23:24Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > A black Robin Hood would be silly. It would basically require rewriting the story from the ground up, to such a degree that it would no longer be Robin Hood. If he’s black, he’s no longer a dispossessed English nobleman fighting against the usurper for love of his homeland, now is he? > > I’d not have a problem with a black Spidey, but frankly I’d rather have a new character on the same lines. They had a black Friar Tuck though. [AMC Networks Press Center](http://www.press.bbcamerica.com/press/programassets.jsp?program_id=111) ---
**Author:** ![Lakai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de0a6/32.png) [@Lakai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lakai)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2010, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-spider-man-be-black/544704/33 "2010-06-27T23:24:53Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Because a culturally white, but black Peter Parker would not be plausible for his origin story. In order to have a black guy from New York who has a ton of money problems, you’d have to portray him as being a street kid. For him to have adapted to white culture, you’d have to make him more affluent. Or have him live with white people, and spend a bunch of time explaining that rather than getting to the story. Not all black people with money problems are street kids. I don’t think using the term “white culture” is the best way to describe Peter. Poor, wholesome and nerdy would be a better way. Donald Glover from Community is pretty much exactly that. Except for the wholesome part, which can be worked on. ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2010, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-spider-man-be-black/544704/34 "2010-06-27T23:29:36Z")
Why does he have to be black or white? Make him interracial. You wouldn’t even have to change Aunt May’s ethnicity. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2010, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-spider-man-be-black/544704/35 "2010-06-27T23:33:33Z")
C’mon, a black guy named Peter Parker? What’s next? A white girl named Laquita Jackson? 😃 And seriously, NO WAY Hollywood wouldn’t mess up a black kid named Peter Parker and his day job as a newspaper photographer. They’d have that kid acting nerdier than Erkel. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2010, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-spider-man-be-black/544704/36 "2010-06-28T00:08:33Z")
> [@Lakai](#): > > Not all black people with money problems are street kids. > > I don’t think using the term “white culture” is the best way to describe Peter. Poor, wholesome and nerdy would be a better way. Donald Glover from Community is pretty much exactly that. Except for the wholesome part, which can be worked on. Street was probably a bad term, as I am thinking of the Hollywood version. But the point is that, being black will mean that the audience will expect the use of a Hollywood Black stereotype. To subvert that requires just as much change in the backstory as just making him stereotypically black. And you’re missing a big part of Peter Parker: he is snarky as all get out. That’s the part that doesn’t translate well to a black portrayal without bringing up the typical black background stuff–the stuff that we’ve already indicated would change the character enough that the comic fans would feel their character has been violated. Finally, you’ve got to remember that the comic book fans aren’t your only problem: Spidey was very recently established as white in the first movie trilogy. There are fans like my sister who never got into the comics, but feel such a connection with the character that completely altering his backstory would feel like violating him. The only way a character can be changed that much is if he is (or at least was) fairly insignificant. Do you think Superman suddenly becoming black would work? Let’s go back further–would Santa work? You guys are wanting to destroy a character for a novel what-if scenario. Oh, and Melon: What’s the point? White Aunt May could have a married a black Uncle Ben, who is brother of one of Peter’s black parents. The reason you’d have to make Aunt May black is to avoid having to explain Black!Peter’s background–not because it is implausible for her to be white. Heck, if it weren’t for Peter already being an established character, trying to make him live with his aunt would require enough explanation on its own. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2010, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-spider-man-be-black/544704/37 "2010-06-28T00:47:14Z")
I think it could be done OK, especially if it was portrayed as an alternate universe. Like the Ultimate version of Nick Fury; white in the main Marvel universe, black in the Ultimate universe. And no one can complain about it violating canon because it’s explicitly another universe. The biggest trouble with this sort of thing is the risk of it looking like tokenism or a stunt. ---
**Author:** ![Flying\_Saucer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/9dc877/32.png) [@Flying\_Saucer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flying_Saucer)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2010, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-spider-man-be-black/544704/38 "2010-06-28T00:49:11Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > But the point is that, being black will mean that the audience will expect the use of a Hollywood Black stereotype. To subvert that requires just as much change in the backstory as just making him stereotypically black. I don’t understand this. Why is it all about what the audience expects? Why can’t we change their expectations? Subvert them? Overcome them? > [@BigT](#): > > And you’re missing a big part of Peter Parker: he is snarky as all get out. That’s the part that doesn’t translate well to a black portrayal without bringing up the typical black background stuff. Are you saying that black people can’t be snarky? Or that black actors can’t play snarky characters? Neither of those makes any sense to me. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2010, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-spider-man-be-black/544704/39 "2010-06-28T00:51:14Z")
I don’t think it would matter. Sometimes people do all black stagings of plays–I saw an all black Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. If you think about, it is implausible that a black family would rise to prominence in the South at that time…but I saw it less as them actually being black and more that the actors were black, while the characters were just…whoever they happened to be. If that makes sense. That is, it’s less about race, and more about just the characters. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2010, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-spider-man-be-black/544704/40 "2010-06-28T00:54:28Z")
> [@Flying\_Saucer](#): > > Are you saying that black people can’t be snarky? Or that black actors can’t play snarky characters? Neither of those makes any sense to me. He’s saying it would be difficult to do it with a black character without making him the stereotypical mouthy street kid. Or Will Smith. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-spider-man-be-black/544704.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-spider-man-be-black/544704.md?page=3)