>I’m reading Junior Diaz’s anecdote about growing up as a minority, and what concerns me about it is how narrowly he conceives of his complaint.  Let me put it this way: I grew up poor, scrawny, bullied, neglected, the child of immigrants, and for me the idea that anyone would stand up for good things - science as a tool for good, protecting the innocent, the conscience of the individual, the value of friendship, the dignity of all people - was why I read comics. It didn’t matter whose face was on those ideas – it could be Martinex, or Power Man & Iron Fist, or the Beast, or Steve Rogers, or Agent 13, or the Thing, or the Hulk – I wanted to think there was someone else who believed that even the weak deserved some dignity.  Isn’t the real minority in comics those who are willing to do what’s right anyway?>

I don’t know your background, but I think it’s easier to feel this way when there are dozens of characters in the stories you’re reading that look like you do and that share some elements of your background. Even as a poor, scrawny, bullied, neglected child of immigrants, you were visible in your invisibility, you know? Whereas Junot Diaz was not, and did not feel that way.