New Brevoort Formspring

If somebody received enormous amounts of hate mail based on something they said here, I would suggest that it may have more likely been triggered by what they said than any instigating by me. I am not in favor of such tactics and do not support them.

I think, though, that this does point to a place where maybe people ought to be taking a look in the mirror and making a gut-check to themselves about how they are representing their opinions. There’s nothing wrong with liking the traditional Thor, or Carol Danvers as Ms Marvel, or Steve Rogers as Captain America, and with wanting any of them back in those roles. But at the point where your expression of such a feeling is about being the victim of diversity, about being “deprived” of your favorite character due to “politically-correct reactionism”–as though 80+% of all comic book super heroes weren’t straight white people–that’s where you stop talking about a preference for one fictional character over another and get into biases based on real-world ethnicities, religions and orientations.

As a reader, there are literally hundreds of characters who, in one way or another, mirror my experiences as a human being, because I happen to be a straight white dude. Whereas for other people in this world, a huge number of them, the options are far more limited. And this isn’t a white world–it hasn’t been for years and years and years. That’s frightening to some people, but that’s the tide of history. And it’s right. And I do not think for an instant that there is anything unfair about their being some characters, prominent characters, of every possible persuasion. We don’t have every single base covered yet, but it’s a process and we’re working on it. But it takes a special kind of entitlement to feel like 80+% isn’t enough for you.

I think the world in general would be a better place if people could stop looking for differences to divide us and instead embraced the commonalities that make us all the same. If I’ve learned anything, it’s that there are assholes of every possible persuasion–but those assholes are not representative of the whole of the  demographic groups to which they happen to be a part–they’re just assholes. But that’s not everyone, and isn’t really even most people.

And, bottom line, if you need the anonymity to express your opinion on a matter like this, you might be an asshole. Stop, double-check yourself. Be the better version of who you are. (A clue: if your statement begins with some version of, “I’m not a racist, but…”, you’re firmly in asshole territory.)