Did Chris Claremont chicken out when focusing on a racial issue?
I once found this panel from Uncanny X-Men #196, August 1985, while looking across the web for various pictures, where Kitty Pryde is shown facing off against an apparent black racist. The issue was written by Chris Claremont and drawn by John Romita Jr. and Dan Green (no relation). Not sure who the other mutant is whom this Phil is referencing, but here's my big, controversial question: did Claremont come up short when he had the man ask Kitty Pryde if she's a "mutie", rather than to ask an even more menacing question by asking if she's Jewish (she is)...by using the K-bomb?Well, if you ask me, I think Claremont was wimping out on a racial issue that could have some serious clout by just making one side an actual background and the other simply an allegory. The same argument could be made if you had Zatanna, who's Italian (see DC's Blue Ribbon Digest #2 from 1980, where Gerry Conway established this), in a similar story where a racist challenges her by asking if she's homo-magi in a corrupted form. She could use the same approach as Kitty did to shut up her opponent, which would be to make the point of, "if you're not this, then I'm not that," but it would still only have half the impact because the opponent didn't use a real racial slur to begin with.
I know that to have to see racist slurs like that anywhere, even if they're featured with good intentions, can be offensive and grating to some, and I'm guessing that to some of the Jewish and even Italian members of the comics medium at the time (Claremont himself may have some Jewish background), they were. But thinking about this, while I don't own the issue and can't fully be aware of what the human interest story there was all about, I do think it might've had more impact if they'd made this a story where the racial backgrounds were the specific focus rather than to use a stand-in allegory, even for just one of the two hornlockers.
Mutants and other species with super-powers can certainly make good allegories for real life racial issues, but to make a really convincing point in a case like this, I think that's why it'd be more convincing to boldly use the real things on both sides.
This also brings up a sad case about many comics today. Subjects like what the above are about are almost scarce in comics today, as the companies seem to be intent "not to offend" anyone, even if it's a well-intentioned story. This is but one of the many sad ways in which comics have been badly dumbed-down since the early to mid 90s, as comics became more "mainstream" in their approach to storytelling, while at the same time becoming less so in how they're sold at certain stores and businesses. And even the X-Men are but one of the many comics that either tackle them very little today, or aren't tackling them at all. Racism will always be a problem that the US will have to face, and even in Europe. The only story I really know of involving racial issues of recent was Kendra Saunders' own background story in Hawkman circa 2003, and other than that, there seem to be few others.
And there we have another example of what's either been watered down badly today, or completely lacking. But to really bring back human interest stories like these convincingly, writers and even story consultants with the right knowledge and understanding of these issues are needed, and there's no telling if today's managements would be willing to seek out the right ones.
Labels: history, marvel comics, misogyny and racism, X-Men
