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Every Complaint About Javicia Leslie as the First Black Batwoman Is Ridiculous
If you're mad because "Batwoman was never black," there's something you need to know...
07.09.2020
Naluda
TV's newest incarnation of Batwoman, Ryan Wilder, is Black.
The CW's Batwoman has always had a progressive streak. In the first season, Orange Is the New Black alum Ruby Rose plays Kate Kane, Bruce Wayne's cousin who dons the Batwoman cowl to protect Gotham City. Just like every other superhero show, Kate's romantic life factors into the plot. Unlike the rest, however, Kate is an out lesbian, making her the first leading lesbian superhero in television history.
But after the first season, Ruby Rose announced that she was leaving Batwoman for unspecified reasons, allegedly related to burnout from the ridiculously long work hours required from a superhero series lead. This meant that in order for Batwoman to continue, the CW would need a new star.
Enter Javicia Leslie, former co-star of CBS comedy-drama God Unfriended Me. Prior to Leslie's casting, fans of the show wondered how Batwoman might handle the transition of actresses. Would Kate Kane just look completely different in season 2 with no canonical explanation?
Nope. As it turns out, Javicia Leslie's Batwoman will be an entirely new character: Ryan Wilder.
<p>"I am extremely proud to be the first black actress to play the iconic role of Batwoman on television," <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-53346036" target="_blank">said Leslie</a>. "And as a bisexual woman, I am honored to join this groundbreaking show which has been such a trailblazer for the LGBTQ+ community."</p><p><div id="ezoic-pub-ad-placeholder-632"></div>
<!-- End Ezoic - undersecond12 - under_second_paragraph --></p><p>While plenty of fans are incredibly excited about the announcement, there's another demographic that, both unfortunately and unsurprisingly, always seems to come out of the woodwork when a Black person is cast in a major role: racists.</p><p>But even though it's easy to chalk their complaints up to unabashed racism (mainly because their complaints are so deeply racist), there's a good chance that a lot of these complainers don't actually understand how racist they are. After all, when you dig into the content of their gripes, practically everything they say is based on logical fallacies and gaps in understanding.</p><p><div id="ezoic-pub-ad-placeholder-632"></div>
<!-- End Ezoic - undersecond12 - under_second_paragraph --></p><div id="61860" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="bfcace1a1699e1dd2ec10b6bcc66e879"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1281014304037314561" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">@warnerbrostv @CWBatwoman Batwoman was never black. If white voice actors can't play white characters, black actors… https://t.co/xQ0oIIVYdl</div> — Ben The Human (@Ben The Human)<a href="https://twitter.com/Loghairn/statuses/1281014304037314561">1594252584.0</a></blockquote></div><p>There are two core arguments that (almost always) White Guys Angry About Black People on Their Screen like to offer:</p><p><strong>1. The character is not Black in the source material (or as the guy in the above tweet puts it, "Batwoman was never black").</strong></p><p><strong>2. Why is it okay for Black people to play white characters but not for white people to play Black characters?</strong></p><p>The answer is multifaceted, so let's start with the obvious.</p><p>Source material and their adaptations are, by design, canonically separate. The events in CW's Arrowverse, in which <em>Batwoman </em>takes place, hold no bearing on the events in the DC comics. In fact, the Arrowverse is only loosely based on actual events from the comics, and as such, there is no prior "canon" that the show even claims to be following.</p><p><div id="ezoic-pub-ad-placeholder-632"></div>
<!-- End Ezoic - undersecond12 - under_second_paragraph --></p><p>Moreover, even in official comic series, superhero mantles are nebulous. Kate Kane is the first and best-known identity of Batwoman, but plenty of other characters have undertaken the role of Batwoman across various storylines—Brenna Wayne in <em>Batman: Dark Knight Dynasty</em>, Bette Kane in <em>Titans Tomorrow</em>, even Selina Kyle in <em>Superman/Batman</em>. There is no singular "Batwoman."</p><p><div id="ezoic-pub-ad-placeholder-632"></div>
<!-- End Ezoic - undersecond12 - under_second_paragraph --></p><p><strong>If you have a problem with Ryan Wilder, a brand new character, being black, but not with all the other spin-offs where Batwoman is any white woman other than Kate Kane, then congratulations: That's your racial bias on full display.</strong> </p><p>Next time one of these people posits, "Why don't they just make a new Black character instead of changing one that already exists?" you can feel free to reference <em>Batwoman</em>'s Ryan Wilder and point out that they still whined about it.</p><p>But for the sake of argument, let's say that in the Arrowverse, they really did choose to depict Kate Kane as a Black woman instead of making the Black Batwoman an entirely new character. So what? Again, it is a <em>loose adaptation</em>, and even <em>straight adaptations</em> are allowed to take liberties. Tyrion lost his entire f*cking nose in the <em>Game of Thrones </em>books. The show made him significantly less hideous. Who cares? If you don't like it, become a director and make your own superhero movie.</p><p><div id="ezoic-pub-ad-placeholder-632"></div>
<!-- End Ezoic - undersecond12 - under_second_paragraph --></p><p>Now onto the second part. Oftentimes, these complainers wonder why everyone else seems so fine with Black people portraying canonically white characters, but not the other way around. One of their most common examples, nowadays, is Black Panther. "Imagine if they made Black Panther a white person?" they suggest.</p><p><div id="ezoic-pub-ad-placeholder-632"></div>
<!-- End Ezoic - undersecond12 - under_second_paragraph --></p><div id="df72b" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="f42060e706e23a948acd6ecd86610fec"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1281001802318692353" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">@warnerbrostv @CWBatwoman Wakanda forever. https://t.co/GxicLsc8Rk</div> — Ronaldo - O STF não vai me calar. (@Ronaldo - O STF não vai me calar.)<a href="https://twitter.com/ronlivramento/statuses/1281001802318692353">1594249604.0</a></blockquote></div><p>What they don't seem to realize is that Black Panther is literally the worst example they could use. Black Panther is a character whose entire background and history is part-and-parcel with his Black identity. He is the first superhero of African descent and the prince/king of a Sub-Saharan African country called Wakanda that is heavily based on Black African culture. Black Panther is not a character who happens to be Black. Black Panther's blackness is a <em>significant </em>part of his story. </p><p>The same cannot be said for the vast majority of white characters in comic books. After all, in Western countries, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/13/magazine/white-people-are-noticing-something-new-their-own-whiteness.html" target="_blank">whiteness has historically been the default</a>. <strong>Whereas most Black people in the West share common experiences of racism and discrimination, white people don't actually have any shared cultural experiences as a whole. </strong><strong>There's Irish culture and Nordic culture and Russian culture (etc.), but there's no such thing as "white culture."</strong></p><p>Thus, whiteness is not an integral part of the vast majority of white characters' actual stories. Rather, white characters' experiences tend more to reflect the default imaginary experiences of a nerdy kid in the big city, a rich crime-fighting vigilante, or a woman from an island of warrior women. Those imaginary experiences can, presumably, apply to someone of any color skin because those characters' skin color is effectively irrelevant.</p><p><div id="ezoic-pub-ad-placeholder-632"></div>
<!-- End Ezoic - undersecond12 - under_second_paragraph --></p><p>Of course, if you want to write a story about a white guy who lives in the Sub-Saharan African country of Wakanda and dons the mantle of Black Panther in order to lead a group of people based on Black African culture, you're welcome to do that. That said, you'll have some very challenging story roadblocks ahead of you if you want that character to be believable, as you'll actually need to dive into his white identity in relation to the plot if you want to make the story work.</p><p>But the much broader answer to the overall question of: "Why is it okay for Black people to play white characters but not for white people to play Black characters?" is that the vast majority of big-budget movies and TV shows that get made are based on long-existing franchise properties starring default-white characters—and that leaves far fewer roles for anyone who isn't white. </p><p>That's why so many <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/26/arts/television/family-guy-simpsons-white-voice-actors.html" target="_blank">white voice actors have recently been stepping down from their non-white roles of their own volition</a>. It's not because they're being forced. It's because they realize that they have access to a lot more roles than non-white voice actors currently do, and they want to be part of the solution instead of part of the problem.</p><p><div id="ezoic-pub-ad-placeholder-632"></div>
<!-- End Ezoic - undersecond12 - under_second_paragraph --></p><p><strong>If we want the characters we see onscreen to be representative of the diverse groups of people who make up "American culture," that means that sometimes we'll need to give the roles of once default-white characters to actors of color instead. </strong>The reverse—casting white actors in the roles of non-white characters—only serves to further the problem of limiting roles for actors of color.</p><h2></h2><p>Back to <em>Batwoman</em>. Remember that guy who said "Batwoman was never black?" He's right. There was never a Black Batwoman before. Thankfully, now there is.<br></p>
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Music Lists
Happy Birthday, Jack White: His Most Underappreciated Masterpieces
The rocker celebrates his 45th birthday today
07.09.2020
Jack White almost became a priest.
But then again, did he? The iconic rocker has regularly beguiled the press. "I'd got accepted to a seminary in Wisconsin," he told 60 Minutes Mike Wallace back in 2005 in what seemed like a moment of genuine candor. "At the last second, I thought, 'I'll just go to public school."
Whether you believe that story or not, the blues-rock polymath, who turns 45 today, has led an undeniably punk life and crafted some of the most sacred rock music in history. Two decades after The White Stripes' self-titled debut, Jack White has remained purposefully slippery with the public. He told publications that he and Meg White, his then-wife and White Stripes-cohort, were the youngest of ten siblings and claimed that his label, Third Man Records, used to be a candy company, among other outlandish claims.
<p>While elusive to the masses, White has remained forthcoming in all of his music. Each of his side-projects over the years painted a fuller picture of Jack White's mystical identity without giving too much away. The Dead Weather is for his vindictive tendencies, while his solo endeavors have shared his intimacy. All in all, he remains very rock and roll. Here are a few of his underappreciated albums over the years.</p>
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Dodge & Burn by The Dead Weather
<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="59052057d58747fe96735fc4bb4c2b46"><iframe lazy-loadable="true" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/98oMvKF-78Y?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span><p>Cocked and loaded, The Dead Weather's 2015 effort, <em>Dodge and Burn,</em> finds the band at their most calamitous. "I got a bloodhound tooth hanging like a dagger," Kills vocalist Alison Mosshart cackles on "Let Me Through" with distorted hisses. With White on drums, The Dead Weather is White at his most implacable. </p><p>When he announced no touring would be done in support of <em>Dodge & Burn</em>, the implication was that TDW was formed as a sort of catharsis for White, somewhere to put all the rock-and-roll tar that he's built up over the years. The Captain Beefhart inspired super-group all but detonated on <em>Dodge & Burn</em>, with their slinky grunge guitars and feral growls all sounding extra crunchy.</p><p>The band reflects on the inevitable apocalypse with a bombastic snap that gladly welcomes violence and destruction ("Open Up") and rolls their eyes at anyone who threatens to ruin their demolition, even if its Jesus himself ("Buzzkill(er)." <em>Dodge & Burn</em> is reserved exclusively for those who need to let off a little steam...or start a bar fight.<br></p>Consolers of the Lonely by The Raconteurs
<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="a8ba051ea61ebd21775ad6dc743cd0b3"><iframe lazy-loadable="true" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7lL1CW140FQ?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span><p>Before Beyonce's surprise album redefined the marketing of new releases, The Raconteurs rushed the arrival of 2008's <em>Consolers of the Lonely</em>, all but upending press coverage and flipping mass media the bird in the process. Announced and released within a week, <em>Consoler's</em> remains one of The Raconteur's grittiest records. </p><p><em>Broken Boy Soldier's</em> light-hearted buoyancy was nowhere to be seen. "Haven't seen the sun in a week, my skin is getting pale," calls out Brendan Banson before cackling guitars snap the necks of anyone who has a problem with it on Consoler's intro. </p><p>Jack White is dripping in manic swagger as The Raconteur's co-frontman. He makes the big hooks sound comfortable and casual as if he's jamming with some friends in his garage. He morphs the country twang of "Top Yourself" into a crude, braggadocious declaration of anti-love, ("How you gonna get that deep, when your daddy ain't around here to do it to you?") and uses bright, uplifting horns on "Many Shades of Black" to affirm to the same lover that their tumultuous relationship was destined to end, so it's okay. </p><p>It's all so petty and punk, with White at times bordering on deranged, but it's what adds to The Racounter's unsettling charm. They refuse to be your favorite rock band.</p>Get Behind Me Satan by The White Stripes
<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="42a95cacb5b448443b5dcfaee6f342ff"><iframe lazy-loadable="true" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Hrcum8DHDpo?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span><p>While highly contested, <em>Get Behind Me Satan</em> is The White Stripes boldest album, taking the blues-rock sounds of <em>Elephant </em>and <em>De Stijl </em>that brought them national fame and throwing it to the wolves in favor of oddball piano arrangements, acoustic guitars, and many marimbas. It finds White spiraling into despair, with quirky tracks like "White Moon" and "Little Ghost" sounding like a real-time emotional breakdown, the latter's narrator performing obscure tasks like "dancing" with "the wall" as he falls in love with a ghost only he can see.</p><p>While the record left critics confused, it's jarring sound redefined The White Stripes' identity. Known for their hard-hitting arena rock, <em>Get Behind Me Satan</em> blew open the door for what came after. They were no longer confined to anything and were free to create whatever they pleased. It was inherently a move that was super rock and roll.<br></p>Lazaretto by Jack White
<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="8c43c41a2df22aba84ac16ddf5c1d9b5"><iframe lazy-loadable="true" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qI-95cTMeLM?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span><p><em>Lazaretto</em> is Jack White as his most relentless. Each song on his magnetic sophomore work is a show of force. While Meg White's absence is notable and at times the album borders on Jack White just flexing his guitar chops, each song is full of intricacies that tumble into each other, redefining what's possible under the "blues-rock" moniker. It's inherently busy, with tracks like "High Ball Stepper" descending into chaos with its screams, crisp guitars, organs, and banjo slowly closing in on you–but <em>Lazaretto </em>found White pushing himself endlessly. What was he truly capable of when alone in a room with other bold musicians? The answer was: a lot. </p><p>The cover-art finds White sitting elegantly on a stone throne decorated by angels, a casual flex by White, who believed himself to be a tour-de-force, otherworldly musician, unconfined to the creative restrictions of the mortal world. It was a bold claim that only Jack White could make.</p>
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