Nonwhite audiences are always expected to relate to white characters because of their character traits, their personalities, their wants and needs, their struggles, their triumphs, their secondary identities, their morals or lack thereof, their expressions of love and acts of hatred. But white audiences do not, cannot extend that same courtesy to nonwhite characters. Too often, the relatability of a character is blocked by skin color, their personalities hidden behind the impenetrable armor of their different features. Their experiences, expressed in the most human terms are far too alien for the white mind to comprehend, to even perceive.
The white hero, righteous and flawed, perfectly imperfect; isnât he just like you? Like all of us? Who cannot see a bit of themselves in him? He could be anyone of us! The Black hero, are they really the hero? Are the actions they took the right ones? Arenât they too aggressive? Too shortsighted? Too stupid? Is this really the hero? Isnât this a wolf in sheepâs clothing? A distraction? A trick? Is this Black hero meant to test our critical gaze? That must be it, we are meant to look past what they say and what they intend. What we come up with is the truth about this Black âheroâ. We were clever to see their skin and know what they do and say arenât true, arenât enough, arenât familiar, are too foreign. This isnât our hero, they canât be! Just look at them! Weâre too different from them, how can we see ourselves in them?
How can we see anything human, in the Black âheroâ?
annaxmalina
dededos
blakekathryn
stormborns
germansingergirl
izzy806
baratheonpilled
