The latest stunt by these pro-black comic readers/artists is to start a petition against DC comics because they haven’t put out a mainline black hero book for the past 1200 days or so. When that didn’t work, they have threatened to take their black dollar from them and boycott the buying of DC comic books until they get with the program. I don’t agree with this movement at all. This, however, does shine some light a point my people don’t want to acknowledge. In a time where we can take our “strong black dollar” and spend it wherever we want, with whomever we want; we’d rather ask white people to showcase us.
There are plenty of indie black comic creators (such as myself) that are out here; from Black Sands, Godhood Comics, Rippaverse, Saturday AM (-cringe-) just to name a few. The truth is our own community doesn’t acknowledge them. For whatever reason, they’d rather give their money to the white owned companies instead of spending it with the indie black creators. If they do, that is reserved for specific types of black people. That is another blog I will write in the future, but that’s not the main focus of this one.
The irony is that most of the black characters they want to get books were created by white people! So then, they will complain about that as well. Not only do DC have to put out a black mainline character, but it also has to be written by a majority black team. The white people can’t write for their OWN characters now!? What kind of logic is that? Imagine, a black person creates a famous white character. Would they allow a bunch of random fans to come in and say “well, you better make sure there is a majority white team to write for that character. You haven’t lived their struggles, so you can’t tell their story!”?. I’ll save you the brain power; THEY ABSOLUTELY WOULD NOT ALLOW THAT. They would call those people racists who are trying to control black people and what they do. There would be black comic creators on the white social media platform bitching about how white people can’t handle the power of black excellence or whatever. So, I’m glad as of right now DC has ignored this movement.
Even the corrective actions DC has to do to stop this impending boycott screams narcissism and stupidity.
So, obviously announce that they are going to create some mainline black comics, but the caveats are laughable. It has to be a black creative team, be prioritized in promotion, and be guaranteed to at least 2 years of story. What incentive does DC have to do this? They act like black people are going out here and funding the majority of DC sales. Is DC really going to cry over a fraction of comic buyers that only make up 13% of the population?
Then, let’s look at the rest; release educational information on how “sales” work so the misleading of fans ends and the full transparency begins. So, this refers to the common fact that BLACK LED STORIES DON’T SELL. I will say this, they WILL sell. Spawn has done incredibly. Do you know why? Because the focus isn’t on the struggles of being the black character in the world. He is a well written character that just happens to be black. These pro-blacks fail to understand that the majority of the populus are down right tired of having DEI shoved down their throats. So, in general when they just see a black character on a cover, they hesitate. Years of “my black struggles”, let’s reboot series and race swap characters, and white people are bad…people are just sick of hearing/seeing it. They go in with the assumption that hey are going to be brow beaten with lectures about racism, bigotry, and all these other social justice issues. So they steer clear and these pro-black buyers/creators don’t get that. They think the internet is the reality of the country. They think that just because the internet is praising them for being social justice warriors, that everyday people are going out there thinking the same way. But, that ship is getting further and further from the docks as time passes. People really are getting more and more annoyed with them.
Then, I have no idea what the last one is for. “If the series perform well, make a Power Company book for minor minority characters”. So basically another story featuring more black characters so they can get their shine. But, that’s banking off the fact that these new series actually make money. So, if DC caves (chances are they will throw together some slop just to shut them up), then this book will only be made if said DC trash is successful. Once again, it won’t be because reality is different form the internet.
Outside of the audacity of these pro black comic buyers/creators, this demonstrates the state of my people and why I will never side with them when it comes to race issues. It’s just like when they keep bringing up Black Wall Street, but all these black millionaires haven’t put together something in current day that is similar. We much rather have someone else do it…but on our terms. They want to come in and be the boss of the company, but not work for the company. They are the type that are the ones that say “I pay your salary! You work for me!”. It’s just disgusting at this point. If DC isn’t producing the books you want to see, STOP BUYING THEIR BOOKS and buy from people that are telling the stories you want with the characters you want to see. We don’t need a movement to say this! It just screams desperation at this point to keep begging white people to include you in stuff you had no or at least very little contribution in building yourself.
This overall movement is stupid. The reality is DC does not care about color. They care about profit. If those mainline black characters were actually selling, they wouldn’t cut the stories. No sales report reveal is going to change that. They are a business. They keep the money makers and can the money drains. They aren’t going to continue producing something just for the sake of diversity if it’s causing them to hemorrhage money. That’s just logic. Not racism as they are trying to paint it out to be.