My Favorite African American Characters- One Fan’s Perspective

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I was born on the glory days of media: the 1990s. The 90s and early 2000s were very important to people of color and media because we got to benefit from (at the time) the most representation that had ever been seen. Media had finally learned that  people of color wanted to be represented on television and decided to maybe give black characters visibility and lines. I got to grow up during those years and thus I got the great joy of seeing some black characters on screen and while I have always been somewhat culturally abandoned (we’ll talk about that in the next post) it was amazing seeing characters that looked like me and my family on the screen in media that meant a lot to me. We’re going to take a moment to go over a few of those monumental examples of representation and in that, I’ll talk about some of my favorite black characters.

Let’s start with a little story, one of my favorite comic book characters of all time is Iron Man (who is white, I know) and I immediately started cosplaying as him as soon as I could. I have my own ARC reactor and have been proud to be everyone’s favorite billionaire, playboy and philanthropist. Which brings me to favorite character of color number one: Riri Williams also known as Iron Heart. She steps in as Tony’s replacement after Tony…dies or whatever? It’s comics. While out with a friend once who did not know who Riri was saw a small statue of her in her armor in a shop. She immediately pointed at the statue and said “IT’S YOU!” and it filled my heart with joy. Now, many readers don’t like Riri. I can understand why. She’s a sassy black woman who is just as smart as Tony Stark and now has her own armor and was playing around as Iron Man for a while as Tony found a cure for death? She’s a fantastic character and such a joy on the page and I wish more people gave her a chance.

Next up is one that may not surprise anyone: Prince Naveen of Princess and the Frog. Wait? Did you think I was going to say Tiana? Now, here’s the thing: Tiana and I have a lot in common. We both lost our fathers young, we are both hardworking and we are both biologically female and of color. One main difference. I have a personality. I’m unfairly harsh on Tiana because I see nothing but potential in her. Disney had so much pressure on them to have a black princess that they didn’t give her any personality outside of determined and just happening to be black. She’s a safe bet which makes her partner, Naveen so much more fun. Naveen is a charmer and even though Disney is clearly afraid of black men since they couldn’t just say Naveen is from Africa or of African descent he’s a brilliant mix of everything we love to hate about Disney princes. He’s fun and carefree and plays a tiny guitar for some vague reason (I know it’s a ukulele). And as a charmer who occasionally prances around in men’s clothing, I related to him greatly. He’s smooth and he faces for the most part real consequences to his actions. I fell for his charm like so many others did.

I can’t ignore all the other black characters that were mostly sidekicks in the 90s but were really important just to see but can’t really give them top billing. These side characters were important because oftentimes they got just as much screen time as their mains. Think shows like As Told By Ginger, Pepper Ann and the myriad of superhero shows that I happened to like back then. The normalcy of seeing black characters on screen was vitally important to a race-blind kid like me.

Which brings us to representation. Now, despite how young my face my look, I am old. I didn’t get true representation for a very long time. Notice how many of these examples are from the mid-2000s? Well, the 90s was full of representation but none of it felt like it was for me. I may be African-American but I am not an inner city urban youth and I am not biologically male. These urban males couldn’t be further from my reality as a person surrounded by mostly white people from an upper middle class background and had the immense luxury of being able to attend private schools. I couldn’t relate to Static Shock or even the struggles of the best Green Lantern, John Stewart. Amd while I have never needed a character to look like me to relate to them I know how important representation is. Which brings me to two genuine instances where representation mattered.

I have been playing Pokemon since the very start with Pokemon Red/Blue. I didn’t get a female character until Pokemon Crystal in the 2000s and I did not get a character of color until Pokemon X/Y in 2013. I was 23 years old and I finally got a character of color. Until that moment I didn’t think I had any issues self-inserting into the game but then I finally had a character that looked like me and it changed my entire gaming experience. It wasn’t just me playing the game through an avatar, it was me and my Pokemon journey.

Next up is Black Panther because of course it is. Now, I had some narrative and framing issues with the movie but for what this did to our culture is worth the mention. For many African-Americans we do not have a connection to the motherland. It’s difficult to trace family history back when you were not a legal person until the 1860s. But I can relate to Wakanda, a land of black excellence. I can relate to T’Challa doing his best to balance family and duty. I can relate to Shuri who is doing her damn best, and I can ever relate to Killmonger even though he is wrong (and if you say he’s right too emphatically I will shake a stick at you). What was even more amazing was to hear stories of other African Americans say they were proud of their family’s heirlooms from Nigeria and Ghana. It was amazing to see children excited to see a superhero that looked like them kick ass and be brilliant. It was nice to see people of color as excellent, brilliant and not just in grass huts speaking in wood knocks and bird clicks. It was just excellent.

Happy Black History Month. Next post, I’ll talk about my experiences as a black otaku and cosplayer.

 

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