Question: Where you around when Aquald/Kaldur was first introduced? Because I was, and I remember people calling him “Blaqualad” from the second his face appeared on the promo.
Not to mention many people had said he was going to die by the end of the season anyway. He was either hated or ignored once the show started, and once he took the position of leadership, a VERY popular trope was that he would die a glorious death so that Robin could take his “rightful place” as head of the team.
There are plenty of other examples. Take the hatred Miles Morales got (and still gets) even though both he and Peter have been able to exist together.
Take the hatred Riri Williams got during her introduction.
Most people are more than happy to erase Duke Thomas as one of Bruce Wayne’s “kids” despite the fact that he’s an original character who isn’t taking anyone’s mantel.
Cyborg has been criticized as “not belonging” to the Justice League since the beginning of New 52. Hell, if anything, ya’ll should be happy that Cyborg’s there, because now they don’t have to racebend a white person. But, nope.
Then there was Rue from the Hunger Games (played by Amandla Stenberg) who was black in both the movie and the source material, and yet people still went to twitter to express how they “couldn’t sympathize” with her anymore.
We’ve got Michael Burhnam, who’ll be leading the new Star Trek series and people are pissed off about a Black woman in the lead role.
Let’s not forget how the Star Wars fandom felt about having a “Black Stormtrooper” before anyone knew anything about who John Boyega was even playing.
If you were in the Glee fandom, you’ll probably remember how much shit Mercedes got for being just as ambitious as the rest of the Glee kids. And then of course, there were the people saying she didn’t “deserve” Sam Evans.
And then there’s the entire cast of The Get Down that is routinely slept on.
There are the people who demonize T’challa and call him selfish for wanting to Avenge his father (who by the way was the acting monarch of a nation, so T’challa’s quest for answers was also a way of preventing a political fallout.)
And I haven’t even mentioned Sam Wilson, James Rhodes, Mike Peterson, Luke Cage, John Stewart, Amanda Waller, Ben Sisko, or Ororo Munroe. I’ll give you a hint…all of those characters are crapped on and held to a ridiculously high standard that white characters aren’t held to.. .
So, instead of saying “Make your own original characters” instead, ya’ll can just say, “I don’t want Black people in my stories”
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