#bat fans have been great tho they are so gracious in comparison lmao

[jesncin]

We are definitely entering an era of performative shallow race bends in media franchise reboots and I think it's critical that when we're criticizing these pieces of media to recognize the larger culture of why it's happening- and how effectively race is portrayed in these stories- instead of losing sight of that in the details of the media's narrative.

Like when I'm criticizing the horrible optics of the scene where white!Batman holds a gun at Black!Flass in Caped Crusader, it would be silly to respond to that criticism with "but Bruce lost his parents!! He's traumatized! And Harvey was just killed by Flass, that's why Bruce had to unload several warning shots on an unarmed Black man in the finale". This is ignoring the meta of criticizing the portrayal of race by engaging in the white-washed logic of the show as a rebuttal. You have to ignore the existence of racism in order to create a rebuttal to criticism like this. That would be ridiculous right?

And yet. Whenever I'm critical of MAWS' portrayal of Asian American Lois Lane as a xenophobe- a race change that should make her informed of the prejudices immigrants face in America since she would be perceived as a perpetual foreigner in that context and therefore understand why it's important to protect the privacy of marginalized people- it's always "okay but Lois was traumatized by her dad so she hates secretive people! That's why she demands an undocumented alien immigrant out himself to her within 5 days of meeting her at work. Perfectly normal behavior!" You don't sound smart for engaging in the white-washed logic of the show as a rebuttal to my criticism on how Asian identity was poorly integrated in this reimagining.

When I'm criticizing how race is seen as a "diverse aesthetic" in these shows, responding to me with arguments that rely on seeing racial identity as purely skin deep- that is not a discussion. It's purposefully ignorant.