Media week 2

While looking for comics to write about, I came upon a website that talked about a little bit of their history. There was controversy throughout comic books, but that is not what I am writing about today. Today I am going to discuss the appearance of African American characters in comic books. While looking through some old comic book covers, I noticed that all of the early comic book heroes were white. According to www.wired.com, the earliest that African Americans appeared in comics was before WWII. However, this does not mean that they were heroes. African Americans and other minorities were usually just side characters that really had no importance. During WWII, all minorities in comics seemed to disapear. Finally, in the 1960s and 1970s, African American figures came back to comics, but this time they were not seen as side characters, they were placed as main characters.

This information relates to our class work due to the fact that we discussed race during the first week of class. In the movie that we watched on race, they had proven the fact that there is no difference between minorities and whites (when it comes to our mitochondrial DNA). They also talked about the social side of racism, and that is what we have learned compares to the history of comic books. This proves that socially as soon as African Americans became legally equals to whites, that they were no longer looked down upon or made fun of due to the nature of the comic. Now, African Americans are superheroes in several comics.

I found it very interesting to read about the history of African Americans in comic books. I felt very disappointed that it took that long for a black super hero to imerge. However, I am glad that they did, or else characters like Storm from The X-Men would not have been a really memorable and powerful character. Without the changes that our country has made, even when it comes to just comic books, African Americans and other minorities are now justfully represented.

(The following information has been found at http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2003/07/59683)
(The picture has been found at http://www.dialbforblog.com/archives/376/)