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Message: <blockquote data-quote="The Serge" data-source="post: 1686365" data-attributes="member: 4049">Okay!  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Yeah...  But she had no eyebrows!  JK...  You're right here.  I think they had no choice with DS9...  Afterall, the primary character/star was black and they had wanted to flesh out his character in a certain direction.  I will say that I believe that the handling of Sisko's character was fantastic.  Although I had problems with the fact that he had to start out as a Commander (of all the "leaders" of every ST show, he's the only one who didn't start out as a Captain), I believe that the character's portrayal shattered a lot of stereotypes.   First, he was a single parent.  It is rare to see black males as single parents in movies or television.  Second, he had a strong relationship with his father, another rarity.  And, his race rarely (if ever) to my knowledge came up.  So, I think that generally, Sisko was handled very well.An unfortunate situation, although I think that this is due to the tremendous amount of attention that's been placed upon the black aspects of the U.S.'s civil rights movement (for right or wrong).  Excellent point.  However, what I was getting at is that she's one of the few visible black characters until recently.  Most black characters share her "otherness" and they aren't  mutants.  There's an inordinant amount of black characters with a "special" look to them while we don't see that as frequently with white characters unless they're mutants (generally speaking).Yech.  I never liked the mohawk.  True...  But, I'm getting into percentages at this point.  Most black characters have something unique to their appearance while most white characters tend not to have such uniqueness...  This is especially the case for the iconic characters.The problem isn't so much who's writing the material as much as it's a problem of the direction that people seem to think black characters need to move.  I think it's a mistake to paint all black characters as coming out of the inner cities with a great emphasis on their race and ethnicity.  I think that there are plenty of write writers who could write great stories that just happen to feature black characters.  Now, if the goal becomes one in which the character's race is important, perhaps a black writer would be helpful, but I believe that a competent white writer could pull it off as well.  As long as the writing doesn't steep into cliches and stereotypes about being black (and therein lies the challenge), I think anyone can pull it off.  Afterall, it doesn't necessarily take a male writer to write about female characters.The problem here is that most of the icons have already been accounted for.  The challenge is finding the proper paradigm in which to place such a character.Actually, I think the cartoon character, Static Shock, would make for a great comic book character.  He's not from the inner city, he doesn't have a chip on his shoulder, he doesn't look strange or weird.  He has a strong familial background.  He has no political interests.  But, he's black and one can feel that he's black without it being an issue (it's ashame that he has the little white sidekick...  It's almost as if the producers felt that there had to be a prominent white buddy in order for the show to sell).  Static Shock reveals that this can be done.  Hell, GL could be handled differently.  He could have come up in the 'hood, but against all odds made it out and ended up doing well financially and eventually as a Green Lantern.  This could be very much a sideline issue and not the focus of his character, but an element to help flesh him out.  I do agree that what tends to happen is that too many writers either bow to stereotypes or they go too far in reversing stereotypes.  Back in the 70s and 80s with characters like Black Vulcan, Apache Chief, Samauri, and El Dorado, that was the time to feature new ethnic characters because there needed to be greater awareness.  We've moved past that now.  Now, if we had a character named Vulcan, who just happened to be black, it would work.  If we had a guy called Monolith who just happened to be Native American, that would work.  And so on.  The race, while a part of the character, needn't be the focus.  Writers, black and white, need to learn how to do this.  In doing so, they need to recognize that there's no need to incorporate physical differences unless necessary.  In the case of Vulcan, flaming eyes when he uses his powers if fine...  Hell, you could even make him redbone.  But a red streak through the hair or giving him perpetually red eyes seems to be an attempt to rob the character of his racial identity.It was a great scene and a revelation that these cartoons aren't just for kids.  I don't think there was a reference to it during the WWII episodes...  As for the Nazi references, I don't think they could get away with it at all.  They didn't even mention Hitler's name.   I suppose Terry's girlfriend was Asian.  And you're right about the Gordon/DA thing.  However, this wasn't a high profile thing between central characters that continued over the course of quite a few episodes.I love this show.  We are seeing a thawing of this sort of thing and I think that's great for children and young adults.</blockquote>

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