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Encounters With Bigotry | |
Posted Jan 7, 2011 - 9:08:03
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 There are times in my life where I start to forget how many racists and bigots there are in this country. Maybe it's because I mostly just end up socializing with open minded people, maybe it's because I was raised to not hate anyone... but every once and a while, I end up accidentally outside my bubble.
This time, of all places, it ended up happening via comic books.
So while I stopped reading the Batman comics almost a decade ago, I still keep up with what's happening in the book. I don't know why, but for some reason I feel the need to know the current major storylines with the Caped Crusader. One of the most recent stories has been the "Batman, Inc." plot, in which Bruce Wayne is recruiting other superheroes to be Batman's representative in other cities (the Batman of Rome, the Batman of London, etc). Whether you think this story is a good idea or not, DC did one thing that was guaranteed to massively offend the bigoted amongst us:
A Muslim was chosen as the Batman of Paris.
Now, while I think this is a cool idea (and this Comics Alliance article from December 28th explains why better than I could), the bigots totally flipped out. From racism that says a man born and raised in France can't be apparently be French if his parents were immigrants to general hatred against Islam, they screamed across the internet like a bunch of crazies. I had only read about their reactions (avoiding the nutzo blogs myself) until Shortpacked! featured a guest strip by something*positive's Randy Milholland on the issue.
In the comments came the complaints.
In the comments came the anger.
In the comments came the bigots.
While most of the reactions to the strip were positive, as Shortpacked! readers tend to be fairly open minded themselves, the vocal minority screamed in anger against the guest strip. The amazing thing to me though is how people tried to deny they were bigots. They danced around the issue, and justified their bigotry... but it was there none the less. It amazes me how people can be so blind to their own prejudices, or at least pretend they aren't there... but then they say things that are so ignorant and hateful.
And I just don't get it. I know last week that I said I didn't know how people could Live Angry - but what I don't understand even moreso is how people can just hate so much. It's just a black and white world to them, and maybe they need the simplicity of "Us vs. The Other" to conceptualize the world. I don't know, and honestly it just makes me sad to think about it.
Hatred is a poison, and the world needs to stop drinking it.
- Traegorn
To be honest, the idea did come by surprise. I have nothing against Muslims being at one point in my life I lived around them. What I think of the whole thing is that it's more of a surprise to that DC made a move.
I think it's like every new thing. It takes a period of time to scream and shout and then the people will slowly accept it or keep their closed minds to themselves.
It's no different than the Civil Rights movement from 1960's. Every new thing needs to settle in.
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