Spiderman's Politically Correct Replacement

jbarr writes "In the latest Marvel Comic series 'Ultimate Fallout,' Miles Morales replaces Peter Parker who has been killed off by the Green Goblin. Morales is a half-black, half-Latino teen, and the creators haven't ruled out that he might be gay. From the article: 'Marvel's editor in chief Axel Alonso denied that having a black Spider Man was a publicity stunt. 'What you have is a Spider-Man for the 21st century who's reflective of our culture and diversity. As someone who grew up on a steady diet of Luke Cage, Hero For Hire and Shang Chi, Master of Kung Fu, I am personally invested,' he said. "

Comments

PC?

[ceswiedler]

How is a half-black, half-Latino teenager more politically correct than a white teenager?

Re:PC?

[elrous0]

For that matter, when did Latino become a race?

Re:PC?

[u17]

...and disabled.

Re:PC?

[alen]

or better yet what is a latino? i'm sure the mexicans and peruvians think of themselves as different

Re:PC?

[DanTheStone]

And changed his/her name to "Spiderperson".

Re:PC?

[Mindcontrolled]

Wrong direction. Since when are English, German and Russian anything but nationalities? The diversity amongst humans is not nearly large enough to qualify the introduction of biologically solidly defined races. Local varieties, that's all. 'Race' in humans is a pure social construct.

Re:PC?

[elrous0]

Even more, if you sit a white European Mexican next to a full-blooded Mayan Mexican and ask them both if they're "Latino," they would probably both say yes.

Re:PC?

[Anonymous Coward]

Hi, black male here.

I'm not the one you responded to, but I'll have you know that I'm sick and tired of people playing the discrimination card just for getting personal gain. I could have entered some programs just for being black, even when I didn't qualify otherwise. I declined.

Stop discrimination: give everyone the same treatment. That would do more towards equality than anything else.

Re:PC?

[rubycodez]

SpiderTranny is more catchy.

SpiderTranny, SpiderTranny,
butt implants for a woman's fanny,
wears a bra, any size,
can't you see, he likes guys,
look out, here cums the Spider Tranny.

Re:PC?

[Americano]

Dear Sir or Madam,

I'm writing to inform you that your use of the pejorative term, "Spider," is a hurtful and unwarranted attack on our nation's hard-working, industrious population of Arachnid Americans. The term you used (hereafter referred to as the "S-word") has a long and dark history of being used to demean, degrade, and debase select members of the animal kingdom, due to their 8-legged status. We understand that you probably grew up in a conservative household, where songs like "The Itsy Bitsy S-word" were sung freely and without any thought given to the pain and subjugation inherent in that song's subject. Could you imagine singing about a person of Caucasian ancestry climbing up a water spout, only to be frustrated by repeated rain showers washing him down again? I bet you wouldn't find it funny at all, yet you sling hurtful words around, blithely unaware of - or worse, uncaring for - the damage they do.

We hope that you will consider your word choices more carefully in the future, to avoid causing unnecessary emotional pain to our long-suffering Arachnid brethren.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Peter Parker
Director, Arachnid-American National Tolerance Initiative (AANTI)

Re:PC?

[MightyMartian]

The Victorian notion of "race" is of course nonsense, as much an artifact of how the Europeans explored the world as anything else. But there's no doubt that there are identifiable biological populations, all closely related (as compared to, say, chimpanzee populations), but still unique in some genetic and/or morphological sense. What the European explorers failed to pick up on was that there are no sharp divides, that populations exist as continuums, one merging into the other, so, if you look at two populations separated by say, several thousand miles of territory, you will find some striking differences, but if you view the intermediates, you find much more commonality.

For instance, the Victorian notion of race basically had one sub-Saharan African population, the Negro, when in fact genetics and morphology indicates at least four or five distinct groups, and probably more. A bushman and Zulu warrior were tossed together by the European racial theorists, when in fact there are very clear differences. In fact, sub-Saharan Africa has more genetic variation than is present in any other population in the world. There is no "negro" race per se.

Re:PC?

[NiteShaed]

they should be earned for academic or athletic excellence.

Wait, what? Why should "athletic excellence" count for a damn thing? We're talking about education, and furthering ones intellectual pursuits. Why exactly should the fact that someone can throw a ball or run really fast mean they get money for extra education while a smarter (although not brilliant) kid who is a better study does not? If they're good at sports, great, let'em go to football camp or something, but if they want an educational scholarship, perhaps they should display intellectual aptitude. And please don't tell me about how it's because the university can make money off of sports, that doesn't strike me as any better than saying we should have special scholarships for exotic dancers because then the school can open a strip club. Schools are in the education business, not the entertainment industry.

Re:PC?

[salmacis]

Maybe I'm sensitive, but it's because I've been ridiculed, dismissed and attacked.

I transitioned in my twenties, and have lived and worked full time as a woman for over a decade in some very conservative work environments. The hormones did wonders, because even without any cosmetic surgery I don't think anyone here at work "knows" about my past, because if they did, it would get around pretty fast.

So, because I'm "stealth" I get to hear the nasty things that cis gendered people say about trans people. The gay jokes are pretty much unacceptable these days, but the jokes about trans... those still seem to be okay in a lot of people's minds. And that won't change until people speak up.

So I'm speaking up

Re:PC?

[GNUALMAFUERTE]

I live in Argentina. I was born and raised here. Contrary to what most people in the US believes, most countries in South America have a wide racial diversity, with original inhabitants (aborigenes) being a minority in many of those countries. Regardless, we don't have racial issues (at least in most countries, certainly not in Argentina), and no PC bullshit (You can call someone "negro" or "negrito", it's usually a kind word, and can be used regardless of your actual skin color, that is, people usually call you negro or negrito even if you are white, and it's seen as a sign of affection, a kind word). We see ourselves as Americans, since America is the name of the entire continent (regardless of how US citizens use the word), and you'll hear people in South America talk about American history (refering to the history of the entire continent, from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego), American people, American cultures, etc, etc. We use "America" and "Americano" in our songs, to refer to people from anywhere in either North, South or Central America.

Latino is a fucking stupid word, since technically it defines anyone that speaks a Romance language, so, by definition, "Latino" includes lots of European countries (France, Spain, Portugal, Romania, Italia, etc). By this definition, the fucking stupid pope is "Latino", and so where the Romans.

Since it's about language and not race, it also includes, for example, all Brazilians, Including a big part of their population who is black (descendants from former slaves bought from Africa). By the stupid PC standard used in the US, those should be called African-American too ;)

So, No, nobody that is from South America will identify as a "Latino", except for the stupid soldouts (either those that didn't have the balls to stay and emigrated to the US, or those that drank all the cool aid and actually identify with so called 'urban' culture, such as most Puerto Rican youth.

But NO IRISH promised Marvel

[elrous0]

Next up, Wolverine's special two-part Bar Mitzvah issue! L'chaim!

Re:But NO IRISH promised Marvel

[demonbug]

Next up, Wolverine's special two-part Bar Mitzvah issue! L'chaim!

If you think that will be fun, you should have seen the Bris edition!

I give up; how did they counter his mutant healing factor?

How is that "politically correct"?

[eepok]

Political correctness is daintily tip-toeing around words and phrases because those words or phrases may or may not be taboo relative to modern cultural, racial, religious, sexual, etc. constructs.

A Spiderman with non-white ethnic background is just diverse. Anyone can get bitten by a radioactive spider.

Re:How is that "politically correct"?

[Sprouticus]

A Spiderman with non-white ethnic background is just diverse. Anyone can get bitten by a radioactive spider.

Wouldn't a Japanese Spiderman have been more likely.

"politically correct?"

[Fanolex]

terrible, antagonizing post title. having minority characters isn't inherently politically correct. sometimes it's just real.

Leave him the fuck alone

[Infiniti2000]

From TFA:

Italian artist Sara Pichelli, who designed Spider-Man's new look, added: 'Maybe sooner or later a black or gay - or both - hero will be considered something absolutely normal.’

How about you make a NEW superhero that is black or gay, or whatever, and for the superheroes that I grew up with just leave them the fuck alone! Where's your goddamn originality? Of course this is a fucking gimmick to make money, you stupid asshole!

Re:Don't you know what political correctness is?

[jimbolauski]

I am a conservative and this is how I and many conservatives like me think.

Making a deal about race is what got the US into the mess in the first place and to fix it we are going to focus on race? Race plays too big of a role in the American conscience and in order to fix our problem we need to make this a "nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character".