Dating all the way back to the 60s there were movies with black leads. Granted, films like In the Heat of the Night 1967 made an issue out of the lead character’s race (a great film btw if you haven’t yet seen it), but by the time the 80s and 90s came, black leads were normal. Murtaugh in Lethal Weapon, various big budget blockbusters with Denzel Washington or Wesley Snipes, Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker teaming up for Rush Hour… people loved those movies. Race was never an issue. Does anyone think a white person couldn’t identify with Chris Tucker’s loudmouth but clever cop or Jackie Chan’s disciplined hero archetype in Rush Hour? Or a black viewer didn’t enjoy Batman 89? It’s ridiculous and worse, it’s racist.
Modern movies are written by people with that mindset. Which is why they are shit. And why when they do these race swaps or “changes for modern audiences”, it’s not motivated by representation, but by anti white racism. Which is why these films flop. Most people (of all races) see through it.
Should there be films with black, asian, native american whatever leads? Sure. But race swapping established characters is not the way to do it. Hans Christian Andersen didn’t write Ariel as black. Adding black background extras to Cinderella or other 16th century fairytales playing in Britain or Germany is a distortion of history and an insult.
If people want to make movies with a black main character, go find a figure from African folklore, or… oh no the horror of creativity… make your own character! Like Blade, Spawn, etc. It’s not hard to come up with a black character.
Moreover, if you think of it, they’re trying to destroy white culture by race swapping all these white characters, but what they’re really doing, is saying that white storytelling is superior, because instead of adapting African culture or coming up with their own characters, they piggyback on the stories of the race they hate. Another instance of racists shooting themselves in the foot.
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