JUST “‘KICKIN’” IT
Today is the opening day for the new movie, Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief. I first saw the trailer for this film when it played before Avatar. It seems like a perfectly adequate young adult movie based on a young adult book series. I have no problem with that. I accept that I’m not necessarily the target audience for this kind of film.
Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief, is a film adaptation of the first book from Percy Jackson & The Olympians series of young adult novels by author, Rick Riordan. It appears to be a coming-of-age story cut from the Harry Potter cloth, wherein a young man discovers his hidden birthright of magical powers along his fate as the only one who can destroy an ancient evil. In Percy Jackson’s case, he’s a halfbreed demi-god, the son of Poseidon, the God Of The Seas from Greek mythology. I sought out the background information of the Percy Jackson series, because there was one aspect of the trailer that caused me to literally, and ruefully, laughed out loud: the Black kid. No, I’m not laughing at Brandon T. Jackson, the young actor in the role. I’m certain that he does a fine job. What made me laugh was the point at which the trailer flashes a title card that states “THE HERO,” and then a displays series of shots which clearly establish the clean-cut White kid, Percy Jackson, as the protagonist-the hero. Next, the character of Grover Underwood-the Black kid- is established as “THE PROTECTOR.” Even from the trailer, you can tell that Grover’s the guy sent to guard and guide Percy through his hero’s journey and introduce him to the wonders of the strange new world he is about to enter. He’s a cross between Yoda and Bagger Vance, I guess.
I appreciate Rick Riordan’s attempts at inclusion; to get a bit of diversity on the page, and ultimately, the silver screen, but we’ve been down this road before. We’ve been the stalwart Black sidekick. If Grover’s tough, resilient, plucky, or whatever enough to protect Percy Jackson from whatever threats he may encounter while he discovers, and learns to use, his powers, then it stands to reason that good ol’ Grover would have the fortitude to BE the hero, right? (Hell, with a name like ‘Percy Jackson,’ I’m shocked that he ISN’T Black.) I know, the Black kid can’t be the hero in this particular story, because the Percy Jackson & The Olympians is rooted in Greek mythology, so their gods obviously weren’t Black. I would give you that argument, if Rosario Dawson hadn’t been cast as the Greek goddess, Persephone.
Perhaps she’s described a little lighter in the books. Then again, maybe Percy Jackson can’t be Black, because he’s the son of the God Of The Oceans, and everyone knows that Black folks don’t swim.
One thing I missed in the trailer, but realized later, was the fact that Grover uses crutches. Apparently, Grover does this to hide the fact that he’s actually a satyr, and the crutches help disguise the unusual posture and gait caused by his cloven hooves. Because I’m already approaching 1000 words, for the time being I’ll ignore the fact that the Black kid is secretly a mythological being whose has traditionally been portrayed as a sex-crazed, indolent, half-animal with a huge schlong that does nothing but play music all day. That’s a post for another day. Instead, I’m going to focus on Grover Underwood as yet another example of the plucky, Black, crippled sidekick that seems so popular in fiction. Rick’s cashing in all his EEOC chips with Grover, huh? But, where have we seen this archetype before? Let me see:
Well, there was that one kid, Stevie Kenarkin from the Fox sitcom, Malcolm In The Middle, played by Craig Lamar Traylor:
As much as I love the Teen Titans, I have to regretfully add Vic Stone, Cyborg, to this list. His dangerous Black virility was dampened by the fact that his limbs, part of his face, and possibly his junk, was burned off by an other-dimensional protoplasmic creature:
Hammer (no MC) was a minor character from the comic book, X-Force, who was paralyzed during a mission with The Six-Pack, a team of mutant mercenaries led by Cable. His teammate Kane (a White dude) had both his arms blown off, but he received superior cybernetic replacements for those. In a fictional universe where characters return from the dead with alarming regularity, Hammer still remains confined to his wheelchair.
A recent addition to the ranks of the crippled Black sidekick is Marvel’s James Rhodes, aka War Machine. Seems like he had his face blown off in Avengers: The Initiative, along with a lot of his other pieces. Fortunately, it seems that he may get better in time for the next Iron Man movie.
However, my favorite example of the plucky Black, crippled sidekick is from no less a writer than Alan Moore himself. When Rob Liefeld hired Moore to revitalize his Youngblood property, Moore introduced Max Doyle, a robotics expert who piloted a number of of giant robot bodies. Collectively, Max and his robots went by the name of Big Brother. Get it? ‘Brother’ can be slang for a Black dude and he zips around in a giant…Uh, I’ll let Alan Moore describe the character in his own words:
Big Brother is the final male member of the team. His real name is Max Doyle. He’s Waxman’s adoped son; he’s seventeen; he’s black; he’s only about five feet tall, and he’s crippled in both legs.
I actually dug the concept, but once you read the description out loud, it sounds like Johnny Sokko played by Arnold Drummond from Dif’frent Strokes.
I’m not saying that these attempts at greater diversity are not appreciated. They are, because these portrayals are a far cry from the days of Stepin Fetchit and Aunt Jemima. However, if you’re a writer in a position to create a new character and their supporting cast, just stop for one second and ask youself: “Why can’t the HERO be Black? Asian? A Woman? Physically challenged?” I think if you answer it honestly, you’ll find yourself with something more challenging to yourself and your readers than a token nod to cultural diversity.
- JEP
The hero can rarely be black because among other things:
1. White people are still writing the scripts and so will inadvertently or otherwise cater to their own tastes and ideals. And
2. White people remain the largest paying consumer group of goods and services, including entertainment, and everyone knows the golden rule. The man with the gold, makes the rules.
(Thank goodness for white guilt and charity.)
Jay,
You forgot Jordi from Star Trek TNG.
Couple of points:
1. Cyborg had a couple of gfs over the course of the comic (one of them was even white). For the early 80’s, that was progress.
2. Alan Moore’s “Youngblood” was a pastiche/parody of the Teen Titans. Big Brother was the stand-in for Cyborg. Giving Moore the benefit of the doubt, maybe Big Brother was a commentary on the disabled Black stereotype…
Daniel-
Point taken, particularly regarding Moore. Although Cyborg’s relationship with Sarah Sims always seemed frustratingly chaste for Vic Stone, the very fact that Wolfman and Perez were able to address the issue of interracial friendship/romance was a significant stepping stone (no pun intended).
Like I said, I loved the concept behind Big Brother and his interchangeable giant robots, and the Teen Titans was one of my absolutely favorite comics when I was growing up, but I felt it was necessary to include them in the list. Summey brought up another good example and I had also forgotten that Green Lantern John Stewart had been confined to a wheelchair in the recent past. Maybe I’ll add those later.
Thanks for weighing in!
- JEP
Summey-
That’s an excellent point! It was particularly egregious, because Levar Burton has remarkably expressive eyes, and for seven years they were hidden behind a repainted headband. Y’know, I think that one of the reasons Star Trek: Deep Space Nine wasn’t more popular was because the only White male, non-alien main character was also the lowest ranking person on the show. Above him in rank were a Black man, two women (one of whom could arguably be viewed as transgender), a Middle Eastern man, and a shapeshifting blob. I know sci-fi fans are generally more open-minded than most, but it still lacked the action-oriented White male protagonist for whom even Star Trek fans have a weakness.
- JEP
DS9 was my favorite, b/c it was different and more continuity based.
IIRC, in the books, Grover was never described as being black, white, asian or other. Neither were most of the other characters. Like most things, race was simply not an issue, nor was it deemed important enough either way for RR to raise when describing characters. Shock and horror. Plus the whole crutches thing was to hide the fact that the magic coverings he was using to hide his goat legs made it difficult to walk.
If you are going to criticise an author for how he portrays his characters, surely its only fair that you READ the original source material and not rely on one studio’s flawed* interpretation.
* In the respect that several significant plot and thematic elements from the book were changed, butchered or ommited by the movie.
Jay, based on the books Grover was a comedic foil imho. When the author first gives a description of him, it ain’t pretty. A quote from the book “Grover was an easy target. He was scrawny. He cried when he got frustrated. He must’ve been held back several grades, because he was the only sixth grader with acne and the start of a wispy beard on his chin. On top of all that, he was crippled. He had a note excusing him from P.E. for the rest of his life because he had some kind of muscular disease in his legs. He walked funny, like every step hurt him, but don’t let that fool you. You should’ve seen him run when it was enchilada day in the cafeteria. Anyway, Nancy Bobofit was throwing wads of sandwich that stuck in his curly brown hair.”
The producers upped the age of the characters (I guess to get some of those Twilight dollars raining down), since this was orignally a middle grade book.
As far as Grover’s ethnicity, it could go either way, since the author decribes him wearing a Rastifarian beenie (don’t know to many white kids wearing those, but nothing’s impossible) and that he has curly brown hair. I doubt if the book Grover would have made it to the screen anyway since I doubt that the author or studio would have gained many fans had Brandon Jackson played THAT Grover (and I have serious doubt that Brandon would have accepted the part if he had to play the book Grover. What may have worked in the book I don’t believe would have transferred well on-screen) As it is, Brandon’s part I suspect, is less cowardly than the original source material, and more of a guide as you mentioned.
Oh, I meant to add that while I do enjoy Don Cheadle’s very fine acting, me and my female friends will truly miss seeing Terrence Howard’s fine self on screen in Iron Man II. So I guess the producers will explain how James Rhodes is now shorte, leaner and browner by saying his pieces parts and his original face got blown off.
Comments like blaster’s above are why I weep for geek culture. Seriously, it’s like one spelling error or an accidental misquote will derail the argument and apparently allow them to dismiss your argument entirely, whether or not the mistake was actually relevant to the main point.
So, apparently Rick Riordan avoided direct mention of race in the books. (Not necessarily an optimal solution for other reasons, but perhaps forgivable for tween-oriented books.) Also, apparently Grover in the movie is more competent than his literary self, particularly with the ladies. So a goodly chunk of what you found eyeroll-worthy in the trailers was all on the film, and not on the author, whom I suspect was also rolling his eyes at some of the decisions made.
Believe it or not, that distinction is of vital, crucial Internet importance because any geek who runs across will, without any sense of context, dismiss ALL of your argument because you put the blame on the *author* and not the *people who assembled the movie*. Whether or not your concerns about inadvertently perpetuating undesirable film niches or perpetuating stereotypes through tone-deafness are valid concerns, believe it or not, does not matter to the so-offended geek.
But while you’re recovering from this dire revelation, a ray of hope: I think you were right to address this issue, I see where you’re coming from, and since you let everyone know up front that Percy Jackson wasn’t a big priority for you, I wasn’t distracted and thrown into a ball of hyper-expressive nerdrage that you got a few unrelated facts wrong.
But, beware the geeks.
blaster219-
Actually, you make a valid point. I read your post last night, and I really had to think about what you wrote before I responded. If you read my other posts, on any subject, my basic tone isn’t snark or sarcasm, because I generally highlight the things that I like or enjoy. When I do go negative, it is because I feel strongly enough about an issue to be critical about it.
As I, admittedly, had not read any of the books in the Percy Jackson series, perhaps my ire should have been aimed more directly at the the filmmakers. Given the quote that Jessica was kind enough to provide (Thanks!) I see Michael Cera as Grover more than the dude who played Alpa Chino in Tropic Thunder. Picking up your contention that Riordan’s literary descriptions were race-neutral, I wonder if the filmmakers ever felt that Brandon T. Jackson could have been cast as Percy Jackson instead of Logan Lerman? Would the books’ fans have accepted that? If Percy’s literary description was similarly race-neutral, possibly so. Then again, maybe not. I don’t know, and I can’t say, but it might be food for thought. I have read that some Percy Jackson fans have taken minor issue with the increase in the characters’ ages and the Annabeth Chase character being cast as a brunette instead of a blonde. Part of the magic of literature is that everyone creates a different image of the book in their own minds.
My point is, collectively, our default thinking is that the hero of any given story should be White, unless there’s a racial or ethnic component required. Even if there is, sometimes those elements might be overridden, for whatever reason. Case in point, while the creators of the superb animated series, Avatar: The Last Airbender, built their story using aspects of various Asian cultures, M. Night Shyamalan, who is directing a live-action film based on the property, his financial backers, or whomever might be in charge of those decisions, decided to use an all-White cast to play the protagonists. That is not to say that people who think this are somehow racists or hold some deep-seated prejudice, it’s just the way we seem to be hard-wired as a culture. Thankfully, those attitudes are changing, but sometimes it takes a nudge to shock us out of our complacency and move to a higher level of cultural awareness. The intention of this post was to provide that nudge. If we recognize these archetypes early, and how they might resonate among the people they are depicting, we stand a chance to break them before they become too entrenched, especially visual representations. This post is a classic example of how, unfortunately, a motion picture or TV show has the potential to reach a lot more people than the written word, because it was the trailer that was the catalyst, not Rioordan’s books.
I do thank you for responding. Usually I make it a point to be as informed as possible before I comment on something, but sometimes I should be reminded to gather all my facts first. Thanks!
- JEP
spookyfanboy-
Thanks for the spirited, and thoughtful, defense! As a comic geek myself, I should have been more conscious of the fandom that follows any given property. True fans are vocal and supportive of the things they enjoy, and take exception to an outsider, particularly and admitted outsider like myself, coming in with guns a’blazing.
- JEP
Jessica-
If you’ve ever been to any of the restaurants in the Mellow Mushroom pizza chain, I think those Rastafarian beanies are part of the uniform, no matter your race, because there’s always one kid back there flipping pizzas wearing one of those hats and a hemp hoodie.
Thanks for the information and the quote!
- JEP
I *was* feeling spirited, both because I thought you expressed some valid points (that I continue to maintain were being overlooked for reasons that are…not quite as valid, in my mind), and because I hold your current work here in fairly high regard. It’s obviously a labor of love.
In fact, I was also feeling somewhat sarcastic, but you seem to have absorbed the gist of both sides and come out the better person for it, so I’ll just close with an opportunity to reaffirm my enthusiasm for your work here.
Jay, you’re a gentleman indeed.
However the issue is bigger that just Percy Jackson and I’m fairly sure Blaster219 knows it, and since I’ve been privvy to the whole Bloomsbury “white models on the cover of books featuring a brown protag -the books LIAR and Magic Under Glass – unofficial reasoning, blacks don’t read and whites won’t buy books with blacks on the cover), and I’ve also read Ellen Oh’s eloquent plea to the makers of “The Last Airbender” link here: http://elloecho.blogspot.com/2010/02/whitewashing-is-racist.html and a group that tracks the continued white washing of asians in media: http://www.racebending.com/v3/featured/the-last-airbender-primer/
The blogsphere has been buzzing with “We’re (POC and all those willing to step up to the cause) not gonna take this anymore”, whether its a POC continually relegated to a sidekick in books and movies, or cast because the author found race “simply not an issue” as Blaster219 suggests, (so I guess its okay to put a minority in there, nobody should mind).
I GOT what you were saying. I GOT what Blaster219 was saying. What I cannot be silent about anymore is how he decided to speak for the author by stating “Like most things, race was simply not an issue, nor was it deemed important enough either way for RR to raise when describing characters.” Now, unless you are the author, that’s a mighty big assumption. And to say that like most things race wasn’t an issue smacks to me of someone in denial about the racial problems and history of race relations that still seep into everyday life. If, after seeing how a publisher and a movie studio decided to cast three non-minorities in the Last Airbender (really four – Jessie McCartney was originally in the movie but it was said he dropped out due to scheduling issues) and I still have to see Uncle Ben and Aunt Jemima’s fake smiles (a bit of history here, Uncle and Auntie was used so as not to address blacks formally as Mr., Mrs., or Miss) add it all up and while some author’s choose to “ignore race” for whatever reason, you best believe there’s some of us who have no choice but to deal with it head on in order to live. Sorry Jay, I just had to get that out.
And may everyone be reminded that Percy Jackson is one of many examples. Which makes a trend. And that, my friends, is the point of the post.
Don’t forget M.A.N.T.I.S.!
Leigh-
I had actually considered adding M.A.N.T.I.S., but decided that he deserved a pass, because he actually was the main character and focus of the show. And I thought I was the only one who remembered that program!
Thanks!
- JEP
I’ve been a mythology nut since I was seven. So upon hearing that the Percy Jackson movie was based on a series of books, I read them (they are smart, funny, well-done, which doesn’t carry over at all into the adaptation, IMHO.) The author doesn’t shy away from race, as was theorized earlier in this thread. In fact, Riordan’s universe establishes the fact that demigods fall under many different races and nationalities.
The only black character who plays a pivotal role is a camp counselor named Charlie Beckendorf. In Riordan’s books, Beckendorf is one of the children of Hephaestus, god of the forge. (I couldn’t help but notice that in the movie, one of the twelve gods is black; I assume, of course, that this is Hephaestus. I can’t remember where, but I’m sure that I’ve seen him portrayed as a black man somewhere before. Comics, maybe?)
What a bunch of non-sense. You should feel honored there was even a black kid hired to fill one of the positions. Due to the theme of Movie im actually shocked theres a African actor in it. Ancient Greece?
American Blacks are absolutely ridiculous, and your blog is an extension of it. You literally see racism under every bush. Inside every crack. Did you see that!?!! the momentary flash of hidden racism??. ahhhhh!!!!! the boogie man!
Blacks literally have ’round table’ discussions wither or not something about something regarding something might possible be racist about something they heard being talked about someone way over somewhere the someone heard someone else say they heard. I mean is it so friggin tired.
Be the Hero?
Are you out of your mind? Its a movie about Greek Culture and Greek History. Do you even know what any of that is? Where it comes from. The depth in which these stories are recorded and cataloged going back 3000+ years?
And you’re moaning about the Black kid not being the “Hero”??
And they way you write your blog is so obvious. How you attempt to ‘fill’ in your racist complaining with gibberish. So amateurish. Its like a little kid crying about his toy… but attempting to act like he isnt crying but using proper english in an attempt to trick the reader by making them think you’re sophisticated and enlightened.
Just stfu.
These are the same idiot who cried for months about the movie 300 being ‘waaaaaaaaacist’
Go fuck yourself. YOU’RE the real racist. YOUR racism screams through every word you write. Your pathetic attempt to ‘hide’ it with an amateurish academic writing style is pathetic and doesnt work.
Not. That said. Go ahead and call me a racist for pointing out your racism. With your tiny little brain and your PREDICTABLE reply.
I honestly think they make people like you in factories. Because you are predictable across the board. Your emotional reactions to any giving situation can be seen coming from miles away. Its child like. Grown children attempting to sound ‘logical’. What a complete and total joke. Your blog sucks. Your article sucks. Your writing style sucks. Your point of view is a joke. And you’re a sensitive little black racist. You’re egotistical. You think you should be ‘king’ of the world. You use words like ‘birthright’ that show exactly where YOUR mind is situated.
I mean you’re clear as day to me. But im sure you get away with your bullshit to others who choose to ignore you in life. So stick to your little blog here buddy and your imaginary world of hollywood images and movies scripts.
NeoCon Hysteria-
Doggonit, ya found me out! Me and my racist ways with my high-falutin’ use of words and whatnot. I can’t wait to talk about this at the next chapter meeting of The Black Round Table (Kinda like the Algonquin Round Table with less Dorothy Parker).
Usually we start the meetings with an invocation led by Rev. Jeremiah Wright (in Arabic) followed by a pledge of allegiance to Obama’s original birth certificate (All of us Black radicals have seen it. Obama’s Cuban, by the way, not Indonesian. Hence his bent toward socialism). Yeah, our agenda’s pretty packed, but I’d love to bring up your comments during our open question time, when we’re not busy coming up with ways to be the most egotistical, overly sensitive,
psudo intellechual sudo intellektualwannabe-brainy, racisty racists ever.- JEP
My Daddy always told me that I would never win an argument with stupidity. He was right. And that is why I will not respond to NeoCon Hysteria.
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