After reading Christian Davenport’s piece, I believe that comics offer stereotypes as they pertain to race. Generally comic books offer stereotypes to all characters chronicled, but racial stereotypes seem most prominent as they can shape [unfortunately] the characters. Davenport states, in his piece Black is the Color of My Comic Book Character: An Examination of Ethnic Stereotypes, “A way of speaking, a look, a personality trait, an emotion is given to a character that allows readers to label, and recognize, and identify them. As a consequence of this process, individuals from Brooklyn would speak with an accent and make gestures with their hands; intergalactic pirates would drink some alcohol- like substance and plunder unsuspecting vessels; bikers (from any planet or microverse) would wear tattoos and dark glasses; and Blacks (whether they appeared on a street corner or on Mars) would be represented by characteristics that were/are usually associated with African Americans, such as threatening demeanor, high levels of athletic prowess, low intellectual capabilities, exotic and mysterious backgrounds, residence within an inner city, and menial employment or unemployment” (Davenport 22). I feel as though Davenport was able to depict the topic of this blog in a way better than I ever could attempt. Stereotype is defined as a 1widely held but fixed and oversimplified or idea of a particular type of person or thing and 2a person or thing that conforms to such an image. Comics is just one of countless media outlets that succumb to the use of stereotypes.
Why blame comics for societal failure? Society blamed comics for the societal failures because it was a fairly new industry, and as things seemed to go “wrong” they figured it must be comic books. When a child grew up during the war, his father was probably killing people and the military and his mother was probably making things in factories to help kill the opposition. The only things kids had to “babysit” them was comic books, and they read many different kinds. So when kids starting acting differently in this new generation the figured it must be the comic books. Society didn’t want to believe it may have been the internal and external scars war causes on the soldiers and their families. Also the fact that young unattended children are reading these comics may not be able to differentiate between fantasy and reality. When society fails it always needs a scapegoat then it was comic books next it was rock and roll. Society naturally resist change.
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