How Nerds Are Like Racists (via nerdsruineverything)

Can we talk about this? Like, can we really talk about this? Because I’m one of those “semi-aspergian” individuals. When a white comic book character is cast with a black actor, it ruffles my feathers a bit. Likewise, if Hollywood were to try to cast, say, Luke Cage as a white man, I’d be equally upset. Though the issue is race in part, the real concern is accuracy.

I don’t blame anyone for cringing when a fan (I refuse to use the word “nerd” here, thanks to the above blog’s clearly arrogant and antagonistic usage of the term) complains about, say, the suggestion that Donald Glover portray Peter Parker. But I don’t believe that it usually deals with race alone, so much as accuracy.

Accuracy is important to us geeks. When I go to see Iron Man on the big screen, I expect Tony Stark to look reasonably like Tony Stark and James Rhodes to look reasonably like James Rhodes. If Marvel wants to create alternate versions of characters like Nick Fury who are of different races and then put those versions on film, that’s fine. I’m totally cool with that. But we want accuracy from Hollywood, perhaps because we so seldom get it from them.

So, yes. Race is part of the issue. But it’s not at the core of the issue. We’re not necessarily racists — we’re just kind of OCD about people fiddling with the things we love.