The Mecha American Plight
4thletter.net, an enjoyable comics blog in general, is doing a great series of articles on race in comics this month. The focus is on the portrayal of blacks in comics, but most of what’s being said there could apply to the presentation of minorities in American media as a whole.
Atomic Robo is a weird comic, racially. Our main character is technically a minority, but does anyone think of him as one? Is he like Jesus, where he can be white or black depending on who’s looking at him? As an aside: white Jesus? Really?
So, do white people think Robo’s “white”? Do black people think he’s “black”? Is he assumed to be “white” by anyone regardless of his or her own race because Robo’s creator and father figure was white? What the hell does that say about a Japanese baby adopted by black parents? Does the question of Robo’s race even make sense to ask because he has no ancestry? What about the cultural element of race? Robo is probably the most widely known person in his world simply from being around for so long and being interesting news for most of that time, so a robot culture would have formed around him whether he wanted it to or not. Would kids try to appropriate robot culture? Or has Robo grown to be too much a symbol of the status quo for that to work?
I occasionally joke that Robo considers himself to be black. You can probably blame Dan Slott for that one. Robo is as “other”-est as you’re going to get as a minority and he had to fight ignorance to gain his civil rights. The comparison starts to break down once you give it the slightest scrutiny though. Robo’s life in no ways mirrors the historical experience of blacks in America. Robo was basically born rich and he was an instant celebrity. Yeah, some people have judged him negatively based solely on his appearance, but I think that’s more than a stone’s throw from, y’know, slavery and institutionalized racism. But really, any sort of “I was built a poor black robot” moment doesn’t fit Robo’s vanity anyway. Why would he identify as black or white or anything other than what he is? He’s metal and he’s proud! And let’s face it. I’m a middle class white guy from a predominately white (93%+) small town in Florida. I don’t have shit to say about the black experience, because I don’t know shit about it, so there’s no point in going with that angle beyond “Ooh, you never thought the robot would self-identify as a black guy, I gotcha!” And that’s just stupid, gimmicky writing.
Speaking of gimmicky writing, you ever notice how many robot stories there are where the noble robot who can never quite fit in with the human world but is dissatisfied with being “merely” a robot sacrifices itself, often to save humans and their status quo? That remind you of anything else?
Still, Robo was discriminated against by certain groups, especially in his early days, and I think that sting would stick with him. He’d undeniably have been a proponent of the Civil Rights movement. Some critics have expressed interest in seeing Robo within that context. They’re thinking is, yeah okay, he fights monsters and mad scientists, but so does everyone else in comics. Let’s be daring and show his role in the Civil Rights movement! I’m sympathetic to that view, critics read a lot of comics and they want to see something a little different, but there’s just no story there. In the same way we didn’t have Robo punch Hitler and win the war, we can’t have Robo take the bullet for Dr. King. What’s next, stopping 9/11*?
I mean, what’s the point of doing a Civil Rights movement Robo story? To have Robo learn that racism is bad? He already knows that and so do we. And for those who don’t, I find it unlikely they’re going to change their ways because of a robot comic book. That’s not to say we’re going to pretend it didn’t happen, or there weren’t reasons for it happening, or that it “solved” racism, or that Robo would have no opinion on these matters. But Atomic Robo, the comic book, is basically a pulp action procedural. It doesn’t make sense to veer into Very Serious Discussions About Very Important Issues in the middle of a monster fight.
A couple reviews that referred to our Action Scientists as a kind of rainbow league or some such. I’m not sure how to take that. I guess token-ism is so prevalent (or perceived to be so) in media that it’s easier to assume that’s what’s going on any time there’s a non-white character. That strikes me as a little odd, but I suppose that showcases just how whitewashed our media imagery is — if there’s a black guy, then there must be an ulterior motive! Anyway, in case anyone doubts the sincerity of our Ethnically Diverse Science Squad, here’s why they’re not all white: I had several Philosophy classes stupidly located in the Engineering Halls in college, and the science and engineering students were quite ethnically diverse. The end.
*Yeah, that works for Ex Machina because the whole comic revolves around the aftermath of the hero stopping (half of) 9/11. Besides, it’s the only major historical event in which the main character participates. You start having your main character be the primary mover of historical events, plural, you have Forest Gump.
