The Mecha American Plight
Last Updated on Thursday, 19 February 2009 03:17 Written by Brian! Thursday, 19 February 2009 03:17
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.
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Race in any form of literature gets really interesting when applied to robots and aliens. I first started thinking about it when the Encyclopedia of Black Superheroes identified Panthro from Thundercats as black. I can see where they're coming from, but I always thought to myself, "He's an alien anthropomorphic cat, on a planet that, to the best of my knowledge, has no humans." So yeah, like Robo not identifying with any particular minority or majority, due to being unique (and proud of it, I'm sure), can any characters that are radical minorities, ala Savage Dragon, or Goliath from Gargoyles be catagorized in any meaningful way, and does it really matter? Do people identify Goliath as black because he's voiced by Keith David, despite the fact that he's a purple mythical creature? However, he IS Scottish, and the character is quite proud of that. Likewise, I think Robo would identify himself as a Mechano-American.
Apologies for the ramblings, but I do find all this terribly interesting.
It could totally work. I figure Orval Faubus is secretly a mad scientist who genetically engineers a monster to fight the national guardsmen trying to integrate Little Rock Central High. Robo takes out his lab and the monster before it can interfere. Pfft, that was easy, I could do your job. Only, you know, kinda crappily.
As for tokenism, it's all about context to me. If you're set in small town Nebraska and your characters look like they're out of a Benetton ad, that seems silly. But in a big diverse city, it's sillier to have characters all of the same ethnicity. Realistically, I don't expect a social circle to be super-diverse, but a workplace, like the action scientists, ought to be, since they'd be chosen on merit.
Also, I thought Robo was Jewish… if he's a black robot jew, that's some kind of super minority, like the one-armed gay native american little person.
I've never really imagined Robo as identifying with a specific race, anymore than I 'identify' very prominently with being white. It's just a thing for when I fill out tax forms. I guess there's the only "I'M THE ONLY ONE OF MY KIND" angle, but really, don't we all sort of think like that from time to time? Or MOST of the time? That's one of Robo's strong points as a character and as a comic is that it avoids wishy-washy existential angst.
That said, I think you could do one of those little back-pages mini-stories and have Robo on TV circa 65, plugging his upcoming book on Letterman or something, and then have him try to make an appeal about the Movement like celebrities like to do with issues of concern. And then of course because that was controversial at the time the host would shift gears, ie "SO YOU'RE A METAL MAN. WHAT IS THAT LIKE? DO YOU YEARN TO BE LOVED?"
Not sure if you have a rule on stories involving other robots, but I could see an arc about Robo's role in some kind of accidental emergence of AI. So while he's in the midst of trying to suppress weepy rampaging military robots ("OH GOD WHAT IS MY PURPOSE I JUST WANT TO BE LOVED") there would be a toaster on trial for murder, demanding Robo as expert witness testimony.
"Objection! The witness has not been certified as an expert in the field of robotics!"
*blank stares*
But overall I think just keeping up consistent depth in Robo the character compensates for Robo (the comic) not being the ideal venue to tackle broad societal ethics. Robots are allowed to have fun pulp, too.
You could always take the easy route by having pictures of events Robo had been to on walls in the background. Maybe shaking hands with MLK, or something like that. That happens all the time to famous people, so you could even leave it ambiguous whether Robo was there in support or not.
If it helps, as a white male American also raised in a town composed of 93% white people, I do not view Robo as having any race. I merely think of him as The Atomic Robot, a person who happens to be metallic and punch things.
I've never even thought of race in Atomic Robo comics before. It's not relevant. If we were talking about X-men, maybe. But Atomic Robo is about a robot who fights nazis and wizards. It's pure fun, it has nothing to do with social commentary on race. Just like Watchmen doesn't talk about religion. It's just not part of that particular story.
This makes me think of something I've been running through my head – Robo's voice. Voices seem to racialize characters in viewers' heads – nobody can listen to an Eddie Murphy-voiced character and consider him white, although that's an extreme example. So perhaps racial bias/identification appears in how readers hear Robo's voice in their heads.
In my head, I always hear Robo's dialogue in a voice similar to Richard Nixon's. (For some reason an 80-year-old ass-kicking wise-cracking scientist robot just works well with a Nixon voice.) It's not exactly Nixon – certainly less old-man-itude, but enough to get across that Robo "grew up" in the 20s – but almost as deep and with that jowly inflection, just more cheerful. But Nixon-ish enough that the guy who played him on Futurama could probably do a perfect Atomic Robo voice to my ears. So I guess I perceive him as white by virtue of my voice for him being white?
There might be something to the sort of jowly 20's cheery thing…but Nixon O_o ? I guess I sort of him hear in a light Brooklyn accent, but I perceive him as white it's only because all the voices in my head when I'm reading are just slight mutations of my own inner narrator.