Race in Heroes

[oyceter]

verstehen has a post on racial stereotypes in Heroes, and of course, now I have to stick my nose into this!

I have been debating writing a post on race in Heroes off and on for a while -- I say this not to be all "This was my idea first!" because the more people talking about race in Heroes and in general, the better. But I haven't because I didn't want to rain on the fannish squee, because I didn't want a giant wankfest in my LJ, and largely because I am tired and do not want to argue about racism for the six bazillionth time, especially because I am starting to feel like the person who is always bringing race into things. So many thanks to verstehen for posting and getting me off my lazy butt.

So first, a few general notes on the rebuttals to verstehen:

1. Even if all the characters, white and non-white, on Heroes start out as stereotypes, the show can still be racist. Because of the general lack of characters of color in the media and the general prevalence of white characters, stereotypes of minorities have a much larger impact than stereotypes of white people. Also, the power differential between white people and people of color is such that stereotypes of people of color hurt POC more. Whether or not the characters of color transcend the stereotypes enough to counter this is another question.


2. In the tail-end of her post (sorry, I tend to assume fannish people I meet via LJ are female), verstehen writes about race in casting, particularly the issue of casting a Korean actor as a Japanese character (also relevant for Heroes, given that the actor who plays Ando is Korean). I'd like to note that it does make a difference when you mix Asians up, or have a Latin-American actor play a Mexican-American character or have an Indian actor play an Iraqi. It is not the same as casting a white actor as a Hispanic. Again, this is because of power differentials, because of the amount of roles already available to white actors and the scarcity of roles for actors of color. This is also because in the past, if you were a non-Japanese Asian being mistaken for Japanese during WWII, this could have very real, very negative effects on your livelihood. This isn't limited to internment camps and times of war; when being mistaken for another minority group carries that potential weight, mixing these races up during casting is not a lightweight thing.

I say these things as someone who watches Heroes devotedly and loves the show. I personally think that the show has done some very good things with regard to race, particularly by just having more than one recurring character be a character of color, by having several interracial relationships, by having the Japanese characters speak Japanese with subtitles, and by casting a good deal of actors of color in walk-on roles (Linderman's assistant, Niki's psychiatrist, FBI agent last week, and etc.). On the other hand, the show has also done some not-so-great things with regard to race, one of these things being the stereotyped roles.

I do think that Hiro, DL and the Haitian break out of the stereotype in some ways, but not so much that you can point to them and say that they are subverting the stereotype.

Spoilers up through Heroes 1x18

And then you have the only woman of color of any consequence on the show being killed to further the character development of two men, one white. There is Hana, but she's really only showed up in one episode so far.

Another thing that has been really bothering me is that the white characters are currently the ones getting the meatiest storylines. Yes, there are white characters with boring storylines, but since there are already more white characters than characters of color in this show and in many of the shows on TV now, this is less of a problem for the white characters. There is the mass fannish squee about Peter and Claude, and meanwhile, Mohinder, DL and Micah don't do much, the Haitian is mainly a secondary character in Claire's storyline (yes, I do think he has more agency than it seems, but he is not a main character by far), Simone is dead, and Isaac looks doomed and most people don't seem interested in him anyway. Thankfully, there's Hiro and Ando, but they seem to have been stuck in plot limbo for a while. Hopefully that will change with the sword.

I'm concerned about this because I have had a nidgy feeling for a while that the fandom for this show has been centering around the white characters. Please tell me if I am wrong; I am by no means the Heroes fandom expert. I mostly speak from browsing links in some comms, checking interests, checking comments and etc. I am sure that a lot of it is because the white characters are getting the coolest powers -- Peter and Sylar's powers have the most dramatic potential. And a lot of it is because they are getting meatier storylines, especially the Petrelli and Bennet storylines. I, too, like those storylines a lot. But... why is it that once again, the white characters are getting the better storylines and powers?

I also wonder about implicit racism, if we are all so programmed to respond to white characters that it takes an extra amount of "cool" to make us respond fannishly to a character of color. I include myself in this; I've soaked up the same media most people have, almost all (particularly in genre) with white characters. I mean... I don't know. I know for myself, I had to consciously make myself start caring about characters of color, to consciously start noticing them, because I used to look at the Token Minority Character and think, "Too ethnic, brain cannot compute."

I mean, dude! What is wrong with this picture? I am Chinese, and for years and years, I still subconsciously sought out white characters to squee about and admire and lust over. And for years and years, whenever I would ask myself why all my favorite characters were white, I would come up with: "Because they're more interesting (it's not because I'm racist)" and never wonder why the writers wrote them as more interesting, why maybe there weren't even any characters of color to glom on to, why they were the lead and the character of color was the sidekick.

And now, handy-dandy links to race and racism in casting and the TV world we all live in!

- rachelmanija has written up great posts on race and casting (part 2)
- witchqueen has some great posts on race and slash and a guide for white people in fandom.

And if you just click around those pages a bit more, there are tons of links to other discussions on race, racism, cultural appropriation, and fandom. I've also got lots of stuff under my tags and Memories.

Comments

[oyceter]

I like to think of Hiro as the center too ^_^. But I am somewhat worried that the show is moving toward a direction in which Peter is the center (he opened the show with the dream flying footage and much of the current plot looks like it will be centered around Peter exploding or not). Of course, the show has pulled off lots of plot twists and turns before, so there is still hope!

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I also think Hiro is the protagonist, insofar as a show this ensemble-centered can have one. I mean, I'm not saying the other stuff you mentioned isn't there, but in this particular matter he seems more central to the plot, has been given more screentime (I think), and has appeared in more episodes than anyone except possibly Claire-- the second-most likely possibility for protagonist. His storylines, with the exception of the recent and now over interlude in which he lost his powers, have been juicy, with lots of emotional range from comedy to action to romance to to family drama to tragedy, and central to the main story.

The thing with Peter (and I actually do love Peter now, though not as much as Hiro or Claire) is that the decision to let him manifest anyone's power without being in their presence is very likely setting him up for a fall as meteoric as his rise. If he can do that in the long term of the show, he's way too powerful and it throws the show out of whack-- it becomes the Peter vs. Sylar show, and while I expect at least one episode to be just that, the show as a whole is about the ensemble. I expect Peter to be drastically de-powered, if not killed, by the end of the season.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

You could make a structural argument for Mohinder as the protagonist in terms of centrality to the main narrative (whatever that is) and except in the incredibly unlikely event of him actually dying of Sylar-inflicted wounds, the narrative seems to be moving in the direction of Mohinder as the focal point for the gathering of new heroes; however, I'd still say it goes Hiro, Claire, Peter, Mohinder, everybody else.

[maeve-rigan.livejournal.com]

"You could make a structural argument for Mohinder as the protagonist in terms of centrality to the main narrative"

Thanks for saying this! I was going to, but you beat me to it! I've thought that Mohinder should be more central from day one, but the writers have not been supporting me (boo!), so I hope he will indeed survive, grow a spine, and get more airtime. He doesn't need super powers if he'd just use his supposedly enormous squidgy brain to become the Prof. X-figure of Heroes.