"All I’ve ever wanted was to be Superman. Growing up, I did what all kids do: I ran around wearing a cape, I dressed up for Halloween, I played with the action figures, I watched the movies and TV shows. But I also picked up on more important things.
Superman defended the innocent. He fought for justice. He stood for what was good, and right, and true. He was an inspiration. A hero. If I was ever kind, generous, honest, or ethical, it was in no small part due to his influence. I was proud of it. And then, identity started creeping into everything. I don’t remember the first time I came across the idea that changing Superman’s “race” could or should increase his popularity with “people like me,” but I instantly rejected it.
Even as a kid I resented the implication that we must physically resemble those we admire in order to identify with them, and I considered it an affront to my intellect. But the idea persists, and the most common reason people give is “representation.”
Proponents argue that we need more characters to reflect our diverse, multicultural America—and I fully agree. It speaks poorly of a society when its art and media doesn't reflect the vast ethnic and cultural diversity of its people. But we have to be careful not to operate under a shallow and tokenistic idea of diversity. Thinking that all we need to do is change the color of Superman’s skin and we’ll have done our job is to caricature those we’re aiming to uplift.
It comes off as lazy and lacking in creativity, and due to its superficiality, it flies in the face of true diversity and representation—which requires giving characters depth and nuance.
What’s more, taking this tack also inadvertently places value on the despicable, divisive, and immiserating fiction of race, when what we really should be doing is working towards transcending it. As James Baldwin wrote, “The value placed on the color of the skin is always and everywhere and forever a delusion.”
This is why the idea that Superman “belongs” to people racialized as white because he is drawn that way is nonsense. And it’s why the idea that changing the color of his skin will make him belong to so-called “people of color” more than he already does is insulting—not only to my intellect and to yours, but also to our identities as multifaceted and multilayered human beings.
This obsessive reification and reinforcement of race precludes us from seeing the ways in which we are already alike; the ways in which we can already inspire and uplift one another; and the ways in which we can—and do—connect with other people, whether they’re fictional or not. Transcendence is the answer. Racialization is not.
There is so much to Superman as he is for anyone on Earth to relate to..." - Angel Eduardo