So, I've been thinking this morning about how to respond to
this lovely litle piece of PR spin courtesy of Racefail Comics besides starting to drink before noon and maybe making my head explode in volcanic rage.
My inner cynic ('you can't change things!') is currently warring with my inner idealist over all of this. I'm not buying anything from DC again until there is a serious regime change. This isn't that hard, to be honest - I'm broke as hell, and I haven't been inside a comic store in months.
But that isn't enough, is it?
My second thought (after "where's my liquor at") was that things like this should just make us more resolved to join these companies and influence them from within. Because there's a whole world of indie comics out there, and comics creators who are anything but the young white male norm that's been pushed upon us for decades, and we rival them in sheer numbers. We could create a new world, we could run the asylum and recreate it in our own image if we start now. But we're in a recession, and many of us don't even want to go into comics professionally, and perhaps it wouldn't be worth the trouble. I'd personally jump at the chance, if only to be fired two weeks in for not being able to shut up about how fucking horrible they are.
So here's a more general solution:
Make good art. Make smart art. Make art that reflects the world as it is. Make art that reflects the way you think the world should be. Make thoughtful art, because thoughtful art is good art. Make art that makes people smile, that makes people think, that makes people cry. Make art that doesn't treat anyone who isn't a straight white male as pawns in the hands of clueless white men. Make art that stars us, that celebrates us. Make art so that children can find a hero or heroine to root for who looks like them, who loves like them. Make art that questions everything that the world stands upon, that subverts what the Ian Sattlers of the world seem so smug about in their privilege and their chosen ignorance. SHARE your art with others, as far and wide as you possibly can. Make art that can rival anything that the big boys put out. Make art that can replace it.
Making art is the best revenge.
We can make something more satisfying, together.
A more cynical Plan B would be to raise such an organized stink that they can't ignore us for fear of a media frenzy, but I have no idea how to go about it. The next time DC pulls this (for there will be a next time), we could raise such a hue and cry and a fucking
stink until they can't brush us off with Racist Apology 101 anymore (and personally, if they ever touch a hair on Jaime Reyes' head I will be at the front of the riot, believe you me).
But there's no reason why we can't do both. Does anyone have any ideas as to how we could push back against the Ian Sattlers who are running the asylum? Because simply not buying what they're selling clearly isn't working.
(Another post that I won't be writing is how I'm at war with myself over whether or not my inability to disconnect my heart from DC's characters indicates a personal failing.)