The Big Deal Part #3 The Haters

"Helping African American adolescents from impoverished communities become better, more involved readers may call for different dictates because of the historical mistreatment this group has experienced in the United States. These students are more likely to attend low-achieving schools that have limited resources and have a greater chance of being taught by teachers who hold low expectations for their students' success".
Alfred W. Tatum author of
Teaching Reading to Black Adolescent Males: Closing the Achievement Gap

Critics made up of politicians, educators, parents, the guy down the street and worst of all writers and publishing houses will decry that books targeted toward black and brown and many Asians minorities are a waste of time.
To quote Walter Mosley, "the general perception on Black fiction used to be that whites don't want to read about blacks, black women hate black men, and black men don't read".

None of the above is true but many still hold on to the notion

Its most sinister manifestation is by negatively criticizing the object of interest so severely that interested party either disposes of it, or takes it underground (hip hop)
The word the hip hop generation uses to define this group is HATERS, RACIST is the moniker the rest of us use

Of course individually these haters/racist will quickly deny it and accuse the accuser of playing the race card, but witness the comments regarding the marriage of two fictitious characters

"The whole thing seems to be premised on the idea that a marriage between Storm and the Black Panther is inherently plausible simply because... well, they're both African, aren't they? And they must have so much in common, what with Africa being a continent of 840 million people spread across almost twelve million square miles. It's an attitude that suggests a very American way of looking at Africa - not a real place, so much as a source of ethnic identity for Americans. To an extent that sort of attitude isn't a commercial problem, because it's shared by many of the readers they're targeting. But when the characters are slung together as suddenly as this, it can't help but feel like an arbitrary exercise in pairing up the black people.

Marvel may well be targeting the right audience. But they're doing it with a very blunt instrument wielded by a debatably marketable writer". Paul Obrien

"To me, this whole thing just stinks...they are trying to make it out as though this has been building up for years? What the heck? How many issues have been devoted to these two...like 5 in in past 20 years? It seems forced. Storm sees Panther while fighting russian apes and decides she really does love him after all thse years and wants to marry him? Are we gonna have to hear Panther, on their wedding night, tell storm again "you got me straight tripping, boo." Man, she dates Forge for 10 years and they don't get married, but she sees BP again, and boom, its wedding bells. I wish they would just call this what it is, a forced event trying to attract minority readers. I'm all for attracting every reader you can get, but don't insult our intelligence" article here

"Don't worry. If Halle Berry is playing the part of Storm in the movie adaptation, this marriage will be over in days. No disrespect intended toward Halle Berry... those dudes she marries are just nuts". article here

"How am I being racist? I am sure people of all colors, backgrounds and religions read Black Panther, as well every other comic out.

But this is being billed first as the marriage of the two most promonant african american characters (of course later changed to black cause, duh, BP isn't american), and is manily being advertised outside of the comic world in mainly black marketplaces, like BET.

Like I said, I have no prob with them trying to gain new characters. But I kinda think its racist that they have to put to important black characters together just cause they are black. Most of their history together has been minor, imo, and the recent stuff has been stuck in to make this marriage go through. Storm has had relationships with many people of all different colors. A marriage to forge would make much more sense to me because they actually have a rich history, rather than just seeing to top selling minority characters and sticking them together".
article here

Even the writer Reginald Hudlin is not immune to Haters, in a interview at Harpo's Juke Joint the writer states

"I'll be honest - the fact that ANY of this shocks or upsets people blows my mind. I didn't anticipate any of this. But I think we've pretty firmly established there is a real gigantic "perception of reality" gap going on here. One person's dream come true is another person's nightmare, I guess. That is part and parcel of the whole "ownership" issue when it comes to some rabid comic book readers. "We thought you were 'different', we thought you were 'ours'". Classic madonna/whore syndrome. They want her with someone they identify with - Wolverine, or Forge - or just alone, always potentially available for capture and symbolic rape by villians."

4 Final Points

1. Marvel hired Reginald Hudlin and Eric Jerome Dickey to write the Black Panther/Storm because they want to attract the untapped African Amercian market and beyond

2. The harshest critics of stories targeted toward minorites that are written by minorities are generally white males, who other than the statement that Hudlin made cannot possibly have the emotional connection than the books intended audience. In addition, why is it this same crowd had no comments regarding Storm dating a Native American, a younger blonde white male, Wolverine or even a blue furry mutant, but now that she dates a brotha the idea is preposterous? (haterism/racisim)

3. The very climate this one comic storyline has created prevents ideas for books targeted toward the black brown and yellow market from ever getting off the ground marketed under the guise, "they won't read the book".

4. There has to be an acknowledgement that in addition to many youth (males particulally) not wanting to read, there is a climate out there that does not want them to read books that inspire or empower (in short, stick with Native Son, son).