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     As you try to compute the poetic meaning of the proceeding heading try not to let your head explode trying to figure it out.
 It’s really not very hard to grasp, it’s just a simple fact of life, or so it seems. In almost 20 years the producers behind the Power Ranger show have never, I say never, given the second most popular powersuit next to Red to a black female.
 That’s right, over 15 years and the closest the people in production ever came to overcoming this has been the sensational Rhoda MontemayorJessica Rey and Angie Diaz.   And I will not overlook their contributions to the show but I still have to wonder why when it comes to diversity in the team every helmet is up for grabs but  Pink seems to be practically off limits to change.
And whats so strange about change? Well most people don’t like it because it rocks the boat when otherwise theres smooth sailing.
You see whether you choose to believe this or not, television  producers aren’t foaming at the mouth to show blacks in the media outside of the 6 o’clock news.  Blacks in genre television and movies tend not to be the seen as  main hero. They are regulated to the role of potty mouthed, comedic sidekick,  whose sole purpose is helping the main hero out. He also is credited to blow junk up and look tough with a gun in his hand.
Case in point last year’s mega blockbuster “Transformers”. The script might have been less than stellar for some but I generally enjoyed it. Except for how when we’re introduced to my personal favorite Autobot Jazz, he greets his new human friends as b–ches.
Call me a prude, but why didn’t he get to speak all polite like the rest of the Transformers? I think I can tell you why. When the producers saw that there was a black guy among the Autobots they had to make sure you knew it. Had to make sure that he was black enough.
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Black superheroes sometimes come off as just caricatures of the mass media stereotypes. Â
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  Rappers glamorized the thug life style and most of their swag ends up being bought by more whites than blacks. The black culture at large takes this and find in it a culture that’s counter to popular “white” culture. The moment someone in the Afro American community slips up and gets arrested they are wearing the rappers FuBu clothes. Their faces are then plastered on television in the homes of people ignorant and informed. The result is a continued negative outlook on blacks in the media at large. We’re the scary people, don’t get us mad or we might rob you.
 I might sound like I’m veering away from the subject but honestly, I’m not.
It’s this perceived fear that drives decisions on bringing on black characters. Will they play into the hype or fight against the stereotype?
You see whenever you have one black person on a TV show or within the pages of a comic book. That character has a chance to make a name for his or herself. But this really depends on how the black character is handled by the writing team.
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I can  give you two examples in Power Rangers.
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Keith Robinson’s Joel Rawlings(Lightspeed Rescue} and SamuellBenta’s Will Aston, (Operation Overdrive) we could get into their individual acting ability later(Keith gets my vote personally)
but who was written to play on peoples perceptions of the black male and who was an actual character.
Will was a self serving thief and  he wore his hair in cornrows. He was the rebel and brought us a teenager with a pimp attitude. While on the other side of the spectrum Joel was freaking cowboy who loved country music and wearing big cowboy hats.
You can’t get much more further away from forced hip hop culture than cowboy hats. Joel was a honest hero who reminded me a great bit of   Clarence Gilyard Jr. role as James “Jimmy” Trivette from Walker.
I mean at the end of the season which was present as someone valiant and which was present as someone who would leave you in the dust to save his own behind? I’d pick Joel.
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Now I must profess that Power Rangers has been fair to provide morphers of almost every shade human flesh that God ever created.
We’ve had Red Rangers from a ton of places, but  I’ve  have never seen a black woman in a pink powersuit.  I mean what is the Pink Ranger supposed to represent anyway?
Is she meant to be presented as the perfect all American girl? And if so, why can’t the term “All American Girl” include black girls too?
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October 22, 2008 @ 9:09 am
It’s this perceived fear that drives decisions on bringing on black characters. Will they play into the hype or fight against the stereotype?
You see whenever you have one black person on a TV show or within the pages of a comic book. That character has a chance to make a name for his or herself. But this really depends on how the black character is handled by the writing team.
This was one of the reasons why I specifically created one of my main characters, Vin ‘Harlock’ Henderson (RedScanner) from my fan-fic, Eiga Sentai Scanranger. I had gotten tired of the negativity of the mass media not wanting to see a positive black character. Vin came from an urban background himself, but he didn’t give in to his surroundings. He overcame the obstacles, not unlike Serena and Venus Williams, or even Cullen Jones, an Olympic gold medalist swimmer from Irvington,NJ (overlooked due a certain Mr. Phelps), and many others that aren’t mentioned.Vin was able to rise above it all, through his dad, who had a similar love for Asian culture, was a fencer(how many black swordsmen aside from Afro Samurai do you know?), and enjoyed classic Akira Kurosawa flicks?
Eventually, somebody will have to break the mold, and help open people’s minds that a color shouldn’t be restricted to a particular character. In due time, we’ll get a gentle surprise and see a lovely African American women in a pink powersuit. Hopefully, it will be much sooner than later.
October 22, 2008 @ 11:50 am
I’d really like to agree with your argument, however there’s one question clawing at my mind.”who the hell cares?” It sounds like you’re working yourself up into a tissy for the sake of working yourself up. I mean…what’s the point? no black pink rangers?…so? I doubt power rangers at it’s earliest was supposed to be the “all-american” anything let alone cast the pink ranger as the all-american girl.
So again, I’d really like to agree with this argument but my gut says you’re selling me a huge steaming pile of cow flop.
October 22, 2008 @ 3:05 pm
To be honest, I’ve never really liked the pink ranger much – they’ve always irritated me; from Amy Jo, to “whatever-her-name-was from Time Force”, it’s gotten the reputation of “sorority girl in the making” to me. Although I did like Karone from Lost Galaxy. Melody was great. Anyway, the Red suit (and the obligatory sixth ranger) are usually the ones that matter. I don’t recall there being a black sixth ranger, but that doesn’t matter to me so much; the sixth was usually always in an element to himself.
While we’re on the subject of the red suit, though – my personal favorites are TJ (Turbo) and the red from SPD (you’ll really have to forgive me for not remembering their names). They came off excellently, and without being bent to the usual stereotypes.
October 24, 2008 @ 7:29 pm
This reminds me of when American Dragon came out, how everybody who knew of the show kept accusing it of being raciest because it had inner city kids talking in slang. As it turns out that the reasons for that were as about anti-raciest as you can probably get.