—Kel McKnight B1, Daily

Ray Fischer warned us.

Warner Brother’s DC studios is under heavy criticism for their latest casting decision of a iconic Black character.

DC’s new casting for their ‘Latterns’ production showcasing the intergalactic space force was announced with posters of the heroes.

Fans sounded the alarm on the introduction John Stewart’s actor. Stewart is the most famed of Green Latterns with the most appearances of any of the Latterns outside of the comic itself. Stewart is a Black American war vet of Freedmen decent. His personal ideologies and hate for white supremacy are core principles of his character.

However, in predictable fashion Warner Brothers who is working in tandem with HBO decided to cast a bi-racial actor, Aaron Pierre, who is from the UK to play the role.

Both Marvel and DC have a history of casting bi-racial actors to play conventionally Black roles leading to many observers to criticizes the studios for ‘colorist’ preferences for lighter skin people.

Ray Fisher Saga

Actor Ray Fisher accused DC’s studio of racism all the way back in 2020. Fischer played Cyborg, a android who is a member of the Teen Titans and Justice League, which are popular team-ups of DC characters.

Fisher said that DC studios and Joss Weedon wanted to use special effects to lighten up Fisher’s character, along with cutting most of the scenes that Zack Snyder had filmed with Fisher’s character.

The studio slandered Fisher by accusing him of lying when a later internal investigation found his accusations of bigotry to be true.

DC has a long history of side-lining Black characters, killing them off in stories first, making them sidekicks (such as Duke Thomas, Lucas Fox, Aqua-lad, Kid-Flash) and routinely uses any pages it has to throw backhanded insults at or insert racist stereotypes about Black people.

DC’s History of Discrimination

DC has had hundreds of Black writers and illustrators accuse them of anti-Black racism dating well back into the 1960’s.

DC even managed to make famed writers like Dwanye McDuffie, Denys Cownan, and Derek T Dingle hate their lives at the company. The duo hated DC so much that they made Milestone as a Black alternative. Once Milestone gained traction, DC made a attempt to save face by offering distribution services to the Black startup.

But white-owned comic book shops refused to sell Black comics before the explosion of the modern-day internet, leading Milestone to close its doors. DC could have used its influence in the industry to force local comic retailers to carry Black comic publications like Milestone but chose not to do so and neglected to promote McDuffie’s work.

Executives like Paul Levitz, Mike Carlin and a bunch of DC’s regular staff worked against Black creators and promoted white supremacist ideologies in their works.

DC sabotaged Black studios for decades, including Milestone. Once McDuffie died, the re-branded the Milestone universe and hired another light-skinned buckdancer named Reginald Hudlin to write it.

Black Adam’s Success Angered DC Execs

Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson who not only co-produced the Black Adam movie but had a direct hand in acquiring funds for the movie and used his own production company to get additional star power on the project. Basically, ‘The Rock’ vouched for the movie and put his life into it for 6 years, dealing with dozens of setbacks and delays along the way.

Black Adam made around $400 million in the box office making it a financial success since its production and marketing budgets totaled to $220 million. Better yet it was seen as a success by fans of the Snyder produced DC cinematic universe aka the ‘Snyderverse’.

But Dwayne Johnson made one critical mistake in the eyes of DC studios; He was strong Black lead in a movie where he wasn’t portrayed as a stereotype, caricature or a outright villain. Even more insulting was the star-studded performances from Aldis Hodge along with Quintessa Swindell, meaning that there were more than two Black characters in the movie.

McDuffie was fond of mentioning the “3 Black person rule.”

“If a white company sees you producing something that has more than 3 Black characters in its lineup, they automatically call it a “Black comic”. It’s a way limits the number of Black characters written in any given publication.” said McDuffie just 4 years prior to his untimely passing.

Dwayne Johnson on the other hand gave DC its only win in the last 4 years with his Black Adam debut, but he was maligned and disrespected by the same studio because it’s not about the money.

DC studios and Warner Brothers production company have a never wanted Black people to star in their productions. They barely want Black people to come to the movies, but they won’t turn away stupid money.

WB’s Racism is Well Known

Warner Brothers has most of Americas 1930’s era ‘Black face’ content in its archives since it’s been producing racist content for nearly a century now, so it’s no surprise that a white supremacist production company like WB produces trashy productions spit out by fledgling studios like DC’s.

Warner Bother’s racism is the stuff of white supremacist legend. CEO David Zaslav is just the tip of the iceberg.

How can Black People Stop DC studios and Warner Brother’s?

The Black community shouldn’t go to see DC’s movies or watch their poorly written CW network tv shows. DC comics books should not be purchased by Black buyers, since they can’t figure out how to create a positive Black character devoid of stereotypes.

Any content that portrays Black people in a negative light should not only be boycotted but also lobbied against. Black people must get anti-Black media removed from syndication.

Lastly and most importantly, Black readers and viewers need to support Black productions. When there is a book, movie, tv show, or any other form of media that’s not exclusively created and produced by Black content creators.

That means that the funding for these projects should be procured by Black studios, and talent searches should be mainly focused on Black content creators who already have a pallet of work.

Perhaps a Black producer looking for star power for their next production would like to give a dedicated thespian like Ray Fisher a call.

–Kel McKnight B1, Daily