Listen, representation matters.
I don’t know how many times I can stress this in Gaming Insurrection and elsewhere, but it’s a big deal for someone of color to see folks who look like them in media and entertainment. Whether it’s DC or Marvel or big budget action flicks or comedies or romance, I want to see people who look like me doing normal stuff that every other group gets to do.
That brings me to Black Panther. Yes, it’s a comic book flick. But when I tell y’all it was magical to see folks of my hue (one played by a man from my neck of the woods in South Carolina) be geniuses who were changing the world for good. And then along came the sequel, Wakanda Forever, which features more Black folks doing magical things at a genius level and it’s like Christmas came early once again. And even better, the sequel introduced Riri Williams to the MCU. Ms. Williams immediately caught my attention even though I was already intimately familiar with the character through Marvel Puzzle Quest. I was in awe.
Riri Williams, step to the front. Beautiful, Black and gifted, you deserve to be seen as worthy. You, of brilliant mind and dazzling personality, give light and impact everything around you. And I love to see it because in a fictional world of geniuses who figured out how to synthesize an herb and basically cure cancer, created AI systems and quantum realm travel, one of them is a Chicago girl with skin the color of the Earth.
And while I’m here for it all, there are some who are not. “Why does Ironheart have to be Black?” Why not? “Her character is terrible.” Why? And there it is. Whew, the dog whistle keeps getting louder every time I ask why. There are no good reasons for her not to be Black, and all this did was expose the latent racism just simmering underneath. Because call it what it is: Racism and prejudice. You can’t fathom that a woman of color is smart enough to be on the same level as Tony Stark. You can’t understand how and why there’s a show that focuses on a gifted young Black girl and what that would do for other young Black children. It doesn’t affect you directly, so you can’t understand the need and the attention placed on the Disney Plus show or the character in general. And to be honest, we’ve noticed it isn’t just Ms. Williams that gets dismissed.
Welp, that’s all fine and well, but she’s here. And judging by the hype and the deliverables for the show, I’m going to point out that the dismissal and diminishment didn’t work. She’s still dope despite protestations to the contrary. Soldier on, Ms. Williams.
Lyndsey Beatty is editor-in-chief of Gaming Insurrection. She can be reached by email at lyndseyb@gaminginsurrection.com
