Academic Article

            Hey guys! I’m back with another post. I am going to be talking about the article/book I read this week about how propaganda and comics leads to racial justification of whites in American comics.
            Bradford W. Wright, the author of “Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America”, talks about the portrayal of American superheroes as amazing beings that help the fight war and prevent crises in comic books. As stated by the article/book, they are American beings who help a lot in the world; they help the Chinese, South Americans, Mexicans, and Native Americans. It is essentially propaganda depicting American superheroes (and implying Americans) as the ones people should follow and guide to be. It is intriguing to note that the Superheroes mentioned in this article/book are white. He communicates the main idea of propaganda through examples seen in comics. For example; there is a comic Bradford Wright mentions about a group of American female army trainers going to China, only to discover a Japanese spy within the Chinese ranks. It is propaganda of how the American people helps those in need (in this case, the Chinese). In another example, in one of the comics Wright mentions, the Boy Commandos fight alongside Russian troops against the Germans. Again, it is propaganda because of the hospitality the U.S. is giving out to the countries that need help.
            The author’s argument about Superheroes as propaganda is interesting. I like how he is using propaganda to explain why comic books and their characters prevailed to the American audience. I find that the comic characters he mentions (predominantly white and American) committing rightful acts in the world really hits the nail of American propaganda. I also like how he mentioned the comic book characters support the idea that the U.S. is a “melting pot” and that all people in America, no matter what ethnicity, are Americans. The only thing that I questioned is that even though these characters were portrayed as the ones who defend the idea of America as a melting pot of every race and Americans hospitality to the world, why aren’t there different races of superheroes fighting and doing rightful acts throughout the world? I thought of this question while reading the article/book. While I agree that while there was a lack of character diversity in comic books at the time, a point that needs emphasizing is that many people still believe that because of the lack of diversity, comics of the past and even the present are racist. They have to understand that during that time, a war was raging on. Propaganda was one of the ways to portray the American people as the ones who can help out an end and be considered as the ones to help shape the world. In order to be more American, the use of predominant White comic characters really helped engrave the American ideal that the U.S. can help with what is happening. It was practically propaganda during a national crisis. .Though I concede that it would have been better to have a more diverse amount of super hero characters during that time period, I still insist that having predominant white characters in the fray was justifiable, given the circumstances. The comics the author used in this article/book were used as propaganda for the United States. It was showcasing the U.S. as a “…big brother, one who is quick to intervene...” (Wright 52).