Interview: Racism in comic books

Hey guys today in my post I will be interviewing one of my closest friends who happens to be a comic book fanatic. Her name is Sandra and she is 21 years old.

Interviewer: Claudia Mercado

Interviewee: Sandra Leon

Claudia: Hello Sandra! I would like to first of all thank you for taking time out of your busy day to have this interview with me today. I wanted to start and ask you, what makes you such an expert on comic books?

Sandra: Well I just always loved comic books as such a young age that I started reading them and building my knowledge of them. I really enjoyed being able to connect with the superheroes and get into the storyline.

Claudia: You had said you were able to connect with superheroes but I want to know how that is when most superheroes were white and male?

Sandra: That is true but it wasn’t really about the appearance of the superhero it was more about what they were doing and how they were feeling that I was able to connect with them.

Claudia: Now that we have moved into the topic of how superheroes were mostly white dominated, do you believe that this was racist?

Sandra: I actually do not. I don’t believe that the writers of these comic were trying to make them racist I think they were just trying to make the superheroes as relatable as to their audience as possible.

Claudia: So are you saying that only whites purchased comic books?

Sandra: Well I’m pretty sure many different ethnicities purchased comic books but seeing how they were first published in the 1940’s when whites were more dominate in society they were the majority of the people that were purchasing the comics.   

Claudia: So are you saying that it is justifiable that comic books had mostly white characters?

Sandra: Yes I would have to say it is.

Claudia: But times have changed, do you believe comic books have become more diverse today?

Sandra: I do believe to some extend they have become more diverse but that they haven’t reached their full potential that they can.

Claudia: What do you mean?

Sandra: Well comic books have slowly tried making more diverse characters but they haven’t gone full out.

Claudia: Why do you think this is?

Sandra: Well because there are many die hard comic book fans that would most likely get angry or upset if the authors would change their superheroes. But I don’t believe that they need to change the old superheroes. I just think they should make new superheroes that can relate to an even bigger diverse audience. In todays society we do now have more women rights and gay rights and so on… so why not make characters that these people can relate to. I’m pretty sure there would be more people who would purchase these books.

Claudia: Well thank you Sandra for taking your time to do this interview. I really enjoyed hearing your thoughts on this topic.

Sandra: Well tank you for having me here.