Monday, February 7, 2011

Black History Month

When Marvel decided to cast Laurence Fishburne as the voice of the Silver Surfer - maybe they got it right after all.
On his home planet Norrin Radd is 'white'.
But his planet has two suns - one red one blue.
Under the different lighting conditions of Earth,  Norrin Radd may not be 'white' after all.
But is there such a thing as a Black alien?
 Uhura doesn't count.
She is (they are) still from Earth - they just travel around out in space.
The same could be said of Kunta Kinte's character.
 But The Brother From Another Planet is Black - just not Africa-American.
 And Mace Windu is Black as well.
 In Earth Girls Are Easy - Damon Wayans plays a Black guy from outer space.
 And those from an earlier generation remember Billy Dee playing Lando Calrissian in earlier Star Wars movies.
 But my favorite Black alien would have to be Thandie Newton in The Chronicles of Riddick.
And let's not forget The Riddick himself.

If there are other races of beings in outer space - do they have such a thing as racism?

3 comments:

brohammas said...

Yup, but the power structure is inverted. Thats why all the extra pale ones are exiled and keep trying to invade Earth. Lets not even start on the plight of the little green ones.

DF said...

It's a human construct. Usually Alien means something that is not human. So I'm confident the pety things that divide us here are not the pety things that divide the Aliens.

uglyblackjohn said...

@ brohammas - So the aliens treat their lighter members as though were geneticaly deficient Albinos to be exiled to outer areas?
But these Albinos grouped together for survival and learned to adapt to their new homes until THEY became the dominant culture?

@ FreeMan - Maybe brohammas is right. Maybe the first humans were those who were exiled from their home planets because they were once thought to be less fit for reproduction.