I Can See Your House From Here - Archives
vol 2 number 6
To the best of my knowledge, this isn't something that science-fiction readers and moviegoers have to deal with all that often. Maybe a little, actually, if you fold horror into the above category - hey, you may not, but the general public that put Tom Clancy and John Grisham into new homes does. It certainly isn't something that you hear about in comic books that much - but here it is, happening again.
I live in Alabama. I don't have an accent, though I am prone to say "y'all" unabashedly. I wear shoes, have never farmed dirt, and hate watermelon and collard greens. I've never enjoyed watching Hee Haw, nor have I ever purchased a country music album. Most importantly, I have never experienced hardcore bigotry; that is to say, I have never burned a cross at a Klan rally, or spray-painted a synagogue, or gone gay-bashing. Neither have any of my friends, family, or acquaintances.
I have run into the occasional - and by that I mean one out of every twenty or so -- person that believes that white, heterosexual, Christians, are a superior group. Most of these work the graveyard shift at the local 7-11. Now, I live in Birmingham, a city that wants to be progressive really badly. Head out into the country a few miles, and I'm sure the ratio of racists goes up - concurrent with the number of mullets, not coincidentally.
It is a little bit out of the city that you will find the printer that just last week stopped the presses on Marvel's new title Alias, the one that is slated to kick of the MAX adult line. If anyone hasn't heard yet, Brian Michael Bendis worked in a saucy little scene featuring the female lead doing the nasty with Luke Cage, AKA Power Man. Having not seen the panels in question, I have no idea how graphic this gets, but word is that there is no nudity.
My thoughts? Big deal. If your kids want to see a couple having sex, they can get a Penthouse at the neighborhood Barnes and Noble for $5.95, and they may even get a golden shower thrown in as a bonus.
The printers here in these parts, though, don't quite see it that way. When I say stopped the presses, I mean literally that - the called Marvel and told them that they refused to print the material in question, threatening the release schedule of the first of a new line. Marvel made a few calls, sent the job up to Canada, and everything is back on track.
Great. My home state has just been outdone by Canada. Kill me now, eh?
The funny thing is what everyone reads into this. Because the printer is in Alabama, this all happened because the scene involved sex between a white woman and a black man. Obvious, right? It couldn't possibly be the language in the comic, or the mature situation, or just the sex, could it? Nah - because everyone still thinks of Bull Conner and the fire hoses.
Here's the thing: Alabama is the golden, shiny, initialed buckle of the Bible Belt. The only thing that my neighbors take as seriously as their guns is their God, and (when it doesn't hamper their lifestyle) they are quick to quote you chapter and verse on the evils of your ways. I've actually worked with the printer in question, in another lifetime with another career, and I would say that the odds are just as good that the job was stopped because of unmarried sex in a kids book. Now, you and I know that the MAX line is specifically aimed away from kids, but the printer doesn't - he just knows that ganged with a Spider-Man book and a Captain America book, and Good Lord in Heaven above is that a sex scene in a funny book?
Now, if you want to read something really funny, check this out (make sure it's the August 27 column). Up front, "Your Man" is one of Marvel's PR guys, but frankly, this is ridiculous. I mean, "So, yes, we had to make another tough call. And we'll let fate decide wether [sic] we made the right one." How is this a tough call? You gotta get the book out on time - because late books are UNHEARD OF in this industry! - and so you either send it to another printer or you don't.
I suppose there's always the option of self-censorship - but don't get me started.
Out of all the controversy to come out of this - Marvel's just doing this to hype a new title; are comics really for grown-ups? - the one thing that bugs me the most is the immediate assumption that the South, and Alabama in particular, is a bastion for racially motivated bad decisions. Honestly, if I were a black man, I'd feel safer here than in, say, Cleveland, or Los Angeles. If you want interracial sex, head to New York City - just ask Abner Louima, though I gather you might be looking for something a little less rough. But please, let it go.
Tell you what: if you'll all stop assuming that we have more racism here than in the rest of the country (let's talk about the Aryan Nations in the northwest, shall we?), I'll work on getting my neighbors to stop shouting "Hey, man - the South's gonna rise again!" when they've had a little too much Budweiser on race weekend.
If you really want to place blame and point fingers at Alabamians, don't pull the race card. Dig a little, and you'll find that we're more apt to make stupid decisions like the rest of the United States citizens: based on fanatical religious beliefs and purely uneducated stupidity.