There is a group out there who are somewhat unthrilled with the casting choices made in the upcoming Thor movie. Oddly enough they are not perturbed by an Australian Thor of a British Odin. No their argument is against a black man playing the uber-popular Norse god who is everyone's favorite and is the REAL star of the show: Heimdall! Wait... Who?
For those of you who are unaware of who this god, don't feel too bad. Despite his important roll in Ragnarok, he is not a well-known god. Heimdall is the guardian of the bifrost bridge, the rainbow bridge that connects Midgard (Earth) to Asgard (Asgard). He will be the one to sound the horn signaling the beginning of Ragnarok making him possibly one of the worst early warning systems in history. He is also of note due to his being the last god to die during Ragnarok as he and Loki kill each other. Damn, I probably should have put a "spoiler" warning there, huh? I hope I didn't ruin the end of the world for you there.
Now you know...
So anyway this group, The Council of Conservative Citizens, is all upset that a black actor,Idris Elba, will be playing the roll of everyone's favorite god, Heimdall. Thier position being that since the character is a Norse god, he should be played by a white man presumably to ensure the integrity of the part. They see the casting of a black man, British no less, as some sort of assault on conservative values and white people in general.
In their own words:
Marvel Studios declares war on Norse mythology.
"Norse mythology gets a multi-cultural remake in the upcoming movie titled “Thor,” by Marvel studios. It’s not enough that Marvel attacks conservative values and promotes the left-wing, now mythological Gods must be re-invented with black skin.
It seems that Marvel Studios believes that white people should have nothing that is unique to themselves. An upcoming movie, based on the comic book Thor, will give Norse mythology an insulting multi-cultural make-over. One of the Gods will be played by Hip Hop DJ Idris Elba."
Oooookay. Really, guys? War? Last time I checked "war" was a huge, horrible, bloody affair where many people were killed. It always irritates me how our culture throws around that term. War on crime, war on drugs, war on poverty and don't even get me started on the war on terror. The word has less and less impact every time we misuse it. The only way this casting could possibly be considered an act of war would be if they loaded Elba into a cannon and fired him into a large group of people. Although, I have to admit, if they actually did, I would be one of the sick bastards who would have to watch that... repeatedly.
They are upset that, even though all the Nordic gods where white, they cast a black man. Ok, they have a point. The Nordic gods were, in fact, white, just are the gods from African mythology were black. Both of these facts are due to the color of the people who utilized the mythology.
So, it seems that they want historical accuracy. Ok, fine, lets shoot for accuracy shall we? Seeing as how the gods were Nordic, they probably shouldn't be speaking English either, huh? So, now we have white folks speaking in Nordic languages. We should be completely accurate then, right? Wrong! Let us not forget that the Nordic gods were, um, ya know, gods! That right there rules out any chance of hiring human actors. So the question is: Did Marvel even offer any parts to deities? The answer to that my friends is a resounding "NO"! For shame, Marvel, for shame. Did you even try? Although I do understand that there would be problems with casting deities. Would Yahweh be available for a long shooting schedule? Does Apollo really need two trailers? Will Vishnu work for scale? Even if that was viable, wouldn't it piss off the actual Nordic gods?
The CCC seems to regard this casting as Marvel's attempt at social engineering. Again, my response would be "huh?" While I firmly believe that movies and other fiction can play a part in shaping the landscape of the social world, they, for the most part, follow the landscape that is already there. At least that is the case with most mainstream fiction. As much as it pains me to say it, Marvel just isn't that powerful.
As a conservative group, you would think that they would be more upset when Marvel had one of it's most popular characters, Spider-Man, make a deal with the devil, or Marvel's devil-like character. I found this move by Marvel thoroughly offensive, not because it was blasphemous or anything like that but more due to the fact that it was stupid and poor storytelling.
You would think that a group like this would want to focus more on actual racism against white folks than waste their time on (forgive me Marvel) fluff. Is their racism against white people? Of course there is. Everyone on the planet of any race, assuming they have ever been in a mixed group of more than six people, has experienced racism.
Will this movie be awesome? I hope so. Will it be the thing that triggers a global genocide in which all members of our species with a relatively low amount of melanin in their skin, will be dragged from there homes. put up against walls and shot? Probably not.
Finally, I have to admit that I find it hilarious that Heimdell is refereed to in mythology as the "White God".
Rant Over... For Now
Note: I would like to thank The website toplessrobot.com for making me aware of this story through no fault of their own. Thanks again, Guys.
Just sharing
12 years ago
