Can A Racist Character Be Heroic?

in the prim and proper society of 2018 America there's been a heavy crackdown on what is and isn't acceptable in modern media in fact has been such an outcry from mandatory political correctness that some scenarios are entirely inconceivable to your standard-issue millennial bigotry is only for bad guys immigration abortion gun control correct answers to these complex issues have already been decided for you and modern day heroes with their modern-day values we'll always take the liberal stance to reinforce those correct answers so to a generation of creators going up in a culture that is intolerant of the wrong type of intolerance it begs the question can a racist character also be a hero [Music] fact most people hate racists while it's true that heroes were and are characters to be admired in some way one thing they used to have before Marvel and Disney star wars came along were flaws real flaws not the easy merry sewage type flaws that don't actually detract from the character at all like being too devoted to Moody having a tragic backstory or having uncontrollable powers now when I say flaws I mean ugly destructive quirks that stem from the character's personality the bad that comes with the good in other words a flaw that's solely the character's own fault Sherlock Holmes is drug use the rage of Achilles the arrogance of Julius Caesar it's their virtues that make them admire Abel but it's their flaws that make them human now I know drug use arrogance uncontrollable rage aren't nearly as taboo as racism is today and some circles they might actually be virtues and admittedly having a prejudice is a little different after all addiction arrogance extreme anger are more self-destructive traits you might even feel sorry for how these people drive everyone in their lives away while they battle their own demons racism on the other hand is far less sympathetic it's easy to hate someone in possession of qualities often attributed to villains but believe it or not this exact thought experiment led to the creation of the character Tony Stark I think I gave myself a day it was the height of the Cold War the readers the young readers if there was one thing they hated it was the war it was the military swag on a hero who represented that to the hundredth degree he was a weapons manufacturer he was providing weapons for the army he was rich he was an industrialist I thought it would be fun to take that kind of character that nobody would like none of our readers would like and shove him down their throats and make him like he became very popular Stan Lee identified every trait the young readership despised every unforgivable sin mash them all together and made the legendary Iron Man to place this achievement in context the modern-day equivalent would be a white heterosexual male who's also a successful billionaire businessman yeah imagine getting Millennials to buy that comic every month however being a rich business mobile who sells weapons to the military doesn't quite touch racism does it after all you can have the same weapons traders sell to a rebellious faction trying to topple an evil empire racism is never heroic or noble in any scenario but then the point isn't to explore how racism could be heroic is it the point is to explore whether or not a character with such an irredeemable flaw could be heroic and that brings me to my next point philosophers have long debated over the true definition of morality is an action good because the intention was good or is the action good because the outcome was good to sum those two ideas might seem inseparable but let me provide an example a serial murderer goes out into the night looking for someone to kill you find someone and kills them nothing moral here so far right well it so happens that the morning newspaper reports that the person killed by the murderer was another murderer likely on his way to claim another victim so did the killer commit a moral act because his actions killed a murderer and saved a life or for his actions immoral since his intention was to kill not to stop a criminal not to most you might say it's the intention that matters after all you might intend to help your friend pass that big test then you make a mistake your friend fails out of school never achieves his dreams and ends up on the streets working as a bitter videogames journalist but you didn't mean to do that right well take this into consideration one of the biggest differences between a villain and a hero is arguably the drive to action villains are driven to commit evil actions and heroes are driven to commit good ones but then you have instances where heroes overstep their bounds and cross into morally grey territory DC's injustice storyline for example pivoted on their most noble hero murdering one of their most notorious villains Superman's intention was to kill the Joker for the death of Lois Lane the Joker in this timeline killed Superman's love interest by gleefully setting off a nuke inside of cities so large they titled at metropolis and the Joker being The Joker has no stopping his homicidal side he'll be arrested he'll escape from prison and he'll go off to kill again Superman's intentions clearly weren't pure he killed the Joker out of anger a need for revenge this was murder not justice however putting the storylines aftermath aside in that moment the Joker's death potentially prevented the deaths of thousands to millions of people when you compare intentions with actions morality becomes far more complex suddenly scenarios that seem to have easy right and wrong answers now seem a little more ambiguous and when you take all that to consideration is it really so hard to imagine a racist character acting heroic in fact you might be surprised when you're racist hero turns out to be one of the noblest members of the team stories run on drama good stories run on good drama and good drama stems from deep character driven conflict whether it be from a hero's concern for a captured loved one or challenge made to exploit a hero's weaknesses or whether it be from a constant internal struggle against a dangerous character flaw as we saw in the previous example there's actually a big difference between intention and outcome likewise there's also a similar difference between thought and action Superman outside the injustice timeline exists in pop culture as the iconic hero he protects the weak he fights evil he's strong masculine he doesn't kill his kind and understanding his generous and selfless he cares as much for the lives of the guilty as he does for the lives of the innocent his thoughts and his actions are perfectly in sync he's a good guy from the bottom of his heart and that's why some people find him so boring heroes are defined by their opposition the greater the opposition the greater the hero the story comes from witnessing the heroes struggle removed the struggle remove the story so what does all this had to do with the question can a racist character be heroic well consider this when the Superman sees a person trapped in a burning building he rescues them without a second thought and for Superman rescuing someone from a burning building this is easy as breathing no struggle no conflict now but if there were another hero with the same powers as Superman imagine if something had happened in his life to make him hate an entire group of people based solely on the color of their skin maybe his parents were killed some kind of trauma that left a deep-seated resentment for certain kinds of people and this hatred is something he struggled with his entire now some of you might be asking how can such a character possibly be a hero imagine this character again the same abilities as Superman seeing a person trapped inside a burning building this time however this person is that the race he's developed a hatred for maybe it's a woman maybe it's a mother and child neither of which has ever met before but it doesn't matter that hatred is still there telling him to let them die like their kind let his parents die moments like these are what make a character they're what separate a hero from a villain the noble from the ignoble a villain will be the one who succumbed to his hatred but a hero will be the one who could battle his negative thoughts and act to do the right thing overcoming great obstacles makes a great hero and it's that vicious internal struggle that creates good drama there's no accomplishment and easy victories after all what's more exciting seeing a baby take its first steps are watching the average person walk down the street seeing Superman save a life or watching Lex Luthor save a life just as a major difference exists between intent and result between our thoughts in our actions there is an important difference between a character with evil thoughts and an evil character there's such a strong push to see things as definite rights and wrongs nuance and context are forgotten a writer's job is to break away from the mainstream find other avenues of thought explore the parts of humanity many of us want to keep hidden and not only to explore it but as Stan Lee did with Tony Stark to make people fall in love with the things they hate I mentioned that you're racist hero might turn out to be one of the noblest members of the team now how can that be if even appearing to be racist today is one of the worst crimes you can commit well when you remember that heroes are still human extraordinary people with very real and sometimes destructive character flaws when you remember that our thoughts our intentions our actions in results of those actions are very different things and the major telling difference between a villain and a hero is at painful internal struggle when you remember all that in the end who is the nobler hero the one who finds it easy to do the right thing or the hero who's weighed down by a villainous character flaw but performs good deeds anyway of course none of this applies only to racism with the dawn of social justice protagonists where characters that are women or minorities are foolishly expected to represent all women are all minorities character flaws are no longer seen as character flaws rather any flaw any of these characters might possess would be seen as a writer's admission that he believes every member of that characters group also possesses that flaw if a female protagonist is greedy suddenly the writer is accusing all women of being gold diggers if a character is part of a gang suddenly the writer is accusing all members of that characters race of being criminals so in Hollywood's noble hunt for diversity they have forsaken flaws dismissed that internal struggle and replaced them with quirky millennial dialogue and lol so random humor politically correct characters have been purged of their humanity there are piles of clean and crisp corporately Shay that must hide their hollow personalities behind big-name franchises and terrible gimmicks they're not allowed to make mistakes and are allowed to be wrong they're not allowed to be offensive they're only allowed to be Superman with the man taken away don't make characters acceptable make them harsh make them offensive make them despicable and raw make them say the wrong things give them the wrong opinions make them soldiers make them aliens or monsters make them demons or gods but above all else whatever you do remember to make them human [Music]

Channel: Literature Devil

Views: 518,617

Rating: 4.8577595 out of 5

Keywords: creative writing, politics

Id: k6kqYrztWU8

Length: 13min 26sec (806 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 30 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/darmodyjimguy]

Sam Rockwell’s character is not heroic in that movie. They don’t try to make him a hero.

I mean, he tries to be a good cop, then SPOILER he ends up turning would-be vigilante. The film does not portray this as heroic.

I remember critics upset at even the idea of a racist (as if that encompassed his entire character) wanting to do good. As if that were a bridge too far for the story. Perhaps they didn’t like the particular way it happened (a letter from Woody Harrelson hit him in the conscience), but c’mon. A bad person can’t even want to do good?

(He wasn’t a bad person just on account of being racist, by the way.)

I might feel differently if he did something Abby-level bad and tried to half-ass redeem himself. But that didn’t happen.