Black Thor Actor Talks About Racist Comic Book Fans

[theguiltyone]

A black guy shouldn't have been cast there.

Norse gods are white. They are not made up - they are part of a real religion (how real they are is besides the point). Having a black guy shat all over the immersion.

Shall we have a white, female midget play Obama in a doco about his life?

Show me a photo of a white Norse god. Can't? Huh. I guess religion is one of those tricky subject-to-interpretation things. Like making Jesus a blue-eyed blonde as so many Christians are wont to do.

Also, as has been stated before, the Marvel universe Norse Gods are NOT the same as the Norse gods from Scandinavian culture. They're aliens.

Are you going to complain about Tuvoc being a black vulcan, too?

I'm not going to debate with you if this is your idea of an argument. If you want to intelligently make a claim, please do so. If you want to continue with questions like that, we are done.

Oh, good. We agree that comparing the pantheon of Norse mythology to people who can have photos taken of them in the past or present and thereby have concrete and undeniable likenesses to adhere to ( like Obama, for example) is silly.

Happy day.

 

[tigermilk]

If anyone complains about "authenticity" and "historical accuracy" they need to remember its a story about a man with a magic fucking hammer.

I know nothing about Thor so you know where the quote button if his hammer isn't magic!

 

[theguiltyone]

Fixed that for you.

Actually I did read the post, I appreciate the sentiment though.

So where did you get the idea that a black man was playing Thor? Just curious.

 

[Ersanven]

I was a little confused by the casting but as a huge fan of the wire I expect to see him eat the scenery like Galactus.

 

[Technicka]

All of your snarky comeback has been undermined by not reading the full post. Like I said, I'm fine with small changes, but what they're doing is comparable to having a (non-satirical) movie about how Jesus loves war and hates the meek and poor. I think even depicting God as a woman (see: Dogma) can be done (perhaps not without controversy) and you could still be making a movie about Christianity. But if you change the basic tenets of the religion with no real explanation one can question whether you're not just misrepresenting it. But, like I said, it's based on a comic book, so all I can't complain too much, I just hope that too many people come away from it thinking that the vikings really believed in peace and love just because some fantastic movie based upon a comic book depicted them that way. Sure it seems stupid that anyone would do that. But hey, people tend to be stupid, and I have every right to be annoyed by their stupidity.

Oh no, I read the full post. And my point still stands. Marvel's Thor is not a religious tale. It's doing nothing that hasn't been done before with the Old Beliefs. Did you kick up such a stink when Disney did Hercules, and had Zeus as a caring (if absent) father and Hades as flat-out evil?

And really? Vikings have always been equated with looting, plundering, and all around badassery long before the comic was made, and it's hardly going to stop now because of one measly movie.

 

[JSDodd]

I think he's seriously fucking badass in the film and thus am all for him.

 

[skatch13]

I just want one question answered. If Heimdall is being played by a black man then why is his sister Sif being played by a white chick? Color me confused. I think there is a bit of token casting going on here, and if you call them out on it you are a racist. I say Sif should have been black as well.

 

[Godhead]

As long as Johan Hegg is in it I don't really care that much.

 

[blindthrall]

Speaking as a white-as-snow Swede, I welcome any attempt to bring some variation to our dire culture.

Ha. This. I find it funny how white supremacists, even the Nazis, held Scandinavia up as this utopia of racial purity, while actual Scandinavians couldn't really give a shit.

As far as the movie, if Tom Cruise was the last samurai and Vasily Zaitsev had a British accent, then any new complaints of a movie being disrespectful to 'history' (religion?) are spurious.

 

[ReiverCorrupter]

All of your snarky comeback has been undermined by not reading the full post. Like I said, I'm fine with small changes, but what they're doing is comparable to having a (non-satirical) movie about how Jesus loves war and hates the meek and poor. I think even depicting God as a woman (see: Dogma) can be done (perhaps not without controversy) and you could still be making a movie about Christianity. But if you change the basic tenets of the religion with no real explanation one can question whether you're not just misrepresenting it. But, like I said, it's based on a comic book, so all I can't complain too much, I just hope that too many people come away from it thinking that the vikings really believed in peace and love just because some fantastic movie based upon a comic book depicted them that way. Sure it seems stupid that anyone would do that. But hey, people tend to be stupid, and I have every right to be annoyed by their stupidity.

Oh no, I read the full post. And my point still stands. Marvel's Thor is not a religious tale. It's doing nothing that hasn't been done before with the Old Beliefs. Did you kick up such a stink when Disney did Hercules, and had Zeus as a caring (if absent) father and Hades as flat-out evil?

And really? Vikings have always been equated with looting, plundering, and all around badassery long before the comic was made, and it's hardly going to stop now because of one measly movie.

Hopefully, in regard to your last point.

As to your first point, yes, in fact mythological inaccuracies bother me even more when the movie is supposed to be directly representing the mythology. Hades as evil really bothered me when I watched it, even as a kid, just because of my knowledge of Greek mythology. In fact, I think I remember complaining about it in the movie theater and being told to shut up. It was Hera who was the one to mess with Heracles. (Hercules is actually the Roman version, so I try to keep it consistent, either Hercules, Jupiter and Juno, or Heracles, Zeus and Hera, just another pet peeve amongst many).

But I agree, because it's really a comic book adaptation of mythology it isn't as important. However, it's still going to bother me that they've changed the most fundamental tenets of Norse mythology. It also bothered me a little in Stargate, but the greys were so different from the gods they represent that it wasn't as bad. I'm not sure if I even want to see the movie because it just might bother me too much.

 

[Versago]

Ok, anyone who has a problem here is NOT having a problem about the portrayal of Gods - they are just being racist.
Thor contains various scenes of various Gods looking like fools, being beaten up and being tricked. All things accounted for, Idris Elba's Heimdall was one of the most respectful and duty-understanding Gods in the film.

So I don't think its a God thing, just a racist thing.

 

[Sentox6]

I'm going to be very blunt, it bugs me to see a black actor cast as a Nordic god.

Not as much as it upset me to see Katara and Sokka cast as white actors in The Last Airbender though, before anyone tries to throw me under the racism bus.

 

[Mewick_Alex]

He was the coolest character in Thor by a long way

 

[JackandTom]

Who cares what colour he is? It doesn't matter, he is frigging awesome as Heimdall...

 

[ReiverCorrupter]

Ok, anyone who has a problem here is NOT having a problem about the portrayal of Gods - they are just being racist.
Thor contains various scenes of various Gods looking like fools, being beaten up and being tricked. All things accounted for, Idris Elba's Heimdall was one of the most respectful and duty-understanding Gods in the film.

So I don't think its a God thing, just a racist thing.

It's hard to argue the point about accuracy in something that is really about alien viking gods in space, but I don't think you have to hate black people to find the idea of a Norse god being black strange. While it makes as much sense as anything else in the Marvel version of the myth, one can't help but see it as a deliberate action because of the normal expectations involved when contemplating Norse mythology, in space or not. Whether the intention is to promote diversity, to make some sort of commentary on Norse mythology, or to simply cause controversy and thus get free publicity (the most likely scenario in my opinion), is anyone's guess.

While I don't agree with conservatives on most things, I think you do have to acknowledge that Hollywood does have a very liberal bent, so it isn't impossible that said political views have something to do with it. It's obviously not a conspiracy though: it's just writers, producers and directors allowing their value system to influence their decisions, which is something common to all human beings. Calling it an 'agenda' as if it was all part of some organized scheme to change the world is just paranoid and downright silly.

But on the other hand, while racism used to be defined as having an irrational hatred for people of other races, now the definition seems to have extended to even just holding an opinion about some racially charged issue while also being white. The whole thing about white privilege essentially insinuates that all white people are culpable in racism or racist practices simply by being white and living in a society in which the majority (or largest minority) of people are white. To think that it's some sort of special evil particular to white people that one is privileged by being a member of the majority is incredibly naive. I suggest such a person take a trip to Japan. They're nice to tourists, but being white there is essentially like being a wandering dog. The sins of the father, eh? At least it makes a great way of instantly discrediting anyone who disagrees with you, much like calling someone a communist in the 1950's.

 

[Themsen]

Can we stop saying that this has anything to do with race? The biggest problem for me is that they are not being consistent. The rest of the pantheon is completely white, so Heimdall doesnt come off as simply an equal character that happens to be black: he becomes "token black guy" automatically.

Also, using the whole "they are aliens, of course one of them could be black" is kinda weak. Sure, i know by this line of reasoning they probably shouldnt be humanoid at all, but again, when just ONE SINGEL GUY of an entire race is black and the rest is 100% white, and they are not even from bloody earth, how does it make any sense that they would have the same ethnicities?

Also, from the perspective of a scandinavian, seeing our old mythology being use like this doesn?t really hurt at all, in fact we just think its awesome since its a dead religion, we can stand back and just appreciate it as stories and a sort of psychological study of our ancestors. AND STILL, seeing Heimdal as black is just really weird. Its the same as making a movie about the African myths of creation, cept suddenly there?s this white dude just hanging around in the background.

Ok, anyone who has a problem here is NOT having a problem about the portrayal of Gods - they are just being racist.
Thor contains various scenes of various Gods looking like fools, being beaten up and being tricked. All things accounted for, Idris Elba's Heimdall was one of the most respectful and duty-understanding Gods in the film.

So I don't think its a God thing, just a racist thing.

Dude, Norse mythology is full of the gods making complete fools out of themselves (Thor dresses up as his wife once to steal back his hammer from the Jotner (think trolls)), and people loved that stuff. Its not about being pissed that the gods arent portrayed as complete badasses all the time (Wait, doesn?t this movie more or less DO THAT?), its about just being so goddamned tired of hollywood having to force a token black guy in places where it isn?t needed (read: everywhere).

If a character is black, fine. If a character is made black because you suddenly realised everyone was white, then *sigh*, that?s just stagnant. Is anyone actually offended if a movie doesn?t have a black person? Do people really think a mere coincidence is a deliberate racist attack? Isn?t that sort of racist in itself? Racism ceases to exist the day no one even thinks about skin colour as a problem, but it has to go both ways.

 

[Fetzenfisch]

I find it much more outraging that they claim that the home of the icegiants is Jotunheim, while everyone with at least minimal education should know its niflheim

 

[Chris8016]

Haven't seen the film yet, intending to see it this weekend, but if he plays the part well, what does it matter? Actually, I thought Heimdall was black anyway until I was reminded they're all Norse as part of the Norse god thing, so I don't know why I thought that to begin with. But, as you can probably tell, it really doesn't bother me.

 

[II2]

Oh sod off, Hollywood.

Putting a token black guy in an unusually inappropriate role isn't progressive, it's just a very PC form of trolling and drumming up controversy as advertising.

You wouldn't cast a white guy as a Voodoo Loa, so fuck off. *

*Though if I do, I will admit to being wrong and think even less of "you"