For me, it's a very fine muddy line of... mud. On the one hand, acting chops alone can't be taken into consideration for casting a role in comic book movies. On some level, especially in the comic book medium, where you are given a very specific visual that is constantly hammered into your mind, aesthetics need to come into play. A blonde 65 yr old man as Peter Parker will not work, and if someone did that, people are probably not going to take the film very seriously.
So on that level, the argument against a black Heimdall isn't racist at all. I suppose one could even argue that even shining the light on it as such is in itself racist. (I'm not saying I fully believe that in this instance, but I most definitely question sometimes if we shine too many lights on these things) After all, how many times are actors called out for not "looking" the part in Marvel movies? "Kirsten Dunst looks too dunce-like!" "Hugh Jackman is too TALL!" "Ben Affleck is too much of a weeny twerp to be Daredevil!" "Nicolas Cage is too old and incompetent to play Ghost Rider!" And on and on and on. These comments are rarely met with more than a shrug. So part of me does question if it's healthy to lift this issue above the others. Our gut reaction to the din against him shouldn't be "people don't embrace him cuz he's black." It should be "people don't embrace him cuz he looks nothing like the character."
I mean, I hate plenty of white people for absolutely stupid reasons. Nicolas Cage should be dumped off a bridge, Tom Cruise should be shot into space, my neighbor lets her dog defecate in my front yard and I'd love to catapult her and her little rat into the ocean. So why should I not be given the same freedom to hate black actors without being called racist? If I say I hate Will Smith because his ears look like Dumbo, accusing me of being racist and bringing extra attention to my hatred is most definitely not helpful. In fact, it perpetuates the exclusion of black actors from the white ones. In this instance, my ability to hate them for petty and sometimes silly reasons. (For the record, I haven't seen Thor, and I'm not so attached to Heimdall that I demand he be white. I'm just saying for general purposes we should not be so quick to cry racism.)
On the flip side, however... the world is chock full of stupid racists, and they are doing way more than their fair share of perpetuating the stupidity. In a situation like this it's even worse, because they blend in with the canonites so well you can't even tell them apart, which makes Joe Canon Lover on the street look like the dumb racist. It's all so confusing!
My take is that there are a LOT of white comic book characters, and in many instances, if the actor is good enough and the changes not immersion-breaking, I'm good with ANY sort of visual change. Black Heimdall is on the same plane of existence for me as ditching Wolverine's yellow spandex. If it suits the character, go for it. If not, I'ma make fun of your movie FOREVER.
I dunno. I go back and forth on it. But I definitely question the need to shine a spotlight on every little thing that maybe/possibly/could be racism. Even the Resident Evil 5 thing... I haven't played the actual game because the demo sucked, so I can't speak to anything but the original premise. And if a game is set in Africa, I think it would be odd to only have white zombies.
I'm done meandering now.
