Could it be said that this is a pattern or that someone who comes to this conclusion is exaggerating?
For example, in many animes the characters are Asian and right-wingers don’t seem to mind. Maybe because most of the characters appear to be white, or because many Japanese animes have an actual cast of white characters. They don’t seem to mind if in a fictional world all the characters are white or Asian, but on the other hand they would mind if in the fictional world all the characters were black or had dark skin. Is this really a fact or an exaggeration?
It’s real. Conservatives are awful people.
It’s real, but you don’t get to see anything from billions of viewers who don’t mind or even enjoy a little variety. Only the five hillbilly snowflakes who feel offended by a skin tone bother to voice their stupid opinion.
Yes, and you’ll be “woke” for liking something without a white main character. Part of their playbook. Can’t just be happy for someone else making it.
Yes
Aggrievement is the central tenet of these people. They imagine it everywhere and never accept reality.
Every single right leaning person I know LOVES several movies and shows that have main characters that aren’t white men.
The boondocks, blade series, basically anything Morgan Freeman or Samuel L Jackson have done, Lando, Morpheus and uncle Phil off the top of my head.
I am aware there are the super racist far right guys that probably can’t even watch Scooby Doo because the dog is brown, but the grand majority of “right wing” people aren’t white supremacists that lose their shit if a character isn’t white in their movies and shows. Even if that’s what some people here might tell you is the case.
No one cares who the lead is in a good show. It’s been popular to blame racism/sexism for shitty shows for a while. It’s easy to find a couple tweets and turn a handful of assholes into the face of criticism.
“Every time” is certainly an exaggeration. Just off the top of my head in a minute:
- The Dragon Prince - nobody gave a damn.
- Star Wars [pick any of several releases] - we’ve had various people of color, both human and alien, as protagonists. I don’t remember much of a fuss over that in particular.
- Various MCU things - Brave New World just came out, again featuring Mackie as Wilson - taking the place of the stereotypically WASP Steve Rogers, no less.
- Hazbin Hotel: Vaggie is heavily coded as latina.
- Mobile Suit Gundam: Witch From Mercury - okay, not a non-white lead, but the first Gundam series with a female lead, and a lesbian romance front and center. Once again, no attack.
If I looked around further, I’m sure I could find more. All of these have variously been critiqued for writing, characterization, or pacing, but failed to draw attacks based on the ethnicity (or orientation) of their protagonists.
Is this kind of attack a thing that happens? Absolutely. Is it “every time”? No. I’d suggest it’s more often when a series goes out of its way to bludgeon the audience with a message related to it, or tries to sell a newcomer as a superior replacement for a legacy character, that people can get riled up.
Both Star Wars and the MCU have had examples of what OP describes
Isn’t the dragon Prince’s lead a white guy? I’m almost positive. Also a lot of these are probably too obscure to really raise a stir. I’m kind of shocked even brought up dragon Prince much less the Gundam show you mentioned.
Also your ability to wall yourself off from the Star Wars “controversies” is rather impressive.
TDP has two main leads, one white and one black.
I’m not walled off from Star Wars’ controversies, merely pointing out that “every time” isn’t accurate.
We can quibble about whether or not a second character merits the title lead or not, however it’s still inaccurate to use it as an example of a counter to the raised point. The show’s main lead was a white male character. That’s inarguable.
