[Phantom Stranger]

Quote:

Originally Posted by barnstenchfartface

Maybe.


The "Asian=martial arts" stereotype? Because you realize that's not what the issue is, right? What people take issue with is the white savior narrative that stuff like Iron Fist is built on. Independent of anything else, the white savior narrative absolutely is racist. A white guy doing martial arts is not objectionable--it's Daredevil. But the "mighty whitey" trope is not that.

Of course, whether the solution is to change the character's race is a different question, to which, as I said, the answer is "maybe." An Asian character defined by their mystical eastern martial arts absolutely could be equally, likely even more, racist. But, like most things, it's all about execution. Could a story with an Asian Danny Rand be written in a non-racist way? It's probably not impossible. Also probably not impossible to write a story with a white Danny Rand that is able to separate itself from the orientalism of the comics, but well, based on what I've read, doesn't seem like that's what we got. It's probably a bigger hurdle in the first place.

Of course, as a standard disclaimer, I have yet to see the show, nor am I very familiar with the comics, personally. This is largely just based on the perspectives on this issue that I've read.

Though also of course, it sounds like the show has bigger issues than this...

Apparently I'm the only one in agreement on these points.

On the subject of Danny's race, it's something I've been confused by in it's origin. Clearly his creation was a product of the time, capitalizing on martial arts films as much as Luke Cage was on blacksploitation. Yet for some reason Danny was a white dude, which I find confusing. Obviously an adaptation was an opportunity to change that, so I get the point/desire behind that. Regardless of it being part of the original comic, it doesn't change that it can be viewed as problematic from the start.

As for the concerns for the Asian stereotype...well, the story itself is already full of Asian side characters with Magical powers so there's that. But beyond that it is- as you stated, contextual. Hell, Luke is a Black dude in a hoodie getting shot listening to hip hop and rap, but that series got on fine with it because of it's presentation and that wasn't all there was to his character despite how easy he could have been a Dolemite. It can be an aspect of the show, even a big one, and therein lies the point. If Danny was an Asian guy good at martial arts and that's all to be found in his character, it would be a problem because that's all that defines him. That in general is just bad writing, anyway. Granted, from the sounds of things, writing seems to be a big issue on the series and no amount of race bending would solve that. Buuut I still gotta check it out in its entirety.