Comic Con: Thy Name is Diversity

Having grown up in a Brooklyn housing project, having been a Peace Corps Volunteer in Colombia, having become a cultural anthropologist and doing research on the US-Mexico border, and now teaching a class with a textbook titled: Cultural Anthropology, Appreciating Diversity, I am not surprised that I looked to Comic Con as a place of diversity and a way of looking at the world as diverse.

As I sit here writing out my thoughts about diversity and Comic Con, I decided I had better check out what ‘diversity’ means. 

Definitions

I opened my American Heritage Dictionary (First Edition, 1969) and found two major definitions for ‘diversity’:  different and variety. That’s close to what the Latin root word ‘diversus’ meant for several thousand years with some other nuances ─ separate, opposite and hostile. I went online and checked out the American Heritage Dictionary (Fifth Edition, 2012).

Has anything changed in the forty odd years between these editions? Yes, there was a new element in the definition: The condition of having or including people from different ethnicities and social backgrounds. And in this current edition, there is no mention of separate, opposite or hostile. This is a curious evolution of how we now bend the word to mean inclusiveness as well as shedding notions of separate, opposite and hostile. Some etymological research might be well worth the effort.

Attendee Imagination

But when I went to Comic Con this year, I was again entranced by the geekiness and freakiness of how many attendees imagined themselves in cosplay (costume play).

Comic Con 2018, Photos by Joe Nalven

Happenings
Outside the Exhibition Hall, there were numerous panels. Some took on the contemporary notion of diversity explicitly into account: Border Narratives: Voices from Beyond the Wall; Diversity and Comics; The Black Panel; Comics Are for Everyone … Aren’t They?; Comics and Geek Items for the Blind and Visually Impaired; Diversity in Tech and Gaming; and Super Asian America. Supergirl announced that real-life transgender activist Nicole Maines would join the cast, playing a transgender woman whose goal is to protect others - a Superhero named Dreamer.

At Comic Con’s large Hall H two black female moderators were added, Yvette Nicole Brown and Aisha Tyler. But Brown pointed out she had been involved in Comic Con for some time: “'I am overjoyed to see that so many nerds of color, especially women, are getting a chance to shine on the main stage at Comic-Con, but I don't see it as new.  I've been blessed to attend Comic-Con as a panelist since my series Community made its debut back in 2009.” 

Demonic displays inside and outside the Convention Center

Millennials versus Gen-Xers and Boomers
As a further check on my understanding of diversity, I went online and found an interesting article: Diversity and inclusion are more than just buzzwords or boxes to check. . .  Millennials Have A Different Definition Of Diversity And Inclusion.

"Inclusion for boomers and gen-Xers is the business environment that integrates individuals of all . . .  demographics [gender, race, religion, ethnicity, or sexual orientation] into one workplace. It’s a moral and legal imperative, in other words: the right thing to do to achieve compliance and equality, regardless of whether it benefits the business."

For millennials "[c]ompared to older generations, [millennials] feel it’s unnecessary to downplay their differences in order to get ahead."

Aha! I got it. This is similar to Jimi Hendrix's lyric to "wave my freak flag high" - except for the millennial that flamboyant attitude is in the average workplace and exhibited by a growing employee majority. What is new is the institutionalization of the 1960's attitude. That visual shout out is rampant in Comic Con displays.

What caught my interest

With those definitions and attitudes towards diversity in hand, I can go back to the notes I took at several of the panels.  So, how did these various notions of diversity play out at the Comic Con panels I attended?

A caveat:  My selection of topics reflects a personal view and in no way pretends to substitute for the vast number of studies and conversations about the history, popularity, artistry and the like that comics have generated. With that said, here are some points that I found interesting and that dovetail with some of the topics that come up in the class I teach - Introduction to Cultural Anthropology.

Teaching with Comics
I decided to begin my adventure at Comic Con with a panel dealing with comics as an instructional technique. The topic was more robust than I anticipated - from setting up a certificate program within a university to comparing the learning experience between standard literary texts to comics to social agendas embedded in the comics' materials. Not surprisingly, there was a de-emphasis of Superman's original motto of Truth, Justice and the American Way (first appearing in 1938) with the current popularity in social thought embedded in  Wonder Woman's liberty and justice for all regardless of race, color and religion (first appearing in 1944).

Critical Race Theory and the Comics
Jonathan Flowers, Southern Illinois University, one of the presenters on the panel of Teaching with Comics, explored how we come to grips - or fail to do so - with issues of inequity and race. Exploring Flowers background on the web, I found that he was also interested in Japanese aesthetics and Chinese Confucian theories. In retrospect, his presentation was a narrow doorway into his much wider understanding. 

This graphic raises an important question

Flowers' perspective was aimed at broadening the 'diversity' of the content and consumption of comics as multiculturalism. As stated in his slide presentation, comics was a means of "cultivat[ing] a critical consciousness in students through developing their awareness of their social relations . . ."  His point was more clearly expressed in his reference to the work of Robin DiAngelo (White Fragility). DiAngelo criticized the notion that 'objectivity' is defined by White people as what is normal or as the "universal humans who can represent all of human experience."

If one accepts DiAngelo's premise, as does Flowers, then objectivity must be replaced with a multiplicity of perspectives - multiple ethnicities as well as similar understandings from gender, religion, etc. that devolve from one objectivity to intersectional ones. Perhaps I overstate the kaleidoscopic result that comes from denying a presumed singular objectivity .  .  . but whoever thought that Whiteness was one objective point of departure? That understanding was unified in some totality - White or otherwise?
  
A friend and anthropologist once described a British anthropologist in a Southeast Asian conference who challenged a Chinese anthropologist. The Chinese anthropologist stated that only Chinese could understand Chinese and that British or other Western researchers could not fully and faithfully transcribe the Chinese experience. This, by the way, is analogous to the Whiteness argument made by DiAngelo, which emphasizes that the personal bias developed from one's personal enculturation and social relations frames one's worldview - as a prison rather than a flowering garden.

We might ask ourselves: Isn't the point of anthropology to decenter one's personal bias and begin anew from the other's way of life - Chinese or otherwise? Perhaps that is not possible; perhaps that is an illusion.

But then, what of the British anthropologist's reply to this ethnocentrism within one' 'scientific perspective':  'If you are a Chinese male in his 40s or 50s, you cannot possibly understand the life and thinking of a toddler or adolescent Chinese female.'  So, the argument of moving away from Whiteness or Chineseness by substituting multiculturalism is only partially successful since that multiculturalism ends in a multiplicity of different worlds, none of which can understand each other. One set of problems is substituted for another.

The 'answer' that guides Jonathan Flowers' approach to teaching comics from a multicultural perspective

However, we return to Flowers' methodology. Can we use comics to encourage the students' to broaden their worldview?  If students asked such questions as 'Who is this comic for?' 'Is this comic for me?' 'Is this comic for everyone?' Those are useful questions for the students to engage with the materials presented by the instructor. And one could readily agree that each student would benefit from introspection about themselves within their social context as well as the histories of humanity that are similar and different from their own.

But what of the view that somehow Native American, Hispanic, Black, Asian, Catholic, Jewish, Hindu, Jain, Protestant, Straight, Gay, etc. students would not benefit from the canon of Western literature from Homer, Plato, Catullus, the Old and New Testaments, etc.? Doesn't Western tradition mean more than 'Whiteness' as the assumed 'normal' standard?

'Whiteness' as the assumed reference for 'objectivity'

I suggest the following perspective as a different way to understand contemporary US culture to the one that Flowers and DiAngelo argue for.

A Counterpoint:  Being trapped in history versus confronting the frightening possibility of freedom
Shelby Steele, speaking on White Guilt is Black Power and Senior Fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution, was interviewed by Mark Levin recently. I was interested in one of his comments as a different point of departure taken by Jonathan Flowers.

After the panel concluded, I went to Flowers and recalled one of the key parts of Steele's comments: 'Before it was a question of Black unity and protest; no more, it is now up to us as individuals to get ahead. Our problem now is not racism, our problem is freedom.'

Flowers thought about my question - it was about teaching with a message, comics or otherwise. Was the central issue for students about "inequitable power" in society - whether as Black or other ethnic group, or gender, religion? Or was the central issue one of freedom and responsibility?

Flowers said: "These are alternative paths." 

His answer reminded me of a text that I use to teach about human nature. Three Confucian scholars several centuries before the common era, opine on human nature: one says that humans are born with goodness (Mencius), another the opposite (Hsun Tzu) and yet another said that human nature was neutral (Kao Tzu).

More from the Steele interview
Steele observed (my paraphrasing) that 'Yes, I had to recognize my father being discriminated against by the unions. But we can't change the past. We live in the present. What other system are you going to go to? Some would argue that we need some reparations for [US] history, but we see other peoples getting set free and they didn't get paid back. We're not going to get perfect justice. The oppression of Black Americans is over with. Yes, there are exceptions. Racism won't go away - it is endemic to the human condition, just like stupidity. But the older form of oppression is gone and we should each pursue our lives as we wish. Blacks had adapted to oppression and many were heroic in responding to that. But now we are free. And as existentialists would point out, we are responsible for our own development. Before it was a question of Black unity and protest; no more, it is now up to us as individuals to get ahead. Our problem now is not racism, our problem is freedom.'

Shelby Steele interviewed by Mark Levin / July 15, 2018

Juxtaposing Jonathan Flowers' presentation at Comic-Con with Shelby Steele's interview on the Life, Liberty & Levin television show is not meant to signal one view as right- and the other wrong-headed, but to underscore the importance of seeking out those thought-provoking analyses of thinking about topics such as liberty, equity and why and how the world is the way it is and ought to be.

On the second day of Comic-Con, I decided to venture into another difficult topic - one that connects with observing other cultures.

Cultural Appropriation: Is it ever OK to borrow or steal from another culture?  
Pablo Picasso is often quoted as saying, "Good artists copy, great artists steal." This could plausibly mean that great artists take risks in transforming the world around them and not merely copying as if the painting imitated a photograph. Even so, that transformative process - while likely legally supportable under US law - could be questioned as ethically suspect. 

Consider Picasso's African-influenced period in the early 1900s. Compare the faces of the two women on the right in Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907) with the Fang mask (19th century Bantu art that could be seen in Paris at that time). Picasso's style in these mask-like faces can be described as "racial primitivism" that Picasso saw as a way to
"liberate an utterly original artistic style of compelling, even savage force."

              Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (left)                                                                 Fang mask (right)

Comic Con Panel:  Comics, Costumes and Cultural Appropriation

Susan Scaffidi, Fashion Law Institute, provided an overview of the problem and the tension between creatives and the practice of borrowing elements for one's own work. Her definition for cultural appropriation is: "Taking intellectual property, traditional knowledge, cultural expressions, or artifacts from someone else's culture without permission." (Emphasis added.)

In this definition, Picasso would be seen as a "cultural appropriator" - a step beyond being influenced by African (Bantu) culture, of stealing, to use Picasso's own words. But here we are using a 21st century prism to judge the practice and sensibility of 20th century artists. To be sure, many European nations had colonies in the less developed world, including in Africa - so why wouldn't they borrow (or steal) from those cultures? 

Even cultural anthropology with its theorizing in its infancy in the late 19th century, Edward Tylor and Henry Morgan spoke of primitive and ancient cultures evolving from savagery to barbarism to civilization. Guess who the savages were? Guess who the civilized were?

Are we any "better" about cultural appropriation today? Is it just part of the creative process?

Scaffidi also presented examples of Pharrell Williams (2016) wearing an American Indian headdress (and for which he apologized) and the fashion designer Marc Jacobs (2016) who had his models were dreadlocks-styled wigs.

Marc Jacobs use of dreadlocks in fashion show              Pharrell Williams dressed in American Indian headdress

Even more interesting was Scaffidi's note about the lawsuit between an African artist (Lina Iris Viktor) and the Black Panther movie music.  (See details below.)  On the same panel was Douriean Fletcher, jewelry designer for Black Panther, who was a jewelry designer for the Black Panther movie. Douriean spoke about her learning experience in South Africa and being interested in understanding the cultural and spiritual significance of the local art. One dilemma she encountered was whether it was acceptable to adapt local art to the needs of the corporation making Black Panther. She recounted having a conversation with a local artist who said he wanted her adaptation to be accurate. Her example fits within Scaffidi's definition of getting permission. The lingering concern for working with a large corporation is, of course, a separate concern.

Joseph Illidge, Executive Editor at Valiant Comics, provided a partial answer to the problem of making such missteps from within the corporate framework. The conscious addition of staff and executives with a variety of backgrounds would tend to catch such problems before production got locked into a narrow window of understanding and presentation. 

The Black Panther lawsuit

"A Black Panther lawsuit is testing the cultural exchange between Africans and African-Americans," Lynsey Chutel, May 30, 2018

For all its box-office success and cultural significance, Black Panther has had to dodge a lot of uncomfortable issues around cultural appropriation. Now, one of the most celebrated elements of the Marvel film, its original soundtrack, is under fire for alleged creative theft.

Just days after Kendrick Lamar released the song “All The Stars,” British-Liberian artist Lina Iris Viktor filed a lawsuit (pdf) which alleges that the rapper conducted “willful brazen, and extensive unlawful” copying of her artwork for the music video. She’s also suing others that participated in the production, such as singer SZA (real name Solana Imani Rowe), the music video’s director Dave Meyers, and Top Dawg Entertainment.

In a response filed on May 18, Lamar and his fellow defendants argue that “alleged use of the artwork did not proximately cause any of Plaintiff’s alleged damages,” or any profits for Top Dawg entertainment. They added that any of the “alleged infringements were innocent,” and constituted as “fair use.” Both have asked the New York district court for a trial by jury.

The case doesn’t just bring up questions over what constitutes creative theft—it highlights the skewed relationship between African-American artists and their African counterparts, even when they’re working toward the same vision.

To create the ideal of Wakanda, the film’s director and designers referenced contemporary Africa, but sewed together a patchwork of pan-African elements, which were taken from various communities with no real reference to their origins. Viktor’s claim is that she can clearly recognize her own designs among this cultural mish-mash, at least in the music video.

Conclusion
Thousands of attendees came to play in the Comic Con sandbox and were justly rewarded. But there was much more at play in the panel discussions and their connections to wider discussions in academia and the media. This art blog touched on a small element of the many faceted enterprise known as comics - particularly as it related to the diversity of persona whether of the attendees or in the content of comic books, and whether copying another's diversity was fair game.

Consider the following thought for re-entering a discussion about diversity for next year's Comic Con:  "Isn't it amazing that we are all made in God's image, and yet there is so much diversity among his people?"  Desmond Tutu