Why changing a character's race is disrespectful and insensitive

I am a Wally West fan; he is probably my favourite Flash and definitely my favourite KId Flash. I have pateiently read the New 52 'Teen Titans' and kept tabs on Flash issues waiting foir the character to be introduced. Finally he has made his grand entrance into the rebooted universe in the pages of The Flash... or has he? The character has been rebooted as a black teenager.

I read many comments at the time that argued this was not really a big deal, afterall racial diversity within comics should be a goal for which all publishers are striving. I fully agree with this mission and think that adding diversity of race, gender and sexual orientation can only have a posiitive role in broadening the horizons of the children who enjoy these comics.

My issue then, is this; if one changes any of these three characteristics, are we left with the same character we had before?

Let us take for example the character that, as I understand it, led the way in terms of changing race- Ultimate Nick Fury. If one compares this black Fury to the white one with which many older readers grew up, is he the same character? Of course not: he speaks differently, dresses differently and has a far greater competency on a basketball court than I ever remember Mr. Hasslehoff displaying. I would argue in fact that he is in fact a completely different (and far more interesting) character.

In fact I would argue that to change the race of a character and implying that he or she is exactly the same is insulting to members of each race. Lets look at Kitty Pryde: she is a strong Jewish female character. She embraces her race and religion and is proud of it. Recently she told a tale of how she lost interest in a boy who she overheard making anti-semetic comments and has worn a Star of David around her neck for a lot of her time in early Ultimate comics. Imagine now that Marvel rebooted her as a white middle class atheist. Would she be the same character? definitely not, her cultural identity is a crucial element to the development of her character.

Furthermore I would argue she is not alone in this: strong feelings of identity accompany belonging to any religious group, Muslim, Jewish or even mainstream Christian. Similarly there is a sense of pride and history that belongs to any race Black, Asian or yes even White.

I am British and so am shaped by British culture; I drink tea, am Christian, think the Beatles were genius and play rugby. I am proud of the contributions we have made to the development of the world and wich that we had acted differently in some historical periods (the crusades were not our finest hour). I  personally would be insulted if someone were to tell me that they were going to cast me as a Black American Muslim but they didn't expect it to change any important elements of my character as it belittles the influence of the culture with which I have grown up. In addition i would expect anyone who was black, American and/or Muslim to be offended at the thought that their culture would have little-to-no impact on a character.

We could search comics and debate examples of this all day: Ultimate Collosus is Gay, how does it effect his character when he no longer falls in love with Kitty? Nightcrawler is a homophobe and this completely alters their relationship.

Is there an alternative that does not belittle the impact of cultural identity? of course there is: be brave a create new characters. Look at Miles Morales. He is a completely different race to Peter Parker. He comes from a completly different socioeconomic background. His sexuality began as rather amibiguous. If Bendis had named him Peter Parker it would have been insulting to all this different markers of identity. But he didn't and the character has been (reluctantly) embraced as the best thing to come out of that universe post-Ultimatum.

Similarly 'Young Justice' featured a black Aqualad, Caldor, rather than  the traditional white character of Garth. Caldor was equally embraced as a character in his own right and is also a definite miss from the New 52.

So can Johnny Storm be black and the same character we know and love without belittling the sense of culture and history that comes with being black or white? I would say no. Could the Human Torch be given a  new black identity and still be embraced? Maybe.

What do you think?


Note- I have used the politically correct terms for races and religions as I understand them in the UK. I understand some of these terms may be different in eth USA and aplolgise for any offence or confusion this may cause.