I’ve seen a lot of people on Twitter today raving about the new Marvel series on Netflix, Luke Cage. I haven’t had a chance to watch Daredevil or Jessica Jones, the preceding shows in the Netflix/Marvel universe, so it will probably be awhile before I see it. But most people seem to be giving Luke Cage rave reviews, at least judging by the early feedback. Not everyone is so happy about certain aspects of his character, though. The Ringer, Bill Simmons’ new site, is particularly perturbed that Luke seems to be a sort of conservative. The writer in question is also butthurt that Mr. Cage doesn’t like the n-word to be used in his presence, whether it directed at him or not.
Personally, I don’t get mad about black people using the n-word colloquially. Then again, I am not black. I’ve seen plenty of people who do come from the black perspective say it’s demeaning and not something that should be celebrated by the media. For some social commentators who indulge in n-word usage, having a popular show’s lead (black) character denounce it must be embarrassing.
Just take a look at this guy. He’s clearly upset that he’s been called out…
Cage’s biggest pet peeve, underscored in every other episode of the series, is hearing people say “n***a,” especially if the term is specifically addressed to him. (More on this later.) For a character that series creator Cheo Coker has explicitly linked to the #BlackLivesMatter movement, Cage spouts some surprisingly conservative undertones and mantras. He speaks like a man who has rather bitterly entered middle age…
In a recent interview with Vulture, Colter takes credit for his character’s belabored distaste for “n***a.” “I remember talking to [Coker] about it, and I was adamant that Luke was not a person that used that language,” Colter said. “He needs to be someone we can aspire to be. And I felt like, if he was the kind of guy that used that language all the time, like someone on the street corner who didn’t respect himself or the people around him, then he, in a sense, had lost already, had given up.” Colter and I will agree to disagree regarding whether the Wu-Tang Clan or Larry Wilmore are admirable men. It just sucks, given the popular hope that he’d be a hero sworn to fight against black death and white power, that Luke Cage’s superpower is the ability to fashion his abs as a washboard for dirty speech.
He doesn’t stop there, though. He’s also angry that Cage seems to sport some conservative-style thinking. Look at the title of the cry piece:
Oh, and his beloved #BlackLivesMatter isn’t deified enough for his tastes, either…
He’s gorgeous, but he’s not charismatic, nor is he a particularly uplifting superhero. And he damn sure isn’t the contemporary civil rights avatar that we seem to have been promised…
The criminal conspiracy runs deep. The ambitious councilwoman Mariah Dillard, played admirably by Alfre Woodard, is cast as a corrupt steward of shady real estate assets. Her political program isn’t especially despicable, though; she’s out to “keep Harlem black” and she embraces Black Lives Matter. It just so happens that her career is bankrolled by family drug money.
It’s not even like the show shits on BLM, even though it should. Luke Cage just has complex and sometimes contradictory characters, you know, like real life. And God forbid Cage himself doesn’t support throwing the n-word around. That goes against the pervasive media narrative just a little too much. Get back onto the plantation, guys. What were you thinking?
