The left’s control of the big stage has come with many issues, namely the fact that it’s run out of ideas and must rely on previously established IPs, franchises, and characters that can be remade and retooled for “modern” audiences. The big stage is controlled by those who are determined to insert their political views into every production, from Ghostbusters and Lord of the Rings.
(READ: Media is getting desperate in its defense of the Woke Lord of the Rings
Gender or race swapping is one of the more common injectables. There are many cases when this matters little, but there are times when it absolutely does, and when people point this out they’re deemed racists despite not making any points disaparaging races at all.
The most infamous example thus far was the race swapping of Queen Anne Boleyn by the BBC, who decided to put black actress Jodie Turner-Smith in the role as King Henry VIII’s second wife. Showrunners were asked to explain why this was done. They said that Anne Boleyn’s personality and Anne Boleyn’s acting style were very similar, so they were side-stepping an elephant in the room.
Now, Netflix has decided to take its turn in generating a wildly out-of-place race-swap in its new show “Vikings: Vallhalla.”
The character in question is the Viking king or “Jaarl” Haakon Sigurdsson. Who was the actor who played him? Well, for starters it’s a she, and the “she” in question is black Danish singer Caroline Henderson. The Viking king, in other words, is a Black queen.
Just pointing out this would not be enough for leftists, who will then start hurling accusations of racism all over. They would say it shouldn’t matter that this blatant of a ridiculous race swap happened and that only racists would care. They would be furious if someone told them the story of Madam C.J. Walker was portrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch.
What makes it so bad is that this wasn’t just careless casting, it’s blatant politics. As God of War: Ragnorok Narrative Director Matt Sophos noted when the trailer revealed that Norse jötunn Angrboda would be protrayed by a black girl, he confessed that the move was absolutely political.
“As a writer, your job is to tell stories that are compelling & relatable,” he said. “You bring pieces of yourself to stories and your opinions shine through. So writing is *always* political—it’s just usually only called that if the politics aren’t agreed with.”
However, the introduction of politics into the mix is not necessary in the first instance. And again, if race-swapping was reversed and a black actor played a prominently African character, then there would be endless outrage. Race-swapping is only one direction. It’s political pandering at its worst, but as black culture critic Eric July once noted, this pandering is insulting to the black community, calling these race-swaps of established white characters “hand-me-downs.”
“White folks saying ‘we already developed this character for decades, merchandise is out there, generations of people have grown up understanding who this character was…now we can pass this character to you even though everybody knows the original ain’t you,” said July.
While Woke politics does not have the right to inject itself into art, it does so because those in charge believe that we must be protected from some common moral failing. According to social justice advocates, we’re all racist, sexist, and bigoted, and we need to have their politics normalized within our culture in order to break the curse. They believe that the only way to cure racism in society is for white characters to be erased from popular media.
Yet the racism seems to be flowing from the woke in great wafts and they’re not practicing much self-awareness in noticing it. They attack white people as solely responsible for this racism and as a result, erasing white people from popular media or adding black characters in roles where they’d be clearly out of place becomes the rule.
It is racism. It’s complete stop.
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