Geek Talk

Maybe not just the X-men, but I think they played a hand in it. This topic popped up at work and I saw a re-run of the comic book special on the History Channel and it got me thinking about it again. The X-men may have played a small role in teaching about racism. I’m sure my parents and many other factors also played a role, but I’m curious if I’d be different at all if I didn’t read those comics at a young age.

The X-Men are a group of heroes in a world that hates and fears them. As the history channel pointed out “they are relevant”. Meaning they can be related to by many groups of people: African-Americans, gays, kids who get picked on at school, almost anyone. I’d love to create a poll that would ask if someone is racist and reads or has read the x-men. Of course just putting those two questions wouldn’t really cut it, you’d have to have a series of questions that would find out if they are racist or not. Not many people would say “Yes I hate everyone”. I may have to set one up just because I think it would be interesting. Problem would be getting a diverse group of people to take it, not just us comic geeks.

It would make sense if I am right. They’re the underdogs you’re always routing for; you always take their side and not the side of the protesting public that wants the X-Men to just die off. Why wouldn’t this translate into the real world? I mean even today I hear other countries just want the USA or other smaller countries to just die off; we don’t have the right to exist. To me that’s just ridiculous. Same goes for this whole gay marriage thing, I don’t understand why this is a big deal. It’s not like gay marriage will stop straight couples all of a sudden. Maybe the rest of the world needs to start reading X-Men.