you're psychic? congratulations.here's why the things you're saying are ignorant, unrealistic and just generally racist in their own right:
1. bishop isn't black because he's part aboriginal? he was "black enough" to be considered a black mutant prior to x-treme x-men, but because gateway [an aboriginal whose people experienced the same racism as africans brought to america during the time of slavery] is his ancestor, he's not black anymore? from at least his grandmother's generation, the bishops have lived in america and faced not only the racial profiling of being black, but also of having mutants in the family. he's been through MORE oppression and racial intolerance than any actual black person in this day and age, due not only to his mutant heritage but to the color of his skin. but he's not black enough because claremont thought it would be neat for gateway to be his relative? do some research.
2. the "white man" gave storm straight hair and blue eyes to make her "less threatening" as a black character? give me a ****ing break. D, you seem to be a storm fan of a relatively high order. surely you must know that storm came from an amalgamation of two characters rejected by DC; a cat woman and some bird woman. the cat woman became the main template, but to rationalize the wind/weather powers of the bird woman, they changed her appearance and grafted her into her own mythology. she's from a line of african women who possess those traits as a symbol of the "goddessness" in their "bright lady" religion. clearly that wasn't an effort to make the character more ****ing interesting, a plot line which has lasted until this very day, but just some scheme to trick us white people into accepting a black character. do some research.
3. everett ross was put in place to make people less threatened by t'challa's dominance as a black man? are you ****ing kidding me? it's like you have a compulsion to twist things so they make white people look inherently racist. i've read years of black panther stories, i'm entirely white [irish, mostly] and haven't once given two shits about this "threatening dominance" you claim exists. it was a new, unexplored framework for telling the stories, and it worked well. t'challa wasn't any less the focal point of the series because of it. it's not like us white readers were confused or set at ease by ross referring to t'challa as "my client." i didn't sit at home thinking, "well, i don't know who this client is, but i'm relatively certain he's NOT black. phew." cooking up stories about how you think white people act doesn't make you a victim of racism. it makes you a racist.
4. storm kissing everybody? really, who "everybody" was she kissing "back then"? because, as i see it, "back then" refers to a time a while ago which isn't within the last few years of common knowledge. because, as i remember my x-men history, storm was in an intimate, long-standing relationship with forge for a good time of her tenure as an x-man. forge, a cheyenne indian whose people not only were abused, attacked and cheated by the european settlers in america, but whose people also faced discrimination from other indian tribes prior to, during, and after those times. oh shit, i mean, she was just dating some white guy. then she had a flirtation with cable; a kindred spirit who'd fought his entire life for equality among the races in his time and who saw the same passion and fire in storm. **** me, i MEANT, just some other white guy. then, what, she got kidnapped by shaitan and that nonsense. big whoop, it was an alien story. then, in uncanny, she kisses wolverine [a lost soul who is not only one of her closest friends, but also another "kindred spirit" as a freedom fighter and mutant] and nightcrawler [again, one of her closest friends, who is UNIVERSALLY discriminated against based on his appearance.] GOD DAMNIT! i mean, just some white guys. and no, some of it didn't make any sense, but that's what happens when different creative teams have different ideas. shit happens. thank GOD hudlin had the brilliant idea to ignore the entirety of storm's romantic past and slapped her and t'challa together after a short reunion of a relationship. but hey, at least they're the same color. finally some justice in comics.
5. the new mutants/new x-men writers decided to add in minority characters, somehow ONLY to attract a fanbase with minority readers, then depowered/killed their characters off because somehow they were unable to handle writing stories with colored character in them? bull****ingshit. first, a DIFFERENT creative team was responsible for depowering/killing the characters than the original creators, so that automatically throws that idea out the window already. then there's the fact that they HAD TO depower a portion of their cast to fit with the House of M fallout, and their decidedly violent storylines called for multiple student deaths. david got depowered [boo ****ing hoo] but he's not dead. tag got killed, and suddenly it's a racial thing? he was killed for the same reason cypher [a WHITE character] was killed; he'd used up is usefulness. how many stories could they really write where people needed to be mind-controlled into being chased off? he got his moment in the sun in the hellions mini-series, but that's really all they could do with a power as limited and useless as that. so he was one of, what, two dozen students to die? what about quill, or icarus, or the myriad other students who died? because they killed a student who wasn't white, it's some racially-motivated plot? quit patting yourselves on the back, you didn't figure shit out. you made up some dumbass story to validate your opinion, and insulted a number of hard-working people in the industry to do so. way to go.
6. apocalypse is of african descent, so if you want to rope him into your black comic character grouping, go for it. just ignore the fact that he's decidedly non-racial [blue on grey] BECAUSE of his views on mutant supremacy. he sees things as "human" and "mutant," not as "white," "black," "hispanic," "asian" or otherwise. but congratulations for getting pissed that the biggest mutant megalomaniac in x-men history isn't waving his black card around. way to completely miss the point.
7. you completely ignore the racial storylines that are actually progressive or thought-provoking. how about in peter milligan's [a white man's] x-statix, where the issue of being black was not only tied into celebrity and mutant status, but the bigotry that exists between blacks was brought up? the spike's issues with the anarchist for not letting him on the team, because the spike was "younger, badder and blacker" than him? that type of shit gets overlooked, because white people only care about downplaying the black man to subservient roles. clearly. what about in j. michael straczynski's supreme power, where the same intra-racial conflict was brought up again between the blur and nighthawk? "house negro" v. "field negro," as if one group of black people have a right to claim worse oppression and bigotry because of their immediate surroundings. as if feeling the pain of their ancestors, and the intolerance of racism, is only something the less-well-off [funny, considering how much richer than stanley nighthawk was] can do. that storyline must not have existed.
i'm sure there were times in the comic industry, even times in the present day, when race has played a factor in decisions being made. making a character white or black or asian or mexican or whatever. promoting certain characters over others. i'm not alleging that things like that don't exist. but this thread's turned into some pity party where you've gathered up and said "look what they did to us," "look what they did to our black characters, JUST FOR BEING BLACK," when you have no idea whether that's the case. no references to other minorities being discriminated against in terms of characters or character-usage. what about, as SC said, the fact that hudlin's "plight of the minority" campaign only applies to black characters? what about the utter lack of jewish characters [they have, what, kitty? magneto? the thing? a couple d-list israeli characters?] what about hispanic, or asian? where're the big plots promoting their diversity and heritage?
if you've got a problem with how things are going down in the comic industry, get off your ass and do something. write to hudlin, write to mcduffie. write to joe quesada or stan lee or anyone. tell them how you feel, why you feel that way, and what you think should change. or work your ass off, get a position where you can MAKE change yourself, and do something about it. quit bitching on some internet forum like a bunch of girls with no prom dates. and do your ****ing research before you start accusing shit of being a white man's conspiracy.