Anthony Mackie Has Some Thoughts on Representation That Marvel Needs to Hear
The Avengers star shared some hard truths about Marvel’s lack of diversity, pointing out space for improvement.
Mackie first flew across our screens as Falcon in the 2014 Captain America sequel. While the world has recently seen a promising push for racial equality, Mackie highlighted the discrimination still pervading the movie industry. He reflected on his Marvel career with actor Daveed Diggs in a video for Variety.
He called out the box-office hit Black Panther in particular for failing to recognize their own discriminatory casting: “When you do Black Panther, you have a Black director, Black producer, you have a Black costume designer, you have a Black stunt choreographer.” He continued by explaining such casting can be racist: “If you only can hire the Black people for the Black movie, are you saying they’re not good enough when you have a mostly white cast?”
He’s got a point. It’s not just about the actors, but people behind the scenes have to be diverse too, so that the stories told onscreen will accurately reflect the diversity of the people they represent.
— May⁷ (@TinaP_9) June 26, 2020
Mackie expressed that he wants to see Marvel hire talented actors while keeping diversity in mind.
While Marvel may not have heeded his message yet, by continuing to show our support in the fight for racial equality, we can make sure equality is achieved sooner rather than later.
