Marvel Accused of Light-Washing America Chavez

Movies

Woke on woke crime has come for the production of Doctor Strange 2 in the form of a myriad of Twitter attacks directed at 15-year-old actress Xochitl Gomez, who will be playing America Chavez. These rampantly hateful attacks have been hurled at Gomez for “Light-washing America Chavez.” The majority of Marvel fans reviled against America Chavez’s inclusion in the Marvel Cinematic Universe from the first announcement. However, these diehard fans, who have been repeatedly called racist and sexist because of their opinions, never attacked Gomez personally for her decision to take the role nor even criticized America Chavez’s race or sexual orientation. It came down to the woke Twitter mob, who claims to champion “diverse POCs” like Gomez, to begin this aggressive assault.

American Chavez is a relatively new Marvel superhero, first debuting in 2011. She hails from the Utopia dimension, a world free of all men where women can biologically have children together. Because of her ability to punch dimensional portals into existence, she became a multiverse hero, venturing into the multiverse to represent all queer people of color. Marvel has officially labeled her as being Puerto Rican in ethnicity despite her being an alien, and this is where much of the drama surrounding Gomez’s casting has been derived. Unfortunately for Gomez, she happens to be Mexican and not Puerto Rican.

This is not the first time the mob has come for Marvel’s most “diverse” and politically pandering characters. The Ms. Marvel Disney+ show has received similar criticism for casting an actress of Islamic heritage but not Islamic faith to play Ms. Marvel’s Muslim best friend. This group also targeted the Madame Webb production for casting a seeing actress to play a blind character. The difference, however, is that the mob did not directly attack the actresses themselves in the Ms. Marvel and Madame Webb situations like they did Gomez.

The criticism of Gomez’s casting has everything to do with her skin’s shade of brown. Gomez is indeed a Latina girl, just like American Chavez; however, she is just a few shades too light for the woke mob. The rabbit-hole that this criticism creates must be followed through, down and down to more bizarre restrictions until not a single actor working today will ever be able to take another role again unless they one hundred percent match the character’s look, eye color, height, weight, sexual orientation, history and background, birthplace, and belief.

For as much as regular Marvel fans criticize the America Chavez character for being woke and politically pandering, existing solely to virtue single with no definable characteristics beyond being “gay,” these normal fans all admit that Gomez fits the role as well as can be expected. None of them blame her for taking the part either. Many fans would have sold their souls to be in a Marvel movie at 15. This reasoning was not enough for the SJWs, who instead decide to take to Twitter and attack this young woman, choosing hate and constant anger despite the inclusion of a character specifically created and included to pander to them and their strongly held beliefs.

Superhero casting has been openly criticized from the very beginning; Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine is a prime example. Diehard Marvel fans hated Jackman’s casting because of the height disparity between himself and the character. However, no fans attacked Jackman directly for taking the role; he was just an actor doing a job. Additionally, these fans were willing to be won over by Jackman, and they were. Jackman and Wolverine are now synonymous with each other, some barely able to comprehend a different actor taking up the claws. This was not the case with the Twitter mob vs. Gomez.

In a similar situation, Westworld star Thandi Newton broke down in tears, apologizing for her skin not being dark enough. She is a black actress taking black character roles, but she is distraught that she is not dark enough and that she is not representing a more “diverse” audience or might be stealing roles from darker actresses. This response is what the mob wants from Gomez; they want her to say, “I am so sorry that I’m too white. This is whitewashing. I’m a terrible person for taking this role. I hate myself for the color of my skin.” One Twitter user went so far as to harass the young actress and brag about getting blocked for it.

These people still call themselves champions for racial justice without seeing the irony of attacking a person of color for the color of her skin. It’s similar to the Everything is Gonna be all White situation; as long as it is anti-lighter color, it is not racist. But if it is anti-darker color, it is racist, according to these people. An apt comparison can be found in a scene from Family Guy. When Peter gets pulled over by a cop, the cop has a graph of skin colors to judge whether Peter will get in trouble based on the color of his skin. Switch the positives and the negatives in that graph, and that is exactly what the Twitter mob does whenever a new casting announcement comes out. Unfortunately, Gomez is just a shade off from being protected by these people.

In a rare bit of irony, it’s the people who have been called racist for their opinions and who dislike America Chavez as a character who have come to this young woman’s aid, defending her when the social justice warriors would not.

Gomez has no idea the type of drama and corrosive sphere she has been plunged into on account of her new job. Cancel culture is nipping at her heels, ready to swallow her whole, and this 15-year-old girl does not have the worldly knowledge or experience necessary to weather this storm well. The next few years will be trying for her, and fans can only hope the pendulum swings away from cancel culture soon, or before long, no actor will ever be allowed to work again.