‘The Walking Dead’ is under fire for whitewashing iconic ‘Moonlight’ poster

This baffles me.

On some level I understand that the constant fighters for social justice out there see it as an affront to gay people, because Carl isn’t gay (though, has his sexuality even been addressed? No, it hasn’t, because it’s irrelevant to the story), and black people, because Carl is a pasty white kid.

But let’s dissect this. Let’s name all the episode one characters who are still there at the start of the current season: Carl, Rick, Carol, Morgan, and Daryl (technically not in ep 1, but let’s not be pedantic; he was part of the gang). I’m not including Glenn, because…you know… That whole Negan thing…

Rick has developed greatly as a character, but, visually, aside from weight-loss, beard-growth, and being grimy (very puns. much Lol. such funny. wow), not much has changed. Sure, if they’d hacked off his arm instead of Merle’s, like they should have, he would have a bigger difference. But that’s not a facial change. And what would the single-word caption be? Cripple? Rude. Armless? Inaccurate. Amputee? Not in photo. Widower? Who isn’t in the series? So, Rick is a poor choice.

Carol? Again, fantastic character development. Again, very little physical change. She’s looked the same age, and had the same short hair since day one. Would make a blah poster..

Morgan? He disappeared for half the series, so we don’t know most of his story. And, again, looks the same aside from dust and diet.

Daryl? Character development? Yes. Physical appearance? The same as the other adults.

Even if we pull from season two forward, it’s just dirt and diet, despite character development.

Carl? He’s had a little less character development. By that I mean that he’s always been a bit of a bad ass. In season 1 he was little. But, book fans will note that he shot Shane in the head while they were still at the quarry. He’s been a ruthless, yet fair, little bad ass since day one. However, he went from an adorable, pudgey-faced little kidlet, to a squaking teenager, to a young adult with a clearly visible facial injury. Great poster material.

The only character I can see these people not being all in a tizzy over would be Glenn, but would that be labeled as “yellow washing”? Also, I think the clean, to dirty, to a bloody-pile-of-parts might be a bit graphic for a poster.

This also pisses me off because the show isn’t about race or whites VS the world. Perhaps we should look back and listen to Rick from season one when he says,

Look here, Merle. Things are different now. There are no niggers anymore. No dumb-as-shit, inbred white-trash fools either. Only dark meat and white meat. There’s us and the dead. We survive this by pulling together, not apart.

Does this sound like a show about inequality?

Additionally, there are several gay characters, and the producers haven’t been keeping them alive all special just to wave the “we like gays” flag. If you read the books, you’ll see that alternate relationships were briefly discussed.

People on that show are just people.

I haven’t seen moonlight, which I’m sure will negate my opinion to many people (please note that I haven’t seen a single other one of the Academy nominated films either), but as I understand it, it’s about what the main character has to go through growing up as a gay, black kid. I have no idea if it’s based on a true story.

Edit: the film is based off a play called In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue. If you’ve spent time in the woods, away from city lights, with white people, you’d know that white girls look blue too. As do Asians. And it’s not blue. It just seems blue compared to the warm light of incandescent bulbs. Do not get me started on white-point comparison. That’s a camera term, not a race one. (tangent: On that point, black people aren’t black, they’re brown. White people are also brown, just paler. It would be really cool though if we were actually pure black and white with beautiful yellow and red skinned individuals sprinkled throughout. I’d prefer black to white though, Just saying… )

Now, if we all honestly want equality, we have to say that gay and black don’t matter, just as white and straight(?) don’t matter. People are people. Growing up is shitty. Growing up black and gay, likely fearing ridicule, and physical abuse from strangers, and possible friends or loved ones sounds hard.

Know what else sounds hard? Growing up surrounded by zombies. Having your mother die. Having to murder a man you look up to. Seeing your friend become a zombie and subsequently die. Knowing that 90% of people you know were savagely killed and are now walking monsters or are just gone. Watching your father have a mental melt down. Knowing that, at any moment one, or many, other people in your close knit support system might disappear and meet a terrifying end. Knowing it could easily happen to you, regardless of what you look like or who you love.

Sounds to me like they are both kids, who grew up in shitty situations, who somehow clawed through it, just to keep breathing for one more day.

And, as for the final dig in that article about why they didn’t show the eye patch? Maybe because it’s on the wrong damned side? Did you want the poster backwards, so that Carl was declining in age? Did you want it flipped I the other side of his face? Come on…

My qualm with the poster is the questionable blurring on the little Carl side. Where’s the pudgey cheek? And why is the word SO glowey. It looks weird.

All in all though, I like the nod to the poster. I like the character choice. And I’m going to stop writing because I’ve got nothing else to say.