What Happens To A New Black Character Deferred?

Originally this started as a post talking about rumors of Zendaya Coleman being cast to play Mary Jane Watson in the upcoming Spider-Man: Homecoming movie, because for every action, there is an equal, and opposite reaction Black casting of a historically white character there is an equal, and opposite internet backlash. I was going to make light of the situation and talk about how Zendaya would be walking on white tears.

How her MJ would have Peter Parker swinging through NYC listening to Beyonce (or Destiny’s Child), and getting their house party routine down, but I knew, within a week or a few months time, we’d be right back here. With a new Black or POC actor being allowed to play the role of a white character, and I could simply switch Zendaya and MJ out for the next two and so on, and so on. Every time a Black actor gets cast, the same minuscule arguments for why the actor can’t do this role appear (never anything detrimental to the character, mind you) and then comes the inevitable solution that always gets suggested: “Rather than create a new and exciting character and exercise intellectual honesty, let’s just teach PoC that the best thing they can aspire to be is a white person. Makes perfect sense. And while diversity is the rallying cry of the year, I think Betty White should play Black Panther.” Yo, why is Black Panther always the go-to in this reverse cast-ism argument? Black Manta would have been the perfect misdirect for that complaint. Whenever I see this “sol…