HitFix’s Lauren Gallaway Attempts to Gin Up Race Controversy
John F. Trent
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Over at HitFix, Lauren Gallaway has written an article titled, “Female Speedster Finally Cast On ‘The Flash’ But Why Is She White?”
First off the implication that this is the first female speedster cast for the show is still unclear. TVLine reported that Violett Beane was cast as Jesse Quick back in August of last year. Jesse Quick, the name the hero assumed as the leader of the The Titans also has operated under the name Jesse Chambers and Liberty Belle according to ComicVine. The character in the comics has superhuman strength, super speed, flight, and phasing. She accesses her super speed by using her father’s formula.
Despite news that Beane was cast as Jesse Quick, she has actually been playing Earth-2’s Harrison Wells’ daughter, Jesse Wells. And as of the latest episode on The Flash she has not showcased any super speed abilities although it does look likely that she may access it with her father being a top scientist and messing around with an unknown formula that he refers to as “wrong answers.”
And now to the real meat of Gallaway’s claims, that Eliza Harmon also known as Trajectory is clearly a woman of color and that it bewilders her that the show “cast a white actress” in Allison Paige to play the character.
Gallaway uses an image of Trajectory juxtaposed to one of Paige to attempt to bolster her claim that the character is a person of color. However, there are no official sources confirming the race of the character and if you actually look at the image it is quite possible she just has tan skin. However, a simple search to Trajectory’s Comic Vine page reveals a number of other panels involving the character. In one you can tell her skin has a much lighter tone.
However, whether or not the character is black, white, Hispanic, Native American, or whatever other race you can think of isn’t the most egregious part of Gallaway’s article. It is her blatant hypocrisy. She is confused and questions why the actress is playing the character. However, she should also be confused and question why Candice Patton is playing Iris West Allen or why Michael B. Jordan was cast as the Human Torch in the latest Fantastic Four movie. They are both black actors playing a traditional white comic book character. Hell, where is the article complaining about Billy Dee Williams being cast as Harvey Dent or Mehcad Brooks being cast as Jimmy Olsen.
You won’t see those articles because it doesn’t fit into the narrative Gallaway is trying to push which she reveals in the article, “the internet is blowing up right now discussing the (sic) how people of color are underrepresented on film and television.” This statement reveals that Gallaway is pushing an agenda focused on race. She doesn’t even fathom the notion that Allison Paige was cast as Trajectory because she was the best one for the role or the people nominated for Oscars earned it based on the merit of their performance. No, it is all about race for Lauren Gallaway.
Allison Paige will make her debut on The Flash in Episode 16.
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