‘Power Rangers’ Star Walter Emanuel Jones Denies Racism Behind His Black Ranger Casting: “Calling It A ‘Mistake’ Would Dismiss The Impact It Had On Countless People”
Rather than looking at his Black Ranger casting as a case of ‘unconscious racism’, Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers star Walter Emanuel Jones says that he views his time tuned into the Morphin’ Grid as nothing less than “an honor”.
This latest round of Power Rangers-related discourse kicked off on April 8th courtesy of former series writer and Saba (otherwise known as Tommy’s White Ranger-era talking Tiger Saber) voice actor Tony Oliver.
Appearing as a featured speaker on the newest episode of the Investigation Discovery ‘underbelly of the entertainment industry’ docuseries Hollywood Demons, itself aptly named Dark Side of the Power Rangers, Oliver lamented how despite the fact that “none of us [were] thinking stereotypes” when casting Jones as Zack Taylor and the late Thuy Trang as Trini Kwan, the series was able to run for a full two seasons without anyone calling out the fact that “the Black character was the Black Ranger and the Asian character was the Yellow Ranger.”
“My assistant pointed it out in a meeting one day,” said the Green Ranger’s namesake of the moment he realized the connection. “It was such a mistake.”
However, while Oliver seems to be fermenting in guilt over this casting decision – which, speaking frankly, every person who ever watched or even know of Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers had long laughed off as one of those ‘Oh wow, how did no one catch that!’ funny coincidences – Jones himself could not disagree more with this retroactive read of his arguably most famous role.
Taking to his personal Instagram account on April 10th, Jones shared a number of headlines from various outlets covering Oliver’s “mistake” admission and responded, “Incredible how many media outlets picked this up… However while some choose to seek out the negative, I’ve always believed in focusing on the positive.”
“I understand the impulse to address what might be seen as cultural insensitivity, but calling it a ‘mistake’ would dismiss the impact it had on countless people around the world who found inspiration and representation in TV’s first Black superhero — morphin’ into none other than the Black Power Ranger!” he proudly exclaimed. “It wasn’t a mistake; it was a milestone. It was an honor.”
In providing evidence that his opinion was not a knee-jerk one but rather one he had held for a long while, Jones pointed to a March appearance he made on famed voice actor Jim Cummings’ Toon’d In with Jim Cummings podcast where he discussed this very topic.
“I found it to be quite powerful,” the actor said of his time behind the controls of the Mastodon Dinozord. “Cuz here I am, a young black kid from Detroit, predominantly a black city, and the time that I grew up in was a time where there
was James Brown saying loud, ‘I’m Black and I’m Proud’, so it’s like there was a shift from being ashamed of being black to people being very proud of being black. And growing up in a black city, and then becoming a black superhero in a black suit, I was like, ‘Let’s go! This is perfect for me!”
“The idea of me being a black suit never bothered me,” he added. “In fact, I was happy about it. When I saw it, I was like ‘I want this one’ and they were like, ‘That’s yours’.”
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