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Vlog Every Day in August, whoo!

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Los Angeles!

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A year and a half ago, it was announced that
Sony and Marvel had gotten into an agreement

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so that Spider-Man could finally join the
Marvel Cinematic Universe and I did a video

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about that, which I'll link to in the doobly-do.

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Basically it was that Spider-Man doesn't have
to be a white guy and, in fact, I thought

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it made more sense if he weren't one.

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Here it is August 2016 and there are rumors?

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Has it been confirmed?

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That Zendaya will be playing Mary Jane Watson
in Spider-Man: Homecoming.

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And my response to this is: Delight!

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I'm so happy about this possibility, it's
gonna be awesome!

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But there's been a lot of backlash on the
internet and I want to speak to that backlash.

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Back in February 2015, I talked about how
the aspects of Peter Parker as Spider-Man

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that mattered had nothing to do with the color
of his skin.

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Ah, and so now, I could, potentially, argue
that the characteristics of Mary Jane that

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matter have nothing to do with the color of
her skin.

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But if I were to make that argument?

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I would be saying that the premise of the
backlash on the internet is valid.

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That there is something of substance to people
saying that Mary Jane Watson should not be

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Zendaya for x, y, and z reasons.

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I would say to you that because she's a made-up
character, there are only a few reasons why

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you would want her to be specifically the
white, redheaded character from the comics.

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And I wrote down some bullet points for myself,
so I wouldn't forget.

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The first reason why you might be upset that
Mary Jane in the movie would not be white

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with scarlet red hair is: You don't realize
that Mary Jane Watson isn't real.

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I...

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If you have some sort of mental illness that
makes it difficult for you to understand what

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is real and what is not, then I feel bad for
you.

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I'm very sorry!

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But that still doesn't change the fact: she's
not real.

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Second possibility: Your demand for MJ to
have red hair is actually disguising your

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racist distaste for anyone who is not white.

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I mean.

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Check yourself.

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Is that what's going on?

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Reason 2B: Your demand for MJ to have white
skin is a not very disguised sign of your

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racist distaste for anybody who's not white.

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Again, check yourself.

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Is it that you want Mary Jane to be white?

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Or is it that you want everybody to be white?

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And the last reason that I could think of
for you to protest this so hard?

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Is that you are so used to having an unequal
representation in your favor, as a white person,

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that anyone who looks at all different from
you getting any representation feels like

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it's an attack on you.

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It's not.

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It's making one character in a very white
franchise not white.

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And if that upsets you so much, think about
why that is.

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Is it because you've had so much representation
of white people that that's what you're used

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to?

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And any change against that freaks you out?

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Makes you feel uncomfortable?

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Makes it seem like all of a sudden, you are
not the centered audience for this story?

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Maybe you shouldn't be!

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Maybe you've got a million other representations
in media that are for you.

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And this one character in this one product,
showing one part of a story, doesn't have

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to be about you.

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And I would say, "It's time for us to have
fewer people representing white people in

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media and more representations of other types
of people in media."

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It's time.

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If we get to a point where every single movie
is majority or exclusively not white people?

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Then, you'll have been put into a disadvantageous
position and I'll expect you to protest.

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It'll be very reasonable.

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But until that time?

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As long as people who look like you make up
the vast majority of films?

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You can just choose not to go if you like,
and the rest of us will enjoy it.

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So, as I said, I specifically wasn't going
to try to justify MJ's potential non-whiteness

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in Zendaya to any of the flipping out fanboys,
because their flipping out is inherently

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unreasonable.

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Zendaya is a fun and excellent actor who looks
like she could portray a model who has confidence.

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She's a great Mary Jane Watson character.

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Why would I have to defend that?

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Tell me in the comments your thoughts on WHY
people are so upset about a potential not-white

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Mary Jane Watson.

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Are you one of those people?

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Feel free to give me your reasons.

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Perhaps I missed something.

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Or tell me anything that matters to you, because
I want to know what matters to you.

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And we've come to the end of my video, thank
you so much for making it this far.

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Here at the end is where I always say:

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Tomorrow

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will be even better!

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Hopefully not for racists.