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DC Comics’ Cyborg is my least favorite black character currently being published in comic books. He illustrates how the black body functions in a white supremacist framework and embodies so many different offensive stereotypes of black people that it is necessary to enumerate these characteristics as some of them may be missed by the casual reader, while others work as complicated dichotomies, masking the problematics beneath superficial attempts at “post-racial” inclusivity.

For the uninitiated, Cyborg (aka Victor Stone) was created by Marv Wolfman and George Pérez for their wildly successful 1980s revival The New Teen Titans. Back then, Cyborg was the black hero in a comic that mistook tokenism for diversity. He spent a great deal of time mourning his plight as an accident turned him from a star athlete into a human/machine hybrid. Even though this accident gave Cyborg powers beyond those of mere mortals, he considered himself a freak. All he wanted was to be a “regular” human being. The rest of his time was mostly spent secretly longing for a white woman, Sarah Simms, who teaches him how to love himself. During his emotional love affair with Simms, Stone was in a relationship with another woman, a black scientist by the name of Dr. Sarah Charles.

Victor Stone whined and complained and was possessed of a great deal of self-pity, which seemed to be some sort of subtextual commentary on how white people feel about black people’s complaints regarding structural and social anti-black racism and white supremacy. Through Cyborg, the white gaze was able to position black people and our grievances against our circumstances as not only invalid and pitiful, but also as self-inflicted (Victor’s mother and father, Drs. Silas and Elinore Stone, experimented on their son and Silas was essentially responsible for the accident that required his son’s transformation). It was always, to me, even reading these books as a teenager, a deeply problematic view of the plight of black people (it was white people, after all, whoexperimented on black people in this country). But this view of black people as the source of our own suffering was to be expected; these were the Reagan years after all. But, for the most part, Cyborg was all black kids had. So we ate the scraps we were given.

In the “New 52” retconning of the DC Universe, Cyborg is a founding member of the Justice League, the token minority replacing the former (imaginary) token minority, J’Onn J’Onzz, the Martian Manhunter, and sitting right alongside the token woman, Wonder Woman. This is no accident. For many white people, diversity and tokenism mean precisely the same thing, but beyond that, they are also looking for a particular brand of marginalized person to include; someone who will not disturb the existing state of affairs, who will operate, essentially, as a white, heterosexual, gender-conforming, middle-class man, but in slightly different drag. In his previous incarnation, it was unclear whether Cyborg was a fully functional, sexual being. In the New 52, it’s clear that Cyborg has no genitals. The accident that turned him into a cyborg has taken every bit of his flesh other than his torso, arms, neck, and head. Thus, it’s safe for him to be around Wonder Woman as he serves no sexual threat and no competition for Superman. (I should note that, at the same time, Wonder Woman loses her personhood to become the prize. Please watch the animated filmJustice League: War if you don’t believe me. You’ll see the male members of the team, except Cyborg of course, each attempt to call “dibs” on her—including the pubescent Billy Batson/Shazam.) This, to me, is the comic book version of the historical castrations that white supremacists often enacted against black men, of whose sexuality (which they exaggerated and demonized) they were enormously envious and frightened of. Cities in this country were bombed to oblivion on the word of lying white women falsely accusing black men of rape.

At the same time, conversely, Cyborg serves in the racist mold of “the Buck.” So, of course he’s an athlete; of course he plays football. White supremacy must always find some “productive” use in black bodies, must always be able to capitalize off of our labor. Oftentimes, when white writers are attempting to write black characters, they rely on stereotypes because they can’t imagine black people as actual human beings. These are the creations of people who don’t know any/many black people, but have seen plenty of them at basketball games or on television, or maybe even had a beer with one once, and considers them a “friend.”

Cyborg is also the resident chauffeur, “Boom Tubing” the Justice League wherever they need to go—Hoke Colburn to the Justice League’s Miss Daisy. He is their digitized administrative assistant, interpreting and relaying data at their command, serving, actually, as their very means of communication—as much of a tool for the League as a cell phone or as enslaved black people were to the plantation owners of the American antebellum period. And the stereotypes don’t end there. He’s best friends with a young white boy (who transforms into the adult hero, Shazam), a relationship that is nothing more than an updated version of Jim and Huck from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, encompassing the same racist subtext that places black adults on the same emotional and psychological level as white children.

Could Cyborg be the comic book superhero representation of white supremacy’s effect on the black body? To have a black person transformed from a metaphorical machine to an actual one? Whose fantasy is this? Cyborg has the distinct textual feel of some white person’s answer to the question: What would it be like to bring a lynched black person back to life? The problem is they’ve gotten it entirely wrong and I think that’s on purpose. They’d imagine that person being compliant, thankful, eager to please white people, and not a disruptive and liberating figure of rage? Mary Turner, her husband, and her baby, shaking the rafters of every house in America for nearly 100 years now, tell us a great deal about the aggrieved souls of lynched black folk. Compliant is not in their ghostly vocabulary. These haints mean business...

This, then, leaves black consumers once again deciding which is worse: bad representation or no representation at all. I don’t purport to have the answer to that quandary.

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Read more at: https://themiddlespaces.wordpress.com/2015/03/31/humanity-not-included/

I think the author makes great points. Seems like half the problem could be solved if Cyborg looked like this:

Gallery

Who else is for equality in wish fulfillment fantasies?

http://community.comicbookresources.com/showthread.php?36857-Cyborg-Something-s-Not-Right

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_and_Mamie_Clark

@the_greatest_green_lantern: yes, Cyborg is pretty lame. I think he can be interesting in a team book, like the Titans. But he shouldn't be in the Justice League.

that was lame

Ugh, who writes this screed??

The fact that he is the teams teleporter currently makes him comparable to being the teams slave??

Both of those fan made pictures are terrible and barely make Cyborg look like a Cyborg.

Cyborgs current armor in JLA is sleek and awesome. What's wrong with that? Because he has half a face?

People try too hard to find problems that aren't even there.

You, SJW psycho, understand that he became Cyborg for a reason, not because of choice, no?)) I just wonder why you not mentioned that his cyber parts are white. That's so racist!

His current armor in the JLA isn't sleek enough to appear with other (normal looking) males in the variant cover, is it?

i think of Cyborg as Similar to Robocop the remake movie.

@mysoulz: He should be capable to take off his armor, like Blue Beetle. Maybe he can have robotic arts, but he need to wear casual clothes if necessary. The half face have to disappear, it's pretty useless. Give him a cybernetic eye instead. I think he shouldn't fly because he is already too similar to Ironman, but would be cool if he could be more nimble. In short this is the problem, if DC wants to make Cyborg an interesting character, they have to completely change his look and some of his powers. DC will do something like that? obviously not. So Cyborg will remain the token guy in the JL and the lame version of Ironman\Robocop\Frankenstein.

He's not supposed to look like a normal male, he's a goddamn CYBORG.

I guess you are not even reading this? Cyborg is awesome. First off he cannot take off his armor because he has no body parts needed to dress casually... If they changed that he wouldnt be Cyborg anymore. Secondly, grab a comic and read it. He is awesome, strong and versatile, he doesnt go into battle a lot because deep inside he is still not a hero, he is a kid who almost died and is now in a suit.

@chimeroid: Technically the cyborgs have a human body, like Will Smith in I Robot, Adam Jensen in Deus Ex, C-17 and C-18 in Dragonball, Roy Betty in Blade Runner etc etc. Victor Stone is not a cyborg, is a robotic freak with no penis. This character is an insult for black people, and I think it's pretty sad the only minority member of the JL is also the most monstrous, useless and boring. He don't deserves to be a founding member, I hope DC will put him out from the Justice League

@moul: Dafuq are you talking about? His backstory is awesome, he has a mechanical penis or even 10 as far as we know, he is in no way insulting to black people, except for those that are overy sensitive little b**ches he is not useless, pretty darn strong and remember the earth 3 arc of new 52. He is AWESOME

He still have a human side. But I guess that isn't enough to "fit" in a freaking variant cover.

@chimeroid: I think is one of the worst hero of DC

Yeah, and Robocop is offensive to whites because he has no di**.

I think this is the dumbest thing I've ever read for the vine.

@silverpool: Robocop isn't a superhero, and white people has many fantastic heroes like Batman, Superman, Spiderman, Flash, Wolverine ecc ecc. I'm white but understand what they are saying, Cyborg is a freak.

Well it is that poster's opinion. Cyborg may had strong portrayals in a couple of JL arcs, but I don't think they are the right execution to have a character dealing with personal tragedies. He had some small moments in the past, but despite his appearances, he's still not respected as the face (or half face) of DC's prominent black superhero since he's one of the founders of the JL. So something is still wrong here. Vic is often a stoic character that has nothing to do when he's not assisting the league, which is another problem that hopefully David Walker will have to address in Cyborg's ongoing. But having Billy Batson can fix this problem as well. A character with stoicism isn't bad (Vic Stone, Arthur Curry, John Stewart, Elektra comes to mind), but it may take a higher effort to make Vic more appealing among readers.

@silverpool: I thought the genitals being mentioned is outrageous, but when thinking about it, that's a complication that's added onto readers/fans having problems of identifying themselves with a character it seems. Losing limbs, mutated body etc. some may find it harder to identify themselves with someone that's lesser than them. So I wouldn't call it the dumbest thing on the vine (I heard worst things, anyways).

@saren@deranged_midget@god_spawn@jedixman@renchamp: Have you seen this?

None of those are cyborgs. Those are androids. Actual cyborgs are beings like Cyborg, Robocop, Hank Henshaw, Deathlok, Darth Vader etc. An android is a being with a human appearance but a mechanical body. They may not outwardly seem any different from humans. A cyborg is a being whose form is a merger of flesh and technology.

@saren: Okay, Cyborg is doomed to be a lame character. So you all will be happy to see the freak black guy with no personality working for Batman. Personally I don't care about him anymore :-)

Robotman is entirely robotic with no flesh exposed. Robocop has more of his face covered than Cyborg, as do most other cyborgs in comics (like Deathlok - at least Cyborg's human side looks human). What about the entire Borg race? Half their faces are covered, including Picard.

That's how cyborgs look. I see absolutely no problem with Cyborg's appearance. I don't see this as a race problem - that's reaching.

The only point with which I agree is the one where the guy states that Cyborg is always whining and doesn't do anything meaningful. I can't simply like or even have any positive thoughts about this character as long as he is so pointless no matter what happens with him.

The only good incarnation of the character is the one in Teen Titans GO! .