Some white supremacists have a quasi-religious attachment to Norse mythology. So the Council of Conservative Citizens protesting British Actor Idris Elba's casting as Norse deity Heimdall in the new Thor movie is a little bit like the Catholic League's reaction to Kevin Smith's religious satire Dogma, in the sense that it's a kind of religious protest:
"It [is] well known that Marvel is a company that advocates for leftwing ideologies and causes," the site reads. "Marvel frontman Stan 'Lee' Lieber boasts of being a major financier of leftwing political candidates. Marvel has viciously attacked the Tea Party movement, conservatives and European heritage.
"Now they have taken it one further, casting a black man as a Norse deity in their new movie Thor. Marvel has now inserted social engineering into European mythology."
Note how the CCofC pulls a Barack HUSSEIN Obama on Stan Lee's name, lest the intended audience might forget that integration is a Jewish plot. What makes that even more absurd is that this version of Heimdall was actually created by Lee, younger brother Larry Lieber, and Jack Kirby, which is to say he's Heimdall as imagined by a bunch of nice Jewish boys writing comic books. So I think the white supremacists lost this one a long time ago.
I'm not sure how tied to the Republican mainstream the CCofC is these days, their links used to be substantial, so it's not surprising that they'd try to align themselves with the Tea Party movement. Republicans might ask themselves what is it about their party that makes them want to do that.
Anyway, this relates back to the discussion I was having with Jamelle Bouie, Shani Hilton, and E.D Kain a while ago about casting nonwhites in film interpretations of J.R.R Tolkien, in which I wrote, "I don't understand why an audience that can suspend disbelief about old men tossing fireballs, armies of malevolent green-skinned orcs, and the greedy machinations of centuries-old dragons would somehow find that the illusion falls apart as soon as you throw a brown hobbit in there." Elba is on the same page:
Elba himself addressed the casting issue earlier this year, pointing out that "Thor has a hammer that flies to him when he clicks his fingers". He continued: "That's OK, but the colour of my skin is wrong?"
Geeks and fanboys take note.
