People Are Sharing Stan Lee’s Powerful 1968 Anti-Racism Editorial
"Let's lay it right on the line. Bigotry and racism are among the deadliest social ills plaguing the world today."
In light of the passing of Marvel co-founder and pop culture behemoth Stan Lee overnight, memories and highlights from the comic-book legend’s lengthy career are being shared far and wide.
One moment in particular has stuck out for many of his fans — a 1968 editorial penned as part of his monthly column, ‘Stan’s Soapbox’, which boldly and succinctly stands against bigotry and racism of any kind.
Published during America’s civil rights movement, which commenced in earnest a decade earlier with Rosa Parks’ bus seat protest and culminated in 1968 with the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and the enacting of the Civil Rights Act, Lee’s piece holds back zero punches in its assessment of the evils of racism.
“Let’s lay it right on the line. Bigotry and racism are among the deadliest social ills plaguing the world today,” Lee opens the article. “But, unlike a team of costumed super-villains, they can’t be halted with a punch in the snoot, or a zap from a ray gun. The only way to destroy them is to expose them—to reveal them for the insidious evils they really are.”
The editorial delves into the irrationality behind the hatred of others because of their race, firmly stating Lee, and by association Marvel’s, outright condemnation of bigotry. “Although anyone has the right to dislike another individual, it’s totally irrational, patently insane to condemn an entire race—to despise an entire nation—to vilify an entire religion.”
You can read the full piece in it’s original form in the image below:
Stan Lee’s legacy is undeniably one of equality and justice for the disenfranchised with many of his most famous comic creations still praised today for their status as allegories for the downtrodden and the marginalised.
Software engineer and US political hopeful Brianna Wu shared the following Twitter thread on this very subject and it’s very much essential reading on such a sad day:
2/ If you look at the 90s classic Xtinction Agenda, this is about a government turning fascist and putting people they fear into camps.
Unless, of course, they could use them – in which case they were enslaved. pic.twitter.com/HNCE4jmSVk
— Brianna Wu (@Spacekatgal) November 12, 2018
4/ Iron Man is a story about a man having everything, and still not feeling happiness. He struggles with addiction, and tries to overcome his flaws to offset the harm he’s done. pic.twitter.com/yFG7LHIOFl
— Brianna Wu (@Spacekatgal) November 12, 2018
6/ These stories are important. Growing up queer in Mississippi, I would admit that these stories helped me believe in my own humanity as a teenager.
If your honor what #StanLee accomplished over his career, I hope you will ask yourself if you’re fighting on the right side.
— Brianna Wu (@Spacekatgal) November 12, 2018
Vale Stan Lee. Thanks for the heroes.