Fans Up in Arms as Wednesday Slammed For Racism: "Such a Reach"
The new Netflix hit is under fire for what is deemed by some as Black misrepresentation.
Tim Burton's Wednesday has only had one week of streaming, but a racism scandal is already brewing around the show.
Netflix 's take on Wednesday Addams has faced accusations of using racist stereotypes in portraying of its Black characters. According to critics, the show's Black characters are depicted exclusively as bullies and villains, which "doesn't help representation".
However, Wednesday fans were quick to defend the show and urge the critics to actually give it a watch.
Wednesday's most prominent Black characters are Bianca – a siren who is "the queen" of Nevermore; and Lucas, the son of the Jericho mayor. Both characters start off as initially hostile towards Wednesday, but over the course of the show, they evolve and redeem themselves – something that does not quite fall in line with the critics' claims.
"The black girl was also classified as the prettiest most popular girl in the school. A black girl with NON Eurocentric features. A black girl with a short cut. A non mixed girl. She's classified as the prettiest!!! They really did a thing," Twitter user Caleb_Eli noted.
Besides, other fans added, Bianca turned out to be "a principled, loyal, and a genuinely good-hearted person", despite initially seeming to be a "mean girl". According to fans, that sounds more like character development than racism.
Even if Bianca and Lucas (the latter also learned how to do better than bullying in the end of the show) were actually mean, that wouldn't be a problem for fans.
"I personally liked the fact that for once the mean girl in a show was black,instead of a typical blonde girl that we get all the time, there was nothing [racist] about this please," Twitter user _naa_omi said.
Moreover, the actual villains in the show (spoiler alert) turn out to be white. This fact, fans argue, makes "racism" allegations around Wednesday "such a stretch".
Still, critics were quick to lambast the show, as well as Tim Burton personally, for racism. The director, for his part, was accused of being a racist when he compared the inclusion of Black and Asian characters in 'The Brady Bunch' to "blaxploitation" as he discussed the lack of diversity in his movie Miss Peregrine's.
Despite the new scandal, Wednesday appears to be new Internet's darling: not only has the show summoned more than 341 million hours viewed, breaking Stranger Things ' record, but also Jenna Ortega 's iconic dance scene went viral with fans already joking that social media has "Eddie-Munson-ified" Wednesday Addams. The character's viral popularity is indeed almost as intense as the fan love Joseph Quinn 's Eddie Munson received after debuting in Stranger Things 4.