Rush Limbaugh outraged by black James Bond.

Thoughts?

Ibris Alba is a good actor what color he is doesn't matter.

Of course he is.

"Angry radio personality gets worked up about a 6 word email from 11 months ago!"

Gripping stuff.

Not Rush Limbaugh

This is The Young Turks right? Yeah, I'm not a big fan of theirs. Rush said "I know this is racist for even saying this" or something along those lines, but when he does that you have to read the subtext. Such as people saying "You're a homophobe for disagreeing with Korrasami". Neither are true, but Rush knows that he'll be called racist for wanting Bond to remain white and scottish. Does that really make him racist? No, that just means he prefers the character to be portrayed according to the way that character was originally presented. Some call this being a purist. There were arguments made by feminists on The Mary Sue that they should have gender bent some of the dwarves to make The Hobbit more gender equal, rather than creating the character of Tauriel. Contrary to popular belief, Rush Limbaugh isn't evil, racist, or homophobic.

Idris is awesome, I hope this happens

Then why didn't he pitch a fit about literally every other Bond cast after Connery?

I am MUCH more a fan of the books than I am the movies but I always loved the idea that there is no James Bond and it's just a code name used by the MI6 agent ranked as 007. So he can be whatever as long as it stays true to the character and themes of the books (which it almost never does)

Rush is an expert of making non-news out of non-news. He should instead focus on working on his inevitable heart attack.

Oh silly Rush Limbaugh.

Bond should be white.

Who cares?

Elba as 007 would be great but I'd rather have Luther made into a series of feature films.

Who cares if he's black, and no he SHOULDN'T have to be white.

I swear people can be so childish with bs like this. This is why we will never stop looking at color instead of just looking at people as human beings

GTFOI.

@frozen:

He is white. Has been since,what, the sixties? I can't stand when they change a characters race. Also the Young Turks suck...hard.

Why can he not be white?

I want Batman to be how I've always envisioned him, white. I want Blade to be how I envision him, black. And I want James Bond to be White British. There's nothing wrong with that --- that's how people envision characters.

Do you know that the Wally West race change complaints were legitimate?

Since the 1950s if we include novels, 1962 film wise. I also can't stand race changes to iconic characters.

The Young Turks are die-hard liberals, the Fox News equivalent of the left.

Honestly he's not wrong for wanting Bond to stay white, just like it wouldn't be wrong for me to want Shang Chi to stay asian, or you to want Luke Cage to stay black.

The honeymooners, Annie , and the wiz. I can't wait till a white remake of 'Friday'

This sorta sounds like you are saying that only white folks work for British Intelligence. I mean clearly a fellow named Shang Chi is either Asian or a pretentious prat and Luke Cage's back story is kinda rolled up in his African-American ethnicity...

Were the Bond films adaptations set in the 1960s I could understand a desire to keep the actual character James Bond as his original ethnicity from the novels but since the films are now set in the modern period such purism doesn't seem to be as warranted.

Rush Limbaugh pointed out that James Bond is white. So?

If you want to see racism in politics, take a look at Jeremiah Wright.

I don't much care if they change a character's race especially in a series like James Bond where continuity is indecipherable, but I do agree that The Young Turks are horrible both as entertainers and news commentators.

That's quite cruel.

James Bond is not the same character?

@frozen: I'm not saying he can't be white, but I'm also saying there's nothing wrong for him to be Black.

So a Black Man can't be British? Lmaoo.. You're one of those people I'm talking about. Can't look past color because it's of this "that's not how it's suppose to be" attitude. I swear people need to get over themselves.

The complaints over a fictional characters skin color was legit? LAL!

I think it depends upon who you ask. There have been so many iterations of James Bond that with so many different faces it becomes fairly easy to think of them as different characters who hold the title 007. Even one of the spoofs (with David Niven I believe) touched on this by having numerous characters named "James Bond". Add to this the new modern setting and serious tone and it becomes a fairly easy intellectual exercise. But the purists will insist it is the same character so from that perspective I can understand that position as well. Limbaugh on the other hand (IMO) by making a big deal out of this reveals racism not so cleverly hidden behind a feigned purism. To my mind it is more necessary that James Bond 007 be British than that he be white (or male for that matter)....

How dare you say I do not look past color. I am a man of color. I am not white. I am brown. If James Bond was British-Indian, I would not like it. I would also not like him to be British-African, because the Bond I identify with is a white character. I also NEVER said a Black man cannot be British, I said that James Bond should not be.

James Bond has a history of being established as a white British man, there's nothing wrong with people wanting Bond to be white.

@batwatch:

I'd rather they give some young writer (*clears throat*) a chance to introduce a new character and mythos than change an established one.

I honestly don't get why this is news given doughboy's history of racial bias towards African-Americans and anyone with brown skin really.

@frozen: I call it how I see it. Just because you're a man of color does not mean you look past it.

What you said does not show that. What kind of man who "looks past color" says he "should be white.". Why SHOULD he be white then, if you look past color?

You: "And I want James Bond to be White British." Why can't he be a black British...?

Oh wait let me guess.. because you can't "envision" him being black? You're not convincing me.

@dbvse7: You can't just look past race when it comes to iconicfictional characters. For more than 50 years, he has been portrayed as a White British man and like it or not, many find familiarity and some comfort in that. Changing the race of an iconic fictional character would simply be for the sake of diversity. We might as well be asking why not turn Blade and Luke Cage white?

The complaints over Wally West's race change was 100% legit.

@frozen: @dbvse7: Both of you make some fair points. I care if the race of some characters changed but if they change Superman and Wonder Woman black then you would be confused. There is nothing wrong with having someone of a different ethnic using the identity like Green Lantern for example but don't change the original character's traits as a whole.

@frozen: Actually I can. If I can do it with more important things such as reality.. I can definitely do it when it comes to fictional characters. So it's still not convincing lol. The fact you said people find "comfort" in him being white is hysterically sad.

Legit? Haha w.e you say man of color.

The title of Green Lantern is an interchangeable identity, there are different Green Lanterns so in that regard, it can work, just as I wouldn't want John Stewart changed to white. The same could work if 007 was just a codename but that's just a debunked fan theory by this point, and even that theory would completely destroy Bond as a character.

Ugh the political correctness in this thread is making my head hurt.

I said that in relation to iconic fictional characters. If Bruce Wayne was made black, people would probably ask ''why?'' in addition to the fact that he's come to be known and identified as a White American male, if Blade was made white, readers would lose comfort in the race-change. Like it or not but people love fictional characters, as escapes from reality --- that's...exactly what James Bond embodies.

I agree.

If Bond were historically black and they cast Daniel Craig, it would have been utter bedlam.

@zhurong: I still wouldn't care if Superman and WW were a different color. I'm too mature to be distraught or complain about the color of fictional characters at this point. Especially with all the more important things in the real world that matter on the subject of color.

I can guarantee you that many people would care. Many of those people would also be non-racist and mature.

If that happened, then by your logic nothing is wrong with making iconic black characters and other ethnic minority characters into white characters.

Idris would be amazing for a bond film. On the same token it is such an iconic character that there might be mixed thoughts. For example when moneypenny was black in skyfall everyone was fine with it because she is not the major character. Bond changes actors so much I don't think it would be the biggest deal if he changed race for one movie. Though hopefully this doesn't have the same effect as annie which just deleted the whole original idea of the play to boost the actor's career. All in all at least in my opinion I think Idris could pull it off. What Rush Limbaugh said was very out of line very. Than again this is coming from the same idiot who blamed feminists for the size of his dick.

Rush should be thanked for separating the Feminists from Feminazi's.

As long as he's english ir can put on a perfect english accent i don't care what colour he is

@deadcool_xd:

Ugh, TYT are total idiots. He was obviously joking. I'm no Rush Limbaugh fan but I am a fan of using my brain from time to time. TYT should try it.

"Rush Limbaughoutraged by black James Bond."

Yeah,and rain is wet and the sun is hot.

That doesn't make you mature. Color is a major subject about those characters because they're well established and that's how they've always been portrayed(aside from alternate universes.) If it ain't broke, don't fix it. It's laziness to take a well established character and change their skin color when they could instead use a character who already represents that minority or create a new one

@gambit474: @frozen: Again I wouldn't care if black characters were changed to white. True fans don't care about a Heros skin color changing. They care about the character stays true, the origin stays the same and the story is written well.

What does the skin color have to do with the attributes of the overall character of the Hero? I never knew people loved characters for what they looked like just as much as they loved what the character represents lol. People make color important.. which history shows, and it's not.

This leads to a question out of curiousity though.

If your kids of color wanted to dress up as Superman and Wonder Woman would you say no, they had to be Icon and Storm?

Actually they do care so I don't know where you're getting that "true fans" don't. Keeping a character's skin color is staying true to the character. Bud, it's a little thing called continuity. If they were to take Mario and turn him into a black man, would people not get upset? Why shouldn't they? He's always been Italian and light skinned. You must not know much then

@gambit474: Because people have made Skin color important when it's not like I mentioned. There's no good reason to be upset over a characters skin color. Obviously the creators don't think the same way as you because they would not have changed the skin color.

I ask again.. what does the skin color have to do with the overrall character of the Hero?

Well nobody cared when they made M a female or Moneypenny black.

Also I would like to point out that the James Bond you see in movies is almost nothing like the original creation in the books to the point he's almost like a parody.

@dbvse7: Connotations of race include identity. With identity, comes familiarity and a set of experiences. Again, to simply think race does not matter in all areas is simply untrue. Changing the race of an iconic character illustrates the transparency of motive --- which is, being diverse for the sake of being diversity. As if there is something that needs ''fixing'' with the character at hand. If the race of famous black characters such as Luke Cage and Blade were to be changed, there would be uproar because of a sense of losing identity and familiarity (the original race of that character being positive for that character). People don't love iconic characters FOR their race (though, some may), but their race is significant to their identity.

The politically correct answer is that we'd all be just fine if Superman was changed to be short-Asian or something else, but I don't think people would be okay with that.

To your question, I would be completely fine with them dressing up as those characters.