#KeepIrisBlack was a trend started on twitter a couple of days ago, in relation to the casting of Iris West in the DCEU film, The Flash scheduled to release in 2018.
The CW show, The Flash is quite a popular one. For starters, it’s based on the DC Comics by the same name and explores the adventures of the speedster superhero, Barry Allen aka The Flash. It’s a good show, don’t get me wrong. It’s got its own faults and flaws but overall, it’s quite decent. The one complain I always have with it, is that it fails to treat its own female lead as a lead. Iris West is a beautiful independent ace reporter, and she’s barely ever portrayed as one. She’s more often than not, sidelined and ignored when she actually plays a massive role if you go back to the comic books.
When Candice Patton was cast as Iris West, my happiness knew no bounds. Superhero television series/movies are captivating and amusing but their racial representation is extremely poor. Women alone are sidelined and reduced to love interests in most and all cases, and women of colour and specially ignored or non-existent. Naturally in such a scenario, when Candice was cast, I was hyper about it. Once the series started, I gave them a while before I completely judged them for it but Iris West was not what she was supposed to be. Candice is a beautiful, talented actress and she isn’t given the due credit or the correct representation that she should be, by the writers and producers at all.
When The Flash, the film was announced in 2015 by the DCEU, I had mixed feelings about it. When Ezra Miller was cast, I was a little convinced about it but recently, what floated around twitter was the rumour that Iris West was going to be white in the film.
#keepirisblack black women deserve better than to be treated as an afterthought in the conversation of representation
— blige (@THECAROLDANVERS) April 27, 2016
In a world where there’s already a struggle to fight for racial and gender equality, mainstream media can play a huge role in influencing the masses about it. Yes, Iris is sidelined in the series. Yes, she doesn’t get the treatment she deserves. But the film has so much scope, not just to work on the mistakes that the series is creating with Iris West but also to have an inclusive, diverse cast that doesn’t narrow our views on racial inequality. We took a step forward with a black Iris in the series, but we’re two steps backward with a white Iris in the film.
#keepirisblack because we’re tired of relationships being centered around white/white and black men/white women couples
— blige (@THECAROLDANVERS) April 27, 2016
Iris West is an extremely strong willed woman that can inspire a lot of young girls. A woman of colour who is not stereotyped is so important nowadays, I couldn’t stress it enough. We need young girls to look up at their screens and see something they relate to. See something that inspires them. They need to see strong women that they’d look up to and hope to be like, someday. A black Iris West in the film will do exactly that.
Black women are heavily underrepresented and misrepresented in media at large, let alone this specific genre. This genre itself reaches out to an audience of youngsters, of all genders, it engages a fan following like no other. It’s so important to have representation and the right representation at that here. Keeping Iris black will not only be a step forward in the racial diversity DCEU attempts to boast of, but also a huge step forward in gender equality. It’ll include a section of women within the strata who are heavily stereotyped and subjugated to a certain image of theirs being formed, wrongfully by the media.
Main reason why I started the flash was bc first time I saw that a black girl like me could be loved by a superhero #keepirisblack
— amaal (@taIialghul) April 27, 2016
In summary, #KeepirisBlack because it’s important to see black women as leading ladies, especially on the big screen. Count me out if not.
— fowsia (@iriswestallens) April 27, 2016
#KeepIrisBlack bc black women deserve to see themselves as leads, ESPECIALLY in superhero films where they are ALWAYS excluded
— #FuerzaEcuador (@youngavengersaf) April 27, 2016
