Apartheid South African born-and-raised tech mogul Elon Musk posted a widely bashed dig on his own social media platform disparaging a large number of fictional superheroes who are being portrayed by people of color.
Muck posted several side-by-side images of once-white superheroes — most of them cartoon characters — who are now represented by people of color, saying simply: "Wow."
Musk is well-known foe of the so-called "woke" perspective that recognizes the value of diversity among human beings and in human culture.
Wow pic.twitter.com/Fw7m6Ycncv
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 18, 2024
He was flamed on social media.
"You know [the play] 'Cats' doesn't doesn't star actual cats, right?" asked one critic in response.
He raised the possibility that Musk expected China to send out for non-Asian people to portray superheroes who have been represented by whites in the past, pointing out: "You know when they do Shakespeare in China, the actors are Chinese, right?"
Why “wow”?
— Paul C. Jeffries (@PaulJeffries) July 19, 2024
You know when they do Shakespeare in China, the actors are Chinese, right?
Non-pluralistic content is going to have a pluralistic interpretation in a pluralistic society. If the perceived superficial quality of the character isn’t pertinent to the story told by the…
"What is this tweet?" another asked. "Make America white again?"
What is this tweet?! Make America white again??!!!! Why should we care about the skin color of fictional characters?!
— Mehdi Sadaghdar (@ElectroBOOMGuy) July 19, 2024
One post pointed out that Caucasian Tom Cruise crossed races to star in "The Last Samurai," which Musk never complained about.
I mean… pic.twitter.com/krAgfK1Ixf
— Marcus Wynn (@marcuswynn_) July 19, 2024
Imagine being triggered by women and people of color portraying superheroes and comic book characters.
— 𝐂𝐡𝐢𝐝𝐢 (@ChidiNwatu) July 18, 2024
Right, they’re even making South Africans look like this now pic.twitter.com/RvHuge4NQ1
— Duopoly Destroyer (@realnikohouse) July 18, 2024
There is nothing anyone can say or do to confront this level of gaslighting. That’s the loop we’re in—the gaslighting paradox of the world’s richest man pretending he’s some savior of free speech and the victim of powerful “woke” forces on his own personal social media platform.
— Luke Zaleski (@ZaleskiLuke) July 18, 2024
Musk has endorsed Donald Trump for president and is now set to donate as much as $45 million a month to a Super PAC backing Trump according to several reports, although Musk denied the figure.
He vowed earlier in the year not to use his fortune to "tip the scale" for any candidate.
