‘He is Brown Like Me’: Netflix’s Elevating Dion Lets Children of Coloration See Themselves as Superheroes

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Observe: This story initially ran in February 2020, as a part of a Black Historical past Month collection. Amid the continued civil unrest across the nation, TV Information is re-publishing this story and others prefer it to assist foster better understanding and consciousness round problems with racial justice.


Jayan Bouknight has seen nearly each superhero present and film there may be. The 10-year-old Bostonian likes Superman as a result of he can fly, and he idolizes Thor as a result of he can throw his magic hammer. However when the inquisitive fourth-grader turned on Netflix to search out one thing to look at late final 12 months, the streaming service provided him a brand new sort of superhero to admire — one who regarded, talked, and acted like him. The collection, Raising Dion, tells the story of a younger black boy born with superhuman talents, and Jayan was hooked from the second he noticed its thumbnail on his search display screen.

“I like that he is brown like me,” stated Jayan, who’s half black and half Indian. He satisfied his twin brother, Aman, to look at, and now they’re each obsessed. “His mother freaks out like my mother, and he performs with Legos like I do,” Jayan stated. “I noticed what sort of powers Dion has, and I liked it, and I binged each episode in, like, two days. I’d’ve binged it in sooner or later, however I could not due to my bedtime.”

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Primarily based on Dennis Liu’s comic books and movie short of the identical identify, Elevating Dion was tailored by Carol Barbee for Netflix, the place it premiered in October and went on to turn out to be the 10th most popular series of 2019, in response to the streamer’s rankings. The household drama follows a loyal mom named Nicole (Alisha Wainwright) as she struggles to maintain a job and rear her precocious 8-year-old son, Dion (Ja’Siah Young), after the demise of her husband, Mark (Michael B. Jordan, who can also be an government producer). Nicole’s parenting duties turn out to be extra intense when she discovers that Dion can droop himself and objects in midair, go fishing with no pole by making the fish levitate, and defend himself in opposition to bullies by throwing them round along with his thoughts.

The present is a part of a cultural shift within the world of superhero entertainment. A long time after white superheroes swooped onto screens, Hollywood portrayals of black and brown superheroes are lastly proliferating, and the businesses creating these movies and reveals are reaping the advantages. Black Pantherwas an enormous field workplace attract 2018, raking in $1.three billion. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, which featured a black and Puerto Rican model of Spidey named Miles Morales, grossed $375.5 million and gained the Oscar for Finest Animated Function. And HBO’s comic-inspired Watchmen, which starred Oscar-winner Regina King as a masked vigilante, was the community’s largest new attract practically three years, racking up a powerful 7 million viewers per episode.

Ja’Siah Younger, Elevating Dion

Netflix

In the meantime, various superhero reveals aimed toward children are lastly turning into extra commonplace — with the likes of Netflix’s Elevating Dion, Cartoon Community’s Steven Universe and Teen Titans Go!, and Disney Channel’s forthcoming Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur — and tapping into an viewers that traditionally has been underserved. For the primary time, kids of colour are in a position to see on-screen superheroes who appear to be them.

Elevating Dion takes this illustration a step additional, creating a personality who has to face a problem his white predecessors by no means did — and one that may hit near dwelling for among the present’s younger viewers and their mother and father.

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Within the present’s third episode, which is arguably its strongest installment, a white instructor assumes Dion is at fault for a battle; truly, a white boy in Dion’s class took a watch that had belonged to Dion’s late father. Luckily, a sympathetic black science instructor steps in to stop Dion from getting suspended. Like all too many black mother and father, Dion’s mother realizes that it is time to have “the racism discuss” together with her youngster.

“Typically, different individuals, they are going to be afraid of you,” Nicole tells Dion within the episode.

“As a result of I’ve powers?” Dion asks.

“No, this is not about powers,” she says. “That is about individuals treating you in another way due to the colour of your pores and skin.”

“I assumed Dr. King fastened that,” Dion says.

“He fastened a few of it,” Nicole replies.

When Los Angeles mother Sylvia Wilson watched the racist instructor scene together with her children, it took a second for her 8-year-olds, Spencer and Alaina, to determine what was occurring, she stated. “The youngsters requested why the instructor was so imply to Dion and so type to the bully child,” stated Wilson, including that she and her husband, who each are black, have talked about racism with their kids up to now. “I turned the query again to them and requested them why they thought that is perhaps, and I requested them how is Dion totally different from the opposite boy. First, they stated he has superpowers. However then they stated, ‘He is black, and the instructor was imply as a result of he thought all black individuals are unhealthy.’ After that, they acquired unhappy and quiet on the thought.”

Alisha Wainwright and Ja’Siah Younger, Elevating Dion

Netflix

Wilson stated the truth that her children — and Dion — did not instantly assume the instructor was racist is a sort of progress in itself. “I picked up the instructor’s vibe instantly since I grew up going to predominantly white colleges,” she stated. “I knew as quickly as he opened the door that Dion could be the main target of his wrath. Dion had an ally in his science instructor, a barrier to the biased and punitive response. I did not have allies to face between me and blatant racism.”

She added that the present served as mannequin for learn how to talk about racism with kids. “I liked how his mother defined racism to him, first constructing him as much as reduce the blow of how the world is able to knock him down based mostly on the colour of his pores and skin,” she stated, praising the collection for “showcasing progress.”

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Cynically talking, the colour of a superhero’s pores and skin cannot protect younger Era Z-ers from the racism, sexism, and xenophobia that permeate our world. However kids must see reflections of themselves rising above life’s obstacles and evolving within the face of adversity, stated Paul Bashea Williams, a family therapist and writer based mostly in Washington, D.C. “Children of colour can see themselves act out their desires [while] offering a way of normalcy and relation,” Williams stated, including that it is essential to create protected areas for black and brown kids to really feel magical and distinctive. He additionally famous that racial biases inside kids are sometimes born out of segregation and a scarcity of publicity to different cultures — as proven by the oft-cited doll tests of the 1950s and the CNN-commissioned test of 2010. Characters on reveals like Elevating Dion can convey children of various races collectively by way of a typical curiosity — superheroes. “Most children need to be superheroes,” Williams stated. “It permits children to think about their fears being conquered.”

Charlese Antoinette, the costume designer for Elevating Dion, has witnessed the outcomes of optimistic illustration firsthand because of her one-on-one interactions with younger followers of the present. Antoinette, who additionally labored on the Spike Lee and Netflix sci-fi film, See You Yesterday, not too long ago spoke to a gaggle of 50 college students at a Boys & Women Membership in Cleveland. “There have been elementary school-aged children and even highschool college students, principally black, and so they all wished to speak concerning the present,” she stated. “I had no concept it will have an effect on them this a lot.”

Ja’Siah Younger, Elevating Dion

Tina Rowden/Netflix

Antoinette stated she doubted among the children even realized why they had been so impressed by the present. “Children are excited to see themselves mirrored on the display screen, even when they do not know that is a part of why they’re enthusiastic about it,” she stated. “I do not assume all of them are making the connection at such a younger age. Simply seeing a younger black child who’s into science and Legos and comedian books is thrilling on prime of the motion and the story.”

Such is maybe the case for 8-year-old Bentley Lewis, a Elevating Dion fan who’s half Mexican and half black and lives in Los Angeles. Bentley stated he would not care concerning the hero’s race; he cares that Dion does the issues he does and likes the issues he likes. “He is good, and he can play basketball and swim,” stated Bentley, who additionally likes Aquaman, Captain America, Captain Marvel, and Cyborg. “I appreciated when Dion was dunking on the large children. And he has lightning in his arms.”

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Possibly that is progress, too. In spite of everything, Bentley and his generational friends are the primary children of colour to have the ability to take colour as a right with regards to their leisure. For these younger followers, a lot of whom had been born right into a world the place a black man was president, seeing black superheroes on TV just isn’t revolutionary. As a substitute, it is one thing that is at all times been part of their lives — which is strictly the sort of new regular so many writers and administrators of colour are working to determine.

Over on the other coast, Jayan stated he appears like he can relate to Dion greater than a few of his different heroes; in any case, he famous, Thor and Superman by no means need to cope with individuals’s reactions to the colour of their pores and skin. However principally, Elevating Dion makes him think about himself as a hero — and take into consideration what he’d do with superpowers of his personal.

“I’d flip right into a dragon and shoot lava out of volcanoes by transferring my arms,” Jayan stated, dreaming huge. “I would shoot the lava on the unhealthy guys and save the day.”

Elevating Dion is now streaming on Netflix. A Season 2 premiere date has but to be introduced.


For Black Historical past Month, TV Information is celebrating black superheroes in TV and movie. As a part of The Rise of Black Superheroes, we’re honoring the legacies of pioneers like Luke Cage, War Machine, and actress Eartha Kitt; inspecting how blackness shapes the identities of characters like Iris West, Black Lightning, and John Diggle; exploring what today’s black heroes mean to kids of color; and celebrating the greatest black superheroes of all time. You may take a look at extra content material from The Rise of Black Superheroes here.

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