The Falcon and the Winter Soldier: Race and the Shield
Dabian Witherspoon
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (2021-)
Season 1, Episodes 1-2
Creator: Malcolm Spellman
Company Credits: Marvel Studios, Disney+
Genre(s): Action, Adventure, Drama, Sci-Fi
Rating: TV-14
Runtime: 50 min
Data Source: IMDb.com
*** Spoiler Alert ***
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier made its debut on Disney+ on March 26, 2021. The first two episodes have been entertaining, and Sam Wilson’s experience as well as the show’s candid take on race have been eye-opening.
Government officials do not want a black man to be Captain America, and Sam knows it. If any of them feels differently, they certainly do not speak up. Sure, it is Sam’s choice to return Cap’s shield, but let us be realistic. When Steve Rogers attempts to pass the torch to Sam by offering him the shield at the end of Avengers: Endgame, it is humbling and overwhelming for both men. Sam reluctantly accepts the shield.
Later, Sam wants to honor Steve's wishes, but he knows in his heart that "half" of white America, including the government, will hate him for it. Anyone who thinks such a notion is exaggerated needs to recognize real life and take another look at how many whites recently voted for the likes of Donald Trump and Lindsey Graham to be re-elected.
Just two episodes into the series, Sam has already experienced racial discrimination three times: the disingenuous reception he receives when he hands over Cap's shield, the scene in which he and his sister try to obtain a bank loan, and the incident of racial profiling by the police. Not even an Avenger is shielded from the problem of race in this country.
Bucky reveals an important but well-hidden piece of history when he introduces Sam to Isaiah Bradley, a super soldier with whom Bucky had faced off in the early 1950s. The government has used and abused Isaiah. As a reward for his service, he has wrongfully served time in prison. It was not a hero’s welcome, which accurately reflects American history. Racist whites falsely arrested or even lynched blacks who had hoped their military service would lead to civil rights progress.
It would have been even better if the series had introduced Isaiah as a black super soldier prototype who preceded Steve Rogers. That also would have been historically accurate based on this nation’s early history of atrocities committed against black people.
Examples include white physician J. Marion Sims’ unethical experimentation on the bodies of enslaved black women (without the use of anesthesia based on the guise that they did not feel pain like white women) and the “Tuskegee Experiment” that began in 1932 (in which the government lied to black males, poor sharecroppers, about receiving free health care when its ulterior motive was to study the effects of untreated syphilis).
Even when we account for escapism, historical fiction and fictional stories reflect reality. Of course, white people in power would have experimented on black bodies until they felt their procedures were “safe enough” to use on whites.
Props to Marvel for keeping it real on race. It will be interesting to see how the show will develop these story elements.