"Well, that did not take long". "Long, you say?" "What choo talmbout?" So glad you ask. So, Marvel recently debuted Moon Knight the limited series on Disney+. Guess what? It is very very very good. Folks are talking about it. Which is a good thing. Moon Knight is one of Marvel's most underrated characters that they have on their roster. He has a great back story and the comic books are pretty incredible as well. However, Moon Knight comes with issues. What issues? Well, its a character who considered to be an avatar for an Egyptian deity. So what's the problem with that? Well, the historical people from Northern Africa were Black people. Yes, Black people. (not, people of color) We aint using made up words, politically correct terminology to state a fact. All one has to do is research the history. If you want to learn about how stories like Moon Knight get the historical accuracy wrong you can go a check out "Stolen Legacy" by George G.M. James. This particular book deals with historical evidence that Greek philosophy stole its knowledge from Egyptian philosophy. Now, that is just one book. The point can made that Europeans who studied at Egypt or Kemit (for the hoteps out here) took the education that they were given and began over the scope of time to claim Egyptian or Kemetic science.
Now over the course of time white folks including Nazis from Germany began the this "claiming" by white washing the images of the Northern Africans or explaining away the accomplishments of this global dynasty. It has been this effort that has caused many Black people to have this weird or awkward relationship with all things Egypt. Biblically speaking Egypt is a symbol for the world system and its oppressive practices like slavery. Who knew? Historically, it was a place of higher learning and technology that Greeks and others were allowed to learn from. Facts. Which brings us to Moon Knight. Now Moon Knight is a Marvel comic book character. His first appearance was in the Werewolf by Night #32. Doug Moench and Don Perlin created the character. Now I cannot conclude that Doug and Don are Greeks stealing from Black writers and artists. However, it does not me from giving them the side eye. Honestly, they probably wasn't thinking anything like that. Funny as that is, that is what you call a perfect and masterful job of colonization. Take things that did not come from you, make it your own. Shoot down anything that has an inkling of guilt attach to it. Reintroduce said thing and voila. You have successfully stolen that thing, especially if that thing is history. Right now, phrases like "ban Critical Race Theory" are being invoked. Let's not make the children of the slavemasters feel "bad" for what their ancestors did. We gotta put a stop to white guilt!
Moon Knight is a fictional character that in theory could have been Black. So, some might say what is the big deal? If you are going to use Egyptian mythology regarding its pantheon, welp you might want to stay true to the historical narrative. The problem is that the narrative was rewritten. A few years ago a movie was made called Gods of Egypt which was met with a lot of Black folks being very irritated. It was like dude, its 2016 and yall still got the nerve to claim ownership over something that is clearly African. God bless our brother Chadwick Boseman who was the only Melinated god on screen as Thoth who is an associate to Khonshu. Khonshu is god of the moon who Moon Knight gets his powers from. Boseman made a point in being in Gods of Egypt because he wanted to show someone of African descent playing an African god.
So what is a Blerd supposed to do knowing the truth? You tell it. Remind yourself the truth but remember its fiction as well. In a perfect world maybe all the fandom looks like you. It doesn't and it shouldn't. You can find contentment in Celtic origins of middle earth where aint no Black people in Lord of the Rings. Sorry, I couldn't help myself. Shout out to scamazon. You can read manga and not hope and wish to shoe horn Black people in a Japanese experience. Just enjoy it for what it is. Do not apologize for speaking the truth but there is no need to die on a fictional hill. There are enough real ones to die on. You could be like me, a Black kid in school hallways in 1983 listening to Ozzy Osbourne's Bark at the Moon. Methinks I'm still hearing Ozzy in the background still barking at the Moon Knight.
