Mr. Terrific and the power of stereotype threat
A sociological approach to analyzing comic books.
“ I have never been able to discover anything disgraceful in being a colored man. But I have often found it inconvenient — in America. “
It’s safe to say that being a hero is hard, there’s spilt decisions that need to be made, sacrifices that need to be considered and limits that need to be exceeded. Above all else, you must be committed to the duty of protecting the innocent and supporting the downtrodden.
So what is to say about being black while being a superhero? How does one find purpose in fulfilling your duties when the world around you thinks you’re a threat due to the color of your skin?
Mr. Terrific embodies all of the ways it could be especially difficult being black in a field of predominantly white superheroes. This is especially true in a universe that is based in science fiction, for all of the reason and logic is based in a preexistent understanding around what intelligence is and what it looks like in the real world, and in the world inside and outside of comic books, black people still aren’t seen as intelligent as white people in most situations. So his character has to seem believable, especially to the reader, who is likely believed by DC comics execs to be white, so he is officially titled as “ third smartest man in the world”.
It’s hard for Michael Holt to be a superhero. In fact, he often displays the challenges and differences of hero’ing’ while black.. Mr. Terrific should be the smartest man in the DC universe. The notion that he isn’t, is racist and you can’t tell me different.
Michael Holt was created by veteran DC writers John Ostrander and Tom Mandrake and appeared within Spectre (vol.3) #54 in June of 1997.
Mike wasn’t the first Mr. Terrific, Terry Sloane originally had the mantle. Sloane was created on the tail end of DC’s golden age of comics in 1942.
From a young age Michael Holt’s showcased remarkable intelligence, he was able to read and assimilate the highly complex works of theoretical physicists — Bohr, Einstein, Planck and Feynman by age six. He went on to study advance concepts regarding science, philosophy, quantum and theoretical physics, while other kids were learning how to form sentences. It was claimed that Holt embodied “ a natural aptitude for having natural aptitudes”. He easily picked up and retained complex skills and abilities that other men spent their entire lives perfecting. He can be the model minority for black people within multiple settings.
Before he began his career as a superhero, he already possessed 14 Ph.D’s (two in Engineering and Physics — including assorted doctorates and masters in degrees in Law, Psychology, Chemistry, Political Science, Computer Science, Rocket Science, and Mathematics). A self-made multi-millionaire with a high tech firm called Cyberwear (later Holt Holdings Inc.), he is also an Olympic-level athlete and master martial artist.
With the creation of his “ T Spheres” Holt’s technological genius contributed to the scientific landscape of DC comics and helped save the world when other heroes such as Batman, Superman and The Flash didn’t stand a chance.
American culture places an emphasis on intellectual ability and it is the type of characteristic that black people are historically negatively stereotyped by. Mr. Terrific’s character offers something intriguing for how black intellect could be perceived. It defies all stereotypes, caricatures and the racist genealogy institutionally believed by many parts of American society — the belief that black people are born un-intelligent and slow. His effortless approach to how he understands the world around him, gives off the impression that he may not feel a sense of exclusion or lack of belonging.
But what if that’s not the case? What if it’s unavoidable because he operates in a space that is predominately white? Does he have to think about how he presents differently because he’s a black hero? Must he calculate how skin color is going to be perceived in every interaction? Most importantly, how many other things could he be processing if he didn’t have to think about his race?
Enter: Stereotype threat. The term was coined by sociologist Dr. Claude M. Steele, and is explored within his groundbreaking book — “ Whistling Vividi”. The book provides a fuller concept around the impact of stereotypes than previously published on the topic. Steele explores how they influence the behavior and performance on identity groups within different settings. Stereotype threat is the concern or fear of confirming negative bias about the identity group you belong to.
If you are a woman, it could be the fear of crying in a professional setting in order to avoid any negative stereotypes about women’s performance. If you are college bound young Asian teenager, it could be the harmful stereotype of being academically gifted and all of the unfair burden that entails, if you are a white male within a predominately black sport, you may be subject to changes in your performance due to comparative expectations. These studies directly make the case for representation mattering, not only for minorities but for how we understand the world around us. These invisible phenomena shape our perception of self and contribute to how our inner critic is formed. If you’re trying to perform in an environment in which your group (identity) is negatively perceived (stereotyped), you will feel an added pressure, a distracted kind of stress that has the ability to disturb mental functioning, namely, ones designated for intellectual functioning.
Michael Holt has proven to work against these conditions and then excel in most situations that he finds himself in. He must assess the world around him and understand how and when to buck against trends.
Take the blue & brown eyed racist exercise that American diversity educator Jane Elliot conducted in the all white town of Riceville Iowa in 1968, the day after Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated. It had a massive impact on how diversity and anti racist practices were talked about in the coming years. The white children that were subjected to the exercise reported their negative experiences to local newspapers that lead to national interest.
Elliot wanted to recreate the effects of discrimination within a controlled environment so she divided her class into two groups based on eye color — those with blue eyes and brown. On the first day of the exercise, she told the blue eyed children they were smarter, nicer, neater and better than with those with brown eyes. As the day went on she praised them and allowed them special privileges such as longer recess time and cutting to the front of the line during lunch period. The brown eyed children were made to wear collars around their necks and their every movement was under scrutiny by Elliot. On the second day, she reversed the rules and created the same conditions of privilege for the brown eyed students.
The children that were scrutinized performed poorly on their test exams and daily work activities and conversely, those that were praise either, executed their daily tasks at the same level or improved their performance overall. The exercise manufactured the fear of being treated differently and was enough to disrupt the student’s sense of capability within a classroom setting.
In the clip below, Elliot recreates her experiment on the Oprah Winfrey show back in the 90s and demonstrated the same results as her classroom. After a comment from the audience about how America is supposed to be considered a “melting pot”, Elliot rebuffs and says that it should be a salad bowl, you want each element in the dish to maintain their identities in order to appreciate it their individual qualities. She goes on to say that a “melting pot” does not appreciate differences and that the audience members’ comments implies that all Americans should be the same, more importantly that the “ sameness” is considered to be white.
As time when on, Holt figured out the most suitable way to deal with his guilt of losing his family and fitting into a predominantly white super hero worshiping society, was to become one. He learned how to become a symbol of hope and security with his adoption of the Mr. Terrific title. And much like his comic book universe counterpart, John Henry Irons, Holt was able to explore his exceptionalism and excel in “legitimate” ways. His status as a world’s third smartest hero was one of the most efficient ways to avert suspicion and achieve a level of identity security. But make no mistake, Micheal Holt must contend with his black identity and how the world perceives him each and every time he dons the mask.
Micheal quickly becomes aware that the idea of black super humanity is inextricably tied to inhumane treatment. He understands that his context dictates how he will be perceived as an outlier, or as Dr. Steele would describe it, the contingency of his group identity. But Dr. Steele makes the distinction to state that this experience is not based on a trait or characteristic but a contextual variable. So when it comes to a black hero like Holt, the experience will follow him into any particular situation.
So how does one mitigate the effects of this invisible phenomenon? Well, one of the most obvious counters could be validating the narrative of being “ the only minority in the room”. Hire more black creators! A handful of diversity hires is not enough, nor is the inclusion of black characters within white stories. Without the showcasing and spotlighting of more black characters and appropriately compensating black creators for describing their lived in experiences into these characters, the industry is simply replicating Michael Holt’s experience of being “ the exceptional black” into the real world again.
If DC comics were to treat this experience with more respect and create an environment where black creators can build community- in the vein of Milestone comics and the trailblazing work of creators such as Dwyane McDuffie or even earlier with the crucial work of Jackie Ormes, speaking to a generation of black women through her contributions and inventions within art and fashion, then this work could be restorative and would have far implications. It would contribute to the deconstruction of what Steele calls, Critical Mass of representation. This is especially important in our society as it now considers Affirmative Action to be unconstitutional.
There could be a new understanding and respect for the contributions from minorities. This work could build a fuller understanding within American pop culture that black people are blocks in American culture, not just in comic books.
With the aforementioned considered, I think it would be appropriate to consider that the most challenging experience of being of superhero is heighten not only by the choices the heroes are forced to make, but who they are perceived to be when they are making those decisions. Much like guns, uteruses and black skin, the idea of who and what makes a hero is a publicized topic. It is the subject of social attitudes, especially when it is confronted with questions of identity. So maybe its time to reexamine what Mr. Terrific means culturally in the 21st century.. And arguably more important, it’s absolutely time for DC comics to stop the games and make Mike the world’s smartest man and acknowledge the importance of what he represents. Maybe then, we can be on the road to achieve FAIR PLAY.
