Captain Marvel Spoilers Ahoy!
I'm sure everyone remembers Bright (ha ha), but for those of you who have forgotten it was the Shadowrun-knockoff movie set in an alternate Earth where fantasy creatures like Orcs and Elves exist and live alongside humanity. The movie tried to make a point about race relations by making Orcs analogous to African-Americans. Orcs were at the bottom of the social hierarchy not due to the content of their characters, but the size of their cuspids.
Orcs are hated because in the war that ended the last age, they fought alongside the enemy of all the other races. They're physically different and have a genetic disposition towards physical prowess over mental acuity. Unfortunately, despite the best intentions of the filmmakers, they forget that analogies work both ways: by displaying Orcs as this world's African-Americans, they imply that the two groups share any traits that aren't explicitly differentiated.
This is problematic because 1) genetically, skin color (the only phenotypical expression definitively associated with race) is what we like to call polygenic. It is not controlled by a single allele on a single chromosome, but spread over several chromosomes. This means that skin color is randomly distributed on almost all genes: Anglos, traditionally white, are closer genetically to North Africans than they are to Swedes. 2) there is nothing in Black history to justify either the slave trade or the racist systems that have perpetuated since its abolishment.
While trying to help in a worthy cause, Ayer and Landis inadvertently give fuel to racists. In their response to this sort of media, they can say "Look, even Social Justice Warriors acknowledge that Black people are genetically different! We're saying the same thing!"
Wait a minute, why was there a warning for Captain Marvel at the top of this post?
The Skrull are obviously meant to represent refugees, either from the ongoing Syrian Civil War or from Central and South America. The movie makes several comments to this effect, and the end of the movie is Captain Marvel rescuing a ship filled with women and children who simply want to be left alone by the Kree, who require them to stay within the Empire and assimilate (a nod to real world comments by anti-immigrant activists.
Here's the problem, though: because Hollywood loves itself a twist villain, the Skrull have to look like bad guys for the first half of the movie. That means they have to pose a military threat (even if it turns out to be overblown), perform actions that seem menacing (and often don't make sense when you re-watch knowing they're good guys), and have lots of fighting age males around while they're the bad guys (so we don't feel as bad about the hero killing them).
The Skrull who take Captain Marvel hostage at the beginning of the movie are a military cell actively resisting the Kree empire. They have weapons, a ship, and tactical training: they even manage to defeat Kree Team Six. The message of the movie becomes "Look, these people are fighting for peace. If you give them a chance, we can get along."
Real refugees aren't freedom fighters. The vast majority are women and children (52% are under 18 and 27% are adult women, so about 79%), and they're fleeing violence, not participants in it. The ability to fight and survive can actually disqualify you for refugee status. Likewise, asylum seekers and refugees are not fighting the United States (the stand in for the Kree in this analogy) or even acting criminally: it is the United States government that is violating its own laws and ignoring treaties it has signed when it turns away refugees and asylum seekers.
I'm not one to say that art shouldn't try to cover difficult subjects (and Marvel movies aren't anathema to art, even if they are mostly product), but there are better and more impactful ways to discuss ideas about human rights, dignity, and the horrors of war than sloppy analogies. These analogies mean well, but when done sloppily and without nuance, they can actually be used as evidence against the very points we're trying to make.
