When it comes to comics, T.V, and movies for years the cast, the characters, the heroes have been portrayed and dominated by Caucasians; white people. If an African American, black person, or any other minority was in it they would be delegated to side kick or background character.
It's Morphin Time!
When i was 12 years old, 1993, Power Rangers was introduced to the world. A show that was brought over from Japan and Westernized for the American Audience. As I watched, it didn't bother me that the black ranger Zack was African American or that his form of martial arts was hip hop kido ( a fighting style that Incorporated dance moves) and that when he started to fight a hip hop beat would play. Yes, he was my favorite; the man had an ax that could turn into a gun and he was the defacto second in command! 
Ok, this was considered stereotypical and on top of that the Asian ranger Trini was the yellow ranger. Saban brand caught a lot of flack for this, so it wasn't until 15 years later that another African American would be the black ranger, Will in Power Rangers Operation Overdrive. It seems with the new movie, they have chosen to not go that route again. The new movie has the original ranger characters, but now Zack is Asian, Billy is African American, and Trini is Mexican...
Power Rangers is known to always have a diverse team, but the leader would usually be the all american white male, while their would always be one Asian and one African American making up the team with two other Caucasians. This was the formula for five years until half way through Power Rangers Turbo a new team was formed when Tommy the former green, white, then red ranger and probably most popular ranger of all time passed his powers on to T.J, the first Black red ranger and leader. He lead the Turbo team, but he is most famously known for the destruction of two megazords, the loss of the turbo powers and kidnapping of Zordon....Dang T.J! He would later become the blue space ranger. Ok now it may sound like he got demoted, but if you watch the series T.J still lead the team. The red Ranger Andros was an alien who knew nothing about Earth and was reluctant to take the turbo rangers and turn them to space rangers. T.J went on to lead the other Space rangers and the citizens of Angel Grove in taking down the Alliance of Evil. There we go T.J!
Anyway others would follow in his footsteps. In 2011 the thirteenth year Power Rangers SPD burst on the scene, a series based on a police force in the future of 2025. Jack an orphan living in the streets using his power to phase through things to survive with his friend Z. Yea, he was basically Aladdin a lovable street rat with dreams, except instead of a blue genie he met a blue dog who gave him the power to become the Red SPD ranger. He was a reluctant leader at first who didn't have the respect of his team. Even his friend Z who became the Yellow ranger doubted him, but he soon grew into a capable leader and fighter. In the end he quit wanting to help take care of those less fortunate... and he met a girl who was doing the same thing.... I was like come on man you could have kept the powers and still got the girl and helped people...
Moving on, one of my favorite seasons of Power Rangers, RPM. A darker series that took place in a parallel dimension where the apocalypse came after a computer virus went rouge and killed most of humanity! One dome city city survived and was protected by the Power Rangers. We meet Scott Trueman, the second son of military leader Colone Mason Trueman who lead the army that protected the Dome city of Corinth. Mason Trueman loved and was proud of his oldest son, with Scott being in his shadow, but on a mission to protect Corinth, Scott watched his brother die, exploding in his plane. Yes, this is how power rangers rpm started. A year after his brother's death Scott became the leader and Red RPM ranger set to protect Corinth and avenge his brother. The whole season we see Scott try and gain the approval and trust of his father. He always put himself in danger to protect others and lead his team as a modeled soldier. He went on to defeat the computer virus that ended the world known as Venjix and earn the respect and love of his father. Yea, you can him (Eka Darville) now in Jessica Jones :)
These are all the African American's who have lead the power rangers. Other minorities would take the lead as well paving the way for others. Now, even though they were not leaders there have been other African Americans that have fought as rangers though the years. After Trini departed she was succeeded by Aiesha the first African American Ranger and Yellow Ranger and my new ranger crush :), I was so upset when she decided to stay in Africa and was replaced by Tanya who i guess you could say character wise was the first African Ranger; even thought as the season went on her African accent left, think it had to do with the time changes and what not... anyway....
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| Second Female African American Ranger or first African Ranger? |
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| First Female African American Ranger |
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| First African American Green Ranger |
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| First African American Pink Ranger |
I want to end this with the current season of Power Rangers, Power Rangers Ninja steal. The reason being is that this team was almost the first team to be all minorities! I was surprised when the original cast was introduced because it almost had another first. That two black people would be on the same team and they were to be brother and sister. Some would argue that the actors or what they call ambiguous black, but we know power rangers... Any-who, They were joined by a Brazilian pink ranger, an Asian blue ranger and a Latino(?) red ranger. This also marks the first African American white ranger.
I am not sure what happened, but the yellow ranger was replaced with a white actor and now he and the white ranger are boyfriend and girlfriend. Yes, many have joked that producers saw that cast and was like uh one of them has to be white. I also red that the original actor had to go back to the states for an unknown reason. (Power Rangers is filmed in New Zealand) |
| Mystic Force |
Even so, this is still one of the most diverse teams since Mystic Force, and as I mentioned earlier, the movie cast is pretty diverse with all minorities except for the Red Ranger Jason....
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| Mighty Morphin Movie Power Rangers 2017 |
Yes, I have watched every season and plan to see the new movie; Don't judge Tech. Tune in tomorrow when i talk about comics and how known characters are race swapped or how a minority takes on the mantle of a well known white character...
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