Blade - Taking a Bite out of Cool

Before Vampires became firmly entrenched in popular culture as sexy young people with first world problems, they were depicted as scary monstrous beings that only came out at night. With the character of Eric Brooks in the movie Blade, vampires were seen in a new light; racialized, and elevated to superhero status. That said, both character and film operate on a deeper level, raising the idea of men of colour as a threat, and questioning their firmly entrenched associations with cool.

The separation of actor and character is difficult. How much of Snipes’ stoicism do we associate with the character versus Snipes as simply a ‘cool black guy’? Blade, originally part of the Marvel universe, first appeared in comics in 1972, which coincided with the black pride movement in the African American community. New black expression manifested itself in music and film. Blade, in the Blacksploitation tradition, is similar to Shaft or Blackbelt Jones, characters, in positions of power whose blackness is a source of pride instead of shame.

However neither film nor character does anything to dispel stereotypes surrounding blackness, particularly male blackness. Blade is strong, rough-sounding, emotionless and of course, cool. True, we’ve come to expected this of almost any action hero in film. It’s when this limited scope becomes the go to for your race in and out of pop culture, that it is problematic. The cool black guy trope, hero or not, must be expanded and redefined.