Blade: The Series

Not since Mask of the Red Death by Edgar Allen Poe has a piece of fiction been so laced with racial symbolism. For those unfamiliar with Poe's work I'll refresh your memory. Somewhere in Europe during the "red death" plague a king or was it a prince..doesn't matter, decided to throw a party in his castle of many many rooms. There were rooms of varying colors. Of these rooms was one room that was pitch black with a large clock in it. Everyone invited to the party had to wear a mask. So the plague shows up at the party in a red mask and proceeds to kill all the guests. The king (or prince) runs (or chases) the red death into the black room where he attempts to kill the plague with his little dagger. He does not succeeds and dies in the big black room in front of the big black clock. Read the story some time.

Now the Blade series is similarly loaded. Blade a demi-vampire was born with all the powers of a vampire with non of their weaknesses. What weaknesses? Ahh. silver, garlic and, oh yes, direct sunlight. Blade of course is a black man. Now those of you familiar with the biology of melanin know that it specifically protects skin cell DNA from nasty mutations caused by ultra-violet radiation. That Blade is a "half breed" is also interesting given the history of whites to be deathly opposed to interracial breeding; especially with those of the "lowest" race. However; some white supremacists have been quick to note that certain "intelligent" black people had "x amount" of "white blood" which would account for their "intelligence". Significance: All the strengths and non of the weaknesses (except that thirst thing).

So here we have a movie where the main antagonist is a blond haired, pale white man (with accent) who's close confidant is another pale white woman (also blond). The antagonist has a mole, if you will, who is a white female (a brunette) in league with the bald black man who apparently can kill vampires (the majority of whom are white in the show) at will.

In the movie Blade, the main white protagonist manages to get Blade's attention by meeting him on the street during the day. This feat was accomplished by wearing god knows what level of sun block. Now in the series, the vamps are dead set to get themselves immune to garlic and silver (and probably the whole sun thing) but seem to never deal with the whole melanin thing. No doubt Holywood and the public isn't quite ready for the skin color as more than just skin color even if it is dead in their faces.

I'll continue to watch the series despite the clear racial overtones, much like I watch the Lord of The Rings despite it's racial overtones as well.