Why does he count only as Samoan? Was his father not African? Granted, his father might not have been "pure" African in descent(I can't find enough info to say), but then again, that can be said of many "African American" actors. Matrilineally, he's Samoan, but patrilineally, he's African(plus whatever got mixed in before). He's every bit as "black" as Barack Obama, or Mariah Carey, or Halle Berry.

That's true. You could give me several reasons other than racism. That does not mean that your reasons are correct. You don't know that Booker T is being held back by Triple H. That's speculation and not anymore believable than racism being the reason. If HHH is keeeping him back that could also be motivated by racism. It didn't stop Chris Benoit from getting the Title did it. Chris Benoit isn't nearly as charasmatic as Booker T and arguably isn't as over with the fans either. Yet he still won the top title. It's arguable whether he deserved it or not. Eddie Guerero finally getting his due. That's great. It's way over due. I won't speculate on what took so long. However they won't let him shake his stereotypical gimmick. Racism exists. It's a fact of life. It exists in Hollywood. It can also be in the WWE.
The existence of racism is a fact some White people have a problem accepting. The thing about racism is when you deny it's existence it doesn't go away and nothing changes. It has to be aknowledged first then it can be dealed with. That's the way it always has been throughout history.
Sorry I took the topic off of Spider-man and into the WWE.

I assure you race has nothing to do with who wins titles. I agree that the gimmicks of many stars are exaggerated stereotypes, but that's part of the humor in them. Guys like the FBI play mob goombas, the NOD did a take on the black panthers, Los Boricuas did their puerto rican thing, bradshaw did the whole hick thing, etc.the point is everyone takes a part of themselves (or something that looks like it could be them) and exaggerates it to build a gimmick. There has been many more white pro-wrestlers than anyone else, and so there has been an oppertunity for them to be over represented.
Farooq never really got over, though he is very talented.
Ahmed Johnson.wellif you remember him, you know why he never got the title
Shelton Benjamin is still a rookie.i expect that he will one day reach that level
Booker Tis currently being held back by HHH's stranglehold on the WWEwhen you bang the bosses' daughter, you get an amazing amount of controlHHH is using that to keep his job and hold back talentBooker would have won the title on smackdown by now.
Post any other black wrestler, and i'll try to give you a reason.
Also, another note on exaggerated stereotypes, comedians use them all the timejust watch BET Comic View.or if you're italian, listen to Joe Avati and Frank Spadoneif they can do it without any consequence, why can't the WWE.
Lastly, I think they're using a black kingpin to modernize the characterthey want him to play more of a pimped out affluent black man, instead of the classic ruthless businessman techie.

i'm not sure where michael clarke duncan is from, but "african-american" is not nescessarily politcally correct either.i have many jamaican friends who would be offended if they were call african american

Who Bloddy cares about a black i'm sorry, african american(for the people who think "black" is a racsist term)Kingpin the show is good and i myself was surprised to see an african american play kingpin.
P.S. I AM NOT A RACSIST!

When I saw that kingpin was black in DD I wasnt all hey thats not right I was all hey it played by that guy I forget his name cool.I made a bigger deal about Spiderman and DD being made by different companys cause now there is almost no chance of them ever meeting and becoming allies.

This message has been deleted.

Bwa ha ha ha!!! Name calling? Ok, I'll stoop to your level so you can understand me. Your what I call easy prey. Quick to reply but slow to think.
Dumbass is right. For you that is. Mr.Kabuki or whatever your name is. Dumbass fits you fine.
First off all learn to read and get your facts straight before you reply you idiot. I said WWE WORLD TITLE!!!!!! You moron. Booker T won the INTERCONTINENTAL TITLE not the WORLD TITLE you fool. Shelton Benjamin won the TAG TITLE not the World Title you retard. The Intercontinental title means little in the WWE and that goes double for the Tag Titles. The only thing lower than that is the Cruiserweight title and your IQ. LEARN TO READ. GET HOOKED ON PHONICS.

This message has been deleted.

Your using the WWE as an example? The WWE has a long history of bigoted stereotypes based on race. To this day they still have not had a Black World champion in their very long history. No the Rock doesn't count because he's Samoan. Latino's are portrayed as thieves and cheaters for example. 'That being said', WWE is great a example of negative stereotypes and how they can influence the ignorant.

Well actually, I remember back in the '80s('90s?) I watched the old animated Spidey(with R L Brown as Kingpin), and wrestling a lot, and I thought to myself that a certain wrestler named King Kong Bundy(big, bald, but no idea about his speech capabilities) would have been perfect as Kingpin(at least lookswise. ) That being said, it's kind of hard to imagine a black man as a "godfather" type fellow(excluding the "Godfather" in WWE, who was actually more of a pimp than the "mafia godpa" type)
My $0.02.

In case you didn't know, the voice of the White Kingpin in the 90's Fox cartoon Spiderman:TAS was voiced by a Black actor named Roscoe Lee Brown. So even though he may have looked White, he was still Black. This is proof that the race of the Kingpin character isn't that important.

I don't think it's a big deal that the king pin was played by a black person. I think that some roles can be played by any one of any race. Some roles out there are played by girls when they're guys in the book. Some roles can be played by anyone, and some roles just can't.

Ok. I'm in a minority in liking DD as a film, but that aside, Kingpin was done WELL in the film by Michael Clark Duncan. It shouldn't matter what race he is and the fact that he voices this new animated version of Kingpin in the SpiderMan series, I don't mind.

This message has been deleted.

It wasn't MTV's, nor Mainframe's, decision for Kingpin. It was up to Marvel/Sony.

If you aren't racist, then why do you care?
Color matters for some characters. Certainly, Blank Panther as Caucasian would be idiotic for fairly obvious reasons. And the race of a central hero character really should not be changed without storyline reasons. But for a character like Kingpin, it simply doesn't matter.
Kingpin was played by Michael Clarke Duncan in Daredevil for one reason the white wrestlers that auditioned for the role were horrible. Would you rather have had The Big Show (not that he necessarily auditioned but it's just an example) with a shaved head? Since viewers are more familiar with that Kingpin, the creators of Spider-Man probably decided to stick with that (especially since they got MCD to do Kingy's voice).
Here's the bottom line: STOP COMPARING THE MOVIES WITH THE COMICS. There are certain aspects that shouldn't be changed (like if Uncle Ben had just been killed by a random crook with no prior connection to Peter), and certain aspects that just DO NOT MATTER. Get over it, and if you don't like it, then here's a thought: DON'T WATCH IT. Turn off the TV, and go obsess over something else.

This message has been deleted.

I agree Daredevil sucked, and it wasn't because of a black Kingpin, it's due more to Ben Affleck being the only drop out of the Keanu Reeves School of acting.
However, I question your analysis of our DC supervillians. While I think Dent was made to be black, Luthor (whose voice is excellently done by a white Clancy Brown aka the Kurgan from Highlander) always gave me the impression of being mulatto not 100% black. They seem to always color him on the line of Very tan to maybe black almost as if they are holding their typical DC gutless stance on an issue. In JLA they did chose the black green lantern though. But it's quite obvious he is meant to be black.

I normally wouldn't respond to a post as idiotic as yours (not to mention the extremely poor
netiquette
of using ALL CAPS), but I thought I'd at least let you know that MTV is not responsible for the characters in this show. If you have race issues with the characters, you should be yelling at either Marvel or Mainframe, the producers and writers of the show.

HOLY CRAP
HOW MANY TIMES DO WE HAVE TO TELL THEM!
THE KINGPIN IS AND ALWAYS SHOULD BE WHITE!
WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH THE WORLD, CAN'T YOU LEAVE ONE THING THE WAY WAY IT WAS!
HEY MTV, THE KINGPIN IS
NOT
AFRICAN, YOU SHOULD HAVE
ZERO
INFLUENCE ON HIS CHARACTER

True enough, but in the (terrible)
Daredevil
movie he was played by a black actor. And since the same actor provides the voice in this Spider-man series, it stands to reason they'd make the Kingpin black as well. He didnt seem very .Kingpin-like though. He seemed more like another petty thug, albeit one with more lucrative goals, than the godfather-like ber criminal who manipulates everyone else like he's playing a game of chess. For chrissakes, he got busted during his very first caper on Spidey's show. That doesn't inspire much confidence in his ability to rule the criminal underworld.
Also, Lex Luthor was black in the last Superman animated shows. And Harvey Dent (Two-Face) went from black to white to black again between the Batman movies and tv shows. Apparently in the colorful world of comics, color is not that big of an issue.
"It just doesn't matter! It just doesn't matter!" Tripper,
Meatballs