On Lemar Hoskins, I Do Wanna Say That 100% Y’all Were Never Supposed To Care About Him As A Person

On Lemar Hoskins, I do wanna say that 100% y’all were never supposed to care about him as a person or a character in his own right and it’s evident w the way this fandom be acting that most of y’all never did. First of all, I’ve seen a lot of “explanations” about how Lemar is supposed to be a parallel to Sam or Bucky or he’s supposed to be a subversion of the Black Sidekick. He’s not a subversion of nothing. He’s a Black Sidekick and a Fridged One At That, All Played Straight. None of the racial themes of this show tried to portray are safe from being absolutely shafted by this instance of this colorist (because he is one of the darkest characters on the show, if not, the darkest) and anti black moment.

These writers never wanted you to care about him more than you sympathized with his killer and her cause, not more than you hated (or loved, if you’re one of those people) John Walker, than you rooted for the heroes.

Y’all don’t know nor acknowledge how absolutely traumatic it was for many black viewers to see a dark skinned black man brutally murdered before his eyes and to have the notion of wanting justice for his death (because that /is/ what they did whether you hate John Walker or not) being demonized as shown to be unrelenting violence.

Or to show his killer, another black person, but one significantly lighter in a sympathetic light to the point where she is the one given all sympathy by making it “an accident” therefore “not really her fault” or “her cause is good because it’s okay” or the fact that we, as an audience, even if she is a leftist villain portrayed as evil (she is) because of propaganda doesn’t mean she herself isn’t leveraged above the dark skinned black man that when she “accidentally” kills him, she is framed as this traumatized hapless victim who is allowed to get away while her ally is killed to show “How Far Gone” Walker is, even though, once again, it’s the demonization of wanting justice for a dead black friend.

Only for her to say that his life did not matter. . . (Which is FUCKED to make your character say when she’s played by a black actress) But she has a tragic backstory and she’s a leftist portrayed wrong. . So it’s fine!

And sometimes, he’s woobified and made into the perfect black boyfriend/sidekick/best friend to Walker bc of course he did, that’s a what fandom does with black characters with white best friends! because he can’t escape being a trope even in death.

We’re not supposed to remember his quotes, what he did, what he felt, how he was shown to us onscreen and we are never showed him onscreen if not next to Walker, even his parents’ grief is given to Walker. We can’t see his parents grieve independently because he was not a main character. Not in the way Walker is, Karli is, Sam is, Bucky is. These characters like Sam and Bucky don’t mention Lemar after his death in ways that are supposed to be remembered by the viewer, and Karli is somehow allowed to just say his life didn’t matter. In the end, we were supposed to watch him die and then watch this dark turn.

Even if people expressed criticism of the scene or outrage, it still manages to somehow tie back to other characters. “John Walker could’ve gone dark another way!” Should not be the first response to that scene. John Walker going dark shouldn’t even in be in mind.

It should be “Lemar Hoskins should’ve been allowed to live. Lemar Hoskins should’ve gotten screentime, agency, and the chance to be a character in his own right.”