Woke Hollywood is back at it and has replaced another red-haired character with a POC, this time with April O’Neil in Seth Rogen’s upcoming Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem CGI animated movie.
It’s not the first time, as the Nickelodeon Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series also replaces April with an African-American girl.
With the latest switcheroo, the question of April O’Neil’s skin color has once again come up where the woke lefties are claiming April has always been a POC and that if you think April has been white, you must be racist (of course).
Is April O’Neil white or black?
However, that is not the case as April O’Neil clearly is white in the original comics, and original artist Peter Laird says so.
“If you ask me, I always saw April O’Neil as white,” said Laird. “As the co-creator of the character of April O’Neil, and as someone who has always imagined her as white, and very likely of Irish/Scottish/English ancestry.”
Co-creator Kevin Eastman also revealed that originally Laird designed April as Asian in his notes (probably to along with the ninja aspect) and Eastman says he named the character after an “African American woman I once knew,” not that he created the character based on her.
YouTuber Eric July who recently launched his own multimillion-dollar comic book and publishing company went over the specifics on YouTube and in a Twitter thread featuring art from the original comic books and quotes from both Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird.
As usual, tik tokers and redditors (more than likely born in the 2000s spread myths that have been THOROUGHLY debunked years before they pretended to care about a property. Today's myth is "April from TMNT was originally designed to be black. This is simply NOT true and I'll show… https://t.co/7B5UOhORv8 pic.twitter.com/cq03HbOcER
— Eric July (@EricDJuly) March 6, 2023
This myth wasn't a thing for decades, but you'll often see people refer to her depictions in the 4th issue when she got her hair done. It's a perm. White women wore perms in the 80s.
— Eric July (@EricDJuly) March 6, 2023
Here is the non-darkened version of the cover you've seen shared. A white woman with a perm. pic.twitter.com/yFBMNPh5wI
Has there been versions of April that have been black? Yes. But NONE of them are original and one of which you keep seeing shared isn't even canon.
— Eric July (@EricDJuly) March 6, 2023
But one of the biggest misconceptions of the claim pertaining to April's race is actually based off a misquote.
Pete Laird himself has stated:
— Eric July (@EricDJuly) March 6, 2023
"If you ask me, I always saw April O'Neil as white."
and "As the co-creator of the character of April O'Neil, and as someone who has always imagined her as white, and very likely of Irish/Scottish/English ancestry"
So the facts of the matter are this:
— Eric July (@EricDJuly) March 6, 2023
April, OBJECTIVELY, was not originally designed to be black. You've seen the receipts. That tik toker or redditor you're listening to is an idiot.
If you think her race is irrelevant, that's your business. I'm just laying out the facts.
TikTokers and Redditers born in the 2000s who've never heard of perms are spreading misinformation about April O'Neil. Let's fix that. Check out the full video now LIVE on YouTube! #TMNT #AprilOneil #TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles #MutantMayhemhttps://t.co/yK4XvyiW6P pic.twitter.com/XRXJHRAnEY
— Eric July (@EricDJuly) March 6, 2023
Why change April?
April’O Neil has also been depicted as an attractive red-haired white woman since her first appearance of April in the 2nd issue of TMNT as well as the popular cartoon so she’s never been black.
Worth a mention is that Seth Rogen’s choice of replacement also deviates from the look of April O’Neil in a big way no matter what color you think the character is supposed to be.
Why replace April and why not create a new character? Why not make the Seth Rogen version as April’s friend or something of that nature? Why do they keep race-swapping and gender-swapping original characters?
And if you don’t think this is a part of some agenda (which is to divide us), you’re 100% wrong as Hollywood has replaced dozens of red-haired characters as seen below.
How about we replace Luke Cage and Black Panther for the sake of diversity or we do a reboot of The Cosby Show or The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air with Mexicans? Samuel L. Jackson replaced as Shaft? Jackson replaced as Jules Winnfield? How would that work out?
Hollywood loves to replace red-hair characters:
