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This weekend the good folks over at Disney held their bi-annual D23 Expo which is a giant celebration of everything Disney and revealed new details about their Disney+ streaming platform. I went out to Anaheim in a brand new redesigned 2019 Chevrolet Silverado RST, with a BOSE sound system that helped me ease through the hour-long drive with traffic, and the big truck allowed me to see over all the other cars on the road, except when someone else was in a Chevy truck, but it made the journey a piece of cake to leave me stress free for my Disney interviews. With a bunch of shows on the way in November, I got to talk to some of the cast involved with The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, a series that will deal with The Falcon getting Captain America’s shield and becoming the new Captain America.

A lot of people have been excited with seeing a Black Captain America, with Lena Waithe going viral with a tweet that read, “Captain America is black. Thor is a woman. the new Blade got two Oscars. 007 is a black woman. And The Little Mermaid bout to have locs.”

So when I caught up with Anthony Mackie and asked him about being Captain America, he took a tremendous amount of pride in children of color seeing themselves in his version of this character but reminded everyone we shouldn’t define characters by their race. “I think it’s a problematic situation when we define the characters we play by our race. I think it’s very important that we remember, that Captain America is still a character of the American people not just one specific part of the people. We didn’t call Chris Evans, white Captain America.”

Mackie, who plays Sam Wilson in the MCU, was giving the iconic shield at the end of Avengers: Endgame. He feels like this opportunity to represent one of the biggest heroes in Marvel for children of color. “So one thing that is very important,” Mackie says. “Kids are going to be able to look at me and say, ‘Wow! there is a Black dude as Captain America. So for whatever that lends to them, it’s an opportunity for them to see themselves in a different situation. Just like little girls do with Captain Marvel and Wonder Woman. Just like white kids did with Chris Evans and just like green kids do with The Hulk.” Mackie believes this is his chance to give kids a way to see themselves outside of their present situation.

Now that’s the magic of television. The Falcon and The Winter Soldier will stream on Disney+ this November when the app launches.

Anthony Mackie Speaks On The Importance Of Seeing “A Black Dude As Captain America”  was originally published on globalgrind.com