In 1968: Stan Lee Condemned Bigotry in Marvel Comics Op-Eds

People who love Spiderman, Thor, Captain America, Black Panther, the Hulk, the Avengers or the Fantastic Four like Marvel Comics characters and they were all part of Stan Lee's creations at Marvel Comics. Before he passed away in 2018, Stan Lee would make little cameo appearances in the Marvel movies so you likely saw him, if you saw any of those films. Although I'm really a DC Comics reader, but I do like the Marvel characters, and I've always liked Stan Lee. Not only was he brilliant, creative and kind, but he also stood against racism and bigotry as far back as the 1960s when he started in comics.
   In every Marvel comic book from 1967 to 1980, he would write a small Op-Ed section on the letters pages of the comics (they had letters pages then). In 1968 he wrote an Op-Ed against racial prejudice and bigotry. Here we are 52 years after he wrote that and we're still dealing with racial prejudice and bigotry. It's a sad statement on humanity.

Here's the 1968 Op-Ed of his “Stan’s Soapbox” column:

Let’s lay it right on the line. Bigotry and racism are among the deadliest social ills plaguing the world today. But, unlike a team of costumed super-villains, they can’t be halted with a punch in the snoot, or a zap from a ray gun. The only way to destroy them is to expose them—to reveal them for the insidious evils they really are. The bigot is an unreasoning hater—one who hates blindly, fanatically, indiscriminately. If his hang-up is black men, he hates ALL black men. If a redhead once offended him, he hates ALL redheads. If some foreigner beat him to a job, he’s down on ALL foreigners. He hates people he’s never seen—people he’s never known—with equal intensity—with equal venom.

Marvel Comics Superheroes

Now, we’re not trying to say it’s unreasonable for one human being to bug another. But, although anyone has the right to dislike another individual, it’s totally irrational, patently insane to condemn an entire race—to despise an entire nation—to vilify an entire religion. Sooner or later, we must learn to judge each other on our own merits. Sooner or later, if man is ever to be worthy of his destiny, we must fill out hearts with tolerance. For then, and only then, will we be truly worthy of the concept that man was created in the image of God–a God who calls us ALL—His children.

Instead of using his customary phrase, “Excelsior,” Lee signed the column “Pax et Justitia” — Latin for “Peace and Justice.”

In October 2017, Lee also posted a video reiterating his view that Marvel’s array of characters would always reflect “the world right outside our window.”

“Those stories have room for everyone, regardless of their race, gender or color of their skin,” he said. “The only things we don’t have room for are hatred, intolerance and bigotry.”