first, here's why i think this is necessary: you could just racebend batman and be done with it, but i think there's a real opportunity in reimagining the character as a black American, and how race shapes his background and the circumstances of his vigilante career.

— b-boy bouiebaisse (@jbouie) February 1, 2019

the wayne family isn't reclusive, but it shies away from public life and only interacts with white society when necessary. if it has a guiding creed or belief system, it's a booker t. washington-style uplift ideology.

— b-boy bouiebaisse (@jbouie) February 1, 2019

(this vision of gotham will be a bit inspired by DC, so it will have a well-known HBCU for which the wayne family is a major benefactor)

— b-boy bouiebaisse (@jbouie) February 1, 2019

when the call comes in that two people were shot and killed, the police…shrug. they take their time. they're indifferent to bruce. alfred is there (and, what the hell, he's still michael caine), and they ask him if he was assaulted.

— b-boy bouiebaisse (@jbouie) February 1, 2019

he doesn't go to the HBCU, forsaking his family's legacy at the school. he instead travels abroad, learning the skills he needs to be batman, and also trying to experience life free of American racism. (borrowing from Douglass and DuBois here).

— b-boy bouiebaisse (@jbouie) February 1, 2019

…his targets are crime and police brutality. he becomes a problem for the cops and the world of organized criminality, making himself an enemy of both. jim gordon still exists in this world, but he's one of the few black people in the GCPD and is sympathetic.

— b-boy bouiebaisse (@jbouie) February 1, 2019

as i write this out i realize i'm basically adapting big parts of Walker's Nighthawk into a proper Batman story, which is to say, again, read Walker's Nighthawk

— b-boy bouiebaisse (@jbouie) February 1, 2019

And the #Oscars winner is… pic.twitter.com/HQyRoqy6d5

— The Academy (@TheAcademy) February 25, 2019