Fish Mooney (Jada Pinkett Smith)

[BatmAngelus]

It was announced, with the casting of Oswald Cobblepot, that one of the main Gotham mob bosses was someone named Fish Mooney. 

I had assumed that this was a Carmine Falcone-type character, but it looks like I was picturing the wrong gender:

Jada Pinkett Smith will play Fish Mooney, an imposing, hotheaded and notoriously sadistic gangster boss and nightclub owner with street smarts and almost extra-sensory abilities to read people like an open book who is not one to be crossed.

http://www.deadline.com/2014/02/jada-pinkett-smith-fox-gotham-villain/

[johnnygobbs]

I'm not sure if I like this casting.  It's odd that two of the most powerful characters in the show, a police captain and a sadistic gangster boss, will be played by black women, especially bearing in mind that according to Donal Logue there will be a period element to the show.

Black women are still by far one, if not the, most oppressed group in society.  By casting black women in these parts the show's producers are wilfully overlooking this fact and firmly demonstrating that their show makes no concessions to reality, in which racism and sexism are still an overwhelming barrier for black people and women, and especially black women, to get ahead in the world.

These shows should focus on depicting positive strong black women who are fighting against the odds rather than portraying them as 'sadistic' over-lords as if black women were the real oppressors in society...   I don't know what world these people are living in.

It's especially a shame because the Halle Berry 'Catwoman' film was a perfect opportunity to present a working class heroic African-American woman in a comic-book movie but that was utterly savaged by critics and members of the public alike.  Consequently, Hollywood needs to go back to the drawing board and finally get it right.  Jada Pinkett Smith as an evil, sadistic crime-boss is NOT the answer.