Stan Lee's Anti-Racism Editorial Becomes Popular Again

Marvel Studios

Shortly after Stan Lee passed away yesterday at the age of 95, fans from around the world have been sharing their memories and wisdom of the Marvel Legend, and that includes the 1968 anti-racism editorial.

For nearly forty years, Stan Lee wrote several installments of his editorial, Stan's Soapbox, and one of them expresses his stance against racism and bigotry, calling it "among the deadliest social ills plaguing the world today".

You can check out Lee's piece in the tweet below:

Here's the full text of Lee's editorial below:

"Let's lay it 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.

"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 our 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.

"Pax et Justitia, Stan."

The editorial above was published fifty years ago but he recently shared a similar message. Last October, Lee released a video in which he said that there is no room for racism and discrimination as we are all part of a larger, human family.

"That man next to you, he's your brother," the Marvel icon said. "That woman over there, she's your sister. And that kid walking by, hey, who knows — he may have the proportionate strength of a spider. We're all part of one big family, the human family, and we all come together in the body of Marvel. And you, you're part of that family. You're part of the Marvel Universe that moves ever upward and onward to greater glory. In other words: excelsior!"

You can watch the touching tribute of Stan Lee here.

Related: Spider-Man Actor Tom Holland Makes Heartbreaking Post On How Indebted He Is To Stan Lee