Black 'Power Ranger' shuts down race-based casting claims: 'The kids didn't care'

A former "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers" actor has a message for the fans: Don't judge him by the color of his skin ... or the color of his suit.

In a recent episode of "Toon'd In! with Jim Cummings," actor Walter Jones shut down rumors that his casting as the black ranger had anything to do with the color of his skin.

Jones appeared on the hit show for 79 episodes, becoming a viewer favorite alongside the green and white ranger played by the late Jason David Frank.

While Jones said he was "proud" to don the black suit — "I thought it was cool" — his casting had nothing to do with race.

The 54-year-old also addressed claims that actress Thuy Trang was cast as the yellow ranger because of her Asian ethnicity.

"We originally, in our pilot, had a Latina playing the yellow ranger. But after we got picked up, and we came back, she asked for more money, and they fired her," the actor revealed.

Jones admits he finds the rumors a bit strange, as race on the set just "wasn't a big deal."

Most important, "The kids didn't care."

'Was I somebody that you couldn't be proud of?'

Still, conspiracy theory-minded "Power Rangers" fans have managed to turn a strange pair of coincidences into "something that was never meant to be," said Jones.

"People try to make it and see something that was prejudiced. I've had a lot of people [say], 'What do you think about Power Rangers being prejudiced?' And I'm like, 'Well, one, I'm a role model for kids in 40 different countries, and what's prejudiced about that?'" Jones continued.

The Michigan native appears to see much of the claims about prejudice as backward:

"Am I uneducated? Was I, like, was I somebody that you couldn't be proud of?" he recalled telling the show's critics.

While Jones admitted he was a fan of iconic black characters from his childhood like Buckwheat from "The Little Rascals" and Mr. Bojangles from Shirley Temple's "The Little Colonel," he felt proud to simply play a normal character in whom neither race nor subservience was the focus.

The actor expressed a great deal of pride regarding his role, which he reprised in 2023 in "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always," a 30th anniversary TV film.

Editor's note: This article has been altered since publication in the last four paragraphs. The article as originally published was an incorrect version.

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