11 Likes
Good points all. I appreciate your thoughtful comments on the subject.
5 Likes
I do my best! Much appreciation!
5 Likes
Because the definition of “treating all races with respect” is controlled by about 15 people in Berkeley and changes every 72 hours. Is there any record of anyone complaining about this commercial when it was aired?
1 Like
“People are pretending to be ____________” = ACTING
Yes. Thank you. I love pedantry!
Are these actors’ depictions of other races “just acting” and perfectly acceptable in 2016?
8 Likes
Do you honestly think that white people dressing up to be POC is okay? Really? That is political correctness run amok? Do you think that black face was alright? Do you think that making a mockery of others culture for economic gain is fine? Really? And do you think that Native People have only been pointing this shit out for the past few years, rather than for centuries? Why is it so offensive to you when someone points out the racism in a piece of culture?
11 Likes
Well, no one said shit then, so it must have been okay! /s
And course, anyone marginally familiar with the history of mass media and culture would know that rarely have these things gone unnoticed or unchallenged. One of the first big budget blockbusters, Birth of a Nation, was met with a public outcry at the racism of the film and led to the director apologizing and making a film in response called Tolerance:
POC have never taken this shit lying down, they have always been vocal in their demands for equal treatment. To think otherwise is simply revisionist history of the worst sort.
12 Likes
I actually included a screenshot of Birth of a Nation in my post (the notorious scene of a chaotic Senate filled with former slaves eating chicken with their bare feet up on desks) but it didn’t embed properly 
5 Likes
For people who have thoroughly convinced themselves that no one else’s existence matters but theirs?
It’s probably difficult as hell.
8 Likes
I still haven’t seen that one and really should just for the cinema history rather than the ‘history’ portrayed in it. I have seen Intolerance though and it was good. Griffith did EPIC really well.
3 Likes
Got it, so you’re pretending to be offended by people actually being offended?
9 Likes
wrong! the “others” orbit should be MUCH farther away
4 Likes
We studied it in film class in college. It’s ridiculously racist but DW Griffith pretty much invented modern filmmaking with that movie, so it’s worth watching from that standpoint.
10 Likes
Yep. Also, pointing out that something is horrible racist doesn’t equal banning it, as some seem to think. It just means not taking what’s wrong with it for granted.
9 Likes
I’m not the designer; I’d have made it more accurate.
2 Likes
How odd, that outrage culture seems to be a right-wing phenomena! I thought they were pulling the strings from up on high from “not PC” mountain?
3 Likes
Aw, poor you! Having to hear that there are ways of treating other groups of people more respectfully than the dominant majority used to treat them. Such a burden!
12 Likes
I think it’s more like wearing a military general’s uniform to sell toothpaste.
Not arguing with your main point, just wanting to tweak the analogy a bit.
2 Likes
The Jazz Singer is a common but bad example of blackface as appropriation. The character is a Jewish man performing in blackface back when that was a thing that was done. It’s one degree meta over actually presenting a white actor as a black character. Historically that was a thing that white people did; depiction is not endorsement.
Klinger cross-dressing in women’s clothes to get designated 4F and sent home is period-accurate. Homosexuals and other “perverts” were routinely kicked out of the military up until not all that long ago. Within living memory, if you’re old enough to vote.
Can’t defend Amos & Andy or Breakfast At Tiffany’s though.
5 Likes
