And Elizabeth May, of course, has her own issues with playing footsie with assorted bigots.
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There’s some willful ignorance and insensitivity in there too. I don’t think one needs an undergrad degree in ethnic studies to conclude that this is a pretty racist way for a colonial power to celebrate Christmas:
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I don’t think it should matter. If your intention is to show tribute to a character you love that’s a wonderful thing.
Here are the actors who played the dura sisters on TNG:
Almost blindingly white!
They used dark makeup for the role. But if a fan wears the same makeup to match a character they love, it’s suddenly racist.
When they made these characters, they didn’t make, as you said:
It’s just a colour of skin. It’s not meant as racist, or to cause any harm or hatred. If a fan wants to wear makeup or not, it should be up to them. If someone is trying to divide people with actual symbols of hatred, like non-satirical blackface, they should rot.
I personally love Whoopi, but she certainly does NOT get to speak on behalf of all Black people, and some of the things she’s willing to ‘let slide’ are definitely not okay with many other members of the Black community.
Blackface and Brownface ARE an offensive passive-aggressive mockery of POC, even when it happens somewhere that isnt America.
For instance:
Black Peter in the Netherlands; no matter what may have ever been intended, White folks dressing up as that character IS indeed highly offensive to many Dutch people of African descent:
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FFS they weren’t playing black people, they were playing aliens.
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Yes, roles in which they were playing aliens from the planet Qo’noS who happened to be dark-skinned. As opposed to someone playing an alien who happens to present as a black human woman or, y’know, someone wearing blackface or brownface in imitation of actual dark-skinned humans.
I get it. No-one wants to see Scheer (who tolerates actual white supremacists as allies and members of his party) become PM, but it does us no good to twist ourselves in knots trying to excuse Trudeau’s unacceptable past behaviour or his inability to offer a proper and unqualified apology for it.
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“Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.”
Maya Angelou POET, DANCER, PRODUCER, PLAYWRIGHT, DIRECTOR, AUTHOR
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So, if my kid dressed up as a dark skinned Klingon, that wouldn’t be racist because the actors were white with dark makeup, but if they dressed up as a dark skinned El-Aurian, that would be racist?
Most of the comments here are just more evidence we are right and truly fucked. Political correctness brings down a Prime Minister who may certainly be foolish but shows no real evidence of racism, and the party that actually dog-whistles to racists and vilifies Muslims benefits. Liberals continue to gnash their teeth and fall on their own swords (Al Franken anyone) while right wing populism continues to make gains. Great.
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ya, the backtracking on election reform was a big issue for me…
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This is a derail.
They played Klingons, not people coded as black people.
Being in costume as a Klingon is not blackface. Cosplaying as a Klingon is not racist.
A white person darkening their face to look like Whoopi Goldberg (not just "a race of aliens with the exact same skin color as Whoopi Goldberg)* is not the same as dressing up as a Klingon.
*And if you want to get super nerdy, El-Aurian isn’t even a single skin color at all, in the first place.
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Plenty of European countries were only “involved” in the sense of “having been colonised by an empire that was also colonising Africa”- Greece or Bulgaria, for instance.
If they were a white person wearing blackface, yes. El-Aurians can be cosplayed by all races without makeup [ETA: unlike Klingons]. Here’s a still of Chekov with some of them:
And from the Memory Alpha entry:
Externally, the El-Aurians were physically identical to Humans, in structure and even the range of racial phenotypes. (TNG: “The Child”; Star Trek Generations , et al. ) El-Aurians had rybo-viroxic-nucleic sequences in their genes (similar to other humanoids, including Humans and Bajorans). (TNG: “Rascals”)
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Costume tip: if your kid or any other white person wants to dress up as Guinan all they really need is an outfit that looks like this, maybe accessorized with a cocktail glass.
There is no need to don face makeup that carries over a century’s worth of racist baggage.
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We’re talking about Guinan. By the way are you black? If not, I’m going to side with the black actor who plays the character on this one.
Absolutely it is; the topic of the thread isnt Star Trek and Klingons don’t exist.
Meanwhile Black and Brown people are actual real human beings with agency and we’re the ones who have to deal with the detrimental impact of being glibly mocked for how we look.
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Reading all this, I applaud your patience. Clearly someone really wants to do this, despite having been repeatedly warned. When there are negative consequences that same fan will probably try to say, “But Whoopi said it was OK” as though her opinion is some kind of force field or get out of trouble free pass.
I can only hope the makeup they choose is really strong, that it never washes off, and is clearly visible through any attempts to disguise it or cover it up.
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Indeed. I find it pretty off that people and the media are getting worked up about this, but won’t even bring up the fact that he’s still, at this moment, continuing Canada’s grand tradition of abrogating it’s treaties with the First Nations. Everyone’s getting up in arms about something symbolic, but no mainstream media outlets will talk about the actual racist policies he’s perpetrating through the government.
It lets everyone feel good that they’re pissed off at him for doing something racist, while ignoring the ongoing expropriation of First Nations land that they indirectly benefit from.
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Oh no, you were asking about El-Aurians in general, in responding to my comment about Guinan being a specific El-Aurian who presented as black. And as I made clear above, I’m not black and therefore do take Goldberg’s lived experience as an African-American into account. Nice try, though.
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God damn it, Elizabeth!
(For non Canadians, and maybe some Canadians: May is the leader of the Green party which is basically progressive but which has a very misogynist, men’s rights activist wing that wields some power. May recently refused to rule out relitigating abortion rights in Canada in a televise interview.)
Ugh, this stuff about Guinan is driving me crazy. There's no fucking rulebook to litigate whether it is okay or not. If you want to dress up in blackface then just do it already.
| Pro | Con |
|---|---|
| Uh…? | Hurt real human beings |
| Do people think it’s fun or something? | Be thought of as racist |
You can’t wish away the con column or argue that it doesn’t exist because you think it shouldn’t exist.
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