Ah, the kind of people who can’t be bothered to RTFA before rabble rousing?
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If you haven’t had any college or read any real history since, well sorry. High School history is generally white washed watered down crap. Partly because they have to cover such big timelines and partly because well us white guys are editing the books.
Start with Lies My Teacher Told Me for a good start on what you missed in U.S. History.
Listen to Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History Podcast, heck pay for some of the past episodes. He goes into a lot of detail that well you just are not going to get in high school because parents are not going to like you hearing about the conquering armies doing things like lining up the royalty and nobles to watch their own kids be taken off to be executed or used as slaves raped by the soldiers.
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*lolz
Isn’t she just gorgeous, though?
I’m not a fan of Mattel, but I really have to give them credit where it’s due, for stepping up and expanding their doll design spectrum.
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Thanks a lot, now I apparently have a plastic fetish.
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To be fair the article doesn’t explain where that “super racist” phrase comes from. You have to click on the little “via”, to find a single tweet at the end of another article.
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The part of this whole discussion which is about the obvious non-caucasian-ness of the soda kid is so very strange for my european eyes. In the south of the EU, the people who consider themselves white (and some of whom have had colonies, for example) look like that, and in our system they unambiguosly count as white. Someone being surprised by this little detail could be an evil racist trying to discredit the whole criticism of the comic… or someone sincerely surpised by this tidbit, with not relationship to the larger conclusion, because they have a different system for categorizing these things. But imagining intentional evilness is much more fun, and a better occasion to empty one’s gif folder, so here we are.
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Ah, so it’s back to adjectival pedantry? Nice derail, but I just don’t think it’s working. I do think the rest of the commentariat is managing to stay on track. Yes, by Jeeves, the racist-representation train is still on its tracks!
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On the contrary I think you nailed its vacuity.
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What? Quit trying to find enemies. I’m trying to understand why people come here all worked after reading the article.
Let’s give them a chance to cool down, they’ll discuss or they’ll get bored and leave.
Finally! I love you.
Don’t be sorry for me, I went to an extremely liberal high school that taught college level courses. Our history classes were hardly white washed watered down crap. And in addition to those we had a separate civil rights class, as well.
I’ve listened to some of Carlin’s Common Sense podcasts and enjoy it. I’ll have to check out Hardcore History. There’s only so many hours in the day…
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Ah, but US racism, bigotry and prejudice are complex afflictions; multi-layered with much nuance.
If every single “red”, brown, black and “yellow” complected person just instantly disappeared from the country right now, we’d still likely have a huge chunk of the populace arguing over what constitutes as White.
That’s the inherent problem when something as trivial as mere skin tone is integrated into the social hierarchy; it automatically creates ‘castes.’
Which, of course, was probably the original intent.
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My two cents because why not?
- I think this poster is probably unintentionally racist, but that doesn’t make it all right.
- The racist point is that only white people are doing cool things. People of colour are either unlabeled or doing uncool things. (For the person who pointed out the arrows were pointed at the actions, not the people, well duh! You really thought people were angry the poster was calling people uncool? Really for real?) The fact that some white people are doing uncool things does not change the fact that ONLY white people are doing cool things.
-Due to what I think is the unintentional racism of this poster, I do find it a bit funny, but that doesn’t make it not racist, nor does it help that it’s just another level of subtle racism that for a long, long time society has let slide. I’m glad people are pointing them out more these days. It took a long time, but I can start to recognize them now.
-Finally, no way is this “super racist”, if it’s even possible to put racism on a scale. It’s just a little bit racist, and that’s still not good.
-I think the cola guy is probably white.
And unless someone wants to discuss a specific point, that’s all from me!
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Well stated, all points.
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The worst part is that once you see the way representation (or, of course, the lack thereof) works, you can’t stop seeing it. I’m Caucasian and usually present as male, so from that angle, I’m the default character in most media. Of course I’m also genderqueer and pansexual, so not so much there. Those of us who are under-represented can start grabbing at any little hint of representation just to see ourselves in the story, even if we end up being the villain.
I don’t just see it for me, though. This poster? Yeah, I can agree with the thought that’s been expressed that it’s not exactly ‘super racist,’ mostly because it’s just the standard that’s out there. How many shows are there where the only time you see non-white characters are as bad guys? (Again, it’s better than not being shown at all, but really …) I’ll say that representation, at least for ethnicity, has gotten a little better, but even some of the shows I strongly enjoy have the default white straight male main character with, at best, a diverse backup crew.
As far as I can see, this poster is just one more point of data where those with lighter skin, never mind arguing over what ‘race’ the characters are, is equated with being correct. But maybe representation just isn’t something everyone can process.
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Nicely put. (I’d give you a like, but you know, at least I made it this far in the day before running out.)
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You are giving me such life right now; you don’t even know.
It’s not that the poster itself was so ‘atrociously wrong’; like you and I both have mentioned, it’s the prevailing mentality behind the image that’s bothersome.
So it seems, and therein lies the crux of the problem, IMO.
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