Why dont you care much about it? Sinply because it doesnt seem to affect you much personally? Surely you’re not thst selfish, since you’re commenting here…
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At least in the U.S., there is a well-established right to denounce anyone, without quotation marks.
That right is not what this article is about.
It seems like somebody wants to change the subject to censorship, and talk about that instead.
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No, I don’t. And that is idiotic.It is not a binary choice.
- We’re talking about art, not cultural artifacts.
- Should an author be able to write a novel involving a native American?
- Was Shakespeare committing a sin when he wrote Othello? Should it be
banned from performance? - Donald Trump, Russia, the Klan and Neo Nazis would also like to control
how they are portrayed in the media. How is that different? You need to
articulate a rule that provides a clear dividing line, not an ad hoc ruling
case by case. - Self determination has to do with what YOU do, not with what people
think about what you do. If you are free to do what you want, you have self
determination. If someone else finds you interesting, and is inspired to an
artistic meditation on it, that does not detract from your self
determination. But if you demand they stop, you have detracted from theirs. - No matter what your culture is, you can’t wall it off from the rest of
the world. If it is part of human experience, it is a fit subject for art,
not just for certain approved artists. - I’ve been following Boing Boing for quite a long time now, probably
longer than most of you. And it is truly disturbing the extent to which, in
the past couple of years, the comments have become an exclusionary,
groupthink, anti-liberal environment. A FUNDAMENTAL tenet of liberal
thought is freedom of speech, even for people whose speech you disagree
with. But that principle seems to have a tenuous existence here anymore.
The argument over “whitewashing” is a case in point. As of now, the
principle seems to be “if you are not a member of the culture being
portrayed, you have no right to portray it ever, at all.” OK, then how
about black Hamlet? Is it ONLY non-majority populations that have free
speech?
For several weeks now, I have been debating whether I want to continue
engaging with this community. I am the most liberal person you will ever
meet, but in the Enlightenment sense of the word. Everyone should have the
freedom to pursue their interests, wherever they lead. I surmise you
disagree.
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You have a right to make a bad movie in a bad way.
Other people have a right to talk shit about it because it’s bad.
The OP is not about rights, it’s about bad decisions.
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Oh my, you sound oh so very disappointed in Boing Boing…
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OK, bruddah, I am idiotic and you are the most liberal person I will ever meet. Got it.
Every native rights activist and ally has heard all of your arguments over and over again. And I think it’s safe to say that most, if not all, of them would be saying the same kind of things that I have said.
I believe very strongly in the right to free speech as put forth in your US Constitution. I also believe that human beings who are Pono (living in harmony, balance, and proper relationship with all beings and with the physical and spiritual worlds) are capable of doing the right thing without laws to force them to do it. I am not talking about legislating who plays what in some damn Hollywood movie. I am talking about the makers of those movies having enough heart to do the right thing because that is what they want to do.
And since you are the most liberal person I will ever meet, I will say goodbye now secure in the knowledge that you will campaign for the withdrawal of US troops and governance from the sovereign nation of Hawai‘i. Mahalo!
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Indeed.
But the OP is about “whitewashing,” not bad decisions. Otherwise I totally
agree.
Well, yes, primarily because, as I said and as you illustrate, you guy are not interested in a discussion. You are interested in signifying tribal allegiance.
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Oh “white rights”… I see. I wish you’d showed your true colors before. Would have saved me a lot of time.
And – for the benefit of anyone who may be following this, since I know I can’t sway a “white rights” hero - I have no idea why you are talking about statehood as an inflection point of Hawaiian independence. The overthrow of the sovereign government of Hawaiʻi took place in 1893, not the 1950s. Your 2 minutes of research have not served you well.
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Some interesting stuff there. After my wife and I saw it she went on a pretty massive twitter dive to see people’s thoughts. Seems no one actually GAF at all about Scarlet Johansen being cast as the Major. The complaints from some Japanese men however was that her posterior and thighs are “too big”.
But GITS95 took incredible liberties with the original comic and every spin off movie/OVA & comic did the same.
The fun part there is that there are no so many authors and artists involved in this franchise over the last 20+ years.
White people seem to love to tell others how to run their culture so I fully expect these sorts of posts to come up on the internet.
So its OK for Asian Americans not of Japanese decent to dictate something that supposedly (but not really) is a Japanese character or for a white cosplay lady to do so?
There are lots of interesting questions to unpack in that…
See the quote I was responding to. I believe he has a right to protest and complain, but not a right to control. Perhaps the distinction is too fine for some. But the former is what I believe is a universal freedom, and the latter is often enforced at the point of a gun in much of the world.
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Have a “discussion” with someone who thinks “white rights” are important? That wouldn’t be a discussion, because your hearing is obviously way too close to deaf. As for listening to what you have to say, no thanks, heard it all before and quickly recognized the stench of bullshit.
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I’m talking about moral rights, not legal rights. It shouldn’t be illegal for the Washington Redskins to use that name and image, but only jerks would insist on doing it.
There is often a part of indigenous communication on these topics that seems very difficult for a non-native audience to grasp. And that is that indigenous demands/requests/protests/complaints are more often coming from “you should know what is right because that knowledge is intrinsic to your humanity” and “you should act upon that knowing of what is right because that is what a real human does”, rather than from “you should pass some laws”.
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Christian Bale in Exodus was the main reason I didn’t watch that movie on theaters, and even when I downloaded it to give a peek I just could not ignore his blinding whiteness for more than 15 minutes and gave up.
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I must say I kinda sympathise with the sentiment here, especially given the history of this whole thing, but race (white, black, east asian etc.) is an artificial concept. If we follow ethnic logic, where do we draw a line? How about, Non-slavic playing slavic characters? Croat playing a Serb? Non-german playing german? Non-greek playing a greek?
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Don’t be daft, the Japanese are being recast as Arabic Terrorists. 
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They are not identical at all. I don’t like the guy on the right.
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Reading the Wikipedia entry about the Niihau Incident is interesting. The current wrangle over the museum display is illuminating.
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