Linking to a past Trope Repair Shop thread that dealt with this page: Typo in the title
, started by thespacephantom on Apr 3rd 2011 at 4:25:57 AM
Digital Angel
This might be a bit of a nitpick or maybe I'm misunderstanding/unaware of something here, but the part of the description saying "...going from meaning simply believing that one's race determines one's character (the original definition) to meaning believing that races other than one's own are biologically inferior..." sounds a bit odd to me. How is believing that races other than one's own are biologically inferior not part of the original definition? Even the Merriam-Webster dictionary acknowledges the aspect of inferiority/superiority regarding racism. It seems to be two halves of the same coin to me: Believing that race determines character inevitably leads to thinking that some races are better than others. Not to mention that as far as I'm aware, racist thinking originally began with trying to classify different groups of people as more or less human. I'm not going to change anything since I feel it would be too presumptuous of me considering I barely do anything on this site as is, but I thought this was worth mentioning.
I think that the important word in the text you quoted is "biological". Extant early examples of racism/racialism predate the discovery of genetics (think Othello), meaning that while some individuals did indeed feel innately superior to those of other ethnicities, their attitudes derived primarily from feelings of cultural and religious superiority, rather than biology. That is not to say that their was not a biological factor in the equation (skin color is a tough detail to miss), but it wasn't perceived as the critical "flaw" in a person's character - rather, it was seen as a symptom or symbol of it.
I'm considering removing that entry about My Little Pony under fan works. It's not an example of everything is racist but rather the editor complaining about something being racist. That'd be fine if it was part of a gag about Self-Demonstrating Article but it's listed as a normal example. Also going to edit the example for "Yo Is This Racist?", since that series uses this trope deliberately for humor and satire. Any objections?
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Um. Axe that. It's not Everything Is Racist at all, it's a short rant on a background character as sometimes portrayed. And even if it were an example, it's a general example (not citing a specific work) which is frowned upon.
Found a Youtube Channel with political stances you want to share? Hop on over to this page and add them.
Aye. Put an ax on it.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
- A lot of American cartoons from The Golden Age of Animation are often accused of being racist. Afro-Americans, Asians, Jews, Native Americans... are often the butt of many racially insensitive jokes. Yet, this was of course a reflection of the time period and although some cartoons in today's standards come across as being racist others are simply censored for depicting someone with a different skin color or nationality, even if it's a sympathetic character.
- The Bugs Bunny cartoon "Any Bonds Today?" has Bugs singing in blackface in a stereotypical Afro-American accent. This scene is often attacked for being extremely racist, but is actually an example of a joke that has become less clear as a result of Time Marches On. Bugs' imitation was actually a reference to popular singer Al Jolson, a white entertainer who was known for performing in blackface!
I'm a bit unsure if these really works. Not being as racist as other works and actually being a reference to these till seams racist to me.
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Expressions of racism are formed by culture and change accordingly. It used to be that "black" was considered a crude and impolite word to describe skin colour, as opposed to the formal term "negro". Obviously we think differently today, but that's of cultural changes (language being part of culture).
Back then blackface wasn't considered as racist as it is today. In fact, Al Jolson's persona as a black servant who was smarter than his white masters (who kept getting themselves in trouble) was pretty much a satire of the racist attitudes of the time. He also went out of his way to support black actors and artists, in a time when black people weren't even allowed on Broadway. He did for racial equality as much as someone who wasn't in politics possibly could. And that is why referencing Al Jolson isn't automatically racist.
- The documentary A Conversation About Race explores racism in modern America, and puts forth the theory that most claims of racism directed at blacks, Indians, and Hispanics are actually this trope.
- And example would be when the director asks people for instances in their own life where they experienced racism. One of the black men cites a time where a white man told him he was a good dancer.
I removed the nested bullet point from this, as it's essentially a "real life" example that happens to have been presented via film. Having watched the documentary, I also find the example given to be a pretty gross oversimplification of what the guy actually said.
I was tempted to remove the entire entry for "A Conversation About Race" for the same reason, but since I'm a) not yet fully familiar with the editing conventions of this wiki, and b) possibly somewhat biased as I find the video to be an utter claptrap of of straw men, non-sequiturs and general misinformation without any real academic discussion, I'll leave that decision to more judicious hands than my own.
Okay, so I deleted the following post, and afterwards I will explain why I did so. Hopefully, I will not sound overly political.
Here is the deleted entry:
- Any criticisms of Barack Obama tend to be deflected this way by his most radical supporters, which creates a rather glaring Double Standard when many of the exact same criticisms —none of which were based on race, then or now— were leveled against his predecessor with no controversy or claims of "racist code words" whatsoever.
The thing is, this is simply wrong. No one is claiming that, say, Ted Cruz only opposes Obamacare because the president is black. Those who criticized Mitt Romney for "flip-flopping" on the same issue did so because Romney supported a similar plan before the Democrats took it. No one ever mentioned race, on either side of the issue. Thus, this is a rather insulting case of Square Peg Round Trope.
On the other hand, I can link to a bunch of assholes on the Internet who have called Obama the N word, if you don't believe the converse, that no one who has ever criticized the president has done so in a racist way.
AKA Reddit.