Links – 2009-02-23
Restructure turns an eye to “What PoC Do: Restrain Ourselves“:
The people who say these things appear to think that racism occurs rarely, and that when a non-white person complains about allegedly “trivial” instances of racism, it means that she is like a young child who hasn’t yet learned that not everyone in the world is obligated to be nice to her. In reality, however, I have experienced racial microaggressions since childhood, and I am well aware that the world is not a safe space for people of colour with respect to race. I point out racism not because I’m noticing it for the first time, but because I want to bring it to the attention of others who have grown up shielded from the daily realities that people of colour have to endure. I point out racism because I want to point out injustice, not because I am some selfish oversensitive child who wants the world to revolve around me and my feelings.
Instead of “I’m offended!”, I tend to say, “That’s racist!” However, this method has its own problems, because although you are not calling someone a racist, the accused perceives it that way, that you are personally attacking their character. Calling someone racist, they argue, is an ad hominem and therefore not a valid argument. They say that you are characterizing them as a bad person so that anything they say is characterized as illegitimate. They make it all about them instead of about the action being criticized. They claim that they are being silenced if I use the word “racist”, so that I even considered using the terms “racialist” or “racial discrimination” instead to make the criticism more acceptable. Sometimes I did this, until I realized that even if you use a less offensive word, they still became defensive because they could not accept the idea that racism isn’t over, or that they could be racist (adjective, which is a different concept than being a racist, noun). I also realized that I was bending over backwards as to not hurt their feelings, instead of the other way around, the latter being the illusion that they maintain through repetition.
Lisa Zhu attended an open casting call for Avatar:
[C]asting director Deedee Rickets advised prospective extras in Friday’s Daily Pennsylvanian article “to dress in traditional cultural ethnic attire. … If you’re Korean, wear a kimono. If you’re from Belgium, wear lederhosen.” Unlike the original series, which features almost exclusively Asian cultural influences, Shyamalan’s version will depict the four worlds as “ethnically and culturally” different, according to Rickets.
Alas, my Korean ancestors failed to leave me any kimonos – or saris for that matter – and my authentic Belgian lederhosen happened to be in the wash at the time. So, clad only in a mundane sweatshirt and pair of jeans, I looked around the room. There were about 50 to 60 people in this particular group (more aspiring actors were waiting in line outside), and they were all listening intently to Rickets.
“We’re trying to create these four different nations so we’re looking for different skin tones, and features, and bone structures,” she said. As she spoke, I counted about a dozen small children – as well as two grown men – who were wearing karate outfits. Another handful of prospective extras wore traditional Nigerian outfits (most at this particular casting call were African American), but the vast majority thankfully had on boring, contemporary Western clothing.
One middle-aged black woman, clad in a denim jacket and black slacks, raised her hand. “Are you at a disadvantage if you didn’t wear a costume?” she asked, evidently concerned about her “non-ethnic” outfit.
“Absolutely not!” Rickets reassured her. “It doesn’t mean you’re at a disadvantage if you didn’t come in a big African thing. But guys, even if you came with a scarf today, put it over your head so you’ll look like a Ukrainian villager or whatever.”
Jezebel asks “Why Has it Taken So Long for Disney to Create a Black Princess?”
In any case: Looking at this timeline of “Disney’s multicultural royalty,” something seems off. The “Princess” movies started in 1937 with Snow White, and the first non-white princess was Jasmine, in 1992. Then Pocahontas in 1995 and Mulan in 1998. More than ten years later, Princess Tiana, of The Princess And The Frog. Why did Disney have a Middle Eastern princess before a black princess? Or an Asian princess before a black princess? Sure, the Disney films tap into fairy tales, folklore and myths — most of which come from European sources — but there are plenty of myths and fables involving black people. American stories, tales from Nigeria, Egypt and South African/Zulu folk tales. Yoruba goddesses of love, Caribbean legends. Why has taken Disney 72 years to come up with a black princess? And will this movie — especially the toothless firefly character — insult, or uplift?
Catherine over at Hyphen has two interesting entries on myths. The first is on “Asian Girls and the Guys who Fetishize Them:”
But for a parody of pervy old white men, we sure don’t get much of the pervy old white men. Instead, we get a pretty intense collection of hyper-sexual descriptions of 17-year-old Misaki’s miniskirt and “alabaster” skin. In fact, after a few paragraphs expounding on the bizarre sexual fantasies of this “virgin nymph,” the article starts to read less like a parody and more like the beginning of Asian-fetish erotica written specifically for “balding Midwesterners who carry most of their weight in their stomach.”
Maybe the Onion writers just can’t keep track of their own punchlines anymore — or maybe this fetishized image of the submissive Asian woman is so pervasive that even satire intended to criticize it becomes, itself, a source of the objectification.
And then the follow up, Debunking the White Man Fetish:
Since writing my last entry on the Asian Fetish Myth, I’ve received some interesting responses. Most of them have implied that, while Asian women are fetishized by white men, Asian women perpetuate the fetish by favoring white men in the dating game (I believe Neela commented on this as well).
One person even asked if I was, while writing the post, reminded of my own parents (an older white man with a much younger Filipina wife) — as though the circumstances of their relationship somehow undermine my initial claims about the ways in which the Asian Fetish plays out in the media.
To that, in particular, I respond: Certainly, I had that in mind. But my mother’s marriage to my father (like other interracial relationships) doesn’t undermine my assertion that the Asian Fetish is one perpetuated onto, rather than by, Asian women. In other words, it is characterized by the sexual objectification of Asian women by non-Asian men due to the latter’s (mis)perceptions about the former’s nature and culture (not the other way around).
And finally, I have a piece up over at Comment Is Free (The Guardian) on sexism and racism in gaming:
I’ve been gaming for close to 20 years now. In that span of time, we’ve gone from 16-bits to 64-bits to no longer using bits to describe the amazing level of graphic detail appearing on screen. The world of side-scrolling action games like Contra has given way to sandbox-style games like Grand Theft Auto and the bullet-time pioneer Max Payne. We’ve seen the rise and fall of arcades, and each year expands the capacity for online play, expansions and party linking.
Gaming has evolved in every way but one – the level of acceptable conversation regarding gaming and gaming critique. It never fails to amaze me how a debate can break out over the number of strings on a certain guitar used in Rock Band or other items of gaming trivia, but the very concept of talking about race or gender in videogames is considered verboten.
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of
Aris wrote:
GREAT links!!
Posted 23 Feb 2009 at 5:06 pm ¶
gatamala wrote:
If you’re Korean, wear a kimono. If you’re from Belgium, wear lederhosen
If you’re Iroqouis wear a tricorn hat and breeches. If you’re Mayan, wear a steel helment, doublet and hose.
I am truly shocked as to how quickly this series has descended into racist fuckery. I didn’t think it would be “good”, but damn!
Jeans and a t-shirt is traditional attire.
Posted 23 Feb 2009 at 6:08 pm ¶
Somedude wrote:
Regarding the Avatar casting – the Media Action Network for Asian Americans has written an open letter to the producers of the film:
http://www.manaa.org/lastairbender.html
“The Asian American community, and the movie-going public at large, is used to seeing Asian men depicted as villains and rarely get the opportunity to see Asian heroes they can get behind and cheer for. This is also an historic opportunity to give Asian American actors a chance to shine in a big-budget film franchise which would bolster their careers for future projects. You will get deserved credit for launching those careers and can break down barriers by understanding that the audience that loved the television series is ready (and expects) to see Asian Americans playing those characters on the big screen.”
Casting Dev Patel as the villain makes it worse in my opinon.
Posted 23 Feb 2009 at 6:30 pm ¶
Daniel wrote:
After viewing the trailer for the new Disney princess story, it seem ok for my eyes, but I could understand why the toothless firefly may appeared to be an uncomfortable image. However, I think it may be best to wait until people actually saw the movie, or were involved in someway, before commenting…in this case. Come to think of it, I have no idea why Disney hasn’t picked up any “Princess” stories from Africa.
Here is a very crude take of what my views are on this Asian fetish issue. One thing people should be aware of is that it isn’t just White people, or Westerners but among other People of color and in some ways, between East Asians themselves. However, people shouldn’t denied their sexuality, but back on this particular subject.
Yes, this is objectification of women, because one is linking fantasies with their physical features. I’m not sure how people can discuss or think about this topic without going into any information regarding gender relations in general. Bluntly speaking, the reality is that there are still a lot of men and some women out there of all backgrounds who hold this belief that one gender has lower status in general. Even if this idea isn’t expressed visibly in society, it will affect their beliefs regarding ths opposite sex, and could be intensify by such fantasies as fetishes.
About the first link, a couple of reasons why this dilemma exist is because our English language is so precise and detached in several aspects. It takes so many words to describe something accurately, along with the art of communication can be quite tiresome. As for discussions about race well…
Posted 23 Feb 2009 at 6:36 pm ¶
MK wrote:
Great links.
Wow, sounds like a bunch of geniuses working on the Avatar movie.
Is anybody really surprised it took Disney this long for a black princess? Disney is just another white bread studio/company in Hollywood; they are just labeled as more family friendly, so they get away with it more easily.
That first link really struck a chord with me, because I have had identical experiences with white friends who think we non-whites should learn to take a joke and stop being so PC, etc. etc. Same old, same old. White liberals indeed.
Posted 23 Feb 2009 at 8:01 pm ¶
Tracey wrote:
“Why did Disney have a Middle Eastern princess before a black princess? Or an Asian princess before a black princess?”
I’m not expecting a lot of this movie given the way Disney has portrayed WOC and POC characters in the past. While these depictions may have been a step ( and that’s giving a huge benefit of the doubt) in both instances the hero/heroine were made to be light skinned/euro centric while the villains were darker skinned and looked more like racialized caricatures. It was so blatant, and I must admit I do like both Mulan and Aladin, but recognize the reinforcement of light skinned eurocentric appearance =good while dark skinned non-euro =bad.
So, I’m hopping this will be a good movie with no such dichotomies, given Disney’s past I’m not holding my breath. Even when they introduced POCs as main characters there was a very large undercurrent of racism in the depictions. It really gets me upset.
Even though I love to watch a fairy tale every now and then and will admit to loving Alladin and Mulan despite their blatant racism, I’ll wait to reserve judgment on what I hope will be a really great movie full of heroism and sappy love stories that will probably be added to my list of guilty pleasure movies regardless.
Posted 23 Feb 2009 at 8:32 pm ¶
golby260 wrote:
Nice piece at the Guardian. Most of those folks are hopeless, but some of them seem to get it.
I’m 25 now, and for two years, I used to play Phantasy Star Online: Blue Burst and Phantasy Star Universe online. Playing Blue Burst was my first interaction with teenagers coming up, nowadays, and it’s a bit depressing: a lot of them speak in stupid slang, worse than what I’ve seen on Usenet from ‘99 on (”LOL” “tl;dr” “QFT” “this is so gay” blah, blah) and too many of them whine about being PC and they’re utterly clueless about what feminism really is. They just LOVE to confuse it with misandry, it’s really sad.
Strangely enough, a couple of the most pleasant ones I’ve met online were Republicans (even though they tend to be the complete opposite in the message boards, mistaking contrarianism for being more intelligent, but.. yeah); the more apolitical ones were spoiled brats; and the serious progressive/liberal types tended to be older (25+) and more mature than the rest (and thus, fewer in number). The European and Japanese gamers always seemed more pleasant to be around than the Americans, who were always more likely to tale and steal rare drops as they drop rather than wait to see if any novices needed the items more. The older experts weren’t as fun to be around as the younger and less experienced, or the complete beginners, and they tended not to be shy with the slurs, too. The youngest and least experienced ones, though, shared more. Go figure.
PSO, at least, can now only be played on private servers in North America, and the first time I was sexually harrassed by somebody was on the private servers there. I rather play on legal servers, if possible, even on the Japanese ones, if it means they have a decent Terms of Service and a more pleasant group of people rather than jerks who do what they do because it’s all “free” and they see nothing wrong with using stuff they know Sega can’t be bothered to sue them for.
But.. yeah. Keep up the good fight.
I agree that the makers of Resident Evil 5 (Capcom!) can’t be trusted to be racially sensitive towards Africans, as I’m African-American myself (of Igbo-Nigerian descent, to be specific), and I’ve never seen any piece of work outside of Africa that didn’t have the “spears and tunics, poor kids, and sadness, oh my! 
” approach to Africa. You know, at least, Nigerians, it may be hard to believe, but they DO have CITIES, and we DO have a middle-class (my parents and their families, for instance), and they haven’t been to war in MORE than a while (since 1970?). Christian-Muslim riots happen a lot, and the government is super-corrupt, but other than that, not every country in Africa has it as bad as the Congo. There are many places there that haven’t had wars nearly as much as the US has had every 10 years. Good grief.
Posted 23 Feb 2009 at 9:13 pm ¶
mute wrote:
that Avatar casting article was hilarious. But, what is traditional Nigerian dress? Just curious.
Posted 23 Feb 2009 at 9:32 pm ¶
Safiya Outlines wrote:
Congratulations on your CiF piece. I’m glad that you’re provoking an interesting discussion there.
I never knew that Sonic the Hedgehog was an anti Racism icon.
Posted 23 Feb 2009 at 11:58 pm ¶
Lea wrote:
I haven’t watched A:tLA, but I was under the impression that the original series was already racially and culturally diverse, in that most of the characters come from different Asian cultures. Asia, y’know, biggest continent, thousands of years of history etc. etc.
Not that adding African and European cultures would necessarily be a bad thing, but when it’s done by people who think the kimono is the traditional garment of Korea… yeah.
Posted 24 Feb 2009 at 5:54 am ¶
Aris wrote:
Golby260 said:
“But.. yeah. Keep up the good fight. I agree that the makers of Resident Evil 5 (Capcom!) can’t be trusted to be racially sensitive towards Africans, as I’m African-American myself (of Igbo-Nigerian descent, to be specific), and I’ve never seen any piece of work outside of Africa that didn’t have the “spears and tunics, poor kids, and sadness, oh my!
” approach to Africa. You know, at least, Nigerians, it may be hard to believe, but they DO have CITIES, and we DO have a middle-class (my parents and their families, for instance), and they haven’t been to war in MORE than a while (since 1970?). Christian-Muslim riots happen a lot, and the government is super-corrupt, but other than that, not every country in Africa has it as bad as the Congo. There are many places there that haven’t had wars nearly as much as the US has had every 10 years. Good grief.”
~Ugh, I too HATE the way American media portrays Africa! Like it’s this unbelievably poor, dark, diseased place that you’d NEVER wanna set foot in! Meanwhile, European countries (especially France, England, Italy, Spain, and some others) are portrayed as beautiful, clean, fancy, rich, romantic….. Like THEY don’t have ANY poor areas. Ugh! RANT OVER!
Posted 24 Feb 2009 at 6:01 am ¶
Ayo wrote:
Over here in London as you’re moving through the affluent centre of our city
and probably north west and west london too
the biggest interracial couple you tend to see is white male and Asian females
There isn’t a day i don’t move through the city and see this trend over and over and over and over.
A friend of mine in a cynical mood gave a reason that maybe because both members of that specific coupling were from middle class backgrounds and there was a higher chance of them getting together through living in a affluent neighbourhood.
but then I thought what I can’t help but think whenever I see a usually smartly dressed man with an East Asian woman
Where are all the East asian man + White female couples? there is massive spectrum there that is getting ignored seemingly by asian women.
I can’t help but find the disparity depressing
It also makes me think, “wait white men in this city dont just date white women and east asian women”
i think at some level white men here are being stereotyped (positively) obv.
I try whenever i do see WM + AW coupling in the city of london to think positively and see the coming together as perfectly innocuous
but wheni see toff after toff after toff (toff= posh upper middle class white guy) + Asian woman
i can’t help but think of how much hollywood has affected the rest of the world. I’m confidently guessing that most depictions of london women of colour around the world (including east asian wm) see have the affluent Hugh Grants, or Colin firths populating them with men of colour in the background being unattractive and poor.
Posted 24 Feb 2009 at 7:13 am ¶
Mary wrote:
OMG. This sounds like it came directly out of the mouth of a Ben Stiller character. Except it’s for real. I laughed, and then I got very depressed.
Posted 24 Feb 2009 at 9:21 am ¶
Rob Schmidt wrote:
Re “Asia, y’know, biggest continent, thousands of years of history etc. etc. ”
A series isn’t really diverse unless it has white Americans and at least 25% minorities. If the white Americans include someone with a British accent or someone who’s slightly overweight, the series is gold.
Posted 24 Feb 2009 at 10:23 am ¶
bdsista wrote:
I wrote on Jezebel after seeing the teaser how horrible the firefly character is despite the voice being a white cajun. He sounds just like one of the Brer (Rabbit/Bear/Fox) characters from Song of the South. Heniously stereotypically. I think they should either eliminate the character completely or redo the voice. I mean if Eddie Murphy can be a Dragon in China, then Wanda Sykes or Monique can be a firefly or hell Joe Pesci, Get DeNIro, he likes Black women, use HIS voice. Damn, I’m mad already and it hasn’t even come out yet.
Love me some Mulan, my stepdaughter is mostly Asian and Black and when she would be too scared to do something I would have her watch Mulan and tell her to be brave like her and do the right thing. It was nice for her to have a character that looked like her.
Vomiting in my mouth about the casting call. You sure this wasn’t a part of Hollywood Shuffle?
Posted 24 Feb 2009 at 1:00 pm ¶
Lyle wrote:
While I agree with the overall point of the Jezebel post, this part hit an uncomfortable nerve:
Why did Disney have a Middle Eastern princess before a black princess? Or an Asian princess before a black princess?
I mean, it sounds like the writer thinks that something’s wrong if African-Americans aren’t the first group to benefit from inclusiveness. I think it’s a bigger problem that the non-white Princesses took a ten-year break before including a black princess, it almost* looks like Disney tired of being diverse.
* IMO, Disney should get some credit for Lilo and Stitch, even if Lilo isn’t counted as a “Princess”, which is too bad since the character helps a lot of the overall problems with the Princess line.
Posted 24 Feb 2009 at 1:55 pm ¶
bluesky wrote:
Is the love interest in The Frog Prince still White? The other Disney heroines of color didn’t have White love interests, did they? I’ve seen few Disney animated movies.
Lyle wrote:
I mean, it sounds like the writer thinks that something’s wrong if African-Americans aren’t the first group to benefit from inclusiveness. I think it’s a bigger problem that the non-white Princesses took a ten-year break before including a black princess, it almost* looks like Disney tired of being diverse.
Lyle, I initially balked at that same statement from Jezebel. But, then I thought about American beauty standards and racial hierarchy and wondered if that was what the author was alluding to. African-Americans are a much larger percentage of the population than Asian-Americans or Middle Eastern-Americans. African-Americans have been the largest ethnic minority in this country for a while. It does seem strange that it took so long for Disney to have a Black princess.
Thoughts that ran through my mind:
- Did anti-Black sentiment/views of Asians as the model minority come into play?
-I know a few Whites who consider Asian-Americans practically White/better assimilated than other minorities/easier to relate to than other minorities because they come from similar backgrounds, etc. Is Mulan before The Frog Prince indicative of this (this White “comfort” with Asians that doesn’t extend to, say, Blacks or Latin@s) ?
- Did the fact that Asian women are considered higher on the beauty-totem-pole than Black women come into play?
I don’t really know the answers, but I think they are interesting questions to consider. To clarify, it’s not my intention to push the Middle Eastern princess and Middle Eastern Americans out of the conversation. It’s just that I have a little more experience talking about the Asian model minority myth and how it is related to the perceptions of Blacks and Latin@s.
Posted 24 Feb 2009 at 10:27 pm ¶
Rob Schmidt wrote:
Re “African-Americans have been the largest ethnic minority in this country for a while”: Yes, they were, but now Latinos are the largest ethnic minority in the US. So why haven’t we seen a black or Latina princess? I’m guessing it’s because Arabs, Native Americans, Asians, Greeks, and Romani (Gypsies) are a lot more remote and unthreatening to most Americans. In other words, they’re less controversial than blacks or Latinas.
Posted 24 Feb 2009 at 11:25 pm ¶
Aris wrote:
Yeah, what Bluesky said. You have to think about the beauty totem pole. And the fact that Blacks are considered THE lowest of the low pretty much everywhere. That’s why it’s no surprise that they had princesses of other non-white colors before Black…. =/
Posted 25 Feb 2009 at 5:27 am ¶
Aris wrote:
I mean, when I was a kid I myself used to think that (East) Asians were the best of the minorities….. I would sooner choose an Asian barbie than I would a Latina one, and GAWD FORBID a Black one!!!! Phew. Boy did I have issues!! I’m 16 now btw. xD
Posted 25 Feb 2009 at 6:33 am ¶
Paz wrote:
–Flabbergasted at the casting call. No words.
–I’ve always found it interesting that Disney chose Native, Middle Eastern and East Asian princesses given that they probably have the least representation in MSM. I haven’t seen Pocahontas, Aladdin or Mulan in a long time, so I can’t speak much about the sterotypes or racism, but I am kind of glad that at least Pocahontas didn’t get “saved” by John Smith and go with him back to England.
But this why did they come before a black princess question turned me off. WoC aren’t in a contest…
@bluesky – Um how is a frog white? Or any race for that matter?
@Lyle – I agree with you on Lilo and Stitch. And I appreciate that they didn’t half-ass it by just creating a tanned version of their white princesses, but instead gave them different features and body types.
Posted 25 Feb 2009 at 3:54 pm ¶
Restructure! wrote:
But White Americans and African Americans are overrepresented on TV, while Asians, “Hispanics”, and “American Indians” are underrepresented.
Posted 25 Feb 2009 at 8:06 pm ¶
bluesky wrote:
I know little about the story, but I’m assuming the frog doesn’t stay a frog throughout the whole movie. When I first heard about this movie, the big hoopla was surrounding the setting (no one trusts Disney with New Orleans and/or Cajun culture) and that the prince was going to be White. I can’t remember which website I saw it on (maybe Jezebel or Bossip), but there were animation stills that showed the prince would end up being White. The commenters thought it sent a pretty negative message (the princess was initially a maid to a rich White woman, no Black male romantic lead, women of color being rescued by White men, etc.).
This was a while ago, so it’s possible major changes have been made in the story. But, I don’t know (which is exactly why I raised the question). Just a few weeks ago, I came across a conversation where people were discussing the race of the prince.
Posted 25 Feb 2009 at 9:04 pm ¶
Rob Schmidt wrote:
Pocahontas got saved by John Rolfe and went to England in the direct-to-video sequel. To keep the kiddies happy, she didn’t die as she did in real life.
For more on the subject, see “Pocahontas II: Flawed Again” (http://www.bluecorncomics.com/pocahon2.htm).
Posted 25 Feb 2009 at 10:00 pm ¶
Camille wrote:
Somedude said “Casting Dev Patel as the villain makes it worse in my opinon [sic].”
I don’t know if you’ve seen the series or ever got a little involved in the fandom, but Zuko is insanely popular, especially among the female fans. Unless the movie makes him into a totally different person, I have no problem with him being Zuko (except that the Fire Nation is based on Japan and Dev Patel is in no way Japanese and does not look at all Japanese. He could have been Sokka, he looks a lot more like a Water Tribe guy). Zuko’s not really seen as a villain pretty much anywhere, especially considering the addition of his decidedly more evil sister, Azula, and all the things his father, the Fire Lord Ozai, did to him.
I think I’ve just exposed myself as a total Avatar dork. Oh, well. I used to be quite into the fandom and we talked about the movie casting a lot. As soon as we all saw what was happening with the major white washing, we were very disappointed. But I’ve loved Dev Patel since Skins Season 1, so I’m super happy for him.
Posted 04 Mar 2009 at 3:40 pm ¶