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Helmholtz Watson

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LiquidGrape said:
It's not a double standard because the racial dynamics and implications are completely different.
How many creative works with overwhelmingly white casts can you call to mind? Probably quite many. Regardless of whether we look at it in a historical or contemporary context, white remains the assumed default, and culture reflects that quite clearly.
Remember how a depressingly large amount of Hunger Games fans cried foul over that one character being cast as a black girl in the film adaptation, even though the book explicitly states that she is, in fact, black? Perfect example of how race factors into our cultural expectations.
Now, comparatively, how many popular creative works with overwhelmingly poc casts can you name? While there are a few examples, I think you'll agree the figure is significantly smaller. Hell, even finding prominent, non-stereotypical or non-exoticised characters of colour is a relative rarity.
That's still a double standard. It doesn't matter how many movies are made with having major poc characters in them, its just as much "racebending [http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=racebending]" to have Will Smith play the main character off of the book I am Legend [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_Legend_(novel)], as it is "racebending" to have Casper Van Dien play the main character off of the book Starship Troopers [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starship_Troopers]. Equally so, its just as bad for there to be a movie like White Chicks as there is to have a movie like Cloud Atlas.

LiquidGrape said:
So white actors being made up in a way which is historically suspect at the very best, or utterly whitewashing a work renowned for its non-white cast is quite strikingly different from taking a century old character, already duly and frequently accounted for in all his white malehood [http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0026631/], and subvert expectations by making him an Asian woman. It contributes diversity and the potential of additional theme to a character and pairing which has been virtually identical for the past 120 years.
It also is doing the exact same thing as movies like 21 are doing by replacing the race of a major character with that of a different race.

LiquidGrape said:
As for your other concerns, you don't need to assume responsibility for the actions of previous generations to recognise how their actions have impacted ours. Positively and negatively. Acknowledging the societal privileges and disadvantages it has generated is the very least we can do if you ask me.
Again, the actors and actresses of the present don't have to make up for the actions of those of the past.
 

Aankhen

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Therumancer said:
Equality actually being a forgone conclusion in most of the western world (despite what politicians and left wingers like to say and believe)
Yeah, no. As an Indian who?s lived in Vancouver and visited the Netherlands several times, I can tell you there is a marked difference in the way white people treat others. Heck, forget about them?even the Westerners who live in India look down on Indians. It?s quite disgusting.
 

LiquidGrape

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Helmholtz Watson said:
Seeing as you ignore the actual contents of my argument for the benefit of simply reiterating your points with different examples, I'll just step away before I pull my hair out entirely.
 

Darmani

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Malisteen said:
LiquidGrape said:
I would also like to chime in with the people who decry "colour blindness" as an unwillingness of, let's face it, white people to acknowledge the systematic privilege they continue to enjoy at the expense of other groups.
a couple comics I like to show the "color blind" crowd who reject any discussion of race based social injustice, as well as those who decry affirmative action as "reverse racism":

http://www.redbubble.com/people/barrydeutsch/works/5562735-how-bob-benefits-from-racism?p=poster

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m5rr52cAlU1r38c2ko1_1280.jpg
I normally don't like these things..
But damn was that blunt and on the nose to a great point.
 

Helmholtz Watson

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LiquidGrape said:
Helmholtz Watson said:
Seeing as you ignore the actual contents of my argument for the benefit of simply reiterating your points with different examples, I'll just step away before I pull my hair out entirely.
I'm not ignoring what you have said, I just don't buy into your ideas of collective guilt and that the sins of the father are passed down to the son in regards to how Hollywood cast parts for movies.

I am curious though, if you didn't like Cloud Atlas because of the use of makeup for a person to appear as another race, did you also not like White Chicks, or is it "different" to you?
 

Jenx

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Ah Bob just had to bring up the casting in Thor in this.

As for the subject of race...I honestly don't see what the big deal is. I dunno, maybe it's because I live in a country where it's rare for me to meet people of a different race than mine (well that and gypsies, but whatever), and maybe it's because my country also doesn't have a strong history of race-related slavery, but I just don't get what all the damn fuss is about.

"People used to be racist back in the day and they might be racist now." - Yes they were, and yes they are. So?

The way I've seen it, a truly accepting and multicultural society isn't the one that tries to bend over backwards to accommodate everyone's heritage, ideas, beliefs, cultural backgrounds and so on, but one that actually takes all of those and melts them together into something entirely new.

Or in summary - Stop bitching about racism already, just live your lives, let others live their lives and get on with it.
 

raven47172

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Sep 17, 2010
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Two things:
1. Am I the only one who upon hearing Bob say racebending thought of it as a type of bending from Avatar: The Last Airbender and Legend of Korra?

2. After I chuckled at the first thought I did think about the racebending in The Last Airbender were white kids were cast to play the good guys and Indian people to play the villains. Besides the other glaring problems with that movie, that was one thing that bothered me most. Anyone who watches that show knows that the characters are of Eastern descent.
 

Mr F.

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Therumancer said:
Akio91 said:
So.....this is the first I've heard of this. Bob, are you making up issues for views? Or is this some Hollywood insider mad that the rest of us have missed out on?
No, he's right, it exists. Bob's own politics and white guilt have predictably slanted it though. The issue isn't quite as mainstream as your used to seeing from other outcries because the basic issue isn't coming from sources the left wing likes to acknowlege existing.

Basically "Cloud Atlas" is a movie that has seriously invoked the ire of so called "reverse racists". Equality actually being a forgone conclusion in most of the western world (despite what politicians and left wingers like to say and believe) your rapidly seeing those that are minorities within the western world embracing a "pro (insert race here)" stance, the old "I'm not anti-white, but am proud to be black" or "I'm pro-black" attitude which is pretty much the same thing as white supremacy conveyed through other words and carefully avoided by the left wing. A lot of the outcry you see here is not so much because of old school comedic "race play" by white actors, but because you have minorities offended by what they see as a lesser people playing them. I ran into this issue not so much as white vs. black as most people like to focus on, but more in terms of white guys playing Koreans in the final sequence, which was seen as an affront to ethnic superiority... as is the entire idea of soul reincarnation which can be an issue to those who see themselves superior for reasons having to do with who or what they are inherantly.

I actually tried to find a link to it again (though I can't, I think it was taken down) I was reading a fairly racist article someone put up ranting pretty much about asian superiority and how offensive this movie was on those levels.

I pretty much take the opposite position from Bob on most of these issues even if it goes to the same place. I believe in human equaliy, but I feel within the western world that's embracing it the current problem is not with the "white majority" which has done a good job of adapting on those principles, but for minorities themselves to adapt to equality, do away with their counter cultures, and desires for social vengeance. Or in simple terms, when dealing with things like the white vs. black conflict, white guys freed blacks and supported all of this civil liberties stuff, it wasn't done to give blacks the tools needed to avenge this injustice, and indeed exactly the kinds of movements and attitudes you see now were exactly what was promised wouldn't happen by the people promoting that equality agenda. Globally I also think the rest of the world is very racist, except it's a situation where whites are one of the smallest minorities there are (ironic on a lot of levels). The eastern world in paticular needs to be given a serious kick in the teeth if we ever plan to see racism dealt with. Bob Chipman style guilt and self-judgement doesn't really solve anything, especially seeing as anything we do is only affecting a relatively small percentage of humanity. When you considered that roughly 1/3rd of the population is in India, 1/3rd is in China, Africa is overcrowded, hundreds of millions of Muslims, etc... you begin to realize that what happens within the borders of the USA or Europe affects a very small percentage of humanity.

As a result I take the opposite track from Bob, rather than being an apologist I believe on brutal crackdowns on minority counter culture, reverse racism, and similar things. Someone who identifies as Pro-Black, Pro-Asian, and says "[insert minority here] Power" is just as bad as a KKK member, they are actually the same thing (especially nowadays where the KKK is itself mostly verbal and political as well) and deserves to be hammered as a divisive influance that is working against tolerance and co-existance. I also believe very much in doing things like forcing information into countries like China through their censorship policies and refusing to help them, or let anyone else help them with censorship. I for example believe a search engine that censors itself for other countries to filter outside political ideals like tolerance needs to itself be on the receiving end of a brutal crackdown.

Or in short I pretty much believe the new motto should be "Live Free Or Die" and acceptance at this point still needs to be fought for. The ideas are out there, but need to be enforced through the barrel of a gun, and the striking surface of a truncheon. Even if unherard of numbers of people die, it's one of those cases where anything worth having comes at a high cost. I think we planted the seeds, but gave up far too soon, and fell into lethargy and hand wringing where we let all the same problems continue, just from the opposite direction they were coming from before. The counter culture that was one a champion of civil liberties as become the enemy of those same civil liberties.
Therumancer, I really have to ask this.

Because I believe we are going to end up locking horns again. You might not quite remember but we have done once before. That time it was because you were preaching... mass murder and potential genocide. This time it is because you are being... predictable. Regardless, I need to ask the following:

Have you ever studied politics or sociology? Maybe even a bit of Philosophy? Perhaps done a short course in Ethics? I just want to know.

Equality actually being a forgone conclusion in most of the western world (despite what politicians and left wingers like to say and believe)
Bullshit. Sure, you will state that I am stating the above because I am left win (Well, I am. Significantly so.) but I am stating the above because... well, there wouldn't be much fucking point in the race relations module of my Sociology course if there was no issue with race relations in the UK! Equality is not a forgone conclusion. Despite the bleatings of the Right, women are still paid less then men (The government is forcing the Public Sector to address this and backdating lost pay over the last 10 years. This decision is costing Birmingham council over 600 million pounds.) and minority communities within the UK are still shat on.

So lets ignore that statement. Because it is quite simply, in-arguably, wrong. You can state that it is your OPINION that equality is a foregone conclusion in the western world but... Well, you are wrong. Academia disagrees with you. Sorry.

the old "I'm not anti-white, but am proud to be black" or "I'm pro-black" attitude which is pretty much the same thing as white supremacy conveyed through other words and carefully avoided by the left wing.
Reclaiming race identity and trying to be proud of who you are in the face of racism is not racist. Your statement is as insane as the logic that a gay man who is proud to be gay is anti strait. Or someone who campaigns for gay rights and an end to discrimination hates strait people. Sorry bro, your statement is wrong. And rather insane. Taken from the perspective that racism exists in the west and equality is not a foregone conclusion, your statement is wrong (Anyone starting to see a trend here?)

Now, if said people were part of, say, a fascist movement, a genuine supremicist movement, then you would have a point. But it is one thing to be proud of who you are, another to think you are above others.

rather than being an apologist I believe on brutal crackdowns on minority counter culture, reverse racism, and similar things.
There is the Therumancer I know and love. Brutal crackdowns, hatred of minorities, Wonderful. Could you do me a favour in your inevitable reply which carefully does not insult me, could you give me your definition of counter culture? Oh, and point to any form of scholarly article affiliated with a prominent theorist within either the fields of Media and Cultural Studies or Sociology that acknowledges the existence of 'Reverse Racism'.

You cannot supress an ideal or way of life through brutal crackdowns. It has never worked (In the long run, at least, usually it has the opposite effect). You want to end these things that you see in society? Education is always the answer. Not war (Which you seem to love), nor brutality. Teach people.

Also, I am quoting this for ironies sake.

When you considered that roughly 1/3rd of the population is in India, 1/3rd is in China, Africa is overcrowded, hundreds of millions of Muslims
Now that it suits you, Muslims are a race! Wonderful.

What exactly do you have against Islam? Seriously? Also are you genuinely of the opinion that there is no such thing as a white Muslim? Bleh. I tire of this already. In passing I would like to point one last thing out. Which is not to be taken as an insult. You have stated that the West is tolerant and that the rest of the world is not, you have once more preached death and destruction. Ser, has it occurred to you that quite often what you write comes accross as paranoid racist drivel?

Just saying, maybe you should address that fact.

It was a nice distraction from the essay I was writing on JS Mill but still, responding to your statements takes it out of me.

On topic, because I fear that reply was incredibly off topic...

I still have not seen cloud atlas and I am looking forward to doing so. Whilst I can see the argument against using white actors in Asian roles, I think that sometimes it can be excused. Pretty much all I had to say on the matter, I cannot even remember how I ended up in the thread, then I saw someone quote Therumancer and thought I would go and read whatever was written.
 

Taunta

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Dec 17, 2010
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raven47172 said:
Two things:
1. Am I the only one who upon hearing Bob say racebending thought of it as a type of bending from Avatar: The Last Airbender and Legend of Korra?

2. After I chuckled at the first thought I did think about the racebending in The Last Airbender were white kids were cast to play the good guys and Indian people to play the villains. Besides the other glaring problems with that movie, that was one thing that bothered me most. Anyone who watches that show knows that the characters are of Eastern descent.
That's where the term comes from. It came from the protest of the casting choices in the Shyamalan movie.

Water tribes in the cartoon: Inuit
Movie: White

Air nomads in the cartoon: Mixture of Tibetan and Buddhist monks
Movie: White, except for Monk Gyatso who is african-american

Earth Kingdom in the cartoon: Chinese
Movie: lol race clusterfuck

Fire nation in the cartoon: Japanese
Movie: Indian???
 

Therumancer

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Nov 28, 2007
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Mr F. said:
[
Therumancer, I really have to ask this.

Because I believe we are going to end up locking horns again. You might not quite remember but we have done once before. That time it was because you were preaching... mass murder and potential genocide. This time it is because you are being... predictable. Regardless, I need to ask the following:

Have you ever studied politics or sociology? Maybe even a bit of Philosophy? Perhaps done a short course in Ethics? I just want to know.

.

Actually I have, and that's one of the reasons why I'm going to discount (and snip) most of what you said since you apparently have little or no background, or at least proper education, in the subjects your trying to discuss with me given some of your conclusions.

For example, "Ethics" is the study of ethical systems, as opposed to teaching someone what's right and wrong. It's about teaching you differant systems, their internal types of logic, and where they come into conflict with other ethnical systems. It's about discussing things like utilitarianism (good is defined by what benefits the most people), as opposed to say absolutism (what's good is an unchanging principle, regardless of how many people might agree with it or benefit from it). To be brutally honest with you, I'm probably one of the most ethical people on these forums, being extremely consistant in my belief structure and what I advocate, as opposed to many others who largely argue without any kind of actual principle, and instead on what benefits them, personally, at any given moment.

When it comes to sociology, your absolutly correct that the "racial modules" is pretty much bunk. Racism is merely a political tool in the US, an idea people will rally behind, despite it not really existing in any form mainstream enough to demand political action. Things like "invisible knapsack theory" exist to pretty much argue the existance of the "great enemy" in a form nobody can see, to keep people rallied and focused. Blacks, Hispanics, and others represent powerful voting blocs when they can be manipulated en-masse, and the common enemy of "racism" allows these groups to be brought in to support one side or another.

The promotion of racism as something that still exists on a mainstream, societal, level is one of the reasons so many people complain about the educational system being too heavily corrupted by the left wing and it's political tools. The very fact that a sociology class will tell you racism is a major, driving force in western society "even if you can't see it" is exactly the problem, it specifies it being an exception to everything else you learn which is all about recognizing trends, stereotypes, and groups of people, and at a more advanced level applying this knowlege towards manipulation (things like Advertising).

Right now faux-accusations of societal racism exist to drive a wedge into society which is exloited for political advantage, rather than an actual societal problem. It has gone from a real issue to a boogie man used to maintain and manipulate a siege mentality.

If you learned or studied sociology properly, you'd know this. Especially seeing as you can see actual societal racism in other nations and cultures (generally away from the western world). When you need to make arguements about invisibility so as not to contidict the rest of what you learn there is a problem. Racism is basically the equivilent of a child's invisible friend for liberals, it doesn't exist, but by pretending it does they can get more attention.

As far as Muslims go, I probably shouldn't have to educate you here, but I will. "Muslim" is a culture that happens to include race as one of it's defining traits. While not all Arabs are Muslims, you need to be an Arab to be a Muslim. This is why you have divides among Islamics and have the Muslim peoples which represent a majority, and offshoots like the "Black Muslims" which are identified specifically because Blacks can't truely be Muslims. To explain it properly, while a Muslim can convert someone into one of the faithful, strictly speaking if they aren't Arab they aren't one of the chosen people and will never truely be one of them.

Of course with Black Muslims there is also some dogmatic differances, namely involving Yakub (or Jacob) who was an ancient scientist-sorceror who was corrupted by playing with magnets and invented human genetics thousands of years ago, inventing white people as a tool to oppress the "true black man" and setting him loose on the world. It also includes a prophecy about the return of the black dominance and the fall of the evil whites. This dogma is in part what Manson's "Helter Skelter" (the great race war, which whites would lose, but rise again from the ashes of if we prepared) was based on... other than a Beatles song. At any rate this is largely irrelevent, while it isn't the best summary in the world look up Yakub and "Nation Of Thisslam" on Wikipedia some time. It's noteworthy because to be honest the most extreme fringes right now seem to actually be racism coming from minorities (at least in the western world) but even so it's just fringes with no real impact on the mainstream as the general populance is rallied against racism.

At any rate, when it comes to Muslims you need to understand it's possible to practice Islam without being a part of the Muslim culture. It's sort of like how it's possible to be Christian without being catholic. What's more, for all the criticisms of it, Christianity changed massively to adapt into society and co-existance. Christians were as bad, or worse, than Muslims, including the same kinds of racial overtones. The differance is that Christianity modernized, put most of it's major rituals and confrontational aspects into the past, and nowadays you generally can't tell a Christian from a Wiccan from an Atheist unless they tell you.

I have no real issue with Islam as a whole, if the people practicing it want to knock it the hell off and practice their faith quietly (no special prayer rooms, no interrupting everyone to face Mecca and kneel, no Turbans, etc...) I could care less. Indeed there are many Islamics who do exactly this in the western world, and I have no real issues with them. I do on the other hand have a problem with the Muslim culture, and believe that as long as it's practiced the way it is through The Middle East right now there will never be any kind of peaceful co-existance, just ebbs and flows in the level of violence, as the ideas... which are closed to outside change and influance, are going to remain. You cannot simply educate the people and teach them a better way as they are fanatically arrayed against it.

It's important to note that when I've advocated mass murder, it's been based around wiping out the core of the cancer, which is the self-fueling civilizations of The Middle East. Take down those theocracies and the fanatics that keep these ideas alive, and Islam will change and adapt into the rest of global society without this poison being pumped out constantly.

When you discuss ethics, understand I believe very much in doing what's good in the long term. If we kill a few hundred million people right now, that's a lesser evil than letting this continue. After all in the scope of a few thousand years, you will probably see more people die as a result of this culture, or basically be brain washed into slavery (as is the case with a lot of the women). Wipe it out, Islam continues, but co-exists with society. It's a matter of short term "murder is wrong, OMG, all that blood on our hands" thinking, compared to looking at the big picture.

The way a lot of people in the left wing are conditioned, I think there is a fundemental inabillity to both think for the long term, and to understand the idea of a culture as an enemy, as opposed to a race, religion, or nation.

I also tend to think on other issues like overpopulation, which liberals tend to pretend doesn't exist. There are too many bloody people. I find it ironic that while on enviromental rants liberals agree with this (resource depletion, wiping out forests and such to meet basic needs) but when it comes to population reduction through anything from war, to eugenics, they freak out. A problem is worth twenty solutions to a liberal, who generally fails to realize that there will never be a perfect answer to the big issues and that by delaying, waiting for one, things just get worse. Killing off a lot of people that represent a problem is again something I think of as being good for the long term, especially if measures are taken for population control in the aftermath of the region.

See, you disagree with me, but understand that I follow a very specific ethical pattern based on what's good for humanity in the long term. My ideal "endgame" for earth would be a world unity (the "New World Order" many people fear) largely under American principles (though not the American goverment itself, which would also be dissolved as part of the process). For reasons I won't break down I do not think things like space travel and exploration are practical as long as the world remains divided (some speculative fiction presents exactly that as happening, but I do not think it's workable for reasons I won't break down here), and I believe space exploration and colonization is nessicary, despite the staggering costs, simply to allow our population to spread and obtain enough resources to do it.

In the end we're never going to agree with each other, mainly because when you get down to it I've come to the conclusion that being a huge bastard is actually the most ethnical path in the big picture, and ultimatly best for humanity. Of course I also believe that once a lot of these central problems are solved, more idealistic philsophies will be possible. We will never have a utopia, and always big issues, but right now we're at a very tenative state in our existance as a species and we'll never get past this point if we basically engage in indecisive hand wringing.

I'll also say that in the short term, I'm extremely nationalistic for the US because of the ideas at it's core. I believe it's basic tenets are the only thing we have going right now that could get everyone working together with a reasonable amount of freedom. Other philsophies like those of the Chinese, Russians, etc... could potentially unify the planet as well, but wouldn't exactly lead to a very free society.

At any rate, there isn't a whole heck of a lot for us to discuss. You dislike what I stand for, and I pretty much thing your naive and impractical. There isn't a lot for us to talk about here unless we want to get into an endless arguement, draw people in, and risk starting a flame war. In the end more people on these forums are going to agree with you than me (it's just the enviroment) so I suppose you can take some comfort in that if it helps. I'm personally not going to argue the point, just leave things at my statements.