Racism, is it used as a defence these days?

[TheAceTheOne]

I have a thing... HATE EVERYONE EQUALLY. I hate 99% of people, with friends, girlfriend, and family being the 1% I don't hate. Also, the Escapist is included there~

 

[Simonism451]

Very similar with the black guy in the thor film, I can't remember the character or actor's name, but people we're upset that the creators of the film were taking political correctness over authenticity.

Authencity? Fucking Authencity in an adaptation of a marvel-comicbook full of explosions magical hammers and superheroes? Jesus fucking Christ, if the fact that one of the gods is black despite the fact that he's supposed to be nordic makes you doubt the authencity of the film/the comic then you sound an awful lot like these people:
http://www.postmodernbarney.com/2008/11/and-now-a-word-from-star-trek-fans/

Its the same thing with sexual orientation and its not just done when it comes to violence or verbal abuse. It happens when it comes to interviews for jobs as well. Take for example the casting for The Hobbit movie.

A casting director if I remember correctly got fired because they wouldn't hire a non-white person for the role of an extra in the movie.

In the Lord of the Rings series hobbits are depicted in the books as white but this day in age we are supposed to make exceptions no matter what lest we be seen as racist.

I dare to disagree: A: Im the version of the book I have hobbits are never explicitly "depicted as white", just as small humans with hairy feet. Not a word about the color of skin.

B: Would Tolkien give a flying fuck if he lived today? Probably no. So why should you?

C: Even if it turns out Tolkien was in secret one of the founding members of the Klan and would burst out in tears if he laid eye upon this "unauthentic interpretation" should we still give a flying duck? No! Because it's not essential for the book and even less for the movie. When people think Lord of the Rings they don't think "Oh, wasn't that that lovely story of those absolutely white people who lived in an absolutely white village without any blacks or hispanics or asians?" No, they most certainly don't! They think of the one ring,Gollum, the seemingly hopeless fight of good against evil (or of the upper class against the working class, if you're H.G. Wells) and probably about all those boring pages describing every single flower in a field. And an adaptation's goal should be to recreate the emotions the reader felt while reading, or at least to be an interesting film in its own merit, the way Blade Runner was to Do Androids Dream of electronic Sheep?, not to thoughtlessly repeat every single sentence of the book on celluloid. You want an example for good changes? Tom Bombadil. He and the chapters surrounding him never appeared in the movies. And that is a good thing because he happened to be rather silly (and not in a good Python kind of way) and added not much to the story.

Edit: The question if anyone should give a flying duck, is not a typo, it's a feature!

 

[Zac Smith]

Very similar with the black guy in the thor film, I can't remember the character or actor's name, but people we're upset that the creators of the film were taking political correctness over authenticity.

Authencity? Fucking Authencity in an adaptation of a marvel-comicbook full of explosions magical hammers and superheroes? Jesus fucking Christ, if the fact that one of the gods is black despite the fact that he's supposed to be nordic makes you doubt the authencity of the film/the comic then you sound an awful lot like these people:
http://www.postmodernbarney.com/2008/11/and-now-a-word-from-star-trek-fans/

The way you phrased that made it sound like you thought that was my opinion on the matter. I couldn't really care less what race of person was playing what character, as long as the final product itself was good, that was just what a group of hardcore thor fans were saying. In the original book of Starship Troopers Johnny Rico was from Buenos Aires in Argentina, yet in the filmed was played by all American Casper Van Dien, and I enjoyed the book as much as the movie regardless of how much it deviated.

Now as for Thor, I haven't seen the film, read any of the comics or have the slightest bit of interest in Norse mythology so I care little at all about the authenticity of that. So no, I don't sound anything like the people you are referring to in the link.

 

[Ickorus]

I have one comment:

If you call someone out on being racist when they clearly are not being racist[footnote]They probably just think you're a prick.[/footnote] then you are a racist.

Mandatory video asking why we all can't just get along:

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

All the -isms are used as false defences at times. And always have.

Thing is, they're also used as true defences at others. The real question is which person is being the biggest tool - regardless of whatever "ism" is being called.

 

[SoopaSte123]

Interesting.

I hate rap and dislike the whole "gangsta" scene and their way of speaking. However, I have been called racist for expressing my dislike, which confused me. I wouldn't approve if ANYONE speaks that way or wears that clothing style or listens to that music, regardless of skin color, and if anything I find it racist to suggest all those things are exclusive to the black community.

Overall, I think race is shoved in our faces wayyyyyyyy too much in the US. There's too much pressure to not be racist that I think it causes more racism in the process. It's a messy, tricky subject, I know.

 

[AgentNein]

Subconsciously, everyone's a little bit racist.

When racism is built into the very bricks of our society, yes. Everyone carries with them that racism in one way or another.

It can't be helped...

Sorry, I call bullshit. It CAN be helped. In fact it HAS been helped. Just look at the last few centuries of western-world history. Clearly that shows the way people think CAN be effected and changed over time.

and if affects every man, woman and child equally.

If racism effected every man woman and child equally it wouldn't be nearly the problem it is. The PROBLEM with racism is that it's definitely an unequal effect.

Racism is only a problem when people are consciously discriminate to others due solely to their ethnicity.

It's actually a much bigger problem when some of these racist ideas are so ingrained in people by the larger society that they don't even have to think of them on a conscious level. That's insidious racism, and it's a hell of a lot more dangerous and harmful than the Klan or other crackpots like that these days who wear their racism on their sleeve.

 

[exessmirror]

why dont you let them sue you and prove that you are discriminating them

 

[AgentNein]

...but, when I said something offensive about an Asian person who punched me and disfigured my face I'm apparently being "racist" even when it wasn't a racial comment.

Not being accusatory but what exactly did you say to him or call him that was construed as racist?

 

[Verlander]

It's usually bored white people with unsatisfying lives who think like that.

Spot on. Anyone who thinks that their freedom is being infringed because they aren't allowed to be dicks, usually are.

 

[Harbinger_]

Very similar with the black guy in the thor film, I can't remember the character or actor's name, but people we're upset that the creators of the film were taking political correctness over authenticity.

Authencity? Fucking Authencity in an adaptation of a marvel-comicbook full of explosions magical hammers and superheroes? Jesus fucking Christ, if the fact that one of the gods is black despite the fact that he's supposed to be nordic makes you doubt the authencity of the film/the comic then you sound an awful lot like these people:
http://www.postmodernbarney.com/2008/11/and-now-a-word-from-star-trek-fans/

Its the same thing with sexual orientation and its not just done when it comes to violence or verbal abuse. It happens when it comes to interviews for jobs as well. Take for example the casting for The Hobbit movie.

A casting director if I remember correctly got fired because they wouldn't hire a non-white person for the role of an extra in the movie.

In the Lord of the Rings series hobbits are depicted in the books as white but this day in age we are supposed to make exceptions no matter what lest we be seen as racist.

I dare to disagree: A: Im the version of the book I have hobbits are never explicitly "depicted as white", just as small humans with hairy feet. Not a word about the color of skin.

B: Would Tolkien give a flying fuck if he lived today? Probably no. So why should you?

C: Even if it turns out Tolkien was in secret one of the founding members of the Klan and would burst out in tears if he laid eye upon this "unauthentic interpretation" should we still give a flying duck? No! Because it's not essential for the book and even less for the movie. When people think Lord of the Rings they don't think "Oh, wasn't that that lovely story of those absolutely white people who lived in an absolutely white village without any blacks or hispanics or asians?" No, they most certainly don't! They think of the one ring,Gollum, the seemingly hopeless fight of good against evil (or of the upper class against the working class, if you're H.G. Wells) and probably about all those boring pages describing every single flower in a field. And an adaptation's goal should be to recreate the emotions the reader felt while reading, or at least to be an interesting film in its own merit, the way Blade Runner was to Do Androids Dream of electronic Sheep?, not to thoughtlessly repeat every single sentence of the book on celluloid. You want an example for good changes? Tom Bombadil. He and the chapters surrounding him never appeared in the movies. And that is a good thing because he happened to be rather silly (and not in a good Python kind of way) and added not much to the story.

Bad example aside it does happen.

 

[zeldagirl]

I came into the topic bracing myself for a bunch of white people to be crying about how unfair it is that these people play the race card all the time, and oh man, we white people have it so hard because *list your experience here.*


I wasn't disappointed.

Here is a very good article by Tim Wise about the "race card."

http://www.counterpunch.org/wise04242006.html

A taste of the article...written by a white person...in case you need to know that information:

"Asked about the tendency for people of color to play the "race card," I responded as I always do: First, by noting that the regularity with which whites respond to charges of racism by calling said charges a ploy, suggests that the race card is, at best, equivalent to the two of diamonds. In other words, it's not much of a card to play, calling into question why anyone would play it (as if it were really going to get them somewhere). Secondly, I pointed out that white reluctance to acknowledge racism isn't new, and it isn't something that manifests only in situations where the racial aspect of an incident is arguable. Fact is, whites have always doubted claims of racism at the time they were being made, no matter how strong the evidence, as will be seen below. Finally, I concluded by suggesting that whatever "card" claims of racism may prove to be for the black and brown, the denial card is far and away the trump, and whites play it regularly: a subject to which we will return."

THIS SO HARD. Thank you, I was just about to pull out some Wise, but you beat me to it.

For those people who believe others play "cards" be they gender, race, or anything else, perhaps we could try the empathetic approach and assume there's likely a reason they are saying that you are being racist in the first place. People who constantly feel demeaned for their identity usually have good reason to be sensitive when they perceive their identity is being dismissed.

 

[WolfThomas]

I knew a guy who was Polish and when anyone complained about racism or being a minority, he'd always respond "get back to me when Nazis kill a 6th of your population".

 

[Simonism451]

-Jack the snipper was here-

Bad example aside it does happen.

So, why is the example bad? Besides being an actual major change?
And my point still stands: Does it matter which color the hobbits are? No, it matters as little as it matters if Legolas' eyebrows are black even though he is supposedly blond. I.e. it doesn't matter at all!

 

[Jegsimmons]

"I'm not the racist one, your the fucker who brought it up in the first place. you closet racist"

just use logic on these fuckers and they WILL loose. I know, I've done it.


also this only sort of relates but I want to say it: the term African American is probably the most racist political correct term I've ever heard.

 

[Harbinger_]

-Jack the snipper was here-

Bad example aside it does happen.

So, why is the example bad? Besides being an actual major change?
And my point still stands: Does it matter which color the hobbits are? No, it matters as little as it matters if Legolas' eyebrows are black even though he is supposedly blond. I.e. it doesn't matter at all!

If you want to stay true to source material it does make a large amount of difference.

 

[Simonism451]

-Jack the snipper was here-

Bad example aside it does happen.

So, why is the example bad? Besides being an actual major change?
And my point still stands: Does it matter which color the hobbits are? No, it matters as little as it matters if Legolas' eyebrows are black even though he is supposedly blond. I.e. it doesn't matter at all!

If you want to stay true to source material it does make a large amount of difference.

If you want to stay true to source material, then there is no need to make the film at all, since the only way to "stay [completly] true to source material" is being source material!

 

[Harbinger_]

-Jack the snipper was here-

Bad example aside it does happen.

So, why is the example bad? Besides being an actual major change?
And my point still stands: Does it matter which color the hobbits are? No, it matters as little as it matters if Legolas' eyebrows are black even though he is supposedly blond. I.e. it doesn't matter at all!

If you want to stay true to source material it does make a large amount of difference.

If you want to stay true to source material, then there is no need to make the film at all, since the only way to "stay [completly] true to source material" is being source material!

That is a ridiculous argument. Thats like saying you can't get an actor to play a certain character well enough unless you found that character.

 

[Simonism451]

-Jack the snipper was here-

Bad example aside it does happen.

So, why is the example bad? Besides being an actual major change?
And my point still stands: Does it matter which color the hobbits are? No, it matters as little as it matters if Legolas' eyebrows are black even though he is supposedly blond. I.e. it doesn't matter at all!

If you want to stay true to source material it does make a large amount of difference.

If you want to stay true to source material, then there is no need to make the film at all, since the only way to "stay [completly] true to source material" is being source material!

That is a ridiculous argument. Thats like saying you can't get an actor to play a certain character well enough unless you found that character.

No, it's saying you can't get an actor to be that character in every little point

 

[Macgyvercas]

I don't believe that the "race card" should have any merit any more, seeing as we are no longer living in 1863.

The problem with racism is that in some cultures certain things are considered racist while in others they are not.

Ahhh, moral relativism. I was wondering why I hadn't seen that particular brand of philosophy for a while.