helpful hint for the colorblind: BE LESS BLIND

[hth]

I think I'll quote somebody out of context, because that's always worked really well for me in the past.

Saying "black characters are written too broadly in New Who, making them resemble stereotypes" rather ignores the fact that white characters are treated the same way.

Look. This is the problem with trying to raise white people on Sesame Street in order to cure racism: you get a generation of white people who think it's to their credit that they hold everyone to the same standard, and run around operating like the world is one big, happy block party -- people who think they're complementing themselves when they say they're "colorblind."

BLIND is not a moral positive. BLIND is an inability to perceive what the non-blind people around you can clearly fucking see. My grandfather was red/green colorblind. His family also had a strawberry farm. His father used to beat him for not obeying instructions to pick only the RED strawberries and leave the GREEN ones on the bush.

Now, I'm not recommending regular beatings for the colorblind. That wasn't a nice thing to do (my great-grandfather was not a nice person in general, for oh so many reasons). But the thing is, my grandfather's colorblindness? Was a problem, because there is actually such a thing as color when it comes to strawberries, and it's easier to work on a strawberry farm when you can see it.

And there is actually such a thing as race. If you can't see it, you're not doing yourself or anyone else any favors. There are cases where you can give the EXACT SAME script/character arc/iconography/etc. to a white performer and to a performer of color, and the overall effect WILL BE DIFFERENT. Race is real. People respond to it, often on levels they aren't entirely aware of. So it actually misses the whole entire point of discussing race and racism if your sole defense is "but we're just treating them the exact same way we treat white characters!" It may be true, or it may not be true, but either way it's singularly useless.

Some fans seem to find gender easier to understand than race, so think of it this way: if there's a character that isn't very bright but always uses sexuality to manipulate other people, does it make a difference if that character is a man or a woman? Isn't it more of a stereotype in one case than in the other? And if some writer or producer said, "Oh, it's not sexist -- this is just what we were going to do, and we thought we might hire a male actor, but we went with a woman instead, so we kept the same stuff!" that doesn't magically make her not a sexist cliche, does it? If they'd cast a man, the character would read one way; when they do cast a woman, it reads differently. Same character. Different, because of the baggage we bring surrounding gender. If you were somehow magically oblivious to any and all gender issues, you might not notice that. But you wouldn't thereby be a better person than the rest of us. You'd just be oblivious.

Unfortunately, in our culture, we are conditioned to see white people as Real People, and black people as sort of thin slices of people, operating in one of a very few available modes and with only a very few emotions and interests. Therefore it's just different to write a white character "broadly" versus a black character. It's not enough to write the black character "just like" all your white characters, because race is not invisible to most of us and it doesn't have no consequences. In order to challenge people's already racist assumptions about black characters, writers have to work that much harder, and they have to work not blind. They have to work with their eyes open and their brains engaged and with the awareness of subtle signals and context and connotation that anyone who writes for a living should damn well be conversant with. To do less than that is to write lazily, to write foolishly, to write contemptuously of one's characters and one's craft, and to do all that because you can't or won't go the extra mile to bring race into the universe of stuff that factors into your writing does, in fact, have racist implications.

"Colorblindness" may be one's reason for making all of those mistakes, but it isn't an excuse, and it doesn't magically make the product impervious from criticism. Be less blind.

Comments

[jaceyangel.livejournal.com]

Sweetheart, don't get your knickers ina twist, and send me a link to a post that doesn't apply to me.
I'm nto blind to racism. I'm fully aware of it. But I'm also fully aware that I think people who are racist are stupid. I think they're ignorant idiots. SO, if I think that colour makes no difference in love, then I am free to hold that opinion. It makes no difference to me. Love is love.
Yes, I see the colour of a person's skin. I see the history that comes before that. But I don't see the difference in one persons skin colour, to my own. Because I'm not racist.

Oh and we're conditioned to see that white people are the real people? What culture do you live in, and remind me never to go to that country.

[jaceyangel.livejournal.com]

I apologise, that comment was directed at the person who sent me here, who it turns out, didn't write this post.

[(Anonymous)]

Oh and we're conditioned to see that white people are the real people? What culture do you live in, and remind me never to go to that country.

It's called the entire Western world. Unless Australia is somehow exempt from that, in which case someone should tell the Indigenous Australians.

[danamaree.livejournal.com]

I'd say the entire world. I'm sure the Koreans who live in Japan, and the indigenous people in Northern Vietnam and Laos would agree.

[jaceyangel.livejournal.com]

Really? So, does that mean you think that white people are the only real people?

[danamaree.livejournal.com]

I'm saying that discrimination against people based on race is happening everywhere in the world, and not just in the Western world.

[jaceyangel.livejournal.com]

oh of course it is. people are idiots.
but i'm not saying that it DOESN'T happen, i'm saying that i don't know a single person who thinks that 'white people are the real people'. not one.

[jaceyangel.livejournal.com]

they're called Aboriginals, and I'm not FROM Australia.

[danamaree.livejournal.com]

I'm Australian and I've worked in Indigenous Affairs for nine years, and Aboriginal or Indigenous are both appropriate words in Australia.

[jaceyangel.livejournal.com]

I apologise.
So, are you one of the people who are fighting to get the goverment out of their business, or fighting to get the goverment involved? Fascinating topic.

Also, I want to make it clear, because I don't think people realise that I'm saying this.. but I'm not so blind, that I can't see that people are racist. So many people are. I'm just saying that it doesn't factor into my life, because I treat everyone equally. I judge people on their intelligence, their manner, their friendliness etc. Not where they're from or what colour their skin is.

[danamaree.livejournal.com]

I worked in a Government Agency, so, that Agencies job was to progress Native Title (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_title Native Title.) in my State by providing both support to indigenous groups, miners, pastoralists (farmers).

So, I guess it's the Government helping.

And the reason Indigenous is used is because it's a title which covers all the native people in Australia. Aboriginals are on the mainland, and the Islanders, are well, I think you can guess where they are from, both have very different cultures. Most agencies either use 'Indigenous' or 'Aboriginal and Islander' in their title.

Native Title

[danamaree.livejournal.com]

I got the coding wrong. (am not having the best day ever)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_title

[vass]

I *am* from Australia, and 'Aboriginals' is nearly as pejorative as 'Orientals'. Aborigines is fine, as is Aboriginal as an adjective but not a noun, or Indigenous Australians to include Torres Strait Islanders.

[lizbee.livejournal.com]

"Aboriginals" is offensive on grammatical grounds, if nothing else. FOR GOD'S SAKE, PEOPLE!

[hth-the-first.livejournal.com]

But I don't see the difference in one persons skin colour, to my own. Because I'm not racist.

But what you probably do not realize is that saying that very thing makes you sound racist to many people. It makes you sound like someone who has not talked to or, more importantly, listened to enough people of color to know that most of them believe that it isn't just their SKIN that is different from yours, but their life experiences in very many seriously meaningful ways. It makes you sound like someone who is very glib about dismissing the social and cultural meanings of race, which are not fake or imaginary or irrelevant.

I imagine you probably are *not* a racist. You, however, sound like one. If you don't wish to be taken for one by accident, maybe you want to rethink the way you present your racial politics, or lack thereof, because you're leaving yourself giantly, wildly open to misinterpretation.

[jaceyangel.livejournal.com]

ok, you're obviously reading it wrong. i am no a racist. i have never entertained thoughts that could ever be considered by any person, to be racist.
i say i don't notice the colour of a person's skin, and that's because it's true. i notice what makes a person an individual. be that their culture, their background,t heir heritage, their friendliness, their ability to care, their compassion, their intelligence, their personality.
don't call me racist. ever.

[hth-the-first.livejournal.com]

Read what I said.

I said I thought you probably were NOT a racist, but that certain things you said were putting across that impression.

If you don't care how you come across to some people, fine. If you assume I only responded that way because I'm stupider than you, okay. That's your right. Whatever.

[jaceyangel.livejournal.com]

ok... where exactly did i say that i thought you were stupider than me?
i don't come across as racist, simply because i say that i don't see the colour of peoples skin. i see who they are.

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

Have you taken a look at your icon lately?

[jaceyangel.livejournal.com]

t makes you sound like someone who has not talked to or, more importantly, listened to enough people of color to know that most of them believe that it isn't just their SKIN that is different from yours, but their life experiences in very many seriously meaningful ways.

I'm sorry, what?
1. Do you even know me?
2. Do you know my heritage?
3. Do you know my race or culture?
4. Do you know the race and culture of my extended family?

You don't. So shut up.

[hth-the-first.livejournal.com]

IT MAKES YOU SOUND LIKE.

I don't know if those things are true. I have no idea. I KNOW WHAT I THINK YOU SOUND LIKE WHEN YOU ARE SPEAKING TO ME. You don't get to tell me how I must or should or am allowed to react to your words. I get to have my reactions, and if you don't like them, you have to just A) modify the way you communicate, or B) live with the way things are. Your choice.

Oh, by the way, you also sound like an utter fucking bitch when you come in to my journal and tell me to shut up. I don't know if you ARE an utter fucking bitch or not, but you sound like one.

[jaceyangel.livejournal.com]

huh. funny that, so do you.
and yes, i told you to shut up. because you told me i sound racist. god. if you even knew a tiny little bit about me, you'd know that i'm the one of the least likely people to be racist there is.
i'm a freaking TEACHER ok? I CAN'T be racist. I CAN'T go into a classroom and SEE the colour of kids skin, because it means shit all in the realworld. What matters is where they've been brought up,a nd how - THAT'S what effects their ability to learn and interact.

[vass]

Teachers can't be racist? News to me.

What matters is where they've been brought up,a nd how - THAT'S what effects their ability to learn and interact.

And race would never have any affect on that. Because kids never learn anything from how they're treated or how they're portrated on television.

[girl-curve.livejournal.com]

You're a teacher, and yet you present yourself as a moron.

Why is this?

[lcsbanana.livejournal.com]

Good lord, I feel sorry for your students. I've had teachers who refuse to hear anything that doesn't agree with their preconceived views, no matter how much you explain it, and it's pretty hellish, especially for a kid.

(I'm sure all your nonwhite students appreciate knowing that their culture, circumstances, and experiences mean "shit all" to you.)