all snark // no substance
January 2012
17 posts
glockgal: here is truth →
glockgal.tumblr.com
After three years of working on Racebending.com I am not sure if I should be excited by how fiercely and rapidly the fandom can and will break down why the film was problematic, or sad that years and years later, the same excuses and apologetics get trotted out over and over.
…
George Takei was 1 of the voice actors for that show as well …he’s still alive …why don’t we ask him?
Yes, let’s.
George Takei: The idea of buying the rights to do that and in fact change it seems rather pointless. If they’re going to do that, why don’t they do something original, because what they do is offend Asians, number 1; number 2, they offend the fans. The same thing happened with M. Night Shyamalan. He cast his project [The Last Airbender] with non-Asians and it’s an Asian story, and the film flopped… They have the experience of Shyamalan’s project, and I would think any savvy production company would learn from that. So I’m really baffled by the lack of learning from experience.
Play
you guys
Korra is not a lesbian.
She is not going to be a lesbian period.
Legend of Korra is a kids show on Nickelodeon. Bryke is not gonna make the main character of a kids’ show a lesbian. nope. sorry. not gonna happen. ever.
Man, these people are so certain!
After three years of working on Racebending.com I am not sure if I should be excited by how fiercely and rapidly the fandom can and will break down why the film was problematic, or sad that years and years later, the same excuses and apologetics get trotted out over and over.
It’s hard, sometimes, to stand in a sea of A:TLA fandom and not know if I am surrounded by supporters of our efforts to fight discrimination in entertainment media, or people who view this subversion as traitorous to our fandom identity. Apparently, the good fan is docile, and “calms down” and doesn’t clog the Korra tag with ‘frivolous’ or ‘irrelevant’ commentary. Even if the commentary is about a serious thing that happened to a franchise we all love. Even if media critique is an essential part of fandom.
The reality is that the “The Last Airbender” film replicated the same oppressions and casting barriers faced by Bruce Lee. It replicated the same systemic discriminations—systemic racism, yes, racism—that Mako Iwamatsu, the late voice actor of Uncle Iroh, spent his entire career fighting. I cannot presume to speak for the dead, but I am reasonably certain both of them would have supported the fans against the casting, were they still alive. Or perhaps they would have been saddened to see these casting patterns still happening, and the people still denying, in 2010?
The Mako that Korra’s Mako is named after spoke out directly against these practices. Would you dare tell him that he was “too sensitive”? Would you tell Bruce Lee he was “making a big deal out of nothing?” Yet, merely having to scroll past those speaking out against racism on the Korra tag is a prohibitive inconvenience to those who view themselves as the “true” fans.
“Asian-American actors have never been treated as full-time actors. We’re always hired as part-timers. That is, producers call us when they need us for only race-specific roles. If a part was seen as too “demanding,” that part often went to a non-Asian.”
—Mako Iwamatsu, the voice actor of Uncle Iroh. Read more about his work fighting for Asian American roles here
Plethora isn't deleting his account... People are begging him to stay despite his ignorance
I am so pissed off at the fans right now…. AND STOP USIng the black friends excuse STOP I MEAN REALLY IT’S EMBARASSING BECAUSE ITS SO APPARENT THAT ONE WOULD NEED A SLEDGEHAMMER TO GET THROUGH TO YOUR THICK SKULL
Threaten to flounce; get all the love. It’s a pretty common derailing tactic.
Keep fighting the good fight. I’m smiling here.
-racebending.com cofounder
Wild Unicorn Herd: liquornspice: Now that “Red Tails” is coming out, a part of my family... →
wildunicornherd.tumblr.com
Now that “Red Tails” is coming out, a part of my family history
Only a couple of years ago, my mom told me that my grandfather was one of the Black GIs who liberated a concentration camp. I don’t recall when he shared this information with her, whether…
Japanese American troops also helped liberate camps. They were erased from the history books until enough witnesses from the Jewish survivors acknowledged and some old pictures were found.
(TW: Rape) I really hate one of my co-workers.
In the past week, he has made several rape jokes, and once I overheard him say, “…That’s the only girl I would ever rape. Like if I saw her in a dark alley somewhere…” Today, he asked whether he has “the right” to rape his girlfriend if she doesn’t want sex.
I can’t do this anymore. I can’t afford to be without a job, but I don’t know how much more of this I can take.
Yeah, this would definitely be considered a form of workplace sexual harassment. I would assess whether or not you feel comfortable bringing this to your company’s Human Resources Department, if you have one. They can give this person a firm-talking to about how this kind of talk is a serious liability both for him and for the company.
Even if you do not feel comfortable taking this to Human Services or to a higher-up, I strongly recommend documenting these incidents. It shouldn’t take that much effort, but I would consider creating documentation somewhere with a timestamp (google docs, a private tumblr or livejournal) and just list the date, time, and a few notes about the incident. Unfortunately, someone who feels that comfortable making rape jokes is probably not a very nice person and it may be good self-defense to have this kind of documentation in place should anything happen. (eg: if you do go to HR, you have a hugggee log of grievances with time and date stamp. Or, if god forbid this person does more than joke about sexual assault.)
I am sorry you have to go through this.
