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Sorry about the pretentious title. Having looked at other Blog Posts Against Racism, I hope my subsequent comments aren't too flippant:
A couple of weeks ago I came across a kids' show set in a jungle and featuring a tribe of white people.* Weirded out by this, and a little offended, it then occurred to me that if it had been about a tribe of black people, or indians, or anybody else, it would have been pulled within a week under a hailstorm of outrage. Evidently the writers had had their hearts set on an exotic fictional location, but didn't dare populate it with "exotic" characters.
Cartoons are by their nature visually exaggerated, which gives them power, but can lay them open to accusations of mocking their subjects (and to generally being frivolous and unimportant, but a fandom audience is used to hearing that).
So, here for International Blogging Against Racism Week is my observational, rather than prescriptive,
rambling and incomplete look at how the makers of kids' cartoons attempt to include PoC without appearing to make fun of them, and when it works.( Read more... )
A couple of weeks ago I came across a kids' show set in a jungle and featuring a tribe of white people.* Weirded out by this, and a little offended, it then occurred to me that if it had been about a tribe of black people, or indians, or anybody else, it would have been pulled within a week under a hailstorm of outrage. Evidently the writers had had their hearts set on an exotic fictional location, but didn't dare populate it with "exotic" characters.
Cartoons are by their nature visually exaggerated, which gives them power, but can lay them open to accusations of mocking their subjects (and to generally being frivolous and unimportant, but a fandom audience is used to hearing that).
So, here for International Blogging Against Racism Week is my observational, rather than prescriptive,
rambling and incomplete look at how the makers of kids' cartoons attempt to include PoC without appearing to make fun of them, and when it works.( Read more... )
