Tumblr's Social Justice Hypocrisy: SJW
Tumblr's Social Justice Hypocrisy: SJW Media Whitewashing Hypocrisy
So Ive taken notice that the sjw on Tumblr seem to usually have a problem with inaccurate representation in the media. You know, the “Well they looked like this in the comic/books/original literature!“ And as fans, its reasonable to have this concern. But there’s a problem. The sjw here on tumblr conveniently only complain about “whitewashing” or when non-white characters are portrayed by a white actor/actress or replaced with a white character in an alternate universe.
This seems pretty hypocritical if the goal here really is “I just want my characters accurately portrayed!“ My question is, why is whitewashing the only problem? Further, why IS it a problem if replacing or remaking characters as non-white is okay? Why is one seen as “keeping PoC out of the media” and the other seen as “an innovative outlet for creativity"?…
So why waste your time hypocritically being angry for no reason? Because you dont realize you’re being hypocritical. More often then not, the people that complain about innacurate portrayal (usually of non-white super heroes) would applaud the opposite scenario. And usually their stance is “there isn’t enough PoC representation! I mean there’s like NO superheroes that aren’t white.“ And to all of you who think that, you are not real fans. Do some research. There’s TONS of PoC superheroes. And yes, ones that aren’t just the obvious famous ones like Storm or Static Shock. Yes, they’re also by big comic companies and not just indie or amateur comics. And if you don’t know them its because you care more about complainingand pretending PoC have no representation than the actual characters. And that is hypocrisy. And people realize that. So stop complaining.I’ve seen a couple of posts like these floating around so I thought it would be helpful to clarify. (Still not sure what the heck a SJW is supposed to be, though.)
One is the assumption that when people protest “whitewashing,” people are protesting that “my fave character is no longer accurate.“ This probably confuses a lot of people who then wonder why people are against whitewashing but okay with racebending (eg. Samuel L Jackson as Nick Fury.)
Part of the reason why “whitewashing” leads people to speak out is because historically and even currently today, it has been used as a way to keep people of color out of the media. Opportunities for people of color to be the lead character—or any character for that matter—are rare enough already.
When the racebending of a white legacy character to a character of color happens, it’s not merely an “innovative outlet for creativity"—it is often the only way people of color end up being included at all, and even then, usually in supporting roles. If Nick Fury (The Avengers), Pete Ross (Smallville), Perry White (Man of Steel), Electro (Amazing Spider-man 2) had not been “racebent,“ there would have been no substantial characters of color in those films/shows at all. (That’s not to say there are not existing characters of color in those franchises, but those characters tend to play even smaller roles than the ones that were racebent, and usually are barely included anyway.)
In these instances, black men are included to represent people of color (belying Hollywood’s tendency to ignore intersectionality and consider black men and white women their ‘diversity’). Unlike whitewashing, their inclusion in no way eliminates or takes away from white representation because these movies/shows/etc all still have a white male lead. For example, John Stewart was featured in the Justice League television series as one of the main ensemble characters, but Superman and Batman (two white guys) are part of the lead DC trinity and were also lead characters in the show. John Stewart was the only character of color on that ensemble. This meant was that for once, kids of color got to see a hero who looked like them on screen, something white kids had all along, and that for once, in addition to kids of color relating to white superheroes, white kids had a chance to relate to someone who looked different from them. When WB decided to make a movie about Hal Jordan, when they already had multiple existing movies featuring white superheroes, people were understandably disappointed. Adding a character of color or changing a character to be a character of color obviously does not have the same impact as not featuring them in lead roles at all (aka sticking to the ‘source material’ created back when blatant racism was still legal.)
Another good example of this is the Johnny Storm casting that came up earlier this year. The casting of a white male actor in some significant role in The Fantastic Four is pretty much a guarantee. The casting of an actor of color, at this point, is still just a rumor. On the other hand, when film studios make films about people of color, there is no real guarantee that they will cast actors of color in the lead role—when they decide to make films about people of color at all.
I can’t think of anything more “hypocritical” than complaining about how people should “stop complaining.“ There are people constantly saying “remember, hypocrites, it goes both ways” but it really, really doesn’t. What’s hypocritical is telling people—when the systemic differences are so obvious and statistically documented—that they can’t complain because ‘it goes both ways.’
When was the last time any character of color—anyone who isn’t a straight white dude, even—starred as the titular or main character in a tentpole Marvel or DC movie?
If it goes both ways (which it clearly doesn’t) we’d be seeing a lot more diversity, actually.
Reblogging this because I thought it was a good breakdown and response about the representation of marginalized groups in pop media, specifically superhero movies, and how increasing diversity by having traditionally white characters be played by people of color does not have the same effect, nor happen in the same context, of having non-white characters be played by white people. (This issue happens with female characters too, such as the initial backlash against a female Starbuck in Battlestar Galactica.)
An analogy I tend to use for these situations to put things in perspective and not in a vacuum: if you have a basketball team that’s played most of the game with 5 players and another that’s played most of the game with 3 players, it’s not unfair to give the other team 1 more player, even if in a vacuum, getting extra players seems unfair. Also, even with the extra player, they’re still down 1 player, and the score is still vastly unbalanced due to the game having been played 5 to 3 in the past.