Slight of Hand

I'm surprised but I shouldn't be surprised, Shrodinger's surprise. Jenna Marbles has stopped making comedy because she doesn't want to offend anybody. How can you not offend anybody? You can't because offense is subjective. The Mighty Boosh is racist because of the Spirit of Jazz, The League of Gentleman is also racist - not to mention both are transphobic. It's all too easy to look at things now and see them as problematic. The past can't fight back, is this why we're going after it rather than dealing with problems we can actually do something about? At the beginning of the Coronavirus saga I said I didn't want to live in an overly sanitized world and this is what I was actually getting at.

I was speaking with a friend about this. My position is that voice actors are hired for their skill and how they sound. It isn't to do with their skin colour. The beauty of animation is you can be whoever or whatever you want to be. They said a trans person should play a trans person, I agree, as a POC should play a POC if it's live-action. I'm still baffled why the leading actress in Memoirs of a Geisha was Chinese and not Japanese. It just seems casting only black people for a black person role in animation is very limiting, and it restricts diversity. I want everyone to have equal opportunities regardless of race, background, sexuality, or gender.

If the problem lies with casting, we need to tackle that issue. If it's racial stereotypes, let's face that issue. Having someone the same as the animated character they're voicing poses a lot more problems than it solves. Now the argument should be that the casting need to do more to get POC and other groups to apply for these positions absolutely. But you can't give someone a role based on the colour of their skin.

Two other things which I've seen this week is that the Christopher Columbus' statue was removed, great work guys, the KKK also never wanted that statue erected in the first place - you've basically finished what they started. Protesters are calling for the Lincoln Emancipation statue in Boston to be removed. This is the statue that was paid for by people who were formerly enslaved to celebrate their emancipation, and if you actually looked up the definition of emancipation and the history of the statue...  but no, Shaun King posted a rather cleverly angled photo saying the statue shows a slave was being petted like a dog, but if you look up the statue you can actually see that's far from what it portrays. People are all too willing to believe things that they don't actually look into, or think for themselves. It's as if we live in a world where you can't instantly access this information.

This is the image Shaun King posted, accompanied by the caption "Yeah. Even this statue of Lincoln needs to come down. Like he’s petting a damn dog. Every racist statue must come down."

Here is what the statue actually looks like.

By the way Homer Simpson is yellow and he's voiced by a white actor.

Swapping an Artefact for an Artefact of the Same Weight

Thoughts on the Black Lives Matter movement.

I have always stood against hatred of any kind, this includes racism. I feel that fighting prejudice with prejudice (i.e. the terms "White Privilege" and "White Fragility") is not the way to deal with things. Repackaging prejudice and to continue to use it doesn't seem productive. I'm not a fan of this new way of sticking people into categories based on their skin colour. I much prefer to see people on the content of their character.

This is not me saying racism doesn't exist because it does. This isn't me saying police brutality doesn't exist because it does. This isn't me denying that in some circumstances people have made allowances based on skin colour.

I want everyone to have equal opportunities regardless of race, background, sexuality, or gender.

The movement itself is problematic. For instance we have seen a leap from police brutality, to bringing down statues, to removing TV shows and voice actors, to Shaun King calling for the removal of white Jesus, to now it would seem people running with the whole thing that the country side is racist, if you do Veganism in the wrong way you're a white supremacist, and the UK branch are putting some things out there that could be classed as anti-Semitic. In years gone by the BLM UK have said the climate crisis is racist, and the suffragettes also wanted White Power. I feel before I align myself with a movement I need to see what they're about, and from what I've seen I'm not onboard with it. I am however all for what they stand for in terms of abolishing racism, making sure we're educated in schools about our colonial pasts, and that there is more history regarding POC taught in the curriculum. It just seems their views have escalated along the way.

I have a massive respect for all of my friends who are standing up against racism and for every inch of inequality that there is. I am proud I know so many wonderful and caring people. I personally just can't get onboard with a movement which doesn't sit right with me.

For this view I am seen as a racist. Now, I understand racism to mean the hatred of somebody based on their ethnicity. As far as I'm aware words still have meaning. So before branding someone a racist ask yourself "Is this person disagreeing with my point of view?" or "Is this person expressing a hatred toward somebody based on their ethnicity?" because there is a difference. It makes me wonder how if knowing me throughout the years and the person that I am is now not important whatsoever, but the view how I want everyone to be equal and respected for who they are (a view I have held for a very long time) is now such a controversial and evil thing, that expressing it earns me the label of a racist. It's as if the person I am is no longer important, but the view I hold because I disagree with a dubious movement is now what defines me.