3 ms·

You'd have a leg to stand on if shows didn't get called "woke" for sharing a single pre-production screencap featuring a single black person, but that's exactly

by sli 4y ago

You'd have a leg to stand on if shows didn't get called "woke" for sharing a single pre-production screencap featuring a single black person, but that's exactly what happens.

smackeyacky 4y ago
Exactly. We now have a chunk of the population who have been trained to be hyper sensitive to anything they might perceive as an erosion of anything more progressive than Family Ties. That Elon clutches his pearls at the horror of televised diversity is unsurprising, he is a yarpie.
- jollybean 4y ago
  There's definitely a slice of the population who'll get bent out of shape because there's 'a black cowboy'. On the other hand, Netflix actively intervenes in content and productions with DEI orientation, they'll hand backs scripts and 'require' this or that, and will also require production to meet all sorts of criteria, which may not have the effect we want. I don't think anyone is cutting cables over this but I wonder if it'd be more appropriate for everyone to chill out on telling people how to tell stories and how to make them. Maybe a better approach would be to just support good content creation in different areas without resorting to intervention - and - ignoring the obviously political kind of thing. Before 2000, particularly in the 1970's there were tons of bands with Black and White members. Tons. You just don't see that anymore. Can you think of any kind of 'groups' that have black and white dudes? It was inherently a political statement back then to be that way - but it was not overtly progressive. They were just making music! And though they were difficult times racially, mostly they were not singing about that. They sang about good times, peace, getting laid etc.. In effect the 'DEI' stuff happened, but in an organic manner, secondary to the direct orientation of 'making music'. There will always be a few 'Archie Bunker' shows to get us to think about the 'hard issues' but by and large, I think we can actually make progress without trying so hard.
ternifomene 4y ago
inglor_cz 4y ago
If that single black person is playing the legendary Greek warrior Achilles or Queen Anne Boleyn, I would argue that this is wokeness on steroids. (I know that neither of those examples happened at Netflix. But both happened fairly recently in the Anglosphere, which is probably the wokest pole of the Western world.) No one in their sane mind would portray, say, Martin Luther King as a blond Swede, or a historical Japanese Shogun as a Maori.
- solenoidalslide 4y ago
  Native Americans were played by white people all the time. White people play the role of Jesus all the time. Where's your outrage for those? That is why such a view is seen as racist, or at the very least a double standard against black people.
- zozbot234 4y ago
  > If that single black person is playing the legendary Greek warrior Achilles There's actually iconography in Minoan Crete showing African Black folks (from Northern Africa of course, but Black folks were never exclusive to "Sub-Saharan" Africa anyway) as very well socially integrated, in the same social roles as "white" (actually, Levantine/Mediterranean) characters. So that's probably a bad example seeing as Minoan Crete itself may be the origin of the Achilles myth. And yes, they could be very effective warriors too, not unlike Achilles himself. In a radically un-Woke twist, a later source (Frontinus' Stratagems) goes as far as to describe a group of auxilia troops (i.e. quasi-mercenaries) from Africa fighting valiantly for the Carthaginians as nigerrimī.

by sli 4y ago

You'd have a leg to stand on if shows didn't get called "woke" for sharing a single pre-production screencap featuring a single black person, but that's exactly what happens.

smackeyacky 4y ago

Exactly. We now have a chunk of the population who have been trained to be hyper sensitive to anything they might perceive as an erosion of anything more progressive than Family Ties. That Elon clutches his pearls at the horror of televised diversity is unsurprising, he is a yarpie.

jollybean 4y ago
There's definitely a slice of the population who'll get bent out of shape because there's 'a black cowboy'. On the other hand, Netflix actively intervenes in content and productions with DEI orientation, they'll hand backs scripts and 'require' this or that, and will also require production to meet all sorts of criteria, which may not have the effect we want. I don't think anyone is cutting cables over this but I wonder if it'd be more appropriate for everyone to chill out on telling people how to tell stories and how to make them. Maybe a better approach would be to just support good content creation in different areas without resorting to intervention - and - ignoring the obviously political kind of thing. Before 2000, particularly in the 1970's there were tons of bands with Black and White members. Tons. You just don't see that anymore. Can you think of any kind of 'groups' that have black and white dudes? It was inherently a political statement back then to be that way - but it was not overtly progressive. They were just making music! And though they were difficult times racially, mostly they were not singing about that. They sang about good times, peace, getting laid etc.. In effect the 'DEI' stuff happened, but in an organic manner, secondary to the direct orientation of 'making music'. There will always be a few 'Archie Bunker' shows to get us to think about the 'hard issues' but by and large, I think we can actually make progress without trying so hard.

ternifomene 4y ago

inglor_cz 4y ago

If that single black person is playing the legendary Greek warrior Achilles or Queen Anne Boleyn, I would argue that this is wokeness on steroids. (I know that neither of those examples happened at Netflix. But both happened fairly recently in the Anglosphere, which is probably the wokest pole of the Western world.) No one in their sane mind would portray, say, Martin Luther King as a blond Swede, or a historical Japanese Shogun as a Maori.

solenoidalslide 4y ago
Native Americans were played by white people all the time. White people play the role of Jesus all the time. Where's your outrage for those? That is why such a view is seen as racist, or at the very least a double standard against black people.
zozbot234 4y ago
> If that single black person is playing the legendary Greek warrior Achilles There's actually iconography in Minoan Crete showing African Black folks (from Northern Africa of course, but Black folks were never exclusive to "Sub-Saharan" Africa anyway) as very well socially integrated, in the same social roles as "white" (actually, Levantine/Mediterranean) characters. So that's probably a bad example seeing as Minoan Crete itself may be the origin of the Achilles myth. And yes, they could be very effective warriors too, not unlike Achilles himself. In a radically un-Woke twist, a later source (Frontinus' Stratagems) goes as far as to describe a group of auxilia troops (i.e. quasi-mercenaries) from Africa fighting valiantly for the Carthaginians as nigerrimī.