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ペンネーム
Joined: 19 Nov 2014
Posts: 8
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Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2014 4:31 am
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KutovoiAnton wrote: |
ペンネーム wrote: | Because having one positive aspect to his character negates the fact that his backstory drips with racist baggage, right? |
Because having one stereotype negates every positive aspect of his character? |
Yeah, pretty much. Then again, what should we expect from an author who makes Nazis into heroes?
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fuuma_monou
Joined: 26 Dec 2005
Posts: 1821
Location: Quezon City, Philippines
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Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2014 4:47 am
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CrownKlown wrote: | Would Nadia count? Looking up the city that she is from on Wiki, apparently the people from that region are genetically tied to Western Europe and North Africa. In either case Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East is considered Caucasian even by the US census bureau. She has dark skin, but that is actually common in parts of Spain, Italy, and other southern parts of Europe. |
For the first half of the series, Nadia thought she was from Africa. By the end of the series we learn that she's actually Atlantean, and not a human being
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Mr.Shonen
Joined: 13 Aug 2006
Posts: 269
Location: Brooklyn, NY
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Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2014 4:58 am
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walw6pK4Alo wrote: | To swing it back around, does Japan need diversity in its programming? |
Depends. Lets say the a creator mad his story about a that was set taking place around the world. Of course if would be logical to have a cast of diverse characters not just conveniently place Japanese people. Even though there are Japanese people around the world. But if the series was set in Japan why should the creator force diversity when it wouldn't make sense? Sure there are foreign exchange students, but their number pales in comparison to Japanese students. Are we gonna have a series about Japanese high school students but the student body of the
school are extras from the "I'd Like to Buy the World a Coke" Commercial" displaying Japanese customs/mannerisms?
Thanks to social media everyone gets to share there knee jerk reactions about why is X western character white/male and not female/non-white/etc... Would it be nice to have more characters to represent the ever diverse demographics. Of course, that's a no brainer. BUT...I never want to restrict or impair the creator/s original idea for a story just to satisfy a bunch of whiners. Because it pains me to see that in this age of the internet, that for every person that creates their own content to satisfy their wants there are tens if not hundreds that go complain about the creator/s and publishers because it didn't satisfy their exact personal needs.
Pertaining to the west, the diversity in will come to where we will get that perfect balance, but it takes time, and I want to see it mostly done by creating new characters and building up their lore instead of rushing to change existing white/male character to female/non-white. Only to see people online act like is God's great gift in smug satisfaction and tell anyone who doesn't agree there nothing but white males who's opinions don't matter anyway and they're upset. That irritates and angers me when I see that.
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ペンネーム
Joined: 19 Nov 2014
Posts: 8
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Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2014 5:05 am
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To be honest, upon rereading the intro to the list I'm glad to see that the authors admitted that these characters do have flaws and stereotypes built into them, but at the same time it would have been nice to have more diversity in the range of characters who come from more diverse, less Japan-centric backgrounds. The list really feels like its the "top six brown painted characters we can think of immediately off the top of our heads" rather than being a true example of awesome characters from diverse ethnic backgrounds in anime.
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Garudyne
Joined: 24 Sep 2014
Posts: 20
Location: Scandinavia
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Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2014 5:46 am
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On Caska: "She's inspiring in her ability to play at the same levels as the men around her"
Is this a joke? It sounds like a joke to me.
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leafy sea dragon
Joined: 27 Oct 2009
Posts: 7163
Location: Another Kingdom
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Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2014 6:04 am
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anon827449 wrote: | Hispanics aren't white, the word white is just being stamped on them ever since Zimmerman, lol. That is an ignorant perspective of how TV works, what people are interested in seeing, and who aspires to be stars most of the time. Women are underreperesented? What? That makes no sense. |
According to the 2010 US Census, Hispanics are counted under "white."
kazenoyume wrote: | 'Advances in the past fifty years'. But not enough advances. And in many ways, we've just replaced the crimes of old with new ones. The prison industrial complex and the application of the 'war on drugs' have replaced the Jim Crow laws of old. Same story, different face. |
There's also the war on terror, which singles out Islamic-looking people, and anti-immigration, which focuses on Latin Americans. For the latter, this is something that seems to be hardly ever noticed, but when I read and watch stuff about the immigration controversy going on right now in the US, the talk seems solely about people who have immigrated from Latin America or Latin Americans who intend to immigrate. You never hear anything about Asian, European, or African immigrants (or Australian, but their numbers are pretty few).
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Alunimus
Joined: 08 Jan 2012
Posts: 117
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Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2014 6:52 am
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Tetranet wrote: | "People of Color" |
Just wanted to write about it but I see you've already presented opinion regarding those words. And I absolutely agree with it.
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invalidname
Contributor
Joined: 11 Aug 2004
Posts: 2455
Location: Grand Rapids, MI
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Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2014 7:17 am
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Thank you for Claudia. The bridge officer with her shit completely together (sorry Lisa/Misa, but you're too distracted), her boyfriend is the (white) ace pilot whom she invites over for dinner… and in an inner monologue thinks "and if I'm lucky, breakfast." In a show marketed to US kids in 1985.
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notrogersmith
Joined: 06 Jun 2010
Posts: 192
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Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2014 8:10 am
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invalidname wrote: | her boyfriend is the (white) ace pilot whom she invites over for dinner… and in an inner monologue thinks "and if I'm lucky, breakfast." In a show marketed to US kids in 1985. |
To be fair, the line "and if I'm lucky, breakfast" is one that's likely to fly right over kids' heads, so it's not that strange that it would be allowed in a show marketed to US kids.
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ichii_1
Joined: 02 Sep 2014
Posts: 151
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Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2014 9:58 am
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No Raikage, killer bee , chad, tousen or yoruichi? shonen hater confirmed
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Maokun
Joined: 11 Nov 2004
Posts: 53
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Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2014 10:06 am
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Konopan wrote: | No love for roshia sushi?
Or is Simon excluded because of the Russian stereotypes? |
Thank you. Biggest omission from the list, IMHO.
Also, needs Pedro from Excel Saga. Sure, he's Latinxplotaitive, but I can laugh because I am Latin American myself.
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Kadmos1
Joined: 08 May 2014
Posts: 13577
Location: In Phoenix but has an 85308 ZIP
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Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2014 10:15 am
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Durarara's Simon is a Black Russian and I think that's an interesting racial/ethnic combo.
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darkarcstar
Joined: 23 Nov 2014
Posts: 5
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Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2014 10:36 am
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What about Archer in Fate Stay Night? Hey it just says "People of Color", not "African-American", and he certainly was awesome this weekend!
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Kadmos1
Joined: 08 May 2014
Posts: 13577
Location: In Phoenix but has an 85308 ZIP
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Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2014 10:41 am
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A prominent example for the Latino category is Bleach's Chad. Though he has Okinawan background, he was raised in Mexico.
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vashfanatic
Joined: 16 Jun 2005
Posts: 3491
Location: Back stateside
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Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2014 11:20 am
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walw6pK4Alo wrote: | To swing it back around, does Japan need diversity in its programming? They don't have much diversity in their nation, what with 98% of the population being the same ethnicity. Maybe it's even more genuine because it's not like corporate is telling Rei Hiroe he needs to include a black guy to get that urban demographic, they do because they want to naturally on their own, like writing a story about blonde British transfers in KinMoza. But then again, it's as simple to draw a white or black character and have them speak Japanese as it would to draw a Japanese character, quite another to have them acting for live action television on a regular basis. I think they add characters like that just for flavor and for being exotic over any kind of goal of racial harmony or appeasing execs. |
I've been thinking about this, and I think for shows set in Japan, it's not a bad thing to have the cast be overwhelmingly ethnic Japanese, though a few Korean-Japanese people every now and then might not be bad. Then there's the internal rifts within ethnic Japanese, like the burakumin, but that's a very touchy issue for a medium like anime to deal with. The more important thing is, in international anime, to not resort to crude stereotypes for non-Japanese characters. We live in a globalized world, and it would help Japan's interaction with the international world if they weren't making some of the stupid mistakes they've done in the past with marketing and infographics.
Meanwhile, though, there's other areas of diversity that we've only touched upon or not brought up at all. The portrayal of gay and trans people in Japan is a mixed bag at best. People with disabilities get very little visibility - and given that Japan has nothing comparable to the Americans with Disabilities Act, they are a seriously disenfranchised group within Japan, and anime, which targets young people, could make a big difference in dispelling stereotypes and raising awareness of problems. (With the Light covers this somewhat)
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