Things Korra Did Right #2
In popular media, it’s still rare to see a main character who is anything other than caucasian, despite the fact that this is 2013. This is especially true in animation, which - since it’s popular among children and their impressionable minds - means there is a growing need for racial diversity in lead characters. The more diversity there is, the easier it will be for non-caucasian children to find a hero they can personally identify with, and the easier it will be for caucasian children to identify with the concept of racial diversity as well. Korra is one of precious few non-caucasian lead characters in animation and popular media in general.
I’ve heard a lot of people criticizing Man of Steel for a lack of racial diversity on Krypton, and while these people have a right to their opinion, I disagree.
SPOILERS AHOY
On Krypton everyone we see is white and brunette. Under normal circumstances, yes, some diversity in that pasty white cast would be nice EXCEPT that it’s repeatedly told that procreation has been standardized. Kryptonians are born in bubbles on trees or in some sci-fi method, and have their future careers embedded within them. Yep, it’s a pure caste system.
This is necessary to keep in mind because we only see the, and I mean THE, top Kryptonians. We see the government leaders, head scientists and top military soldiers. So the implication of the white skin brown hair is that appearance has been standardized as well. We don’t see any ‘lower/middle class’ (if Krypton even has that, I mean their tech is so advanced why need a working class?) but who can say if the lower classes also look the same, or if the classes have a distinctly uniform appearance as well.
Back in Earth, I saw a lot of racial diversity. Well, once we got to Metropolis. Kansas didn’t have a lot of diversity, but it’s Kansas, it would be unrealistic to have anything else.
Back in Metropolis, Perry White (editor in chief of the Daily Planet) is played by Laurence Fishburne and the character has always been white up to this point. On top of that, DP photographer Jimmy Olsen has been gender-swapped into Jenny Olsen. The writers obviously had diversity on their mind.
Side note: the change of Jenny Olsen and Perry White works because there was nothing inherently white or male about the characters. Changing the race or gender didn’t change the character. It isn’t the same as changing Khan from North Indian to white British guy Benedict Cumberbatch.
You know what would be cool?
If on a pokemon game, you could fully customize your character, like the skin color, the outfit and like the hair and things. That may sound dumb but i feel that it would be cool than have some random design. I would be more excited to have a different skin color because there has been so many white people on pokemon with some exceptions, and I somewhat understand why it’s like that, due to some people getting offended, but then all of the Hoopsters and Dancers were black so…
…They were pretty much risking it there.
You know, many people try to add racial diversity into their stories, fanarts, whatever, especially here on tumblr, which is great.
But there is one thing which really bugs me:
In almost all of them, there are no albinos. Mostly it’s yo, there s a white person, that should do it.
But guess what, albino is not the same as white. Albinos can be African American, Asian, European, Latino, Arabian, from ANY culture, but with very pale skin and usually blonde hair (there also are albinos with dark hair though) - any culture, but still look kinda white.
BUT albinos are NOT white, even if they are technically whiter than white people. Still, they are almost always left out on those racial diversity pictures.
I am albino (not to the full extend, but with the typical body misfunctions incuding my skin) and everyone concludes I must be white. And I’m so sick of it. I am not white, I am albino.
People usually think albinos are these super rare people with white hair and red eyes, but that’s only the full extend of albinism. There are many more than those and I wish people would stop acting like we only existed in fairytales.
how much do you think racial diversity plays into the application process?
This is a tricky question, and I may alienate a few people by answering it. But alas, I was asked, so here we go.
To answer this, I’m going to give you a hypothetical situation:
Dylan is a male with European ancestry from Massachusetts. He’s grown up knowing the differences between Harvard and Yale Law Schools, and has been groomed his whole life to go to Harvard.
Betty is a girl with Native American ancestry from New Mexico. She has researched colleges on her own during middle school and high school, and has been wanting to attend the Cornell School of Engineering since she was a freshman in high school.
^^ see the differences in these situations? I think that this is what admissions officers see when they receive applications with diversity as stated. Colleges assume that people with a minority background have had fewer opportunities to get a good education, which is how some people get the stigma of getting into college because of having a certain ethnicity [see my post here]. I do know that it can be truly unfair to both the people who are accepted and rejected because of race. However, I do not think that it can make or break an application - if you belong at a university, the admissions committee should know.
So if you’re a minority, I suppose I’d advise you to not be afraid to put that on your application. You may not like to be associated with getting into college because of that, but if it helps you in the future [after college, big picture thinking here], it can only help.
"White people are weird."
ahhh i don’t usually do posts about social justice or injustice, but my little cousin dropped by today and he just said something that kind of bothered me. let me just put my serious face on really quick.
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Are Icelandic people generally accepting of racial diversity? I know the population is mostly white Nordic people but would other skin colors be considered weird?
Racial diversity is definitely lower than in most of our neighbor countries. There was very limited immigration to Iceland before the 90’s. However during the late 90’s and up until our recent economic crisis immigration really increased. In 1996 around 2% of the population were immigrants, but went up to 8% in 2008 according to Statice. The largest nationality of immigrants is Polish, followed by other eastern European countries along with the Philippians and Thailand.
Fifty years ago, I’m sure it would have been the talk of the town if a black man walked through Reykjavík. This would have been since many had probably never seen one. However times have changed and I don’t think anybody’s skin color would be considered weird as you say. I think Icelanders are quite acceptable to immigration. We really needed it while the economy was booming. There is a chance that now when the economy has slowed down, people dislike immigrants occupying “their” jobs. Luckily I don’t think that is much of a problem, at least much less than it is in some of our neighboring countries.
In short, yeah I think we are quite accepting, but just getting used to it.
In which the writer incurs the not-entirely-unearned wrath of many
A lot of my friends are queer. A lot of my friends are feminists. None of my friends are genderqueer, but that’s mainly because I’ve never really met anybody genderqueer. I’ll be down with that person on the day I do meet him/her. There’s a lot of overlap between those first two groups, though. And I follow a lot of the people in those first two groups on Tumblr. And a lot of the people in those first two groups make a lot of posts about LGBTQ (is this the most recent iteration of the catchall acronym? I don’t want to think I’ve left anyone out) rights, LGBTQ heroes and heroines, and general LGBTQ business.
And I think that’s totally rad. Really, I think that’s dynamite. I am glad that these socially and politically marginalized groups are working towards equality and I believe with every fiber of my being that all humans deserve equal rights regardless of sexual identity, gender identity, or ethnic heritage.
But a lot of my friends from those first two groups have joined literal groups, groups with actually really solidly clever acronyms that I (due mostly to laziness) refer to as “Lesbian Club” or “Gay Club” or what have you. And at those clubs, my friends have made friends with whom they can relate endlessly and confide and support and be unconditionally approved of and simply bond because of a pretty wide-spanning demographical similarity. Hell, half of the people on Earth are women. It’s a fairly common thing to have in common, and yet it has brought some of my friends closer together with other people than anything I have to offer. The relationships my feminist or queer friends have with fellow feminists or queers transcend so far past what I have to offer them, it’s ridiculous.
I am a white, cis-gendered, heterosexual male, and I sometimes feel really alone. We don’t have any clubs, there are no White Rights groups (wait, nope, there are and they’re pretty horrible. I’m not a white supremacist! I su-promise-ist!), there are no Hetero Union clubs, there are no Males United organizations. I am a man without a country, bereft of solidarity or community or compatriots. Worse still, I feel that my white/cis/hetero/male identity is something about which I need to be embarrassed or ashamed. As if I’m not allowed to be okay with who I am, and need to apologize to every person that does not fit that profile on behalf of my white male forbears. I feel like I’ve got nobody on that really fundamental level.
And I know that this is probably the most horseshit thing, someone with every societally genetic privilege handed to him on a silver platter whining. And I realize that there aren’t White/Hetero/cis/male pride groups because nearly every injustice in human history has been propagated by someone fitting that description. But then, wouldn’t that be judging me by the actions of people who share my race/gender/sexual identity? Which is awful?
I’m sorry. I just feel kind of companionless on that core level.
