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A bunch of tweets about magical POC stereotypes from Twitter:
Magical Negro characters (and Magical POC in general) not only help the white protagonist, they put their needs above their own.
Characters of color being focused around the needs of white characters is like how Bechdel test points to women built on men's needs in film
It's always interesting how focused they are on making POC "give blessing" to the white characters. Like some white guilt assuaging spell.
NDNs tell the white man it's ok their "time is over", the asian admits the white guy is a better ninja, (cont)
...the black person must admit the white guy has (soul/magic power/dance skills/etc.), ESPECIALLY with their dying breath.
It fuels a double dose of white privilege: "White people are just better at everything" and "POC exist to acknowledge & serve that"
Then we see that shit play out when white folks roll up into spaces, act a fool, wonder why no one is singing Kumbayah and praising them.
Then white ppl, "But aren't you HAPPY you got to have a POC in a movie SERVING a white person?!? Isn't it your DREAM?"
And apparently these stereotypes are so accepted, ppl don't get why folks are not happy with The Help, Avatar, Dances with Wolves, etc.
It says a lot to where the expectation is that we should dream to have the honor of dying for white people as a power fantasy.
And coming out of media, we see these supposed activist groups that can't understand why POC would want to put POC needs before their own.
"Oh, no, your needs don't matter. WHY would you want to focus on something so small as your freedom when you could be working FOR us?!?" OH
Media isn't mind control, but it is influence. And when all these movies tell the same story, a lot of people start to believe it true.
Like: black males are dangerous once they can walk. And they need to be shot in the back unless they unless Blackness WMDs from their backs.
Or that NDNs secretly really want to find a white person to pass all their knowledge onto, so white people should get up in their business.
Or that the bloodstained land was given freely and with smiles and the slaves who worked it were happy to serve...
I read a book on advertising & they pointed out- when you think McD's do you think of the last time you were there, or a commercial?
Many people think of the commercial, not the run down, janky place they go to. The fiction overwrote the reality in their memory.
This same thing is the fictions we tell over and over in mass media. Bias is built up by culture, and media plays a big part.
Media & celebs claim to always be about being "edgy" and new, but if you're repeating racist shit from 100 years ago? #Um
And yes, I hold writers and Hollywood to that- you know your craft. Either you're deliberately shaping it, or you're failing your message.
The fact that the magical POC is so widespread means a lot of folks are choosing the stereotypes & othering for the sake of white privilege.
Like I said earlier about the #TrayvonMartin murder - white delusions will be defended as more important than black lives.
Magical Negro characters (and Magical POC in general) not only help the white protagonist, they put their needs above their own.
Characters of color being focused around the needs of white characters is like how Bechdel test points to women built on men's needs in film
It's always interesting how focused they are on making POC "give blessing" to the white characters. Like some white guilt assuaging spell.
NDNs tell the white man it's ok their "time is over", the asian admits the white guy is a better ninja, (cont)
...the black person must admit the white guy has (soul/magic power/dance skills/etc.), ESPECIALLY with their dying breath.
It fuels a double dose of white privilege: "White people are just better at everything" and "POC exist to acknowledge & serve that"
Then we see that shit play out when white folks roll up into spaces, act a fool, wonder why no one is singing Kumbayah and praising them.
Then white ppl, "But aren't you HAPPY you got to have a POC in a movie SERVING a white person?!? Isn't it your DREAM?"
And apparently these stereotypes are so accepted, ppl don't get why folks are not happy with The Help, Avatar, Dances with Wolves, etc.
It says a lot to where the expectation is that we should dream to have the honor of dying for white people as a power fantasy.
And coming out of media, we see these supposed activist groups that can't understand why POC would want to put POC needs before their own.
"Oh, no, your needs don't matter. WHY would you want to focus on something so small as your freedom when you could be working FOR us?!?" OH
Media isn't mind control, but it is influence. And when all these movies tell the same story, a lot of people start to believe it true.
Like: black males are dangerous once they can walk. And they need to be shot in the back unless they unless Blackness WMDs from their backs.
Or that NDNs secretly really want to find a white person to pass all their knowledge onto, so white people should get up in their business.
Or that the bloodstained land was given freely and with smiles and the slaves who worked it were happy to serve...
I read a book on advertising & they pointed out- when you think McD's do you think of the last time you were there, or a commercial?
Many people think of the commercial, not the run down, janky place they go to. The fiction overwrote the reality in their memory.
This same thing is the fictions we tell over and over in mass media. Bias is built up by culture, and media plays a big part.
Media & celebs claim to always be about being "edgy" and new, but if you're repeating racist shit from 100 years ago? #Um
And yes, I hold writers and Hollywood to that- you know your craft. Either you're deliberately shaping it, or you're failing your message.
The fact that the magical POC is so widespread means a lot of folks are choosing the stereotypes & othering for the sake of white privilege.
Like I said earlier about the #TrayvonMartin murder - white delusions will be defended as more important than black lives.
