Black Pirates, "Social Justice Warriors," and Sad Puppies

[chris_gerrib]

One of the many, many fine whines emitted at volume complaints of the Sad Puppies is that "social justice warriors" keep insisting on changing the races of people in order to advance the cause of social justice.

Then I was referred to this interesting article: black men and the black flag. Turns out that during the Age of Sail, lots of black men

Comments

[ext_3018476]

"60% of Blackbeard's crew was black, including the #2 man. Maybe 10% (if generous) of "Pirates of the Caribbean" cast is black. 100% of the cast of the previous umpteen pirate movies, going back to Errol Flynn, were white."

Why are you comparing the largest % black crew estimated to the entire *cast* of a movie primarily about a bunch of people from Britain? Does that not strike you as absurd? Did you not think that maybe, just maybe, you were comparing apples to orangutans?

And it's worth pointing out that Barbosa's #2 was also black. As was Blackbeard's, in the 4th movie.

I only had to go back to the 70's to find a movie with a black main characters whose name I recognized - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swashbuckler_(film)

And that's without digging through cast photos!

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"10-15% of George Washington's army was black, yet you don't see that reflected in fiction."

I'm not sure where you got this number, but it's much higher than any source I could find.

That said, what fiction? I don't tend to read a lot of historical fiction, so I have no idea whether this statement is accurate or not.

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"You're telling me that, in a work of fiction set in an era where individual marshals chased individual fugitives, it's implausible that one man with a 40-year career was ever in Seattle?"

That's... not really how the Marshals worked. Cross-country chases were extremely rare. Not impossible, but implausible. And you're telling me that you think that the author *just happened* to choose the only black Marshal from the time period?

And just ftr, Vox's ballot is Rabid Puppies. Sad Puppies is Correia/Torgersen/Hoyt/???

[chris_gerrib]

the 10-15% come from the US Army.

entire *cast* of a movie primarily about a bunch of people from Britain? I thought it was primarily about pirates, and set in a region and era where black pirates were heavily active.

Do I think Bear "just happened" to pick a black marshal? No. And it would have been easier for her to pick a generic white dude. She made an effort to un-whitewash history because she thought it needed un-whitewashing.

I don't see a big difference between VD and Torgersen, especially since VD is all over Torgersen's blog supporting Torgersen's picks.

[ext_3018476]

I'm done. You are completely incapable of admitting that you are wrong, despite it being demonstrated repeatedly.