GI-NORMOUS SIGH
Please be warned, the following rant contains spoilers for all of this season of NCIS.
Things that inspire me to ::facepalm:: and want to dislike people... (no to mention forbid anyone else from watching my show).
In regards to the article at: TV Guide.com
Apparently, there are people who are... displeased about a recent turn of events on NCIS, namely, that Agent Lee turned out to be a spy. The issue some people have is that she is ostensibly Chinese, and that it's therefore racist on the part of the show to have made her a bad guy.
Now, I have *several* problems with this interpretation. (Though I do realize that it is an interpretation, and this person has a right to have whatever opinion of this that he wants to have.)
Having watched the story line, to the best of my recollection, the character betrays her country to an individual because her younger sister/daughter has been kidnapped and is being held hostage. Her motives are entirely personal, and entirely unrelated to what genetic or social background she may have come from. At no point do any of the characters make any kind of comment about it being an obvious or likely turn of events because she is of Chinese descent - as a matter of fact, beyond the instance where her sister/daughter uses a Chinese endearment to refer to her at the end of the final episode, the fact that she's of Chinese descent isn't mentioned at all. It's not listed as a contributing factor, and she's not working for the Chinese government.
To my mind, it's just as racist to require or expect minority characters of shows or movies to always be "good" as it is to portray them as "bad" because of their ethnicity or gender. I feel it is as wrong to insist that a female character (for instance) *must* be the one in charge as it is to insist that she *can't* be the one in charge. True equality and tolerance doesn't come from insisting that all minority characters have the highest status or become perfect people - it comes from allowing them to have the potential of being in any status or being of any alignment over the course of the story, and being guided by the journey of the character rather than the social "image" portrayed by potential actions.
I realize that many people really liked Agent Lee, and are upset that she was written out and made into a villain. But I think it's ridiculous to insist that it's racism, and that it's insulting to the actress, the writers, and the character herself.
Things that inspire me to ::facepalm:: and want to dislike people... (no to mention forbid anyone else from watching my show).
In regards to the article at: TV Guide.com
Apparently, there are people who are... displeased about a recent turn of events on NCIS, namely, that Agent Lee turned out to be a spy. The issue some people have is that she is ostensibly Chinese, and that it's therefore racist on the part of the show to have made her a bad guy.
Now, I have *several* problems with this interpretation. (Though I do realize that it is an interpretation, and this person has a right to have whatever opinion of this that he wants to have.)
Having watched the story line, to the best of my recollection, the character betrays her country to an individual because her younger sister/daughter has been kidnapped and is being held hostage. Her motives are entirely personal, and entirely unrelated to what genetic or social background she may have come from. At no point do any of the characters make any kind of comment about it being an obvious or likely turn of events because she is of Chinese descent - as a matter of fact, beyond the instance where her sister/daughter uses a Chinese endearment to refer to her at the end of the final episode, the fact that she's of Chinese descent isn't mentioned at all. It's not listed as a contributing factor, and she's not working for the Chinese government.
To my mind, it's just as racist to require or expect minority characters of shows or movies to always be "good" as it is to portray them as "bad" because of their ethnicity or gender. I feel it is as wrong to insist that a female character (for instance) *must* be the one in charge as it is to insist that she *can't* be the one in charge. True equality and tolerance doesn't come from insisting that all minority characters have the highest status or become perfect people - it comes from allowing them to have the potential of being in any status or being of any alignment over the course of the story, and being guided by the journey of the character rather than the social "image" portrayed by potential actions.
I realize that many people really liked Agent Lee, and are upset that she was written out and made into a villain. But I think it's ridiculous to insist that it's racism, and that it's insulting to the actress, the writers, and the character herself.