Opinions wanted: Is this racially offensive to an anglophone audience?

[cheriola]

Hello.

This time, I don't have a research question but a thorny issue that I would like some second opinions on, preferably by people of colour. I know this is probably going to cause a big argument, so my apologies go in advance to the mods (and a potential racism trigger warning for this entire thread to everyone who might need it). But I'm a

Comments

[cheriola]

I feel icky just reading about reptillian aliens being connected to Jews ... unfortunately this is actually A Thing.

I wasn't around in 1970 when the episode introducing the conflict was broadcast, but from the plot summary I think the alegory was supposed to go along the lines of

Small Siluran group with older claim on the land carrying out terrorist attacks with biological weapons = Palestineans

Human military who ultimately decide to take care of the problem by dropping a bomb and destroying the entire Siluran settlement = Israel

And I did try to do my research, obviously. Otherwise I would never have gotten the idea that this could be read differently in another culture in the first place. The problem is that professional publications on racism rarely deal with the kind of 'alien racism' alegories found in sci-fi media. And, more importantly, most of it is written by people with a lot of white and/or class privilege. I find the opinions of internet bloggers and other average people who actually experience this kind of frustration with racism in media and society first-hand to be a far more relevant and valid source. Unfortunately, the blog articles I could find on similar issues always deal with media created by people who are American or British themselves (and who therefore should know better), I can't find much critiques for stuff that was written in a completely different cultural context.

I'm not asking for "permission". If people tell me that this won't fly with people with anglosaxon cultural background, I won't write it. I have alternative ways to get to the narrative purpose this plotline would fullfil. (Which is simply to get some time travellers to the Siluran era to pick up a stranded character. I just like to give my secondary characters some interesting motivation and lives of their own, instead of making it a clichéd crash landing or pure coincident, that's all.)

[tylik]

My understanding, having only seen a fraction of the material, is that there was a fair amount of discussion during race fail about the use of aliens in science fiction and how this reflects themes of race and racism. I don't know how much you've already read, but that's where I'd start.

[miri_d]

But FYI, people of Anglo Saxon background would be ... Germanic. So probably not the authorities you're looking for.

I've been super confused about this for the entire post/comment series so thank you for clarifying that it's not just me being a dumbass, but bad word choice. I've also never heard Anglo-Saxon used to describe a people, especially British or American people, outside of covering the 9th-12th centuries in British history, or whenever it was that there was the conflict between the French and the Germanic/already-residential Anglo-Saxon peoples over dominance in England/Britain. I think if anything, OP would want the phrase "historically imperialist cultures", because the whole idea of America was that it's a melting pot and no matter what time period you're looking at, not everyone in America was Anglo-Saxon in origin. Granted, most of the ingredients in the pot were white, but America is much more ethnically and physically diverse than, say, Sweden (I've never met a Swede that wasn't white, blonde-haired and blue-eyed - and ridiculously attractive -, and even the famous Skarsgard family holds true to type). Both Britain and America have a history of oppression and cultural appropriation, though, and I think that comes with being a very widespread and moderately imperialist country. Feel free to correct me though.

tl;dr semantics wank about the term "Anglo-Saxon".

[veradee]

I've also never heard Anglo-Saxon used to describe a people, especially British or American people, outside of covering the 9th-12th centuries in British history,

Actually, it's not uncommon in Germany to use the word "angelsächsisch", which happens to mean Anglo-Saxon, to refer to Britons and sometimes also US-Americans.

[miri_d]

Ah, lost in translation then, because as a primary "anglophone", ime that term is uncommon/rare/basically non-existent outside of scholarly historical circles, take your pick of rarities. In fact the only time in a contemporary work of fiction I could justify it is if I picture the Doctor stepping out of the TARDIS into the centuries I mentioned before, rubbing his hands together, and taking off down the hill with the exclamation "I love a good Anglo-Saxon ruckus!"

Or something.

[naath]

I've also never heard Anglo-Saxon used to describe a people, especially British or American people, outside of covering the 9th-12th centuries in British history

Mitt Romney just this month used the phrase "shared Anglo-Saxon heritage"... I'm pretty sure he was being rude about Obama but the phrase is in use. For instance also we use "WASP" for White-Anglo-Saxon-Protestant to refer to people of a certain social position. I think it is in use, no matter how wrong we are genetically speaking, to refer to white British people with no recent family history of immigration.