The Schematism of Abstractions, or, The White Guy Died First
Recently I came across a great point in a book about Ancient Egypt. The author was warning against simplistically equating gods and myths from different cultures: he said that comparing gods is only meaningful if you can say how they're different as well as how they're the same. 1
You could apply this to, for example, the careless conflation of different Native American cultures, or the attitude that COC are somehow equivalent or interchangeable. But I also thought of TV Tropes3 and its catalogue of recurring plot devices and character types. It's insightful and entertaining, and sometimes quite eye-opening. But it worries me a bit, because fans have a habit of trying to cram complicated, sprawling, messy, imperfect stories into sharply-defined little boxes. 2
One of the most famous Tropes, and one I've talked about here quite a bit, is given the name Black Dude Dies First. Although the blatant shredding of the token minority character is hard to get away with these days, one of the trope's causes is still very much in effect: the casting of non-white actors in supporting roles, rather than at the centre of the story. That means less screen time for actors and characters of colour, and because those characters aren't central to the story, it makes them more expendable.
So the trope is genuine, useful, current, no question. But if it's simplistically applied, in a litmus test fashion, it's going to obscure important details. For example: in the 1977 Doctor Who story The Robots of Death (an absolute cracker, one of my favourites) a white guy dies first. Here he is:
That's Rob Edwards as Chub in episode 1, just realising the trouble he's in. The Black character, Zilda (Tania Rogers) is fourth to be bumped off by the eponymous robots. (Possibly fifth - another character vanishes at about the same time.)
With no more information than how well the story matches the trope, you'd miss crucial details on the story's handling of race. Third to perish is Cass, played by Indian-born actor Tariq Yunus - a reminder that the disposable COC is not always African-American. You'd also miss Zilda's rather interesting back story: she's is an aristocrat fallen on hard times (a possible inspiration for the African future of the NAs?) and the object of lust (or love?) of the mission's commander - who she holds responsible for the death of her brother.
Nice hat. But anyway, I think the most important thing you'd miss would be one of the underlying causes of the Trope. Plenty of white guys get killed in the first two episodes, but so do both COC, and the survivors have the final two episodes to themselves. As still happens today, actors of colour have been relegated to supporting roles; whether or not they live or die, the centre of the story is white.4
__
Ye notef of ye foote.
1 "We question that generic features are the most significant; to emphasise them, or to direct our inquiry towards them, seems to us risking a distortion of historical reality by the schematism of abstractions." - Henri Frankfort, Kingship and the Gods
2 Think of Doctor Who canon debates, in which fans insist on creating a single, consistent history out of a self-contradictory narrative carelessly thrown together over decades by dozens of people!
3 The collection of Race Tropes is a genuinely useful resource. Be warned, though, that you're looking at a Wiki - proceed with caution. (Also be warned: the site's just as addictive as you've heard!)
4 There's heaps of other interesting stuff going on in the story, too. The robots have a colour hierarchy: the silver Super Voc at the top, then the green Vocs, and at the bottom, the black Dums. The twist is that one of the Dums is in disguise, and can not only talk, but is a detective with a deadpan sense of humour. The crew take no notice of the robots around them, and don't even consider them as possible murder suspects; D-84's disguise as a silent menial is perfect, taking advantage of their assumptions. OTOH, he dies heroically. OTOH, his white partner loses his mind and becomes useless. Try to apply simple rules of thumb to that lot and you're not going to get anywhere! :)
You could apply this to, for example, the careless conflation of different Native American cultures, or the attitude that COC are somehow equivalent or interchangeable. But I also thought of TV Tropes3 and its catalogue of recurring plot devices and character types. It's insightful and entertaining, and sometimes quite eye-opening. But it worries me a bit, because fans have a habit of trying to cram complicated, sprawling, messy, imperfect stories into sharply-defined little boxes. 2
One of the most famous Tropes, and one I've talked about here quite a bit, is given the name Black Dude Dies First. Although the blatant shredding of the token minority character is hard to get away with these days, one of the trope's causes is still very much in effect: the casting of non-white actors in supporting roles, rather than at the centre of the story. That means less screen time for actors and characters of colour, and because those characters aren't central to the story, it makes them more expendable.
So the trope is genuine, useful, current, no question. But if it's simplistically applied, in a litmus test fashion, it's going to obscure important details. For example: in the 1977 Doctor Who story The Robots of Death (an absolute cracker, one of my favourites) a white guy dies first. Here he is:
That's Rob Edwards as Chub in episode 1, just realising the trouble he's in. The Black character, Zilda (Tania Rogers) is fourth to be bumped off by the eponymous robots. (Possibly fifth - another character vanishes at about the same time.)
With no more information than how well the story matches the trope, you'd miss crucial details on the story's handling of race. Third to perish is Cass, played by Indian-born actor Tariq Yunus - a reminder that the disposable COC is not always African-American. You'd also miss Zilda's rather interesting back story: she's is an aristocrat fallen on hard times (a possible inspiration for the African future of the NAs?) and the object of lust (or love?) of the mission's commander - who she holds responsible for the death of her brother.
Nice hat. But anyway, I think the most important thing you'd miss would be one of the underlying causes of the Trope. Plenty of white guys get killed in the first two episodes, but so do both COC, and the survivors have the final two episodes to themselves. As still happens today, actors of colour have been relegated to supporting roles; whether or not they live or die, the centre of the story is white.4
__
Ye notef of ye foote.
1 "We question that generic features are the most significant; to emphasise them, or to direct our inquiry towards them, seems to us risking a distortion of historical reality by the schematism of abstractions." - Henri Frankfort, Kingship and the Gods
2 Think of Doctor Who canon debates, in which fans insist on creating a single, consistent history out of a self-contradictory narrative carelessly thrown together over decades by dozens of people!
3 The collection of Race Tropes is a genuinely useful resource. Be warned, though, that you're looking at a Wiki - proceed with caution. (Also be warned: the site's just as addictive as you've heard!)
4 There's heaps of other interesting stuff going on in the story, too. The robots have a colour hierarchy: the silver Super Voc at the top, then the green Vocs, and at the bottom, the black Dums. The twist is that one of the Dums is in disguise, and can not only talk, but is a detective with a deadpan sense of humour. The crew take no notice of the robots around them, and don't even consider them as possible murder suspects; D-84's disguise as a silent menial is perfect, taking advantage of their assumptions. OTOH, he dies heroically. OTOH, his white partner loses his mind and becomes useless. Try to apply simple rules of thumb to that lot and you're not going to get anywhere! :)