Who, race, issues
I'm glad people are getting bitchy about NewWho pretending Racism Never Existed.
TOLD YOU SO.
It's cringeworthy. It really is. And just so I can be condescending about The Masses, what about those people whose concepts of history are entirely formed by television? They'd be in for a rude awakening if they *really* where whisked back to the 18th century, 1930 or if you look at the new Robin Hoodie, Sherwood forest.
The most inflammatory and hostile parallel I could draw would be with Holocaust denial, but... how different is that? No, seriously? No Bad Shit Ever Happened To Your People also means that there's no need for apologies, there's no need to address anything that's wrong right now because Equality Is Already Here (that argument being usually favoured by anyone who's uncomfortable with people reacting to being treated like shit)... this attitude of "let's just forget about it all" isn't constructive. As painful as it is, people will fucking have to DEAL with the issues, not just brush them under the carpet and cling to fuckwitted ignorance. Running away from Issues smells exactly like those people who refuse to acknowledge that you've ever been bullied because of your sex/race/orientation/religion/whatever, the sort of people who loudly proclaim They Aren't Bigots, yet still have rather more fucked-up issues they could ever admit to. Like someone mentioned in another post, you don't have to be a racist to have race issues. You don't have to be a massive misogynist to still think women=giggles and pink things. Ignorance goes a long way.
Ignoring doesn't make Bad Shit go away, damn it. At least when it started, Doctor Who deliberately set out to EDUCATE people, in an interesting way, and it didn't shy away from Bad Shit. Now they'd be too shit-scared of being called racists if they did a story about Aztec human sacrifice. Because they were all nice and lovely, don't you know! And the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre was just a little pub brawl, don't you know!
*stabbity*
TOLD YOU SO.
It's cringeworthy. It really is. And just so I can be condescending about The Masses, what about those people whose concepts of history are entirely formed by television? They'd be in for a rude awakening if they *really* where whisked back to the 18th century, 1930 or if you look at the new Robin Hoodie, Sherwood forest.
The most inflammatory and hostile parallel I could draw would be with Holocaust denial, but... how different is that? No, seriously? No Bad Shit Ever Happened To Your People also means that there's no need for apologies, there's no need to address anything that's wrong right now because Equality Is Already Here (that argument being usually favoured by anyone who's uncomfortable with people reacting to being treated like shit)... this attitude of "let's just forget about it all" isn't constructive. As painful as it is, people will fucking have to DEAL with the issues, not just brush them under the carpet and cling to fuckwitted ignorance. Running away from Issues smells exactly like those people who refuse to acknowledge that you've ever been bullied because of your sex/race/orientation/religion/whatever, the sort of people who loudly proclaim They Aren't Bigots, yet still have rather more fucked-up issues they could ever admit to. Like someone mentioned in another post, you don't have to be a racist to have race issues. You don't have to be a massive misogynist to still think women=giggles and pink things. Ignorance goes a long way.
Ignoring doesn't make Bad Shit go away, damn it. At least when it started, Doctor Who deliberately set out to EDUCATE people, in an interesting way, and it didn't shy away from Bad Shit. Now they'd be too shit-scared of being called racists if they did a story about Aztec human sacrifice. Because they were all nice and lovely, don't you know! And the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre was just a little pub brawl, don't you know!
*stabbity*