light a candle, light a votive

[ivy_chan]

Ladies and gentlemen, the internet presents to you a new low: Is Dora the Explorer an Illegal Immigrant?

In her police mug shot, the doe-eyed cartoon heroine with the bowl haircut has a black eye, battered lip and bloody nose

Comments

[meganbmoore]

I'm concerned that someone thought a cartoon of a beaten up little girl was a funny image or good joke in the first place. The social stereotype of abusive Latino parents certainly doesn't help.

[ivy_chan]

God, this. I can't see any humor in beating up a little kid. I'm just...how is this in any way funny? What the hell is wrong with the brains of these people? And then I worry I'm taking it too seriously or being 'too sensitive'. I'm fairly sure I'm not, but there's that annoying little voice.

[meganbmoore]

I find there are very noticable ethnic trends at times when it comes to abuse stories/images/examples. It seems that latino/as are most likely to be sporting bruises if it's children, and Asian women for adults. (Asian women seem to get "raped and killed" the most often. See: Sierra/Priya being Dollhouse's rape and abuse "needs the white men to want to rescue her" postergirl, while the white female lead gets to increasingly remember kung fu skills. Though men frequently had to beat her into that, too.)

[ivy_chan]

I remember getting dragged to The Hills Have Eyes 2, in which the Hispanic female (mother) character was beaten and raped, while the virginal white girl was left untouched. Granted, the Hispanic woman did eventually kill her rapist with a jackhammer to the groin, but that still didn't appease my feelings of: 'you fucking motherfuckers.'

Didn't watch Dollhouse because of all the rape, but I'll take your word on it. Asian women seem to be the victims of abusive relationships a lot, too.

[yamiloo]

It really is getting worrying. :( I x-posted this to Facebook, I think more people should read about it.

BTW, Ingrid (my friend and co-writer for Nightingale) suggested that I change Charlie to a person of color, since it's a bit odd that both of us are so vehemently anti Avatar racefail and yet writing a comic with an all-white girl cast.

Of course, that would be more unrealistic if it was a story set in the US, I know now firsthand just how whitewashed Belgium and the Netherlands are. But we decided to make Charlie either 3rd generation Indonesian or Filipina. I'm looking forward to working on her new design. =) The story is coming out really super epic, too. Emily, Sofie's cousin, has a really big role, and she ends up being something of a romantic interest for Charlie. And Dorian is a minor villain. XD

[ivy_chan]

Sounds awesome! And naturally, Dorian would be a villain. XD Is she a supervillain, or just a crook?

[yamiloo]

Oh no, she's just a common thug who happens to be a pawn in a much bigger plot. Sofie needs a villain worthy of her. We haven't quite figured out the villain's master plan, but we do know her personality. (Yes- it's a really female centric cast. SURPRISE XD)

The villain will be actually lot like Sofie herself, which is why it'll bother Sofie so much. In the RP you got to see a bit of Sofie's chillier side- the villain is a lot like that, but to more of an extreme. We're going to give her some sort of special ability, like Sofie has, too. I hesitate to say "superpower, because there are actually people who can echolocate. We're trying to keep it as realistic as possible. I'm really looking forward to including realtic details that superhero comics conventiently leave out- like how being a superhero at night kind of fucks up your daytime schedule. xD

[ivy_chan]

I love you so much for passing the Bechdel's test so thoroughly, I really do.

And thank god, because I remember being, like, SIX and wondering how the hell Bruce Wayne managed to be a CEO and a nocturnal superhero. Does the man never sleep?

[lindentreeisle]

I do a lot of reading about the Nazi period of German history- my particular interest is in propaganda and sociology: basically what fascinates (and revolts) me is how an entire nation of people were complicit in genocide. (Of course Germany is hardly the only example, but it's the most well-known.) I know how scapegoating works, but I still don't really understand how people can buy into it and have no awareness of what they're doing. I mean, you can't write it ALL off to pig-ignorant crackers, there are some serious intellectual dances people do to warp their own minds, and I just don't get it.

There have been a number of moments lately when I see what is being done to Latinos in America- not even what is being done to them so much as what is being said and thought about them- and there is a frightening clarity of comparison there

[ivy_chan]

Agreed, I don't want to jump on this situation and call 'Hitler', either. It's worrying, but it's more like witch hunts than concentration camps. Hispanics (and Middle Easterners) are the new 'other' people to point fingers at and blame, and it never turns out well. I just hope it doesn't turn out catastrophically. No, we might not get death camps, but hate crimes committed by officers of the law is what I fear.

Also word on child beating =/= funny. It's really, really NOT.

[stunt_muppet]

Echoing what a lot of other people have said, but how is a picture of a beaten-up little girl in any way funny or remotely okay? Ugh.

What makes me feel the worst about this attitude is the fact that people thought almost the exact same way about Latinos twenty, thirty, forty years ago, and it's saddening to see how little has changed. My mom found a book in the basement today that offered a 'lighthearted' take on the differences between Cubans and Americans (she's Cuban but we both "look white"), published in the early Seventies when lots of people were leaving Cuba, and the way white Americans talked about Cuban immigrants was horrible and familiar - they take all our jobs, why don't they learn to speak English, they think they own the city, they should be grateful we even let them in. Them, them, them. It made the whole book ugly and unpleasant, and the fact that people still think and talk not only the same way but worse to this day is terrifying.

[ivy_chan]

The best part about that is that they don't even have to shift perspectives that much at all. Instead of Cubans, it's Mexicans they're aiming their hate-holes at. And since Hispanics are all the same anyway, they can use the same racist insults and slurs!

Good fucking god, you'd think we'd have the capacity to learn from history. It's only been repeated over and over again from all those other foreign immigrants. (The Irish, anyone?) It's even more painfully ironic because everyone in this country with white skin? Is either an immigrant or the descendant of immigrants. Which is a polite term for the settlers, really. Unless you're Native American, you are not qualified to bitch about all these strangers coming to 'your' country. I kind of wish the Native Americans would issue a statement about how this whole country has gone to pot since all those European immigrants showed up.

[aerodactylus]

I initially interpreted that picture another way: It equates the absurdity of its subject with the absurdity of the law, but I guess your's is a little more on the mark.

I don't understand why we can't treat this the way we do ALL immigration: set up checkpoints, bring them in legally, give them a job and basic amenities; it's what they're looking for. Much better (and more cost effective) than building a goddamn wall and towers and shooting anyone that comes within 100 yards.

[ivy_chan]

I really don't believe it's about immigration anymore. It's about fearmongering and finger-pointing. It's about blaming all of society's problems on an easily othered group of people. It's a depressingly common sociological tactic that's not likely to go away any time soon. Even if these immigrants were fully legal, we'd still have douchebags trying to pass laws to make them subhuman. And a lot of them are legal. A good percentage of Hispanics are not only legal, they were BORN here. Meanwhile, there are illegal immigrants from Russia. Funny how no one seems to target them.