It's International Blog Against Racism Week!

[ryuutchi]

I was going to say I couldn't think of anything personal to write about (but I would be lying.) It's really just that I was watching Power Rangers last night when I realized that it was IBARW. So now I want to talk about race and Power Rangers.

Should I?

Poll Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists

Also, I just like making polls.

Comments

[kikos_ai]

Even though this may involve wank (or not PR is rather apathetic these days), I'd love to hear your thoughts.

I had no idea it was IBARW! This pretty much sums up SPD.

[ryuutchi]

PR fandom is only apathetic if you stay off Rangerboard, I think.

A couple of the people on my flist are participating in IBARW-- that's how I found out.

::SNORFLE:: Oh, that's just perfect. (I totally forgot Z was Latina! ... Wait. The Black guy and the Latina chick were the poor kids. Lovely. >.<)

Also, your icon is way cute. I need more PR icons.

[kikos_ai]

Not only was Jack and Z the poor homeless thieves, in PROO they make Will (guy in the icon) a thief too. Two Black guys. Both thieves. And the White girl in PROO is a race car driver and the other White guy is rich and the Filipino is smart and the Asian is a wanna be Jackie Chan...yeah.

Good going, PR. Way to take us back a decade or so.

Icon is by angel_negra btw.

[ryuutchi]

Which sucks 'cause they did pretty well with race in PRMF. (Although... Nick is NOT Udonna and Leanbow's son. I'm sorry. Genetics don't work that way.) I keep trying to tell myself that PROO is trying to do an homage to the first season, or something. It doesn't work very well.

There is the question, though-- is it better that the cast is minority white when everyone's a stereotype or worse?

I'll have to go looking through her icons. XD

[shurimon]

tickyboxtickyboxtickybox~

[ryuutchi]

The ticky box sees no race. The ticky box loves you as you are.

[fickle_goddess]

I swear there was a black ranger, right? I mostly remember some guy being related to the evil space queen because she was secretly his sister or something and then getting horrified that I'd liked them as a couple before that. *was a very little kid and this was BEFORE fandom*

[ryuutchi]

There were multiple black rangers! Although I have no idea if you mean black as in race or black as in uniform colors, but both are accurate.

I think you're remembering Power Rangers in Space (which is the last season I watched until I picked up again with SPD. I'm working my way backwards...) That would be Andros and his sister Karone, who went by the name "Astronema" while she was evil. They actually didn't make the black guy the black ranger that season-- the black guy wore the blue uniform, and the black uniform was worn by the latino.

Interestingly, it's another one of the seasons where the white protagonists weren't the majority-- for the first half of the season, they were a minority, although the addition of Zhane as the Silver Ranger brought the white protagonists up to half of the team.

[fickle_goddess]

YES! That's the one! *pleased*

[second_batgirl]

POSSIBLY I HAVE BEEN THREATENING TO WRITE META ON POWER RANGERS ALL WEEK, SO YOU HAVE TO AS WELL SO I CAN POINT TO OTHER PEOPLE AND BE ALL "SEE? I AM NOT TOTALLY CRAZY."

Except I am, and I totally apologize for the crazy capslocks. Because um. Yeah.

So you should write that, so then I can write the whole genetically enhanced thing on the new series and how it is stupid and defeats the original purpose of the show. Or something.

Also Adam is really hot

[ryuutchi]

You are crazy, but I'm the one sitting here, going through the characters n the seasons I've watched and noting their ethnicities and whether or not it was ever dealt with on the show. (Generally... no.)

Aww, what's wrong with the genetically enhanced thing? SPD had psychics!

He's a frog. XD

[second_batgirl]

Well, I've thought about that as well, and it was one of the meta things I was vaguely threatening to write. But I would really love to read it if you do!

The wrong with the genetically enhanced thing is that the point was they were all normal teens with crazy martial arts skills who chose to do good. They were given their powers, but they just helped what was already there. And every time they fought the putties/whatever without their powers, it was giving the 'you don't need powers to be a hero' message, but the whole genetically enhanced thing bothers me. Also, because half the fun was watching them do martial arts thing, and the whole powers just bothers me.

who becomes a handsome prince

[ryuutchi]

God, this thing is taking me forever to write. There are so many inconsistencies-- I mean, the earlier seasons were sort of interconnected, but then they stopped, and then there was the whole Disney buyout, and the general sentai conventions...

Well, they sort of stopped being "normal" teens by the time Justin showed up. I mean, ubersmart!11 year-old is sort of incompatible with the "you can be normal and a hero" message. And then the aliens showed up...

You can have him.

[vejiicakes]

Well I'm curious! I haven't really watched the show since I was a wee thing, though I do remember thinking, a little further down the line when I was even old enough to consider this stuff, that the non-white Rangers always seemed to need some sort of justification for, you know, being.

Plus a flister I'm rooming with at Yaoicon is real heavy into PR, so I'm kind of interested in where this talk could go ^^

[ryuutchi]

Some of them need more reason for being-- it tends to fluctuate with the seasons. I'm not sure if they retain writers between seasons, which might account for some of it, as well as the difference in plots. For instance, the difference between Operation Overdrive (the current season) and Mystic Force (last season) smacks you in the face. kikos_ai did a really good rundown of the stereotypes present in current season. Whereas the last season (possibly because the main characters didn't need to be nearly so outstanding), the characters are more low-key-- you have a Latina who is very shy and hides behind a video camera, her outgoing sister who likes to DJ, an Arab boy who likes to tinker with motorcycles, a nerdy White D&D geek boy, and a White (Australian) playa

[vejiicakes]

Sounds like it should be a fun, fascinating, and possibly exasperating read, if you decide to do it ^^ I always get a kick out of the writers who seem to be like, "Okay, we want some ethnic guys in here, but how to explain their being ethnic??" I think Kal Penn, or maybe it was John Cho, hit on it when he said that it was about finding that equilibrium of character writing where it wasn't all about their ethnicity, but at the same time, didn't really ignore it either. Incidentally, I will admit that I thought Harold and Kumar functioned brilliantly on that, though that's neither here nor there. Whoo, tangent.

Yep, and she may or may not even be PR cosplaying! Big Tommy fan. (Or I think she said it was Tommy. Er, whichever one they kept through later seasons, even when he got much much older than most of the other Rangers, which I think is absolutely delightful and kind of creepy.)

[ryuutchi]

It might take me a while to write, cause I want to grab some background reading on sentai first, and brush up on the series I haven't seen in a while. Doesn't help that I missed four or five seasons in the middle while I tried to pretend that I had "outgrown" the show.

That is a problem with the writing-- sometimes the show makes a big deal out of the character's ethnicity, and sometimes it ignores it altogether. Sometimes in the same season. For instance, Cam is the "Japanese" son of the sensei in Ninja Storm-- nevermind the fact that the actor was Chinese-- whereas the Red Ranger's ethnicity (the actor is Samoan, IMDB tells me) in the same season was never mentioned.

That's Tommy, yeah. He was in Dino Thunder as their professor/mentor/creepy perverted uncle/Black Ranger. YAY! Power Rangers cosplay. I'm planning to wear my SPD-inspired t-shirt. ("It's buttery!")