• TheseusNow@lemmy.zip
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      6 hours ago

      This NPR article is a pretty interesting take on how the model minority myth gets used to drive a wedge between Black and Asian communities, covering up the real struggles both face. It got me thinking about this Hollywood trope I keep noticing but rarely see anyone talk about—or when they do, it kind of gets shut down. It’s how Black and Asian characters pretty much always end up paired romantically whenever Hollywood wants to show diversity. You see it across the board: Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Invincible, Lovecraft Country, Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella, and a bunch of others. It’s like Hollywood uses these relationships to tick a diversity box but without really challenging the usual racial dynamics or putting White stories at less of a center. What do y’all make of that?

        • hopesdead@startrek.website
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          4 hours ago

          I glanced briefly at the list of TV examples. As a Trekkie I must point out that in “The Gamesters of Triskelion” (the version that got filmed) we are told the Thrall assigned to Uhura is ordered to do whatever he wants and that Uhura must comply. All you see is an off-screen cut away with screaming in the background. This isn’t usually discussed among the fandom but that was clearly rape. Uhura was raped in that episode. Let that sink-in.

      • P1k1e@lemmy.world
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        5 hours ago

        Ok so this is mega interesting and I haven’t seen most of these but… Mr and Mrs Smith? There’s like 5 characters in that movie. None of which I can recall are black or Asian…

  • finitebanjo@piefed.world
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    19 hours ago

    At what point do you agree things are worse now than before? Is it when Trump successfully overturns the 14th amendment and starts throwing out non-whites all over the nation? (He has literally already signed the executive order).

    • mfed1122@discuss.tchncs.de
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      3 hours ago

      Yeah, it’s unfortunate that people can’t just grasp the simple degree of nuance like:

      Things were always bad but now they are even worse.

      It’s like as soon as you say that things were always bad. People’s brains are like “Bad is bad so it was bad then and it’s bad now so it’s the same”

      I do agree with the idea of this meme itself though. This meme isn’t really saying that things aren’t worse, it’s just saying that some demographics were ignorant of the country’s failings for others, and now they’re not because the country is failing everyone. It’s throwing a bit of an insult from the angle of “You don’t really care or notice if things are bad until they happen to you”, which is fair, but most importantly does not deny that things are worse.

    • zqps@sh.itjust.works
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      3 hours ago

      That’s not quite the point. Minorities are extremely aware that things are worse under Trump.

      The point is liberals pretending that things were just fucking awesome before, as if all the systemic issues that are now exacerbated haven’t been there before at all.

    • angstylittlecatboy@reddthat.com
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      5 hours ago

      Honestly it’s only in lefty circles I see people insist that it’s not worse than before.

      And yeah, it’s not the worst it’s ever been. But it is the worst in my lifetime. (mixed race btw)

    • samus12345@sh.itjust.works
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      5 hours ago

      He doesn’t have to officially overturn anything. He just directs people to do his bidding, and they do it. The Constitution is less than worthless at this point.

    • balderdash@lemmy.zip
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      10 hours ago

      This country was founded on the murder of natives and the exploitation of slaves/immigrants: that foundation has reverberated throughout our entire history. Government/corporate policy, often racist and sexist, works to maintain a permanent under class of exploited workers that provide cheap labor for the ruling class (e.g., sharecropping, Jim Crow, redlining, denial of reproductive rights, corporate offshoring, ever-increasing cost of living, etc.).

      Not to mention the devastation that America has inflicted on the developing world. Obvious examples include millions of civilian casualties during our wars in Asia and the Middle East, foreign resource extraction that provides us with cheap consumer good (e.g., banana republics in South America, slave mines for metals in the Congo, etc.), and CIA operations that have been openly declassified (e.g., overthrowing presidents, installing dictators, disseminating propaganda) because this country can’t even pretend to live up to its professed ideals. Any serious study of American history suggests this country has never been “great” in anything beside our wasteful military expenditure and our inexhaustible favoritism of the wealthy. Trump is revealing how sick this country has always been and anyone who wants to go back to “normal” doesn’t understand what brought us here.

      • HalfSalesman@lemmy.world
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        5 hours ago

        Pretty sure people who want things to go back to normal aren’t asking for share cropping to come back.

      • doinky@lemmy.today
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        6 hours ago

        The shittiest part is that arguably, the US deserves this for all of the terrible things we’ve done. On the other hand, the people that will suffer the worst are the most vulnerable populations.

        And of course, I don’t want to be subjected to this either, but… yeah.

      • finitebanjo@piefed.world
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        7 hours ago

        Wow so I guess things really were bad in the Obama admin with all the Native American eradication campaigns.

        Definitely nothing happened between 1621 and 2008.

        /s

        • balderdash@lemmy.zip
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          7 hours ago

          What a non-response. Pick whichever year you like, America has never lived up to its professed ideals. For example, in school we learn that the U.S. is a melting pot: “Give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses!!”

          Except, immigrants who would now be considered White faced significant racial discrimination in the 1800s, Chinese immigrants faced racism/horrible working conditions, Obama deported more than Trump did in his first term, and now Trump is kidnapping immigrants off of the street. This country is rotten to its core.

          • finitebanjo@piefed.world
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            7 hours ago

            TBH I didn’t really see any relevant points in your first reply worth arguing. You’re just saying children now need to suffer and die because of something people in the late 15th to 18th centuries decided to do, that nothing ever changes, ever has or ever will.

            • 4am@lemmy.zip
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              5 hours ago

              We shouldn’t continue to treat people like shit because our ancestors treated their ancestors like shit.

              “Blacks where enslaved and even after being released we’re never allowed to build equity and generational wealth in America and when they tried we killed them for it, but we passed the civil right s act so they really need to learn to integrate and stop doing crime and ghettos” is the dumb take we fight against today.

              But DEI is just targeted class correction which is why it triggers the racists, but what needs to happen is that class equalization needs to happen across racial, ethnic, regional, generational boundaries.

              No one (well, extremely few) does crime if they can make a good living. Stop taking away opportunities and driving people into their survival instinct.

              • finitebanjo@piefed.world
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                5 hours ago

                You’re going to sit there and say the Civil Rights Acts were ineffective and pointless? It sounds to me like the biggest advocate against racial equality here is you.

                • MajorasTerribleFate@lemmy.zip
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                  5 hours ago

                  I think their argument was not that the Civil Rights Act and similar legislation have done nothing, but that they haven’t done enough yet, and that people who like to pretend that “because we have passed certain of these laws, the work is done and everything is equal now, our best option is to pretend racism is all gone and just let every compete fairly in the all-better world” are either dreaming or lying.

            • balderdash@lemmy.zip
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              7 hours ago

              On the contrary, as the contradictions become more apparent we will be forced to decide between fascism or radical systemic change. Just as the status quo of feudal surfs came to an end, so too must this current system.

              • HalfSalesman@lemmy.world
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                4 hours ago

                Fascism has already won and the racial minorities, religious minorities, LGBT people, women, disabled, etc etc were fucked the moment they announced he was the winner in November 2024. They’re already suffering the consequences. They’re already dying in many cases. Things are on fire. We are in a tar pit.

                Just because the dipshit fascists got into office doesn’t suddenly mean people are going to start a grand socialist revolution you fucking retard. Do you really think liberals and socialists are going to join together and sacrifice themselves for some fucking utopia when both of them blame the other for our current predicament? DO YOU NOT REALIZE HOW FUCKING PETTY PEOPLE ARE?

                At best, this will pass and things will simply be worse after a harrowing 4 years of incompetent fascist leadership. Innocent people will suffer and die in the mean time for no reason but after the world will lurch forward towards a dimmer and more fragile tomorrow. Maybe we’re alive but entropy is getting a boost.

                At worst, we will sink as we point fingers at each other. We will drown in shit quickly, and little to nothing will be left.

                This is just failure, and you are completely deluded to think otherwise.

              • finitebanjo@piefed.world
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                6 hours ago

                Good luck with that. In the meantime we’ll be working towards the only successful mode of change ever practiced in the USA, and the most consistently successful method ever practiced in our species history: democratic election of representatives who promote the reforms we need to help people and save lives.

    • NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io
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      18 hours ago

      They are worse; the point of the meme is that the difference is one of degree and target, not kind. Trump’s America is just a worse, somewhat more brazen version of the normal America everyone seems to want to go back to.

      starts throwing out non-whites all over the nation?

      Remember liberals bragging about Biden deporting more people than Trump?

      • finitebanjo@piefed.world
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        17 hours ago

        Yeah I do remember, because the criminal only ICE focus was not only effective but also spared countless women and children from living many months in cages as was the case during the previous and current Trump admins.

        • NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io
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          17 hours ago

          It was effective at kicking non-whites out of the country. You know, exactly the thing Trump is doing.

          Between 2009 and 2016, the Barack Obama administration oversaw the deporting of a record 2.4 million undocumented immigrants who had entered the United States, earning him the nickname “Deporter-In-Chief” by Janet Murguía, the president of National Council of La Raza.[16][17] According to ICE data, about 40% of those deported by ICE in 2015 had no criminal conviction, while a majority of those convicted were guilty of minor charges.

          • finitebanjo@piefed.world
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            15 hours ago

            Oh I’m sorry you’re right, Obama was just as bad as Trump, all those innocent women and children sleeping in animal pens for months or even years was completely normal and acceptable. /s

            Are you even aware of the context of the 14th amendment? Do you know when and why it was put in place? Look it up, then you’ll start to see what they’re planning.