Racist Tropey Nonsense (spoilers ep 2)

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

SO wtf seriously this show begins by killing off two people of colour, LEADERS of their people and replacing them with white people. First we get the older asian female captain killed off and being replaced by a white man presumably in ep 3.Then we get the blackest of Klingons we've ever seen killed off and replaced with an Albino Klingon! Like what the actual heck?!

Albino Klingon is giving me a Shinzon vibe, the creepy white fatherless underdog.

I think this is a very unfortunate way to begin.

 

[Jedi_Master]

It was a strange choice, particularly with the "I see the color of your skin, some people think you are an abomination" speech in ep. 1.

 

[Spider]

meh......white on one side black on the other, we've already seen it anyways. But I see no deliberate racism here, just unfortunately clunky story telling.

 

[dahj]

Albino Klingon is giving me a Shinzon vibe, the creepy white fatherless underdog.

Time Travelling Klingon Picard Clone.

Calling it now!

 

[Nyotarules]

when did white stop being a colour.

 

[Kemaiku]

Albino Klingons are from "Who Killed Captain Kirk?"

In the comics, they suffer from a ranch of degenerative issues and are usually outcats in society, often outright killed when found.

 

[Tuskin38]

There was was also the Albino from DS9, he was never said to be a Klingon in the show but the novels made him one.

 

[CardassianAssassin]

Is... Is this sarcasm?

You know, as in an ironic, pisstaking spoof of buzzword-throwing, pearl clutching, inadvertently racist SJWs?

Cause in that case, kudos! You managed to capture the hysterical handwringing just right!

Extra bonus points for the subtle dig on SJWs with the hypocritical, inadvertently racist comment on Albino POC.

 

[steam235]

I can't ascribe racism to the Klingon situation, they're aliens. I think you might be reading too much into that. If we want to go that route, we could also say it was racist to make the Klingons so dark, Why do the bad guys have to be black? etc etc.

Replacing Michelle Yeoh? She was a guest star, and it was great to get her for two episodes, but there was no way she was going to be an ongoing lead.

 

[CardassianAssassin]

Albino Klingons are from "Who Killed Captain Kirk?"

In the comics, they suffer from a ranch of degenerative issues and are usually outcats in society, often outright killed when found.

Kinda like real Albinos in Africa, who are often hunted because they supposedly contain gold on the inside, or make for powerful ingredients for black magic.

(I kid you not! In some countries they've had to make special albino-villages, because they're at risk for being hunted and killed otherwise. It's tragic!)

 

[Rahul]

Not sure if "concern trolling" or whatever...?
But considering SMG is still the main character, 'anti-SJW' can hardly describe this show. Or was it racist when they replaced Cpt. Robeau (the amazing Faran Tahir!) as Captain in ST09 with the whitebread Chris Pine...?

But yeah, I got a bit of a "let that be your last battlefield"-subtlety-with-a-sledgehammer feeling about the "white"-skinned klingon being "accepted" by the black-skinned one....

 

[Jedi_Master]

But yeah, I got a bit of a "let that be your last battlefield"-subtlety-with-a-sledgehammer feeling about the "white"-skinned klingon being "accepted" by the black-skinned one....

A really bad speech in a show that had more than a few clunky lines.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

I can't ascribe racism to the Klingon situation, they're aliens.

Actually, Voq's pale skin color was explicitly discussed in Klingon in the context of Klingons being prejudiced against it, so I don't believe that it's tenable to deny that racism was being discussed between them in-story. The exact words spoken were, "Some may see the color of your skin as nature's mistake." That's pretty unambiguously allegorical of human racism, if not literally representative of it.

ed - @Jedi_Master paraphrased that in post #2.

 

[Rahul]

A really bad speech in a show that had more than a few clunky lines.

Eh. For me it was just a clunky moment. They didn't actually put a whole episode around the premise and had a preachy speech from the Captain at the end of it, about how humans overcame the same problems in the past.

 

[seigezunt]

Eh. Let's see how the story develops. Still has a strong WoC lead.

 

[steam235]

Actually, Voq's pale skin color was explicitly discussed in Klingon in the context of Klingons being prejudiced against it, so I don't believe that it's tenable to deny that racism was being discussed between them in-story. The exact words spoken were, "Some may see the color of your skin as nature's mistake." That's pretty unambiguously allegorical of human racism, if not literally representative of it.

But OP is talking about the real world cast choices, of going from people of color to non people of color. In story they are going from majority skin color to minority skin color for Klingons, so in story we're going to more inclusion of fictitious alien skin colors. The Klingon skin colors don't really play into the casting choices as OP presented them.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

But OP is talking about the real world cast choices, of going from people of color to non people of color. In story they are going from majority skin color to minority skin color for Klingons, so in story we're going to more inclusion of fictitious alien skin colors. The Klingon skin colors don't really play into the casting choices as OP presented them.

No. From the OP:

Then we get the blackest of Klingons we've ever seen killed off and replaced with an Albino Klingon!

This part of the OP, at least, seems to me to be quite clear in being about what was happening in-universe and not at all specifically about casting.

ed - In fact, the whole OP reads like a discussion about what's happening in-universe. The OP discusses the "asian female captain" getting killed off. If @teacake had intended to discuss casting, she could have mentioned Michelle Yeoh, but she didn't. Perhaps @teacake can clarify.

 

[steam235]

SMG is still the main character,

Thought of Buffy for a second there.

 

[Guy Gardener]

No. From the OP:



This part of the OP, at least, seems to me to be quite clear in being about what was happening in-universe and not at all specifically about casting.

The first thought through my head when T'Kuvma got shot was "Black lives matter".

Sure, he's not human, and the shooter was a woman of colour, but the media, y'know?

 

[Apparition B5]

If the show is honking off the hard right (OMG, the diversity!), and the hard left, CBS must be doing something right.