You've said often enough in the past that you think it's not the role of white people to criticise what's genuinely offensive in non-white culture, but that that role is best left to those within that culture.
I don't think my position on this is as black and white as you understand it to be. I have some serious philosophical objections to cultural relativism. It's possible that we just haven't discussed it for a long time. However, I do broadly agree with what you say here, and this is kind of my problem. For example, I know there were a number of criticisms of Bro'Town from within the Samoan community, but I tend to agree that it's not necessarily my place to expound on why I think this show or any other is racist. On the one hand, there is media that has involved people of colour (even at a writing/production level, though I think it's worthwhile noting that this show is written by a Pakeha guy) that is still understood as racist. On the other other hand, me standing around making comparisons to minstrel shows or whatever [that is a sarcastic example] is problematic itself because - what, like David Fane isn't smart enough to recognise racism, and clever little Pakeha me can? That's moronic.
I can't really come to a conclusion, so I'm just putting out there what I think and how I feel. These shows *do* depend on race and gender stereotypes. I know that I find the gender stereotypes unfunny and sexist. I find the race stuff unfunny. It doesn't seem like a stretch to me that a show which is sexist is also going to be racist; but on the other hand it's possible there aren't any women in production or writing, but there are people of colour. (TVNZ is fucking useless, so I can't get any information about who is actually working on the show at that level.)
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Date: 2009-03-12 06:23 am (UTC)I don't think my position on this is as black and white as you understand it to be. I have some serious philosophical objections to cultural relativism. It's possible that we just haven't discussed it for a long time. However, I do broadly agree with what you say here, and this is kind of my problem. For example, I know there were a number of criticisms of Bro'Town from within the Samoan community, but I tend to agree that it's not necessarily my place to expound on why I think this show or any other is racist. On the one hand, there is media that has involved people of colour (even at a writing/production level, though I think it's worthwhile noting that this show is written by a Pakeha guy) that is still understood as racist. On the other other hand, me standing around making comparisons to minstrel shows or whatever [that is a sarcastic example] is problematic itself because - what, like David Fane isn't smart enough to recognise racism, and clever little Pakeha me can? That's moronic.
I can't really come to a conclusion, so I'm just putting out there what I think and how I feel. These shows *do* depend on race and gender stereotypes. I know that I find the gender stereotypes unfunny and sexist. I find the race stuff unfunny. It doesn't seem like a stretch to me that a show which is sexist is also going to be racist; but on the other hand it's possible there aren't any women in production or writing, but there are people of colour. (TVNZ is fucking useless, so I can't get any information about who is actually working on the show at that level.)