As an Asian American, I am truly sorry for that. I can’t personally speak well on the subject but I always encourage people to read this NPR article from 2017.
‘Model Minority’ Myth Again Used As A Racial Wedge Between Asians And Blacks
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?
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.
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…
The 2024 Amazon series remake/reimagining.
I love Donald Glover but not even this can convince me that Mr. and Mrs. Smith needed a Remake in 2025.
Foreal
And that wasn’t the original co-star. Maya Erskine was a replacement for Jane when Phoebe Waller-Bridge left the production. Waller-Birdge was originally cast Jane. So the characters would have been a biracial couple.
They are a biracial couple, just none of them is white.
That said, Phoebe Waller-Bridge would have made a totally different show.
Interesting. I didn’t watch it, but seemed another let’s check the diversity check box by replacing another straight white couple with an Asian-black biracial couple. I didn’t know the original casting for the show.
Glover was always attached to this. They did not change that.
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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?
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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.
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Thanks for reminding me why I hate blue MAGA.
They are perfectly fine with oppression so long as the oppression is to the benefit of the capitalist status quo. Never forget that neoliberals are still right wing.
It’s not like they’ll ever let you forget if you look at their actual positions.
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.
Pretty sure people who want things to go back to normal aren’t asking for share cropping to come back.
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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.
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Cynical and bitter mutualist & consequentialist. I hate accelerationists and their apologists as much as I hate fascists. I don’t have access to this account during weekends.
Your profile description is shockingly accurate. Like holy shit that gave me a laugh. Thanks for that hon.
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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.
I didn’t ever think things were fucking awesome, but at least it felt we were on a good path a few times.
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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)
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.
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.
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