Dragon ([info]ryuutchi) wrote,
@ 2007-08-07 11:06:00
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Current mood: dorky
Entry tags:poll, power rangers, racism

It's International Blog Against Racism Week!
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 #1035067 Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 21

What would your reaction be if I wrote an International Blog Against Racism Week post about Power Rangers?

View Answers

Interesting...
12 (57.1%)

WOW. Geeky.
12 (57.1%)

Is that show still on?
6 (28.6%)

Hold up. Wasn't that the show where the black ranger was black and the yellow ranger was asian?
12 (57.1%)

Why are you wasting your time on this?
2 (9.5%)

I'd much rather you write something personal instead of fannish.
0 (0.0%)

My thoughts on Power Rangers and/or race. Let me show you them.
4 (19.0%)

Ticky has no race, ticky has no gender. Ticky is the perfect box.
10 (47.6%)



Also, I just like making polls.

(22 comments) - (Post a new comment)


[info]kikos_ai
2007-08-07 06:32 pm UTC (link)
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.

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[info]ryuutchi
2007-08-07 06:42 pm UTC (link)
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.

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[info]kikos_ai
2007-08-07 06:53 pm UTC (link)
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 [info]angel_negra btw.

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[info]ryuutchi
2007-08-07 07:10 pm UTC (link)
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

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[info]kikos_ai
2007-08-07 07:47 pm UTC (link)
There is the question, though-- is it better that the cast is minority white when everyone's a stereotype or worse?

Ah. The question that has dogged media types for decades.

I guess some would argue that an absence of what I'm gonna say is "racial other" characters (because no longer are Blacks/Hispanics/Asians minorities in America and I'm still iffy about the word "colored" damnit) is worse because children need to see people who look like them represented on tv. They need to know that people like them grow up to be Rangers/scientists/college students. But on the other hand, its probably I think more damaging to see a stereotype of a Black man because it reinforces cultural biases. If there is a absence of Black characters on a show its not really reinforcing anything. But if the only Black character you see on a show is a super masculine brotha who likes the ladies and is all about 'giv'n attitude' to the Man while also shown sleeping all the time in the rec room....yeah. That's a problem. Its a problem to the little white kids at home who maybe have never seen a Black person in their tiny mountain town of 1,000 as much as it is to the Black kid in LA watching PR while also watching his brother watching BET.

For many writers, its a hard line between tokenism and stereotype, particularly when they may not know a lot about the culture they're writing about. MMPR at times came off as 'token' racist because some of their plotlines revolved around "Trini is a Chinese American. Let us explore her exoticism by having a episode about her devotion to HONOR." SPD was totally opposite; the only way we know Z was hispanic was because of her name because lets face it, culture was never brought up (I guess it said in her cast sheet too, cause otherwise I would have said she was Italian). Bridge had to make a joke about being Jewish before we even knew about it. Which one is better...shit I dunno. I appreciate it when Zeo had Adam time travel to Korea because it acknowledged ethnicity without being too smarmy about it. But I don't really mind that SPD never brought up Bridge's bar mitzvah because it would have been really awkward to be like "Hey guys! I'm the first Jewish Ranger! Is that cool or what?!"

So yeah. I think PR handles racism pretty well given the complexity of the issue. Its made some major mistakes but its not as bad as some (looking at you, Captain Planet). Totally long way of not answering your question thou. (Huzza for being at work and not working!)

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[info]shurimon
2007-08-07 06:46 pm UTC (link)
tickyboxtickyboxtickybox~

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[info]ryuutchi
2007-08-07 06:51 pm UTC (link)
The ticky box sees no race. The ticky box loves you as you are.

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[info]fickle_goddess
2007-08-07 08:28 pm UTC (link)
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*

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[info]ryuutchi
2007-08-07 08:36 pm UTC (link)
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.

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[info]fickle_goddess
2007-08-08 01:19 pm UTC (link)
YES! That's the one! *pleased*

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[info]second_batgirl
2007-08-07 11:08 pm UTC (link)
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

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[info]ryuutchi
2007-08-07 11:23 pm UTC (link)
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

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[info]second_batgirl
2007-08-07 11:40 pm UTC (link)
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

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[info]ryuutchi
2007-08-08 08:12 pm UTC (link)
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.

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[info]second_batgirl
2007-08-08 08:20 pm UTC (link)
Internal consistency? In power rangers? HA. I WISH. Because seriously, Billy "I am scared of fish" Cranston moved to a WATER PLANET to be with a FISH ALIEN. WTF?!

Yeah, the series stopped being connected after PRiS, which is the end of the Zordon things. After that it was really just 'and see? they all occasionally show up?" *sighs*

And Justin is evil and never should have existed. *pretends all of Turbo never happened* (Also, the writing on that season was ABNORMALLY BAD. Even for that show!) But even then, they still didn't rely on genetic enhancements, they used what they actually had. And there were martial arts, and it was awesome. PRiS was the start of the genetic enhancement thing, because Andros used telekinisis in battle...

Thanks! *cuddles him*

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[info]vejiicakes
2007-08-07 11:08 pm UTC (link)
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 ^^

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]ryuutchi
2007-08-07 11:37 pm UTC (link)
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. [info]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.

There's a lot of complications with saying ANYTHING flat out about PR because they change plots every season-- especially the more separate later seasons. Up through Lost Galaxy (Season 6, I think) the writers tried to incorporate earlier characters and plots.

There's going to be another PR fan at Yaoicon? Rock. XD

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[info]vejiicakes
2007-08-08 12:58 am UTC (link)
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.)

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[info]ryuutchi
2007-08-08 06:56 am UTC (link)
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!")

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[info]vejiicakes
2007-08-08 08:41 am UTC (link)
I think this system of playing up a character's ethnicity, and completely neglecting another's, can probably be attributed to whether our culture has existing, broad stereotypes about that ethnicity in the first place. Maybe. "Japanese son of sensei Ninja Star" comes loaded with all sorts of expectations in our culture, whereas I think Samoan probably doesn't carry that same amount of baggage (frankly, I don't think most Americans could point out the Samoan Islands on a map..)

Though personally speaking, I've never really minded this whole "casting Chinese actor as Japanese/Korean/whatever character" business, in the same sense that I don't ask that Orlando Bloom actually be Greek to play Paris in Troy, or that Jeremy Irons be French to play.. whoever the heck he was in Man in the Iron Mask. I think casting within race, if not ethnicity, is permissible as far as suspending disbelief of the character in question. (Heck, I've lived in a sizeable Japanese American family for twenty one years now, and if I still can't tell someone who's Japanese from some other east Asian group, I'm certainly not going to expect most other people to XD)

Wasn't he, like, a Green or White or some Super Speshul Color Ranger in the earlier seasons? *memory fails* Anyway, I'm sure she'll be totally excited to see another fan there ^_^

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[info]ryuutchi
2007-08-08 08:17 pm UTC (link)
You have a point, and I hope you don't mind if I end up stealing it, whenever I get this thing written up. (with credit given, of course.)

Honestly, I have a lot of trouble IDing ethnicity on sight, regardless of where the person's from. I can sometimes manage to get the area right, but-- for instance, I thought the Lebanese actor in Mystic Force was Pakistani until I looked it up. The only reason I noticed the Japanese/Chinese thing was the last names of the character and the actor.

Heh. Tommy was both Green AND White in Might Morphin'. I have a list up now, if you want to peruse.

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[info]vejiicakes
2007-08-08 11:16 pm UTC (link)
I don't mind at all, and I'm looking forward to your thoughts on yaoi PR's treatment of non-white ethnicities in casting ^_^

There's an east Asian tester thingy up somewhere online, where it's multiple choice and you get to figure out from a series of face shots whether the person is Chinese/Japanese/Korean/Vietnamese/etc. IT R HARD! I only got a little over half right, and that was largely an exercise in Place Hand Over Eyes and Click a Bubble.

And I love lists! Ohhhh, but I'd better get back to my finals projects before it gets too late again -_- When I get back, I'll give it a good long lookover.

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