[QatzelOk]

Here are some examples of representations of "race" taken from various periods of commercial media.

I have chosen only from the most popular actors, comedians, and TV series so as to get a better idea of the general represention of non-hegemonic groups.

Jerry Lewis interprets "East Asian" (1960s)

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Jerry Seinfeld interprets "Indian Subcontinent" (1990s)

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Sacha Baron Cohen interpets "Central Asian" (2000s)

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In all of these examples, the targetted non-white group that is parodied is treated as having no values or sovereignty.

The "joke" is primarily built out of the fact that these cultures have different values than the TV demographic that the advertisers are selling products to.

These cultural differences are mocked, and the targetted cultures are in no way allowed to "mock back" at the source of their mockery. It's a one-way mocking.

[late]

Here are some examples of representations of "race" taken from various periods of commercial media.

The only people that like Jerry Lewis now are the French, and they see Americans as the butt of that joke.

Right wingnuts complain constantly that they can't insult minorities now.

So, you have a good point, and we are a long ways from being respectful muticulturalists, but we are doing better.

Half an oaf is better than none?

[QatzelOk]

The only people that like Jerry Lewis now are the French, and they see Americans as the butt of that joke.

Anecdote: I was staying with a French family (in France) in the early 70s, when Jerry Lewis was still popular there.
I was just a young pre-teen.

One of the French pre teens who receive me as an exchange studeant - the smart one - said: "Boy, and we think the French are racist! Haha!"

So the joke in France was (often) about how openly racist American media was (is?).



Orientalism describes how racist media representation is used to "justify" colonialism. Did any of the groups who were represented by the commercial media comics above... experience Western colonialism or invasion?

East Asians, Indians, or Central Asians? Aren't all of these "backyard" countries?

[late]

Anecdote: I was staying with a French family (in France) in the early 70s, when Jerry Lewis was still popular there.
I was just a young teen.

One of the French teens sons - the smart one - said: "Boy, and we think the French are racist! Haha"

So the joke in France was how openly racist American media was (is?).

[QatzelOk]

Blazing Saddles Video

What are some of the race representation issues in the film you provided?

[late]

What are some of the race representation issues in the film you provided?

If you had watched the clip, you would know the main character is a Black guy that thinks like a contemporary person having to deal with the extreme racism of the past.

It's funny, and pretty much everybody gets a send up. Watch it sometime, it's an old favorite of mine.

[QatzelOk]

If you had watched the clip, you would know the main character is a Black guy that thinks like a contemporary person having to deal with the extreme racism of the past.

It's funny, and pretty much everybody gets a send up. Watch it sometime, it's an old favorite of mine.

I saw it many, many years ago.

I didn't find it funny because, as a Western Movie satire, it totally missed the "celebrating genocides" nature of these films.

[late]

I saw it many, many years ago.

I didn't find it funny because, as a Western Movie satire, it totally missed the "celebrating genocides" nature of these films.

If Mel Brooks did that, it wouldn't exactly be a comedy, now would it?

[ckaihatsu]

Anecdote: I was staying with a French family (in France) in the early 70s, when Jerry Lewis was still popular there.
I was just a young pre-teen.

One of the French pre teens who receive me as an exchange studeant - the smart one - said: "Boy, and we think the French are racist! Haha!"

So the joke in France was (often) about how openly racist American media was (is?).



Orientalism describes how racist media representation is used to "justify" colonialism. Did any of the groups who were represented by the commercial media comics above... experience Western colonialism or invasion?

East Asians, Indians, or Central Asians? Aren't all of these "backyard" countries?

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America's backyard is a concept often used in political science and international relations contexts to refer to the sphere of influence of the United States, the USA's traditional areas of dominance, especially Latin America.

It is somewhat analogous to the Russian concept of near abroad (Russian: ближнее зарубежье, blizhneye zarubezhye), which referred to Central Asian states during Soviet era rule.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America%27s_Backyard

[QatzelOk]

America's backyard is a concept often used in political science and international relations contexts to refer to the sphere of influence of the United States, the USA's traditional areas of dominance, especially Latin America.

I think the word "dominance" is important here in explaining why "the other" is represented in such a disrespectful and child-like way.

MY TAKE: If a particular hegemonic group (Western bankers and their helpers) wants to dominate another culture, it typically smears that other culture in its owned media.

Inventing the notion of "race" in the 18th Century was mainly a way of classifying other nations as *almost belonging to another species.*

And just look how little respect we have for other species. We torture, kill and eat them.

If Mel Brooks did that, it wouldn't exactly be a comedy, now would it?

Mel Brooks - a Jewish film director - hid the genocides from his cheap-yuck-yucks movie narrative in order to make money off of laughs. This adds another layer of racial injustice to the commercial media story. His film narrative denies the First Nations genocides.

In much the same way, the Jerry Lewish clip in the OP denies (never acknowledges) how David Sassoon made a fortune by forcing the Chinese to take opium for payment for real merchandise that was manufactured there. And the whole drug-dealing scam was backed up by the British military. So China was, for a long time, another backyard country for hegemonic exploitation.

And Jerry Lewis "did his part" by smearing an entire civilization.

[QatzelOk]

The OP contains video clips from Jerry Lewis, Jerry Seinfeld, and Sacha Cohen.

This does NOT mean that these comic actors are particulary racist themselves.

See, an actor or comic... is only as successful as their audience response is, and this audience response means that you first need to find an audience.

To find an audience, you need to find funding and promotion. And this means that, however famous you are, you have to grovel and ass-kiss some billionaire media tycoon.

And so the racism of mainstream media is ALSO due to the fact that actors have to impress some very racist megalomaniacs... in order to become famous in the first place.

Audience capture is used to explain how the audience response can manipulate a performer into becoming something that he wasn't orginally. But the biggest "capture" is probably Sponsor Capture (being manipulated by the money behind media).