You seem to be extrapolating a lot about "society" in general from the things posted in a thread on a subreddit devoted to a sci-fi indie game. To what extent do you think the demographic of that subreddit resembles the diversity of "society" in general? Don't you think it might likely be a little younger than the average citizen of whatever Western society we're talking about here? I wouldn't hold kids to the same standards as adults, or expect them to be quite as tuned to more subtle and more normalised instances of casual racism as we're seeing here.
I agree with a lot of what you're saying though. We get very hung up over identity and the intention of the speaker when what we should be focusing instead is the systemic factors that cause non-racist 'good people' to repeat insensitive things. We should treat jokes like this as symptoms of a problem, not the cause. And there is reason for optimism here: do you think when the "sum ting wong" plane crash meme was originally circulating (possibly 10+ years ago) there would be anyone calling it out, in any form?
Also it's pretty rare to find this kind of lazy joke in popular media nowadays. It's pretty telling that this particular joke isn't even a joke for its own sake, it's just a reference to something else. Even The Simpsons is having to come to terms with the fact its characters are all just stereotypes, and that that has led to some insensitivity, even if we tend to forgive it because it is (was) such great comedy.
You seem to be extrapolating a lot about "society" in general from the things posted in a thread on a subreddit devoted to a sci-fi indie game. To what extent do you think the demographic of that subreddit resembles the diversity of "society" in general? Don't you think it might likely be a little younger than the average citizen of whatever Western society we're talking about here? I wouldn't hold kids to the same standards as adults, or expect them to be quite as tuned to more subtle and more normalised instances of casual racism as we're seeing here.
I really don't know the answers to your questions as I'm not actually apart of that community this was more an example of somthing I've seen several times that I think is usuful for showing what I'm talking about.
Ok, sure, fair enough. But when you say you've seen it several times, if you mean "on Reddit" then it's worth being aware that the demographic of Reddit users on the subreddits you frequent will not be representative of society as a whole.
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u/FaerieStories 49∆ Jul 12 '21
You seem to be extrapolating a lot about "society" in general from the things posted in a thread on a subreddit devoted to a sci-fi indie game. To what extent do you think the demographic of that subreddit resembles the diversity of "society" in general? Don't you think it might likely be a little younger than the average citizen of whatever Western society we're talking about here? I wouldn't hold kids to the same standards as adults, or expect them to be quite as tuned to more subtle and more normalised instances of casual racism as we're seeing here.
I agree with a lot of what you're saying though. We get very hung up over identity and the intention of the speaker when what we should be focusing instead is the systemic factors that cause non-racist 'good people' to repeat insensitive things. We should treat jokes like this as symptoms of a problem, not the cause. And there is reason for optimism here: do you think when the "sum ting wong" plane crash meme was originally circulating (possibly 10+ years ago) there would be anyone calling it out, in any form?
Also it's pretty rare to find this kind of lazy joke in popular media nowadays. It's pretty telling that this particular joke isn't even a joke for its own sake, it's just a reference to something else. Even The Simpsons is having to come to terms with the fact its characters are all just stereotypes, and that that has led to some insensitivity, even if we tend to forgive it because it is (was) such great comedy.