this post was submitted on 29 Jan 2024
811 points (94.0% liked)
Risa
6915 readers
34 users here now
Star Trek memes and shitposts
Come on'n get your jamaharon on! There are no real rules—just don't break the weather control network.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
TBH, I initially had a strange reaction to Discovery. It seemed to me like it was virtue-signalling and pandering to an audience to increase viewership or profit. Similar to how you sometimes see fake stock-photos of a business where they contains exactly one person from every ethnicity. I think the word I'm thinking of is "tokenism." I still watched it for a couple seasons, and it was decent. I didn't really realize at the time how prevalent and dangerous bigotry still was in the U.S.. Now I think it's probably good some shows and movies over-represent minorities.
Until people stop seeing minorities as different, then these kind of labels are going to get applied just because they exist. If a cast of non-minorities doesn't raise an eyebrow, then a cast of minorities shouldn't either. Base such labels on the way the characters are written, not because they exist. Stopping bigotry requires not caring about sex, gender, or sexual orientation.
Bigotry is a worldwide issue, not just in the US. The problem is often implicit discrimination, where someone is subconsciously influenced by bigotry and isn't aware they're doing it. It never gets resolved because people get defensive when it's pointed out to them. Stopping it requires prioritizing doing the right thing over being right.