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Benevolent racism, sexism, ableism, and whatever other “isim” is an interesting aspect of those otherwise negative things. It's not as obvious in its negativity, it's well-meaning and yet quite misguided. So what is it? The term “Benevolent” makes it seem nice and harmless and that IS how people mean it, but that's because they're a bit clueless and ignorant. Benevolent sexism, ableism, and racism is basically using a “positive” stereotype to characterise someone based on their ethnicity, gender etc, like “all black people have natural rhythm”, or “women are more sensitive and in touch with nature”, or “blind people have all their other senses massively heightened”.
So why is that a problem, you might ask? Because a stereotype that characterises an individual based on an assumption about their gender, their ethnicity or any other group they belong to is STILL a stereotype, it's still false and has nothing to do with them as an INDIVIDUAL person. What people really do when they use these benevolent stereotypes is to keep that person “other” from themselves, preventing them from relating to that person as a fellow human. It also puts the person in an awkward position, having to fit into or live up to standards that have nothing to do with them, i.e. “I'm an Asian so that means I have to be amazing at maths, a doctor, expert at martial arts, and constantly doing spiritual Buddhist ceremonies…”
Anything that prevents us properly relating to people as fellow humans is a problem whether it's openly negative or seemingly positive. The argument in favour of benevolent stereotypes is to combat the negative ones and in that it has a place, a limited one but a place nonetheless. Think about the old “noble Savage” idea, native people used to be universally looked down upon but then this idea developed that they had a “nobility” of their own, free from the constraints of civilisation, they were in touch with the natural world etc. For black people it was the “magical Negro”, an older black person who's only trait seemed to be that they were friendly and there to offer wise life advice to white people. For south Asian people it was unarmed martial arts expertise, spirituality, and ceremony. For gay people it was “the gay best friend” who would give sage love-life advice to a female main character, do her hair and pick our her shoes and look fabulous. These stereotypes served the purpose of combating negative images and making a place for these groups in the mainstream. They had a place, but their time has passed.
Examples are legion and usually very silly. Can you recognise them when you see them? Have you experienced them yourself? Do you use them yourself? What are some you can think of? One I hate the most is when bad stand up comedians tell us the “differences” between men and women, and it's just a list of stupid stereotypes.
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Quackcast 692 - Benevolent racism and other isms!
Ozoneocean at 12:00AM, June 18, 2024
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mks_monsters at 9:30AM, June 21, 2024
Good points. I am all for sensitive writing, but I find that nowadays, people throw the "bigorty" accusation like crying wolf and that within itself is pretty low. Plus, there is a difference between bigotry and just telling a joke. I admit the line may be thin, but you cannot handle media especially comedy with your skin being thin. Most of the time, a joke is just a joke and the cigar is just a cigar.
Ozoneocean at 5:56PM, June 18, 2024
@marcorossi - yes, but the "othering" would of course happen in Italy with Italian Japanese, Italian black people etc, so its no just a USA thing. I'm sure you know but it's important to note. It's universal.
Ozoneocean at 5:49PM, June 18, 2024
Wow, all good points here :D
marcorossi at 2:32PM, June 18, 2024
My two cents: If I, italian, go to Japan, I will see that the Japanese behave in some different ways from italians (e.g. much more ordered queues). A japanese visiting Italy will also see differences. This leads to national stereotypes, but those are not necessarily bad. The problem happens in the USA because there will be some italian-americans and some japanese-americans, and they are much more similar than italians and japanese because in the end they are both americans, but they have a strong sense of identity and therefore they give much weight to their differences. It is also there that the "othering" happens, IMHO, since it makes no sense to speak about "othering" between two actually different cultures.
PaulEberhardt at 8:08AM, June 18, 2024
Btw., on re-reading my mock example: five wrong things, although one of them is a bit harder to spot than the others. Sorry.
PaulEberhardt at 8:00AM, June 18, 2024
This said, there still is a fine line between latent racism and good humour, since humour often plays with stereotypes and is almost always at someone's expense. So I'd recommend being aware of this issue at all times, but think for a moment before getting out the torches and pitchforks. If the joke doesn't make fun of the stereotype itself or the people who believe it or isn't inclusive enough for those who are the butt of the joke to have a good laugh too, feel free to get them out, of course, with my blessings.
PaulEberhardt at 7:55AM, June 18, 2024
And that's the honest truth of it. What we have to keep in mind is that these people who reinforce stereotypes that way often mean well - as you said - and often they aren't dumb in other respects. Even reasonably intelligent people have blind spots; being good at literally everything is one of these "positive" stereotypes about bookworms. This is just why, when I teach geography, I sometimes confront my students with sentences like "In African culture, water is valued highly: just look at how these girls smile their lovely white-toothed smiles next to the deep well we drilled in their Sahel village." have them think about what's wrong with them and then expand the list, just to raise this very awareness. Since we're among grown-ups, I'll spare you that part, but for those who like a guessing game: I can spot at least four things that are just wrong on so many levels at a glance. I'm amazed at how many respected NGOs get away with this kind of thing.
bravo1102 at 12:42AM, June 18, 2024
And then there are people who are in that group who really match the stereotype because they somehow think that's what being in that group means. Then others who inadvertently ticked off all the boxes in the stereotype while just living their life. It's scary. You just want to yell at them for being so stereotypical when that's just who they are.
InkyMoondrop at 12:24AM, June 18, 2024
Interesting, as always. There are racist and sexist characters in Blessed Days, mostly portrayed as complete jerks, while some of the protagonists occasionally also show signs of internalized isms, but in their case it's not conscious and they demonstrate the kind of behavior that balances things out. In Friendship Material, I started developing a young neonazi character to explore the dyanmics of what toxic influence can family, peers and other such circumstances can pose on an otherwise okay person. Obviously, the underlying message will be that such beliefs are harmful and aren't properly rooted in reality, but I want to do a more or less honest potrayal of the character and how one of the protagonists: an African American teacher of his has some difficult bridges to build, since he did the kid dirty, only validating his twisted biases towards people like him. Evil comes from ignorance, but I think ignorance can still be dealt with time and patience to see the potential to do good.