D&D General Netflix pulls Community's Dungeons & Dragons episode over blackface concerns

[Imaculata]

True, but also most people are pretty comfortable with their friends. Generally taboo stuff is accepted between friends.

Sure, but I think that is a pretty strong indicator that when that internal alarm goes off, something is amiss. I certainly wouldn't want to show up dressed as a drow at my black friend's house. It would be very awkward, even if she was totally into larp.

 

[Orcslayer78]

So, over here in the Netherlands we have one of the greatest themeparks in the world, called The Efteling (and I highly recommend everyone to visit it some time in your life). But one particular attraction has been a bit of a hot issue for a while now. It concerns the attraction Carnival Festival, which is a sort of Its a small world, but with stereotypes of people from around the world. People were very divided on it. On one hand the attraction is a classic, and maybe not such a big deal. But on the other, some of the puppets are a little bit offensive. I should note that minor changes were made to it recently to make it less offensive, but still.

Even among my close circle of friends, some of them got angry at the notion that it was offensive. But as I explained to them, if you take your black or asian girlfriend into that attraction, and you feel a little bit uncomfortable... maybe thats a sign that changes should be made.

I think drow costumes are not that different. If you get a tiny bit uncomfortable wearing full drow face paint in front of your black friend, maybe that is a sign.

Orcslayer, you call it hypocrisy. But could it be that the line of offensiveness is simply a bit blurry?

A person in a drow costume is not imitating a black person like with blackface, they're cosplaying or larping a fantasy race with a skintone (total black) which doesn't exist in nature, it's the same thing that cosplaying fantasy or alien races with green, purple or blue skintones.

 

[Zardnaar]

Sure, but I think that is a pretty strong indicator that when that internal alarm goes off, something is amiss. I certainly wouldn't want to show up dressed as a drow at my black friend's house. It would be very awkward, even if she was totally into larp.

You an idiot if you use blackface these days. There's a very few narrow places I think it's fine. Historical period shows/movies/documentaries etc.

The episode of Community would be another one IMHO. Context, nuance etc.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

So I am not a fan of the show and had to look at the article about this episode and I did not realize it was an Asian actor doing the drow blackface, not a white actor. I am not sure if that makes it not as bad or even worse, since there is a lot of bad history between black and Asian people in the US too.

 

[Sadras]

So I am not a fan of the show and had to look at the article about this episode and I did not realize it was an Asian actor doing the drow blackface, not a white actor. I am not sure if that makes it not as bad or even worse, since there is a lot of bad history between black and Asian people in the US too.

I DO strongly recommend you watch that specific episode as a D&D fan. It is hilarious and the blackface is not at all offensive IMO. They actually address it at the table in the show. Draw your own conclusion then from that.

 

[Imaculata]

A person in a drow costume is not imitating a black person like with blackface, they're cosplaying or larping a fantasy race with a skintone (total black) which doesn't exist in nature, it's the same thing that cosplaying fantasy or alien races with green, purple or blue skintones.

I think you are missing the essence of my post.

When people criticized Carnaval Festival, those on the other side of the debate came with much of the same arguments. It's not racist, because these are exaggerations, caricatures of countries. Plus they mock all countries equally. They are not literally that thing that people are upset about.

But it all boils down to one question: can you think of situations where it makes you uncomfortable? If it does, then maybe those complainers have a point.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

It's unfortunate that they pulled it, because it's otherwise an extremely strong episode, and kind of important for the changing (Chang-ing?) relationships with Chang and er... Chevy Chase (can't remember the character name). I too saw it fairly recently in lockdown.

I feel like rather than pulling it, they should have put a non-skippable health warning on it. The problem is the normalization of blackface as "funny" thing. If it's pointed out that it's not actually okay, in words, then even the dimmest frat-boy who might otherwise see this episode as an excuse will have to face up to what he's doing.

With all the blackface episodes of various shows being pulled it is interesting though that the vast majority were just worthless uses of it for low-brow comedic effect, or even worse, just so a white actor could imitate a black character in a rather stereotyped and gross way (esp. in the cases with British shows). This at least was making a point slightly beyond that - that even if you had an "excuse" - i.e. "I'm cosplaying!", it's not really okay. It also introduced the most unfortunate thing about Drow to a broader audience, which honestly is probably a good thing.

A person in a drow costume is not imitating a black person like with blackface, they're cosplaying or larping a fantasy race with a skintone (total black) which doesn't exist in nature, it's the same thing that cosplaying fantasy or alien races with green, purple or blue skintones.

Yeah, but the entire point of the episode, the entire joke, the entire reason it's in there is that it looks inappropriate-as-hell, and unless you're familiar with the material, appears to be crude and bizarre blackface.

Also note that a lot of RL blackface used unnatural skintones, so the "Oh it's not natural!" isn't really a compelling argument here, at all. It looks like blackface, and it's going to be pretty shocking/offensive to people. Again that's literally the joke in the show - the character has no taste, no decorum, no manners, and generally a reprobate, so thinks it's fine.

That it is the joke makes maintaining a position that it's "fine" in this situation pretty impossible. It's obviously not okay to run around looking like a black-and-white minstrel who forgot his super-extra-racist lipstick just because you're "cosplaying". That's the point even the show was making.

 

[Orcslayer78]

I

I think you are missing the essence of my post.

When people criticized Carnaval Festival, those on the other side of the debate came with much of the same argument. Its not racist, because these are exaggerations, caricatures of countries. Plus they mock all countries equally. They are not literally that thing that people are upset about.

But it all boils down to one question: can you think of situations where it makes you uncomfortable? If it does, then maybe those complainers have a point.

I'm Italian and I love italian stereotypes , they're funny, and everyone must be free to cosplay a mafioso if they want, mafia it's a sad reality of my country, but it's useless to hide it by forbidding people to cosplay a mobster.

 

[Sadras]

When people criticized Carnaval Festival, those on the other side of the debate came with much of the same arguments. It's not racist, because these are exaggerations, caricatures of countries. Plus they mock all countries equally. They are not literally that thing that people are upset about.

But it all boils down to one question: can you think of situations where it makes you uncomfortable? If it does, then maybe those complainers have a point.

I'd have to see the puppets of the other countries. Presenting the puppets of 1 nation would reflect a bias view.

 

[Raduin711]

But it all boils down to one question: can you think of situations where it makes you uncomfortable? If it does, then maybe those complainers have a point.

Unfortunately I think there is a problem with that yardstick: an unabashed racist will not be made uncomfortable in these situations. In many cases this is the goal of having such edifices or defending them from being removed.