I was watching a show on Netflix and I was really interested. I went to the Netflix profile to see if they would do a second season since the show was a success. It turns out that in the comments, several right-wingers called the show woke. I watched it and didn’t see anything woke in the series. The protagonists are black, but what’s the problem with that? Maybe that’s why they said it was woke? The show is new and original with new and original characters. Isn’t that what they wanted? It’s confusing for me, because if they’re going to complain anyway, why are they asking for changes?
- Black people: Exists
- Right wingers: why is everything so woke?
I wouldn’t worry about it.
They don’t actually care about the show. They are flying their flag. So the answer is if straight white cis men don’t outnumber everyone else put together it’s woke.
Lotr was too woke, all those filthy hobbitses!
Inside out is woke? As is the little mermaid?
Being targeted by Nazis doesn’t mean you did anything wrong. And thus, there’s nothing you can avoid doing, that will protect you from Nazis.
Being targeted by Nazis doesn’t mean you did anything wrong.
I would argue it means you did something right.
there’s no greater compliment than to be hated by a neo-Nazi.
Exactly. Just have as many as you want.
Doesn’t matter. It’s not about the number but their roles in the story. The core racist belief is that some races are inferior. If you make a person of the “inferior” race a protagonist = woke.
Btw, I hate having to say this, making protagonists black doesn’t make a show good on it’s own, you still have to tell a good story.
I actually never cared about the actor skin when watching a movie or show. There was a show called “Merlin” and Guinevere was black and the question of why is she black never actually popped in my mind.
On the other hand
when reading, things like a black king rulling in Europe during the middle ages would break immersion a bit because my brain would be constantly telling me “this doesn’t make sense”.
I can’t explain it.
Makes perfect sense. Actors are selected from a population you live in. If you did a production of Shakespeare in Uganda most actors will have black skin, if you do it in Ireland most actors will have white skin. That’s part of what acting means - representing a character that’s not you.
Reading historical fiction is different - first it’s historical so it has to follow what really happened. And we know what those people look like. Second it’s written so you have to imagine characters. Imagination has to follow certain patterns or stereotypes you already know about the historical period.
Pandering to people complaining about wokeness is how you get Rise of Skywalker
Challenging a stereotype is going to earn the “woke” label, so there isn’t a simple numerical answer. An all-black cast might not be considered “woke” if all the characters promote the stereotype.
Ideally, the answer to your question would be approximately zero. You should wear the “woke” epithet as a badge of honor.
Not really. Like Ripley in Alien broke the stereotype but didn’t get called woke.
People are more likely to call something work for stereotyping white people than they are for having non-stereotypical black people.
Like here’s a black character … what’s their role in this story?
Are they pursuing a PhD in mathematics? Are they trying to resolve a major conflict with their father? Are they touring the world tasting wine? Are they writing a novel?
Nope, they’re talking street wisdom and being the judge of who else is cool or uncool, and they’re getting this white girl out of her shell so she can learn to party, and educating her on the history of racism.
That is a stereotype. That is the kind of shit that will get called woke.
The criticism of “woke” isn’t about the presence of minority characters.
So why do they complain even when stories are new and have original characters?
Because they’re idiots.
I think the real issue is a European medieval society full of other races.
Imagine watching a story from Japan’s point of view moments before Hiroshimas bombing. Except the entire story is cast with Americans and British people instead. I realise this is hyperbole and over shoots the mark.
If it’s the future multiculturalism is great the world is far more multicultural now then it was even 100 years ago.
If you are offended by fiction when it includes races other than your own, that’s just racism…
Zero. If you have any minorities at all it’s automatically “woke” to some loud minority of white nationalists.
Anything that challenges an established norm in even the slightest way is woke.
Do not try and please these types of people. That is not the kind of world we want to live in.
The types of people we are talking about don’t actually read books, anyway. This is what has always baffled me about these movements. It isn’t like they’re affected by the contents of a book.
There are websites that will list “bad” books, including lists of wordcounts of the bad words. That way, you can stay up to date on what to be offended about without actually putting in any effort to form your own opinion.
As others have said, 0, cause having non-white non-straight characters are bad for whatever reason.
The only sensible argument from them that sounds fair, is if that story should be historically accurate, but it incorporates out of place characters. Like I would be pretty furious if Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 will include black people, if they weren’t there at all at that time (There’s an argument about is afaik or sm).
If it’s not an action movie with explosions, guns, and a white man in a suit having affairs with girls left and right it’s woke for some individuals with special ideals.
If you care about that to publish something then you’re no longer making something for you that you want to share but something to please an audience you may not have yet. Just be yourself and enjoy what you’re creating instead of creating to be praised for your work and hoping everyone would shout how perfect it is.
Who cares if people call it “woke”? The kind of people who would get themselves in a tizzy over that sort of thing aren’t worth bothering about, and they certainly shouldn’t be pandered to.
If you have a story to tell, and characters to present, then tell it and present them your way, no matter what others think. Be true to your own creative instincts, and be judged on them, rather than trying to fit what others will accept.
I’d suggest you make the characters, and then generate racial background at random to be representative of the population where the story is set. Then, if anyone makes a stink about it, you’ll be able to objectively skewer them for being full of shit.
I don’t know if you’re actually making a story or just wanted to vent about right-wing cancel culture (which, fair), but there you go.
You realize that woke philosophy would criticize the idea that a person’s story can be separated from their ethnicity right?
I mean, “woke philosophy” isn’t an official, unified thing, but there is a school of thought that says that, yes.
I’d say if it’s a story about going on a bender or working an office job, you probably could do it this way. If it’s a story about racism in the US it obviously wouldn’t work. You can add flavour to the story after the fact too, for realism. Like, if a character in the bender story gets thrown in the drunk tank, and this is set anywhere like America, it should be written very differently if they happen to be black.
I’d also emphasise using demographics numbers that are as targeted as possible. A story about an American prison where only 15% of inmates are black would still be problematic, just in a different way, because you’re artificially erasing one of the most obvious examples of modern systemic racism.
If you need to think about this, they won.
africa must be a really woke continent then
