| what is racist about broken english? | |
| Posted by: Chazwaza 07:19 pm EST 02/20/19 | |
| In reply to: re: Happy Talk racist? - singleticket 06:46 pm EST 02/20/19 | |
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| People who do not speak English as their first language, or barely speak it, speak with a heavy accent and usually use broken and "incorrect" English. Why is it racist to portray this on stage or screen? There's nothing lyrically in "Happy Talk" that is cartoonish or embarrassing. Yes, perhaps it's eye-roll inducing for the Asian mother to be singing about lilies on a lake and the moon and birds, cliche nature imagery for Asian characters... but this is also a woman who must speak in simple thoughts when speaking English, who is trying to communicate something basic and very romantic to Cable, and who lives on an island where lilies on the lake and the moon and birds are recurring images for her every day. After 50+ years of hollow and cliche one-dimensional Asian stereotype characters I can see how this may seem like a racist depiction but I also can't see how it is, in the show and how it's written. She is a layered character existing in a believable scenario, is she not? And speaking in a way I have no trouble believe she would when speaking English and speaking to the American(s)... am I ignorant on why I'm wrong here? Maybe I'm missing something. Is it a cliche and/or stereotype to have a poor scheming native mother trying to facilitate her daughter's romance with a white American military officer? Yes, probably, but that doesn't mean it can't also be real. This is something that has been true countless times for countless people. Why is it racist to portray it, especially in a show written when the American musical theater hadn't existed long enough to even have cliches? |
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| Previous: | re: Happy Talk racist? - singleticket 06:46 pm EST 02/20/19 |
| Next: | re: what is racist about broken english? - Michael_Portantiere 01:26 pm EST 02/21/19 |
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