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| 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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| re: what is racist about broken english? | |
| Posted by: Michael_Portantiere 01:26 pm EST 02/21/19 | |
| In reply to: what is racist about broken english? - Chazwaza 07:19 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?" Thank you. I don't think it's racist at all, but apparently, a LOT of people are convinced that it IS racist -- at least when the character speaking with an accent and in broken English was written by a someone not of that ethnicity and, worst of all, by a white man!!! |
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| re: what is racist about broken english? | |
| Posted by: whereismikeyfl 01:18 pm EST 02/24/19 | |
| In reply to: re: what is racist about broken english? - Michael_Portantiere 01:26 pm EST 02/21/19 | |
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| It is not that broken English is considered racist, but that the song is thought to be cutesy. In a lot of racist representations, people with accents are portrayed as inherently comic or childlike--and if performed "cute" this song does appear that way. And sad to say, in many productions of South Pacific, Mary has been played as a racist stereotype. However, she has also been played as a character just as rich and complex as any others in the musical. In these versions, the cuteness is played as a kind of sales pitch--which is what I think R&H intended. |
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| re: what is racist about broken english? | |
| Posted by: Michael_Portantiere 10:55 am EST 02/25/19 | |
| In reply to: re: what is racist about broken english? - whereismikeyfl 01:18 pm EST 02/24/19 | |
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| I absolutely agree that "Happy Talk" was always meant as Mary's sales pitch. In trying to convince Cable to marry her daughter Liat, she sings a purposely childlike song about simple pleasures -- the moon floating in the sky, a bird learning how to fly, a boy and a girl counting the ripples on the sea. To that extent, I think the song is meant to be purposely "cutesy," but it's the only time in the show when Mary uses that kind of language. Throughout the rest of the show, she is a very pragmatic character, and very strong. | |
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