Again, this is an examination of ME personally, and not a prescription for why anyone else should feel motivated to be anti-racist.
I know that these are the experiences that, while NOT being the same as what PoC experience in SF/F, do give me some sympathy into the emotions, if not the exact situations, they must feel.
Like you said, Leia at least was a very strong character and I did appreciate that the princess could carry a blaster and shoot stormtroopers as well as anyone else. Whereas, Lando Calrissian was basically a shady, somewhat criminal business man and a sell out - and I can't imagine what it must have been like for someone who was black to see the only black character in the entirety of the universe be something of a bad guy who only just redeems himself, when the only woman at least got to hold blasters and clearly be a leader and on the side of Good^TM.
Sometimes I think as much of what we take from a story depends reader/viewer perceptional choice as upon the intentions of the writer or filmmaker.
I agree that viewers do have choices in how they perceive things, but I also believe that part of what makes writing/filmmaking so powerful is that the writer and filmmaker can make it abundantly clear what they want you to perceive. So much so that they can even show you their unconscious beliefs and thoughts and point you to what they REALLY think about things and what they'd like you to agree about.
So, when we see a universe created by George Lucas (in the first three movies, chronologically speaking) we see someone who very much is reflecting his time. I find it very interesting that the number of women and CoC's increases in the other three movies, and they do so as George Lucas himself as moved into a time in which America has pressed the cause of diversity or at least gave it more lip service and air time, though not dealing well with the issue. And I think that's reflected in the fact that he still didn't got a lot wrong when he did show CoC's.
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I know that these are the experiences that, while NOT being the same as what PoC experience in SF/F, do give me some sympathy into the emotions, if not the exact situations, they must feel.
Like you said, Leia at least was a very strong character and I did appreciate that the princess could carry a blaster and shoot stormtroopers as well as anyone else. Whereas, Lando Calrissian was basically a shady, somewhat criminal business man and a sell out - and I can't imagine what it must have been like for someone who was black to see the only black character in the entirety of the universe be something of a bad guy who only just redeems himself, when the only woman at least got to hold blasters and clearly be a leader and on the side of Good^TM.
Sometimes I think as much of what we take from a story depends reader/viewer perceptional choice as upon the intentions of the writer or filmmaker.
I agree that viewers do have choices in how they perceive things, but I also believe that part of what makes writing/filmmaking so powerful is that the writer and filmmaker can make it abundantly clear what they want you to perceive. So much so that they can even show you their unconscious beliefs and thoughts and point you to what they REALLY think about things and what they'd like you to agree about.
So, when we see a universe created by George Lucas (in the first three movies, chronologically speaking) we see someone who very much is reflecting his time. I find it very interesting that the number of women and CoC's increases in the other three movies, and they do so as George Lucas himself as moved into a time in which America has pressed the cause of diversity or at least gave it more lip service and air time, though not dealing well with the issue. And I think that's reflected in the fact that he still didn't got a lot wrong when he did show CoC's.
But like I said. I'm speaking for myself.