InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Ohai guuuurl!"

manofbats (manofbats) wrote in scans_daily,
@ 2009-11-09 18:33:00

Entry tags:

char: black canary/dinah drake, char: rima, char: the avenger/richard henry benson, char: the spirit/denny colt, creator: brian azzarello, creator: rags morales, title: first wave

More First Wave: Justice Inc., The Spirit, Black Canary, Rima the Jungle Girl

This was posted over at the Source.

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box_in_the_box
2009-11-10 07:29 am UTC (link)

[...] once you get past his appearance [...]

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...

...

... Dude. You gotta admit. That's a pretty goddamn HUGE asterisk, right there.

I mean, I could have a favorite holdover sidekick from the Golden Age who was brave and loyal and all that, but if his name was Ching Chong Fing Fong and his appearance consisted of cobra-slit eyes, buck teeth and huge glasses, and he talked like goddamn Mickey Rooney in Breakfast at Tiffany's, there's no way I'd expect anyone to be able to "get past" his appearance.

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psychop_rex
2009-11-10 08:49 am UTC (link)

Well, YEAH, of course, but the Golden Age was peppered with stuff like that. The way I look at it, there are just plain stereotypes, and then there are negative stereotypes - neither are optimal, of course, but the former is simply a stereotype, of the sort that still exists today (although, granted, it's much less likely to be racial), while the latter is intended to insult and denigrate.
Taking your hypothetical 'Ching Chong Fing Fong' as an example, let us compare him to an actual Golden Age character, the villain of the very first comic Seigel and Shuster ever came up with - 'Fui Onyui'. This guy and his henchmen embody pretty much every negative Asian stereotype known to man - they are cowardly ("Go 'way! Help! HELP!"), they speak largely in absurd accents ("Velly solly, no see missy, you sclam!"), they are opium addicts (this isn't actually spelled out, but there's a panel where the heroes come across a Chinese guy who is "asleep! Drugged!", and I'm extrapolating from there), and, of course, they all have pigtails and most have teeth like the grill of a car.
Furthermore, they are not simply racist by design, they are racist by execution - that is to say, they are dealt with by the heroes (Slam Bradley and his sidekick) in a racist way. They slap them around and slam them against walls, they charge into their shops and smash up their merchandise, they threaten them with absurd superstitions that the writer obviously made up on the spot ("This'll make him talk. The Chinee believe that if you cut off their pigtails, they'll never join their ancestors.") - and, worse yet, this WORKS ("NO! NO! DON"T! I TALK!"). They refer to them as 'Chinks', 'Chinee', 'superstitious Celestials', and 'Yellow rats'. From page one, it is perfectly obvious that Fui Onyui and his gang are only there to provide a convenient, disposable enemy for Slam to knock around - and the implication is that no one will be offended by this because THAT'S THE WAY THINGS REALLY ARE, HO HO AIN'T IT THE TRUTH.
THAT is offensive for you. For me, that is far more offensive than a comical accent and inaccurate facial features. I mean, people still occasionally trot out the tired old 'so solly' stereotype even today, but they do so as a JOKE, not because they expect to be taken seriously. There is quite a distance between the Charlie Chan style of stereotype and someone spray-painting 'CHINKS GO HOME' on a wall in Chinatown - the former is intended simply for comedy, of a type that could be considered offensive, yes, but not maliciously so, while the latter IS offensive, genuinely and deeply so, because the guy who painted it believed what he was writing - he believed that Chinese people are 'Chinks' who should go home, because they are somehow inferior and do not belong here.
To modern eyes, of course, both may be considered offensive, because, of course, there has never been a Chinese guy who speaks like Charlie Chan, just as there has never been a black kid who looks like Ebony - but I believe that the INTENT is the really important thing here. Stereotypes abound in 20th century culture; they're EVERYWHERE. Hell, up until around the mid-'60's or so, Asians of all types were routinely being colored a lemon yellow. You can't be offended by ALL of them - that is, you can, of course, but you'd wind up being offended at practically everything. Take the Blackhawks - just about every member of the team is a stereotype of some sort, but they're still a great team who are talked fondly of today (with, of course, the exception of Chop-Chop, who is like some grotesque goblin, and has few redeeming qualities). The standards for these things change with the times, and I think it's important to keep that in mind when reading them today - you can't judge them entirely by modern standards, because they weren't WRITTEN according to modern standards.
So basically, yes, between the two of them, I'd take Ching Chong. Brave and loyal is brave and loyal. (Anyway, I like 'Breakfast at Tiffany's'.)

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	fredneil.livejournal.com 2009-11-11 03:14 am UTC (link)
	The character was named "Phooey on You-ee?" Where can I get whatever they were drinking at the time? (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	psychop_rex 2009-11-11 03:27 am UTC (link)
	Yes, and that in fact was the whole point of the name - to set up a gag following his defeat where they say his name back to him as a sort of nyah-nyah (and in case nobody else got the pun, I guess). (Reply to this) (Parent)

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