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I haven't seen Homeland past the first season - but can someone who has seen more shed light on the alleged "racism" of the show? Is the show actually racist in its depiction of Arab-speaking characters, or is this simply a manifestation of Hanlon's Razor - "never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity"?
I haven't seen Homeland past the first season - but can someone who has seen more shed light on the alleged "racism" of the show? Is the show actually racist in its depiction of Arab-speaking characters, or is this simply a manifestation of Hanlon's Razor - "never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity"?
The writers can't keep up the quality as they write the season. They're rushed for the later episodes. So characters start out as nuanced and then become more one dimensional towards the end of the season. Also they need to deliver twists and shocks. So it's not exactly stupidity but it's not really intentional either.
[1] http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/homeland-writer-produc...
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Well, it apparently can't even depict terrorists correctly, because suggesting that Al Qaeda and Hezbollah would ever work together is just ludicrous. And I can totally see why Lebanese would be pissed off at seeing Hamra street completely misrepresented in that way. And even if the show isn't supposed to depict "average Muslims", do you really think all the viewers of the show will get that nuance? If all of the Ara…
Might we also criticize the portrayal of Jews in Palestinian kids cartoons? I am not certain there are many Muslims complaining about those portrayals.
I imagine doing the same thing on a show where they show "computer code" where it could actually compile to a message without being blatantly obvious (say, concatenated characters expressed in unicode)
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I've come through the other side on this topic. When someone levels an "ism" charge, I assume the accuser has an agenda and become suspicious.
"Has an agenda" is a completely, utterly meaningless phrase. Literally everyone has an agenda. It's okay. You have an agenda too. You just convinced yourself you don't.
My agenda is to understand and promote objective truth. The agenda of those who level charges of racism or sexism or other isms is generally to drive the debate down predetermined emotional channels as a shortcut to an actual discussion.
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It was a breech of trust. Is a breech of trust absolutely and objectively wrong in all circumstances? I'm not comfortable saying it is, at least not without far more thought.
(P.S. I wonder if their contract in any way forbid this from being done. Because if not, this is no worse 'buyer beware' behavior than what is common among corporate America already.)
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Racism is just shorthand for prejudices such as ethnocentrism, Orientalism, Othering.
I have never, never seen anti-Christianity been referred to as "racism" by anyone, not even evangelicals and fundamentalists. It would make large swaths of criticism of Christianity (not to mention many extreme metal bands) post-facto racist. "Othering" is far more general than racism, and relates to identity as a whole, not a specific racial identity.
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For an example of how the fake TV world can be used to justify real world beliefs: http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2007/06/20/justice-scalia-hearts-ja... > The Globe and Mail reported that Scalia came to the defense of Jack Bauer and his torture tactics during an Ottawa conference of international jurists and national security officials last week. During a panel discussion about terrorism, torture and the law, a Canadian ju…
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I haven't seen Homeland past the first season - but can someone who has seen more shed light on the alleged "racism" of the show? Is the show actually racist in its depiction of Arab-speaking characters, or is this simply a manifestation of Hanlon's Razor - "never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity"?
Homeland is not intentionally racist, but that isn't the main concern. Homeland leans on lazy stereotypes way too much, and that's harmful regardless of intent. This opinion piece from last year has details: https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/10/02/...
Isn't strongly leaning on lazy stereotypes a form of intentional racism? It may not be with malice, but it is an intentional choice to use those lazy stereotypes.