I often think it has less to do with direct racism and more to do with deeply seated 'norms' which facilitate storytelling.
I'd guess that none of it is "direct racism", in the sense that the PTB involved would undoubtedly be appalled if anyone accused them of consciously thinking that non-white people are alien or primitive.
But that doesn't rule out a vast body of entirely unconscious assumptions, which may co-exist with the best conscious intentions.
And it's not, I think, that the Stargate PTB are somehow especially bad in this respect: these are assumptions and images which are part of the culture, which tend to soak into everyone unless they're consciously questioned.
But the first time I saw "Children of the Gods", the SG-1 opener, I was just ... *flails hands around* ...
OK, you have a set-up where the brown-skinned quasi-Egyptian guy sends the huge black warrior guy out to kidnap women (including a white blonde American woman and the "native" wife of one of Our Heroes), who then get kept in a room where they are apparently forced to wear flimsy clothing and lounge on cushions, before being selected, brought before him, stripped naked and laid out on an altar-type table (and that's before we even get to the phallic snake-thing) ....
And it didn't occur to anyone at any point that this scenario might bear, oh, a passing resemblance to a zillion Orientalist harem/rape fantasies? Which might, just might, involve some assumptions about race and gender which are not entirely in keeping with modern thinking?
*flails hands around even more, having been failed by words*
I don't think you have to say, "OMG THEY ARE ALL RACIST BASTARDS!!!", because really, I doubt that they are. They are probably lovely liberal-minded well-meaning people. But that doesn't mean the shows don't have some significant racial issues.
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I'd guess that none of it is "direct racism", in the sense that the PTB involved would undoubtedly be appalled if anyone accused them of consciously thinking that non-white people are alien or primitive.
But that doesn't rule out a vast body of entirely unconscious assumptions, which may co-exist with the best conscious intentions.
And it's not, I think, that the Stargate PTB are somehow especially bad in this respect: these are assumptions and images which are part of the culture, which tend to soak into everyone unless they're consciously questioned.
But the first time I saw "Children of the Gods", the SG-1 opener, I was just ... *flails hands around* ...
OK, you have a set-up where the brown-skinned quasi-Egyptian guy sends the huge black warrior guy out to kidnap women (including a white blonde American woman and the "native" wife of one of Our Heroes), who then get kept in a room where they are apparently forced to wear flimsy clothing and lounge on cushions, before being selected, brought before him, stripped naked and laid out on an altar-type table (and that's before we even get to the phallic snake-thing) ....
And it didn't occur to anyone at any point that this scenario might bear, oh, a passing resemblance to a zillion Orientalist harem/rape fantasies? Which might, just might, involve some assumptions about race and gender which are not entirely in keeping with modern thinking?
*flails hands around even more, having been failed by words*
I don't think you have to say, "OMG THEY ARE ALL RACIST BASTARDS!!!", because really, I doubt that they are. They are probably lovely liberal-minded well-meaning people. But that doesn't mean the shows don't have some significant racial issues.