racial/american bias in Stargate Atlantis?

[tielan]

It's recently come to my notice that the manner in which 'native races' are portrayed on Stargate is, if not racist, then certainly strongly jingoistic.

This is going to focus on the broader perception of races and how they get portrayed in the show - mostly Atlantis, although SG-1 will be in there, too.

Basically, it seems that the native races of Pegasus are either technologically inept (primitive) or 'the bad guys'.

We have societies like the Athosians, who are still in the 'hunter-gatherer' stage of civilisation, who are on the side of the Atlantis expedition but primitive; and at the other end of the scale, we have societies like the Gennii, who are close to the 'information revolution' stage of civilisation, but are at best wary allies, and at worst, frank enemies.

Then there are the Satedans, who must have had a pretty technologically advanced civilisation before the Wraith took them out - Ronon's weaponry speaks to that - but who don't even get a mention on the 'we could pick over their bones and see if they developed something we haven't' scale. Hell, I don't think anyone's mentioned even asking Ronon if they can take apart his weapons to see how they tick.

Granted, Ronon's likely to look at them and say flatly, 'No,' but the man came from a world that nearly fought back against the Wraith! Just because he doesn't speak much doesn't mean he's a savage. He's probably no more of a savage than any man who comes home from his work, sits down in his lounge chair and can't be prevailed on for more than a grunt or a dozen before dinner, let alone bed.

The episode that's supposed to deal with Ronon's background will be interesting: if only because it took them about 30 episodes to even revisit Teyla's background with the Athosians, and they were relegated to a side plot, a funeral, and some very lovely singing by Rachel Luttrell that had almost no relevance to the plot.

The race issue is another thing that's slowly been coming upon me.

SG1 - Teal'c is the 'native guide' - black, primitive people.
SGA - Teyla is the 'native guide' - mixed race, primitive people.
SGA - Aiden is the 'yes, man' - black
SGA - Ronon is the 'grunt and muscle' - with a polynesian background (? I think - but even if not, the point with Teal'c, Teyla and Aiden still stands)

You know, I'm waiting for the episode where they come across an Asiatic civilisation that's either run like the Japanese samurai or full of Asian crime gangs.

It's a bit worrying, not that there are characters who are relegated to the background and they're non-white(other characters are background, too: Janet, Carson, Zelenka, etc), but that the non-white characters seem to be inevitably relegated to the background in the Stargate universe.

To some degree, I'm sure it's symptomatic of TV shows: white people want to watch white people. Still, I find it disturbing that the nominated 'leaders' of the primitive peoples - and therefore their representatives - are almost always non-white. (Plus, the leaders of the 'white people with civilisation' are evil if their cultures aren't.)

Finally, I'm curious about the fact that the 'jumper driver seat is on the left. Not all civilisations drive on the right-hand side of the road. It's like the assumption that people in the Northern Hemisphere have that birds fly south for the winter, and that things get warmer the further south you go.

Atlantis does not necessarily have to be in the northern hemisphere of its planet. I mean, it very well may be - I haven't studied the shots of the planet all that well. But, coming from the other half of the planet (where Christmas is in summer and we build our houses facing north for the best sun) I think it would be cool to have all the people from up north completely turned around by the fact that the sun's path lies northwards and not south, while the people from the southern hemisphere are all "what are you guys going on about?" While secretly snickering behind their hands.

The idea of a culture that influenced Earth (instead of American-Earth influencing it) is intriguing: but it would have been nice to see some of the standards turned upside down - perceptions changed and rearranged - to make people think.

And if you can sandwich some perception adjustment in between entertainment, I don't think that's entirely a bad thing.

Comments

[viciouswishes.livejournal.com]

While I can't say anything to just why all the main Earthlings are white, with the exception of Ford, it makes sense that the other world humans like Teyla and Ronon are mixed. Since the Wraith cull them, it leaves very few people to make more babies and thus everyone eventually is mixed. Or as Stephen Colbert likes to point out, eventually, we'll all look like Soledad O'Brian.

While I fully supported getting rid of Ford (his character was boring, imho), it does make their cast of Earthlings completely skewed racially.

I think they have the same problem with women as main characters. Especially since the Wraith have Queens.

[saeva.livejournal.com]

Except that all the Genii are white. Perna's people from Poisoning the Well are all white that we see. It would make sense -- but it's not consistent and where it's not consistent the more technology advancement there clearly is the more likely the people are going to be represented as white.

- Andrea.

[viciouswishes.livejournal.com]

Very very true. It could be fanwank about the Genii's very insular culture led to them being white. But not so much with Perna's people. Oh, the continuity/logic holes big enough to drive a puddle jumper through in SGA.

[saeva.livejournal.com]

Actually, while it could be fanwanked that's true of the "shown" Genii's -- the aboveground ones -- we know the belowground ones have a lot of outside contact. Every episode with the Genii shows another world they have spies on and/or the spy network. Some of that would have come home.

Plus, there was once a Genii alliance -- within written history -- and you don't "bleed" colour out of a race in even a few thousand years; they would have been mixed then and that would have maintained even if the population became isolated (though they aren't isolated).

But you want to notice something creepy? Check out women with curly hair on either Stargate -- actively curly, like Sora, not wavy like Weir's -- and count how many are evil/turn evil.

- Andrea.

[viciouswishes.livejournal.com]

Hmmm...can't say I remember the Genii Alliance (but those episodes aren't really my favorites and have me going, 'don't built nuclear bombs with them, Rodney.'). But if the Genii started out as a white peoples and then didn't intermarry because of suspicion. Even with an Alliance, I do think it's a possibility. I mean, they did convince Teyla that they were a shy agrarian society and while she didn't have Rodney's device, she does have a pretty good sense about things and was aware of higher technology. (If memory serves, no one ever called the Wraith magical.) Though I'm beginning to remember why I'm frequently told never to apply logic or try to apply logic to the Stargate universe.

I'll have to watch for that.

[rydra_wong]

Since the Wraith cull them, it leaves very few people to make more babies and thus everyone eventually is mixed.

I think that has potential to work as an internal rationalization - similarly, someone's suggested in SG-1 fandom that since off-world humans (and Jaffa) were taken from Earth at a time when most civilized cultures were found in the Fertile Crescent, North Africa, etc., it makes sense that those populations would be disproportionately represented and that thus off-world humans and Jaffa would have significantly more non-white members than a North American military-scientific team

But the big problem comes when your (largely non-white) alien cultures are then continually depicted as in need of the (mostly-white) central characters to show them the way, take the lead, etc.

I don't know SGA well enough to comment, but SG-1 certainly manages to be exceptionally patronizing towards the Jaffa, who are repeatedly treated as either Cannon Fodder or Noble But Dumb. Any suggestion that they might not necessarily want to model themselves on American democracy (or that their political interests might not automatically be the same as Earth's) seems to get a fairly rapid smackdown.

[viciouswishes.livejournal.com]

Yeah, there's definitely the problem of "here's our better government, culture, technology, etc. to give to you primitive people."

SGA seems to bring their military red shirts, but there's definitely a lot of the Noble But Dumb.

My friends always joke that the SG-1 spreads atheism across the galaxy and SGA spreads democracy in the next galaxy. But really, I think anyone that suggests something contrary to the SG-1/SGA main characters gets the smack down, even if it's a good idea.