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

[ellex42.livejournal.com]

Hiya, Neth...just want to reassure you, first of all, that I'm so not getting into the rest of the conversational thread that was going on here. Different terms have different connotations for different people living in different places. 'Nuff said.

I did, however, want to ask you about the term Brain Storm, purely out of curiosity, because it's clear you weren't using it to mean what I had thought it meant. To me, Brain Storm (usually not capitalized) means I've had an idea or I'm working on an idea, as in "I'm brainstorming on my latest fic to work out the plot".

I had heard of Brain Storm being used, in the past, to describe an epileptic seizure. It's not really an accepted term now, both for PC reasons and because people are, in general, a bit more educated on the subject (at least, in my experience, they are). I'd never heard of it being used in terms of any type of mental illness, however. And since my youngest brother suffered from a mental illness, I've had a lot of experience with that here in the USA.

So what, in your experience, does the term brain storm mean, and why is it not PC?

[neth-dugan.livejournal.com]

In my experience, a brain storm is what you said, the putting the idea down, and going fromt hat to... well what you said. That and the form of note taking (which is pretty much the same) of putting the central subject, having things around that, and things around that. Like some kinda tree/web hybrid thing.

So what you said, that's always been a Brain Storm. And, suddenly, we weren't allowed to say it, and people would tell you off at school for it because it wasn't PC anymore, though I can never remember what they changed it to cause I still call it a Brain Storm.

I hadn't heard of it in reference to epileptic seizures, and I get why people'd be upset about that, it'd degrading. But... I mean, seriously, they're two different things. One's a seizure, the other... so isn't.

But it was for that seizure name, I'd guess, that it suddenly became un-PC to call the note taking thing a Brain Storm. Because what I was told was that 'it offended people with mental dissabilities' or something. I know people with mental dissabilities, and they don't find it insulting. Hell, my cousin has a rather serious mental condition, but....


So yeah, that's what I was on about. And it was that thing that pretty much tipped me over into ranting about PC every now and then.

[ellex42.livejournal.com]

Huh. The world just keeps getting stranger and stranger. I know about the note-taking thing, with writing down a central subject and then writing related concepts around it and connecting them with lines, but I never heard it called a Brain Storm. I don't remember what it was called, though, because I think I only did it once or twice in school.

As far as I know, the term brainstorm still means working on an idea here in the US. If I asked anyone I know - even the older generation - what a brainstorm was, they wouldn't define it as an epileptic seizure or as referencing any type of mental illness.

'Colored' really is a sensitive, loaded term here, though, because of the way it was used in the sixties. But people really do have to make allowances for the usage of different terms in different geographical and cultural areas. Unfortunately, we can't hear your accent over the internet!

[neth-dugan.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I use the term for the first two meanings both, but I'm not sure if everyone here does. They'd all think of them before the epilepcit seizures there, or at least a larger portion of them would.


Yeah, I didn't realise how sensative it was over there till now. It's kinda odd in the not-used-to-it way. I could try writting out my accent I supose, but... not a good idea really.