RKMBs Forums .::Robegories::. Comic Books The Official THE Bat-Man Thread, by Prometheus

So, I just downloaded the first 840 issues of Detective Comics, and the first 318 issues of Batman. I've made this thread to be able to talk about it as I go through the characters history in order, not to mention all the Slam Bradley and Cosmo, Phantom of Disguise stories in the first twenty-six issues of Detective. And what about Fu-Manchu? Let me tell you, rampant Asian racism was the bomb in those days! (Bomb? Hiroshima? Get it? It's racist as well as insensitive, while still retaining hip and youthful slang... )

So, anyway, this will probably fall by the wayside after I get bored past issue three. But, just in case, check out THIS guy:

was it racist or just not politically correct?

Please don't speak of Asian-Americans like that. Fused will leave the bor-eds forever...

the chinaman quite literally is the issue here.

seriousry.

I downloaded a load of Will Eisner's The Spirit and the portrayal of "minorities" was a bit of a shocker to me, as a modern reader. A lot of stuff you see from the Olden Days is rassist, but I'm not sure if was intentionally or maliciously so. Different times and all that.

The Spirit is one of those books I've been meaning to start getting (the Darwyn Cooke title and the hardcovers of the original series), but never do.

Heh, I'll steal Pro's thread and make it a Spirit one

I got the originals after reading Darwyn Cooke's. I recommend both to everyone - available on various torrent sites

Hacker!!

I have a mole!! Honest guvner.

From Detective Comics #1:

Heh - as well as rassism, we have bawdy jokes about screwing the same chick. If that "girl" had the brains of a modern thinker like myself, Shorty would have come in really handy.

no time for love, dr. jones!

In blue PJ's.

The first years of the strip are historically significant, but they're also pretty fucking dull. Then Eisner gets shipped off to WW2 and it gets really bad. Everyone (including Eisner) recommends starting with the post-War stuff. That's where the groundbeaking stuff that changed the medium is. In terms of quality it's decades away from the early episodes. It's like comparing Please Please Me with Abbey Road.

but really were those cartoon racist? people are way over sensitive today.

Actually, I don't find them rassist. Not really. They're just examples of cultural ignorance of the time, is all. Not to mention, with the era of WWII practically giving birth to comics as such, I think it's practically inherent to the industry of the time. They needed villians, and politically, the Asians were it at the time. I mean, who gets up in arms about portraying the Nazis as inhuman monsters? Yet, both stereotypes are from the same era...

but NAHZEES are WHITE.

The she-male-it has a point...

That's just something they brought up from the pulps. Asians were always considered sneaky and conniving because of their insular cultures. A lot of early films and Victorian/Edwardian era books had Asians as the villains.

Uschi also makes a good point about the Germans. I don't see any of the old WWII era cartoons being changed because of how they treated the Germans and their military unlike the representation of Japanese soldiers that have been edited out of cartoons because they were 'racist'.

pan-amorous asexual gender-queer.

it's a new name!

Trust the fuckhead!

Yeah, that was kind of my point about no one getting up in arms about portraying the Germans as inhuman monsters and all. Although, honestly, I hadn't thought about the Pulp connection. Makes sense, I guess. We Anglo-Saxons tend to villify each and every new culture we come across. Fear leads to hate, and all that...

Isn't it a little bit of a circle-jerk to have a bunch of white people, I assume, arguiing about weither or not something is racist?

I'm sure there's some Irish and Jews around here, we're basicly white black people as far as the dutch, german, and brits are concerned.

I'm not being overly PC here. It's kind of true, though. Best I can tell, throughout history, almost every race anglo-saxons have met started with them being inferior/slaves or the enemy. I'm not saying always, and I'm not saying we're the only ones that do so, either. It might be the natural order of things. And someone very well versed in history may have a different point of view, I don't know. Just talking, is all...

No, it's called an exchange of ideas.

And, who are you again?

One of Halo's butt buddies.

I'm not anyone's butt buddy.

I am a black guy so the question seemed logical to me. I'd ask the same thing if it was a bunch of men talking about whether something was sexist or not.

Some white guys today just have no perspective. They're either totally PC or beating their chests about being the victims of reverse racism. Seems to me we don't live in a color-blind society. Minorities don't have it as bad as they did 50+ years ago but to hear some white people complain, you'd think they were wearing shackles.

I don't get it.

What are your thoughts, as a black former Insurgent, on Sikkbone's use of the word "nigger" in the Isaac Hayes thread here ?

Sikk?



I think it's because we live in a knee-jerk culture (especially western civilization) that has been constantly inundated over the past, what, twenty? thirty years? with how badly "minorities" (and I use that term loosely, as I believe some former minorities now outnumber the euro-saxons) have had it, and how we (anglo-saxons) are to blame. Not to mention, all the frivolous lawsuits allowed to pass through the courts. It's always a few bad apples that ruin the barrel...

"and another nigger bites the dust..."

My opinion is Sikk is a jerk. I think nigger is a word that people take too lightly. Sometimes use of that word cuts too deeply for it to be thrown around casually. Even black people have to be more responsible when they use it.

If you're making a point like Chris Rock in "Niggas vs. Black People" then I think the use of the word is legit. That bit is an eight-minute rant about behaviors that Rock sees within the black community; he describes "niggas" as a cohort whose behavior is usually detrimental to the image of other black people and embody many negative African-American stereotypes. The "niggas," he said, glorify ignorance and sloth, and show excessive pride for fulfilling any minor responsibility. Rock rejects the view that this image of African-Americans is purely cultivated by the media. In the routine, he says, "When I go to the money machine tonight, alright, I ain't looking over my back for the media: I'm looking for niggas!"

If you're just using the word for shock value like Sikk did, then you're a jerk. If you're using it to express your heart-felt dislike or hatred of black folks then it's legit, too. Why 'cause racism and hatred are real and your expressing them.

Now, my turn for a question. What is the white equivalent of nigger? With women the word is cunt. Asians and Hispanics don't have a word that's applied to them that is as nasty and powerful. Odd, eh?

There is no equivalent. I've heard "cracker," "whitey," and "ofay" used, but none of them have the impact that "nigger" has. To find those red button words, you have to dig deeper into a white guy's heritage. "Mick" (for Irish), "dago/wop" (for Italians), "polack" (for Poles), kraut (for Germans), etc have had, at one time or another, similar impact as "nigger." For Asians, you have to dig a bit into which specific nationality (chink...nip...charlie...slope...etc). It's the same with Hispanics (spic, dago, beaner, greaser, etc). But I agree that "nigger" still has more impact than any of those.

sometime around 9 or 10 years old I moved beyond being effected by name calling, it's a shame that most of the PC society hasn't....

Admit it, you still feel the pain when someone calls you "dunderhead" or "stupid face." When will the hatred end???