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Aug. 29th, 2012 02:17 amSo, on my Tumblr (my very poorly updated, very neglected Tumblr because I hate the Tumblr culture and the Tumblr denizens scare the hell out of me), I got an Anonymous Ask today.
Yeah.
Anyone who knows anything about Tumblr, knows the Anonymous Ask is usually NOT A GOOD SIGN. It takes the anonymity of the internet and makes it even more anonymous because these things have no name, no evidence of where this person is from, or even a hint of a way to track them. At least on LJ you can log the IP addresses of the anonymous commentors...
Anyway, thus far all the Anonymous Asks I've gotten were spam so I was kinda hoping it was that and I could dismiss it. But alas, it wasn't to be. I should be glad it wasn't hate though.
The backstory:
So today, pages of the script Big Brother from Glee were released and it was written on one of them that young Blaine was played by the mini-Warbler (aka the cutest Glee fan ever) and essentially what I wrote is that if the mini-Warbler was meant to play Blaine, why Glee went the route of white-washing Blaine.
And what appeared in my Askbox was this:
Technically there was no white-washing considering Darren is half white (Irish) and the child that did play Blaine was Japanese and Native American. Also while Darren is half Asian, the mini Warbler is mostly Asian and there isn't much of a resemblance between a young Darren and him. He could be a young Wes though!
Okay, I'm big enough to admit when I'm wrong and it's awesome that young Blaine was played by someone with some Asian ancestry! Beyond awesome! Glee, good job! I'm sorry I doubted you.
And at first, I felt bad that I missed this piece of information and ended up blaming Glee for something that they didn't do. But then as I thought about what that Anon wrote, the more annoyed I got. I'll concede that there was no white-washing, but there were some things in this Anon's statement I found troubling. I can't be the only one, right?
I mean, what does it mean that there's no white-washing because Darren is half-white? What does that part have to do with it? I can understand the part of the actor who actually played young Blaine, but Darren's white ancestry playing a part? Does Darren's white ancestry wipe out his Asian one? What? So, he's half-white therefore he is white, so no white-washing can exist because he's already white? Does that make sense to anybody?
Part of their premise seems to be that there wasn't a resemblance between young Darren and the mini-Warbler. But I can't say there was much of a resemblance between the actor who played young Blaine and young Darren. Considering Darren is half Filipino and half Irish and the kid who played young Blaine is part Native American and Japanese, it's understandable that there wasn't much of a resemblance. But if the mini-Warbler's mostly Filipino ancestry means he's unqualified to play a person of half-Filipino ancestry, how does that translate to him being fully qualified to play a person of Chinese ancestry?
Really, what is this Anon trying to say? That we all look the same unless we have some white in us? That the mini Warbler is too Asian to play a half-Asian person but because he's mostly Filipino, he can totally be Chinese? So Native American (the implication is that there is also some white there) and Japanese can totally pass for Irish and Filipino, but mostly Filipino can't. But can pass for Chinese. Am I not supposed to be offended by this as an Asian person?
I thought about putting all these thoughts onto Tumblr but I really hate that part of Tumblr. Like if people didn't sound off their opinions to every person who can hear it there, Tumblr would be a much more bearable place to hang out. And I've always wanted to keep my Tumblr a crazy free zone, full of Darren pictures and videos with minimal amount of personal input. I'm not interested in what other people think so who am I to think other people would want to know what I think? Of course, sometimes I slip (like today, which lead to all this) but I mostly try to adhere to that policy. So this is all posted here at my LJ because I have thoughts that I wanted to get down.
I know I'm probably making more of a big deal out of this than I should. This person is probably didn't even realize what their words sounded like to me. Or that they were making statements that might be construed as ignorant or offensive. But I am so tired of white privilege leading to unintentionally ignorant statements being made. It's so pervasive that it's not even just white people making them, it's anyone who grows up in a Western society. I know I've been conditioned to think white is better and I'm not even white! I feel like it's such a mindfuck... OTL
And as I grow older and become more and more aware of such things, I become more and more upset. Seriously, couldn't this person have just left it at, "Technically there was no white-washing considering...the child that did play Blaine was Japanese and Native American"? All that other stuff was so unnecessary and now because of it, I am once again reminded that though it might seem like things are getting better, there's still a lot of ways it hasn't. *sigh*
Great. Now my night has been ruined. I wish I hadn't dwelt on it some more.
I should have known. Nothing good comes from an Anonymous Ask on Tumblr.
Yeah.
Anyone who knows anything about Tumblr, knows the Anonymous Ask is usually NOT A GOOD SIGN. It takes the anonymity of the internet and makes it even more anonymous because these things have no name, no evidence of where this person is from, or even a hint of a way to track them. At least on LJ you can log the IP addresses of the anonymous commentors...
Anyway, thus far all the Anonymous Asks I've gotten were spam so I was kinda hoping it was that and I could dismiss it. But alas, it wasn't to be. I should be glad it wasn't hate though.
The backstory:
So today, pages of the script Big Brother from Glee were released and it was written on one of them that young Blaine was played by the mini-Warbler (aka the cutest Glee fan ever) and essentially what I wrote is that if the mini-Warbler was meant to play Blaine, why Glee went the route of white-washing Blaine.
And what appeared in my Askbox was this:
Technically there was no white-washing considering Darren is half white (Irish) and the child that did play Blaine was Japanese and Native American. Also while Darren is half Asian, the mini Warbler is mostly Asian and there isn't much of a resemblance between a young Darren and him. He could be a young Wes though!
Okay, I'm big enough to admit when I'm wrong and it's awesome that young Blaine was played by someone with some Asian ancestry! Beyond awesome! Glee, good job! I'm sorry I doubted you.
And at first, I felt bad that I missed this piece of information and ended up blaming Glee for something that they didn't do. But then as I thought about what that Anon wrote, the more annoyed I got. I'll concede that there was no white-washing, but there were some things in this Anon's statement I found troubling. I can't be the only one, right?
I mean, what does it mean that there's no white-washing because Darren is half-white? What does that part have to do with it? I can understand the part of the actor who actually played young Blaine, but Darren's white ancestry playing a part? Does Darren's white ancestry wipe out his Asian one? What? So, he's half-white therefore he is white, so no white-washing can exist because he's already white? Does that make sense to anybody?
Part of their premise seems to be that there wasn't a resemblance between young Darren and the mini-Warbler. But I can't say there was much of a resemblance between the actor who played young Blaine and young Darren. Considering Darren is half Filipino and half Irish and the kid who played young Blaine is part Native American and Japanese, it's understandable that there wasn't much of a resemblance. But if the mini-Warbler's mostly Filipino ancestry means he's unqualified to play a person of half-Filipino ancestry, how does that translate to him being fully qualified to play a person of Chinese ancestry?
Really, what is this Anon trying to say? That we all look the same unless we have some white in us? That the mini Warbler is too Asian to play a half-Asian person but because he's mostly Filipino, he can totally be Chinese? So Native American (the implication is that there is also some white there) and Japanese can totally pass for Irish and Filipino, but mostly Filipino can't. But can pass for Chinese. Am I not supposed to be offended by this as an Asian person?
I thought about putting all these thoughts onto Tumblr but I really hate that part of Tumblr. Like if people didn't sound off their opinions to every person who can hear it there, Tumblr would be a much more bearable place to hang out. And I've always wanted to keep my Tumblr a crazy free zone, full of Darren pictures and videos with minimal amount of personal input. I'm not interested in what other people think so who am I to think other people would want to know what I think? Of course, sometimes I slip (like today, which lead to all this) but I mostly try to adhere to that policy. So this is all posted here at my LJ because I have thoughts that I wanted to get down.
I know I'm probably making more of a big deal out of this than I should. This person is probably didn't even realize what their words sounded like to me. Or that they were making statements that might be construed as ignorant or offensive. But I am so tired of white privilege leading to unintentionally ignorant statements being made. It's so pervasive that it's not even just white people making them, it's anyone who grows up in a Western society. I know I've been conditioned to think white is better and I'm not even white! I feel like it's such a mindfuck... OTL
And as I grow older and become more and more aware of such things, I become more and more upset. Seriously, couldn't this person have just left it at, "Technically there was no white-washing considering...the child that did play Blaine was Japanese and Native American"? All that other stuff was so unnecessary and now because of it, I am once again reminded that though it might seem like things are getting better, there's still a lot of ways it hasn't. *sigh*
Great. Now my night has been ruined. I wish I hadn't dwelt on it some more.
I should have known. Nothing good comes from an Anonymous Ask on Tumblr.
