and
ill give you a hint one of these was widely condemned by Americans across the political spectrum as racist. and the other is considered totally fine.
this post was submitted on 03 Sep 2023
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chapotraphouse
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THEY DIDNT HAVE TO TINT HIS FUCKING SKIN THOUGH
or edit his eyes
Famously, when you are trying to do racist asian caricatures, you make the eyes more circular.
Love y'all, but I really think the claim that this meme is racist is a huge stretch.
I don't think its a stretch considering the cultural context for the imagery has now been lost across borders.
Lemmy is not Chinese social media, this image of the President Xi as its being used now is in a racist and anti-communist context especially now that the inquiring thread has been locked and many comments deleted with no actual action done.
It is a well known tactic of white racists to use humiliation as a way to stifle dissent. Painting the head of the Chinese state as a yellow, gluttonous cartoon bear ~~has the same effect as chasing black folks in klan uniforms~~. The absurdity is the point. It dehumanizes the other while making it difficult for them to defend themselves ("who wants the 'defend' the cartoon bear").
EDIT: My comparison to the KKK was faulty, there can't be a comparison to physical violence here, my desired point was that was to highlight that in Reconstruction: black folks were often humiliated by the description of klan members being so absurd (chased by a man in a white ghost outfit) when reporting to the authorities or the mainstream press. I meant that aesthetics also has a way of demoralizing others. It doesn't feel safe to be in a space where this type of imagery is normalized. Imagine trying to have a discussion about the CPC and the other person comes to you with "haha yellow bear."
Humiliation and ridiculous caricature are not tactics unique to white racists. That's more reaching.
That's missing the point. The "yellow bear" caricature is so useful to white supremacists because its another avenue to dehumanize the communist party. They use it because it allows them to infiltrate these spaces to spread reactionary propaganda. "MeanwhileOnGrad" is an anti communist space that gains legitmacy from liberals because it adopts mainstream reactionary propaganda that liberals created.
We are in an international, primarily english speaking, federated social network platform. This is not the same as posting images of Winnie the Pooh to evade/agitate moderators and admins in China. You cannot appropriate something like this.
We should ask: who benefits from this type of imagery? The answer is most definitely not the Chinese people.
The meme being used by and useful to anti-communists in general and anti-Xi people in particular doesn't make it racist.
I'm not saying people should use it (mostly because I think it's cringe), but I also don't think it's racist and calling people who use it racist instead of just cringe looks unserious.
Ah yes, cringe-based respectability politics. Avoid condemnation for the sake of easing tension. This is the first type of liberalism.
The venn diagram looks like a circle.
Calling people cringe isn't avoiding confrontation. It's just a much more reasonable stance to take than "meme invented by Chinese netizens is actually racist as soon as white people touch it and is also a nefarious plot by neo-nazis to normalize racism because it's making a non-white person look ridiculous".
I'm not saying avoid confrontation to ease tension, I'm saying that the easier dunk is "you are posting a picture of a world leader photoshopped to look like a children's book character and expecting it to bring about regime change".
Anti-CPC propaganda doesn't exist within a vacuum. It is inextricably tied to sinophobia and Anti Chinese-American sentiment in the US. Condemning it as racism will destroy it, mocking it will only make its supporters indignant and apathetic. If it were that easy to call it "cringe" and nothing else then why did the instance admins lock the thread and wipe responses?
Too bad there is a nefarious plot by neo-nazis and the American political establishment (they're the same picture) to demean and undermine the CPC at every turn. This is not an isolated event but a continuous effort to manufacture consent in the general public to see China as the enemy. Even if we mock this occurrence, it will happen again and again. In order to stomp it out, we have to be more bold and demanding.
It would, if that particular criticism had a leg to stand on.
No idea why admins locked whatever thread you're talking about, but it's probably because it was nothing but Hexbears screaming "debate me".
Buddy, we're not stomping out anything. Our actions on Hexbear and Lemmy have no effect on anything. Just like the people posting "Xinnie the Pooh Tianmen Square vuvuzela iPhone".
It was a thread made by a hexbear about why the folks at sh.justworks were okay with the image being a community header. There was no "debate me" just reactionaries coming in and playing the biggest mental gymnastics olympiad you've ever seen.
Sounds like a lack of self-confidence that leads to inaction for you comrade. This is also about whether or not to defederate form sh.justworks. Their response to the "cringe" community header was one of reactionary anti-communism and concern trolling.
The whole thread is a "debate me". The debate demand is literally the title.
And no, I just recognize that slinging shit on a niche internet forum isn't action in any sense of the word.
There is a difference between "debate" and asking for an explanation. The explanations provided were faulty and came down to "it's just a joke bro." There was no debate here.
Besides being false, your claim has literally no basis unless you think every interaction between hexbears is a debate which is a very toxic idea. Confrontational: yes, debate: no.
I also recognize that the safety and integrity of hexbears is something to be preserved. Hexbear has never appeased any other instance and it will never do so. Our personal ethics is more important than reactionary ideas.
The mods at sh.itjustworks don't care and haven't responded, which is what's the most pressing. Not if we hurt the feelings of liberals.
I don't think this is true at all
It was sarcasm.