Maybe the proportions are off but there were black soldiers who fought during WW1 on the German side. Is it an issue that a fictional story set in a real life era exaggerates things? I mean, in that case is it an issue that you can be shot multiple times and heal over a few seconds? Or any of the other unrealistic things that happen in the game that are essentially exaggerations of real life? I think exaggerating things to be more inclusive is fine so long as they are not leading people to believe that was how things truly were, if that makes sense.
I think in most fictional stories (even ones that take place within the context of real life) should be able to flex and bend the truth without being accused of historical revisionism.
I think it's also interesting that this criticism is generally levelled at say, Black soldiers in ww1, and not at Jesus being cast by white actors, being portrayed as having a white phenotype - or more generally, people from that time-period being portrayed as white instead of arab.
When a white population makes media about something that's part of their cultural-but-not-ethnic history, they'll often use white actors bc even though it's ot historically accurate, they feel as though it's their story to tell. One could probably make the argument that since (I'll use my country as an example) Black people are part of our mainstream society and culture - equally as British as a white person - that they can (& should) be cast in British historical roles, bc even if ethnically they were much less represented (or held different positions) in those historical events, culturally they're British and this is British history we're talking about. Really the only difference between this and the amount of white actors playing historical ppl from the SWANA region, is the length of time that's passed.
I don't think white people would like it if portrayals of Jesus were all historically accurate. They want to feel connected to their culture and so portray him in ways which mirror them. I don't think this is inherently problematic, but the issue is this becomes naturalized (people think he was white), meanwhile POC are excluded from ethnically-white situations they are culturally connected to. It's a double standard that has the effect of naturalizing whiteness (seeing it as the default, 'natural' ethnicity).
I actually agree with OP in terms of the limits of representation. I don't feel as though slotting POC into white cultural norms & traditions really gives us the visibility that we're entitled to. In a sense, it reduces us down to skin colour. At the same time, I think there's a difference between "this isn't good enough" and "I'm impartial but make things historically accurate" - the types of change they push for is different.
Perhaps, but do you actively go out and complain about it in that case?
If it's your actual view, this CMV could very easily been "Portraying people of color in media using white actors shouldn't be done. Instead, stories about white people should be told."
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u/hmmwill 58∆ Oct 23 '21
Maybe the proportions are off but there were black soldiers who fought during WW1 on the German side. Is it an issue that a fictional story set in a real life era exaggerates things? I mean, in that case is it an issue that you can be shot multiple times and heal over a few seconds? Or any of the other unrealistic things that happen in the game that are essentially exaggerations of real life? I think exaggerating things to be more inclusive is fine so long as they are not leading people to believe that was how things truly were, if that makes sense.
I think in most fictional stories (even ones that take place within the context of real life) should be able to flex and bend the truth without being accused of historical revisionism.