Day: January 19, 2019

It wasn’t too long ago that seeing a show about brown or Asian people was a big deal. It was considered a breakthrough to make a show about minorities for a non minority audience. I saw it as a stepping stone, and perhaps even one in the wrong direction at times.

Representation has always been a difficult issue. The goal, ostensibly, is for it not to be an issue. The goal is to watch characters of multiple races stream across the screen and it just feel natural. The goal is for the scene to feel like it comes from the place it represents. That’s part of why I really enjoyed Banshee on Cinemax. Their community, bordering on tribal land, presented a surprising mix of race in rural America. It spoke to race only when the specific characters who defined such things in negativity spoke to race. It was highly stylized and had other representation issues, but it wasn’t a really good start (and a pretty fun and layered story). The Punisher, I believe, picks up right there and takes us over the goal line.

I’m a longtime fan of the Punisher. I’m a pre-MAX comic book guy who dutifully sat through all the movies. This latest show (the only real show) is very good. It also is the first show in recent memory to expertly layer in race as not to even seem as though race was forced in. Instead it feels natural. It feels like New York, and Ohio, etc. The people of color aren’t always background. They have real roles and lives and problems that aren’t two dimensionally fixated on the color of their skin or the qualities of their culture. They are story worthy as individuals and rarely, if ever, does race come up—save for when it is defined by a specific character within the boundaries of that characters view of the world.

Good job, Marvel.

My phone AutoCorrect’s to learned. I think that defines the issue in a nutshell. I’ve always prided myself on being a learner. I come from a generation that placed an emphasis on learning (not to be confused with scholarship). We were defined by our adaptability and not only the ability to quickly absorb and acclimate to new tech but to push that tech forward. I’ve gone from Commodore 64 to quantum computing in my lifetime. I like to think this is because we accepted the idea that we were learning from those who came before, and continuing to learn long beyond achieving so-called expertise. However, in my life I’ve seen a shift from learner to learned. The emphasis is no longer on gaining new knowledge but accessing existing knowledge and being ‘in the know’. The idea of learning purely for the sake of personal intellectual growth is a unicorn in the wilds of our society.

I could blame google. Ease of access is always the downfall of effort. Still, blaming is not the point here. How do we cultivate change? I suppose I can do more in my own life. I live amongst largely fixed mindset individuals. There are a few even in that set who are open on occasion, like a storefront with set but limited hours. So perhaps personal action can infiltrate their hardware.

Still this isn’t about change either. Not yet. This is about awareness. I believe knowing a thing is the first step towards understanding it. After all, that is what learning is all about. I haven’t been the best learner as of late. My phone autocorrects me to the learned whenever it can. Still, perhaps, like it just did a sentence ago, through effort it will start to autocorrect in the other direction.