"Where the chips fell"? If character life-and-death really were chosen by a random process, surely we'd expect a few of the non-white characters to have lived to the end, no? Especially if there were "plenty" of them.
Except, as you well, know, the deaths weren't chosen randomly. They were the result of conscious writing decisions. I don't think the writers actually said to themselves "Hey, let's kill off the dark-skinned characters", but on a serial TV show, there are Major Characters with script immunity (meaning they'll survive whatever happens to them; if they do die, it'll turn out to have been a mistake or an evil twin or they'll get resurrected) and Supporting Characters who'll get killed off to indicate how serious the stakes are or give the Major Characters something to emote over.
Somehow, on most TV shows, in most books, on most movies, Major Characters are always white. Battlestar Galactica has turned out to be typical in that regard.
This isn't racist in the burn-a-cross-on-someone's-lawn sense, but it's racist in the sense that it indicates a pattern of race-related thought running through our society, a pattern of which many of us (especially those of us who are white) are unaware, but which contributes to a climate in which non-white people are made to feel like second-class citizens.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2009-03-21 06:00 am (UTC)Except, as you well, know, the deaths weren't chosen randomly. They were the result of conscious writing decisions. I don't think the writers actually said to themselves "Hey, let's kill off the dark-skinned characters", but on a serial TV show, there are Major Characters with script immunity (meaning they'll survive whatever happens to them; if they do die, it'll turn out to have been a mistake or an evil twin or they'll get resurrected) and Supporting Characters who'll get killed off to indicate how serious the stakes are or give the Major Characters something to emote over.
Somehow, on most TV shows, in most books, on most movies, Major Characters are always white. Battlestar Galactica has turned out to be typical in that regard.
This isn't racist in the burn-a-cross-on-someone's-lawn sense, but it's racist in the sense that it indicates a pattern of race-related thought running through our society, a pattern of which many of us (especially those of us who are white) are unaware, but which contributes to a climate in which non-white people are made to feel like second-class citizens.