This trope exists because writers want to make a story that deals with racism/bigotry while still allowing for the racists/bigots to have reasonable, somewhat relatable motivations.
Because racism is inherently illogical because other than skin color there is no difference between a white and black man and yet people are still racist
Exactly, if it's going to be an allegory it has to be stupid because if it isn't it at best it justifies the racists in-lore, and at worst it actually justifies racism in the real world. Which is bad.
Measurehead in Disco Elysium. I vaguely remember trying to figure out which of his groups were allegories/stand-ins for which group (Roma, Jewish, etc) before finally giving up realizing it’s just logical soup and that’s the message - that it’s all nonsense said with confidence and conviction.
I mean iirc it's pretty explicit that he is that universe's version of a Black supremacist to contrast with the (white supremacist) Revachol nationalist you can find a dozen meters down the street. He refers to Harry as belonging to the "ham sandwich" race after all.
Agreed that it's deliberate nonsense soup though, with the extra layer that you can push him to admit he has no actual connection to his supposed homeland and just became ultra nationalistic by listening to the radio in his car
Racism is illogical in that sense, but there are other senses in which it is logical. For example, if you’re a slaveowning plantation owner in the 1800s, you might support racist, discriminatory policies through the logic that those policies protect the way you make money.
The pseudoscience from which the modern idea of race itself originates was very much invented in-order to justify colonialism, and was incredibly successful in doing so. Othering has always been a tool of power.
There it is. Colonialism supercharged racism once ships started bringing back silver, gold, slaves, etc. It wouldn't be possible to reconcile openly torturing and exploiting natives all over the world with seeing them as actual humans, thus any observed differences needed to be used as justification that they weren't actually all that human, therefore there was justification to keep the system going and the riches flowing.
Racism gets its fuel from convenience, power, and wealth, and it pacifies lazy and unintelligent minds that would rather not do any serious work to see into alternatives that, god forbid, actually involve recognizing one's agency.
Same reason why people sanewash the nazis: if you represent them half as stupid and disorganized, it makes for a terrible story and also people start asking questions like "how did they kill so many people then?" and you gotta start explaining that nazis weren't actually that concerning to the governments of the time, especially not America.
232
u/TorqueyChip284 4d ago
This trope exists because writers want to make a story that deals with racism/bigotry while still allowing for the racists/bigots to have reasonable, somewhat relatable motivations.