Reflection and Analysis

Rings of Power - BIPOC? Say What (9/8/2022)

I finally decided to look up what BIPOC is short for and discovered it means Black, Indigenous, and people of color because Rings of Power is complaining all our fans, including non-white females like myself, a person of color, is, in fact, racist for criticizing the show for - well, butchering Tolkien, for role swapping Galadriel's D&D class and other things.

Which, yes, in Fellowship of the Fans, I have brought up race. I've been discussing it in regards to Tolkien's intent and pointing out racism within the show that occurred because they were too busy trying to check off diversity boxes to pay attention to what they're doing, such as the whitewashing of the Harad, just to get a political message across. And yes, there are some definitely racist things that slipped into this show, and this is just the first two episodes.

What, so Black people and Indigenous people aren't people of color now?

This is why people are tired of diversity being used as a way of virtue signaling, but now I have got a new word to pinpoint when someone is virtue signaling because you can just say POC or not-white as I do. Using BIPOC doesn't make you look more inclusive. Instead, it makes you look less inclusive, particularly with how Black is the first part, as if they are somehow more important than other POC. Still, someone realized here in America that - hey, maybe we be addressing the Native Americans as they were here first.

Which, yes. Black people come first when it comes to "look how diverse we are." Even Hispanics get more attention than Native Americans in the film industry, with them honestly sliding to the back of the people of color pile, which makes BIPOC even more disingenuous. Diversity means readdressing the balance for Black people, even in countries such as Great Britain, where they've faired much better than here in America yet have a much smaller population. And how dare anybody say that they understand what Black people are going through despite Hispanics and Native Americans going through the exact same things!

And can we please stop correcting works because someone doesn't think they're diverse enough? The Wiz wasn't made because they didn't think The Wizard of Oz wasn't diverse enough. The newest adaptation of Annie wasn't done because they didn't think it was diverse enough. Still, it did end up having a diverse cast because it is set in modern times where orphanages no longer exist. The population in the foster system is comprised of minority groups, meaning not making the changes given the modern setting wouldn't make sense.

Also, funny how those of us who have criticisms for the show have said Disa's the best thing, that one can argue from what we've seen of her character that the best actress was picked for the job, although I would have loved to have seen background as to why a Dwarf of color is there for the simple reason she's an unnamed canon character for whom that explanation could have given an incredible backstory about how she was picked to marry Durin IV from a Dwarf group in the Southernlands because she was their princess, although I still cringe at the thought of what would happen once they move on from Rings of Power to The Hobbit, given how they've given Tolkien's lore the middle finger.

The other cast member - Lenny Henry, while I get why he picked him (he's got a definite quirkiness to him) is still a problematic cast choice because the Hobbits aren't even supposed to be there, nor is a wizard, if that's the route they're going, so it's nostalgia bate. He's too much of a background character, with Nori the one wanting to subvert Hobbit tradition instead of being an anarchist who doesn't care that she might get little kids hurt or that her actions did, in fact get her father hurt.

I'm not sold on the Elf/Human actor and actress either, being that - well, the show is really bad about telling rather than showing. And they're being given similar treatment as Galadriel, being pushed as being right because they are diverse even though there isn't any reason for anyone to brush aside her other than her being female, and there is no reason for there to be tension between the Elves and Men.

And Galadriel - I never thought I'd ever hear the words, Elven Karen! And that's on top of being a Mary Sue, which she is because she was made to look fabulous at the expense of other Elves who should also be skilled at looking bad, and she also tries to swim what is equivalent to the Atlantic Ocean. And she's where most of the complaints are coming from!

So please, stop using the "you're racist card" when diversity is there so you can virtue signal.

On a side note, there is one actress of color, the one that played Muriel, that we've not seen yet. It's - so she's supposed to be related to Elrond. He's her uncle removed by so many generations through a line that believed in blood purity because it wanted to keep the longevity granted to them by the Elven blood gained through Elrond's twin brother. This isn't to say they couldn't make it work, but it could also fail.

But now they're claiming that fans of color are being attacked by the rest of us despite the fact there are a lot of fans of color speaking out against this as it is to them, like casting a white actor as Black Panther and a definite double standard.

Oh! And funny how House of Dragons isn't getting the same criticism despite having race swapped a character.