Yeah, I'm staying away from fandom because I don't know. The world is horribly broken and aaah. And "problematic" or "making people who work in the area twitch" are not the same as "bad" and "ought never be done". I guess it sounds contradictory when I say it, but: the fact that I see something as problematic and racist and feel hurt by it does not mean that other people should not do/write/watch/love it. It doesn't make them bad people. It means they just don't have the same sensibilities.
Because really, the thing that's really setting my nerves twanging lately is... the Canadian government worked really studiously for a hundred years (well into Fraser's childhood) to obliterate aboriginal language and culture. The job of the RCMP was often to separate aboriginal children from their families and take them to residential schools. But now here we have Fraser, who grew up with a thorough knowledge of Inuktitut and Inuit culture. Hence the "dancing on graves" feeling.
At the same time... can I ask Due South to be any different? Can I ask it not to exist? Can I ask it to only reflect some alternate world where there isn't this tension? Because that such a person with such an upbringing would have that knowledge is not impossible or even improbable.
And Due South did address these issues, as much as it can. It gives the culture visibility and makes it relatable. It's sensitive to the problems (even though I don't know that non-Canadian viewers would pick up on that). Heck, the entire original reason Fraser is in the States is because he exposed, ahem, a massive RCMP cover-up of a plan to totally fuck aboriginal people over.
So maybe I think it's not something wrong with the show. It's something wrong with reality, that the show reminds me of in really painful ways. And I can't expect a show to fix the reality. While no, I don't want people to be hella racist, when it's like this, when the problem is my inability to move past the kind of trauma I deal with in my job, into a place where I realize that the world can also be full of goodness and laughter? Then, I think it's my problem to deal with, not the show's problem for existing.
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Because really, the thing that's really setting my nerves twanging lately is... the Canadian government worked really studiously for a hundred years (well into Fraser's childhood) to obliterate aboriginal language and culture. The job of the RCMP was often to separate aboriginal children from their families and take them to residential schools. But now here we have Fraser, who grew up with a thorough knowledge of Inuktitut and Inuit culture. Hence the "dancing on graves" feeling.
At the same time... can I ask Due South to be any different? Can I ask it not to exist? Can I ask it to only reflect some alternate world where there isn't this tension? Because that such a person with such an upbringing would have that knowledge is not impossible or even improbable.
And Due South did address these issues, as much as it can. It gives the culture visibility and makes it relatable. It's sensitive to the problems (even though I don't know that non-Canadian viewers would pick up on that). Heck, the entire original reason Fraser is in the States is because he exposed, ahem, a massive RCMP cover-up of a plan to totally fuck aboriginal people over.
So maybe I think it's not something wrong with the show. It's something wrong with reality, that the show reminds me of in really painful ways. And I can't expect a show to fix the reality. While no, I don't want people to be hella racist, when it's like this, when the problem is my inability to move past the kind of trauma I deal with in my job, into a place where I realize that the world can also be full of goodness and laughter? Then, I think it's my problem to deal with, not the show's problem for existing.