Moana. Lilo And Stich. Jango Fett.

Moana. Lilo and Stich. Jango Fett.

The three examples above have one thing in common.

They are some of the ONLY examples of accurate and non racist Polynesian representation in mainstream media.

Three. Things.

Two movies.

And one character who gets mere minutes of screen time.

Polynesian people are an after thought in society and media. Our land is “profitable” our culture “entertaining”. We are viewed like relics in a museum, pretty too look at, but never worth more than a glance. Our soul is stripped away and our culture made “ palatable” for tourists. We are seen as accessories to vacations. After thoughts.

Can you name three Polynesian actors? Without saying Jason Momoa or the Rock? Did you know Polynesians were the first people to discover Antarctica? Did you know Hawai’i was a formal kingdom? Did you know the Dole company, along with white settlers, overthrew the Kingdom of Hawai’i with the help of the US? Did you know most Polynesian native languages were ban by White Settlers? And only reinstated in the mid 1900s?

How much do you not know? And this isn’t a slight. I mean it genuinely. How has the media effected your view of Polynesia and it’s people? And If you know a lot, I admire you! Genuinely. But you can’t ignore the gap in media. This is not mainstream knowledge.

Which brings me to Star Wars specifically.

Temuera Morrison, a Māori actor, was cast to play Jango Fett in “Star Wars: Attack of the Clones.” In this movie, he plays a Mandalorian bounty hunter who is payed to be a Clone donor. Using his DNA, an entire army is created. Clones of him, known as “Clone Troopers”.

Despite being Clones of a character Temuera Morrison plays, Clones have NEVER looked Māori in their main media. (The Clone Wars)

I genuinely. Do not think this was done on purpose AT FIRST. Genuinely. HOWEVER! Unintentional bias and ignorance is STILL bias and ignorance.

When you get a group of character designers and they’re all white, and they all grew up AS white people, in a world that provides the privilege of ignorance to white people, you will get ignorance. Unintentional or not. It is still racism. It’s still white washing. It’s still feeding ignorance around Polynesians.

Ignorance about Polynesians is what creates this.

Ignorance. That went unchecked. Ignorance that turned into internal bias. Internal bias that turned into racism.

How Temuera actually looks was an after thought. His round face and hooded eyes, were an after thought. His accent and body type was an after thought.

This after thought spun again and again and again, and now, the Smartest Clone is the lightest. And the Dumbest Clone is the darkest. And their faces are angular, beyond recognition.

This is racism. Plain and simple.

So how do you help?

LISTEN TO POLYNESIANS!!! Learn about our people, learn about our actors, learn, learn, learn.

Prevent ignorance by listening. Prevent internal bias by learning and unlearning.

And speak up. Call Disney out on their racism! Call out character designers on their white washing. Call out artists for their white washing.

And lastly, Have difficult conversations. No one likes to be ignorant. But sometimes we all are, and unchecked, that ignorance can light the fire of racism and harm. And it will spread, and grow, until it’s a wildfire burning everything in its path. That fire burns my people, burns me. Hurts my heart, my soul, my perception of myself.

Do not let Polynesian people be an after thought

i can’t believe lucasfilm & co. really just said, “oh yeah so we’re not actually gonna mention it in tcw but kix decided to investigate the order 66 plot after what happened to fives, and then got captured by the separatists because he knew too much. but before he could be transported to dooku his ship crashed and he was stuck in cold storage for 50 years before finally being found, long after all his brothers were already dead. so now he’s the last clone in existence.” and then just. ONLY EVER TALK ABOUT IT IN PERIPHERAL PIECES OF STAR WARS MEDIA.

LIKE ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME

So, I made this at around 3 am last night and it plagued my brain for while.

I currently have a special spot for Crosshair in TBB and I want nothing but the best for him, I swear.

But at the same time, it’s fun to hurt your faves LMAO!!

The bud @icedcoffee101 even made a fic for it!! Go ahead and show her some love!

WHILE I CONTINUE TO CREATE PAIN

din isn’t stupid he’s just too busy remembering all the things in his ship that grogu can choke on to give a shit about the person he’s talking to

Friendly reminder that Jesper was definitely using his grisha abilities in season 1 of Shadow and Bone.

When he was shooting the volcra in the fold, the last shot he fired was emphasized by the camera angle zooming in on his gun (specifically the bullet being fired) and his eyes were closed. He made the shot perfectly.

He must have also used his abilities when facing off against Ivan. Ivan is a heartrender with an amplifier, which makes him very dangerous if he has you in his line of sight. To keep Ivan on defense, Jesper had to stay hidden and out of his sights. 

Jesper fires three shots at Ivan and all of them hit in the same exact place on his kefta. How did Jesper manage to aim so precisely three times in a row when he shot through several bed sheets and aimed at points on the wall/metal objects so the bullets would ricochet, all without a clear line of sight on Ivan? He couldn’t have. He probably used his abilities to guide the bullets toward the kefta that Ivan specifically told him was Fabrikator-made to be bullet resistant, so it probably had some kind of kevlar-like material woven into it that Jesper could have sensed and guided the bullets to. 

Jesper does something similar in Crooked Kingdom when he sends the rubber bullet at Kuwei without a good line of sight, so it’s not an unreasonable assumption that he did it to Ivan too.

When Jesper has Ivan pinned to the ground, Ivan asked “What are you?” and Jesper deflected his question. Then, Ivan said “You’re a--” but before he could finish, Jesper knocked him out and said “You should have stopped while you were ahead.”

Of course, this implies that Jesper knows that he’s using his abilities to gain the advantage when shooting, whereas he didn’t think about it in the books until Wylan pointed it out to him. But, because Shadow and Bone is an adaptation of the books, they have some creative freedom to change things around a bit (such as the timeline, character descriptions, dialogue and events, etc. that we’ve already seen changed). 

Overall, I’m pretty happy with how the show is adapting the books. The Shadow and Bone storyline is almost identical to the book (with the exception of the ending and the Crows’ involvement, of course) as well as Nina and Matthias’ backstory. I’m really excited to see how they incorporate the events of Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom (and Wylan) into the show!

Childhood