#bc; as I've said; people would rather plug their ears than discuss these problems

[izzyovercoffee]

@maylovely replied to your post:“What The Clone Wars did was present Duchess Satine Kryze as complicit...”

Thanks for this. I’m really glad people are starting to realize this but sad at the same time. I can’t even begin to explain how uncomfortable I was with Satine being seen as a peace icon by fandom when she is responsible for the exile/genocide of a non-white culture. And many people had trouble accepting that Satine was racist which made bringing up this issue in the fandom almost impossible.

And one could argue that Satine eradicating Mandalore’s warrior culture is a ‘good thing’, but the warrior culture is a diverse culture and that is how mandalore thrived. Satine erasing a diverse culture and replacing it with her “pure” white culture is extremely racist. It's very similar to white people in history coming up foreign non-white lands and regarding the culture/people as savages right before colonizing and replacing the culture with their own.

I understand Satine was meant to be a symbol of peace, but if it's peace at the sake of cultural genocide then is it really peace? Sorry for my ramble, it makes me so happy that someone is speaking about the topic of Satine and racism, and it’s being so well received.

You’re absolutely right tbh. Especially 

but if it's peace at the sake of cultural genocide then is it really peace?

I’ve asked that same question, many many times.

But, as can be expected when dealing with any fandom, but especially star wars in general ... The Clone Wars fandom has a very real problem of ignoring, and avoiding, dealing with racism --- especially its own racism. 

I’ve been ... around in mandalorian fandom for a long, long time. The most upsetting thing for me, when it comes to Satine and the New Mandalorians, was the way in which prior sympathies were radically flipped.

What I mean is that the larger Clone Wars fandom doesn’t seem to understand the context, or how fans were ostracized, made unsafe, with the introduction of Satine / the New Mandalorians. As you’ve said, 

It's very similar to white people in history coming up foreign non-white lands and regarding the culture/people as savages right before colonizing and replacing the culture with their own.

Exactly this ... and, as reflected in the show, so did it reflect in the community in the real world.

At the time the Mandalorian arcs came out on The Clone Wars show, the only canon representation of mandalorians we had were the Fetts. And people ... don’t seem to understand that. At the time, mandalorians, as a people, were not white because the only canon mandalorians we had were Maori: Temuera Morrison as Jango Fett, and Daniel Logan as Boba Fett.

The Clone Wars did three things in one fell swoop:

stripped the Fetts of their cultural heritage and identity

presented mandalorians, canonically, as only white (and a specific type of white, in that)

and set up an in-universe environment and explanation that pointed to mass exile as The Right Thing To Do

Regardless of intent, the show made mandalorian fandom spaces unsafe for non-white fans because these three things, together, vindicated the already present white-supremacists whom have previously used Death Watch and mandalorians as an analogue for white supremacy. 

So, not only did they have Death Watch in Legends, but Satine Kryze and the New Mandalorians presented a heroic image of white supremacy in action. Suddenly, the very people we could easily recognize as villains had become heroes --- the people we were supposed to sympathize with, care about, root for.

And the fans of Satine Kryze, and the New Mandalorians, were not and still are not able to deal with the discomfort of looking at just how they vindicated the ugliest parts of fandom, and how close in image and action Satine Kryze is to the very, very worst in the community.

So it goes, nonwhite fans pointing out racism and how they’ve literally been made unsafe was, and is, just a single sound in an echo chamber---because fandom would rather isolate and ignore than work together to improve the community. Fandom would rather ignore racism than deal with it. Fandom would rather call it “drama” than take a serious and critical look at themselves and protect the most vulnerable in the community.

Just like how the larger fandom ignores blatant acts of racism under the guise of “keeping the peace,” the larger fandom venerates and adores Satine Kryze without any criticism or critical look at her policies because she is, ultimately, the radical extension of that philosophy.

What better way to keep the peace than to remove all of the dissenters from the premises? What better way to remain a pacifist than to ignore the racism present in fandom spaces until it “takes care of itself” in whatever obvious conclusion that means? 

I saw how The Clone Wars’ New Mandalorians vindicated the racists in mandalorian fandom. I saw how it made fandom spaces unsafe. And I saw, and still see, how the mandalorian cosplay community fails, utterly and completely, time and time again, to eradicate the racist elements in their communities.

The New Mandalorians made fan spaces dangerous for fans over something that was completely avoidable. And I don’t think the larger Clone Wars fandom understands that, or has seen that, or cares about it. And I don’t think that Dave Filoni, nor Pablo Hidalgo, have ever really understood what they contributed to.

EDIT:: And I think we all know that George Lucas never really gave a fuck about the racism he enacted, or vindicated, or validated with his writing demands.