This is a great example of why we love Starfire in Teen Titans. She is such a great character. This is also a great example of why Teen Titans was such a great show and how it actually had some really deep writing. Starfire is a Tamaranean and some other alien races are racist against them. This episode “Troq” Season 4, Episode 6 was a special on racism. In the episode the Titans are helping an alien named Val-Yor, who is on the verge of destroying his enemy The Locrix. Their opinion of him changes once they find out what he truly thinks of Starfire. He keeps calling her “Troq”, which is actually a racial slur that literally means “nothing”. Whenever he calls her that, he is really saying that she is worthless, a nonentity. This post goes into this in more detail:
(via: Geek Girls)
Do you love Starfire too? What’s your fav Teen Titan episode? Let us know in the comments below!
This isn’t a good lesson… for decades the onus has been placed on minorities to “be better” than their abusers. This attitude is so ingrained among, let’s face it, white people that they can’t even see how effed up it is. To understand, imagine someone facing spousal abuse being told that they need to rise above the violence and show kindness to their abuser. If that causes a visceral reaction in you but the idea of turning the cheek to racism doesn’t, it’s because you don’t understand the damage racism truly inflicts on a person. This applies to all minorities, btw.
The scene you’re describing isn’t novel among cartoons. As a kid, I regularly saw cartoons and sitcoms with this exact message: The damage of racism is paltry and has no long-term effects on the victim. It’s just a matter of holding your temper because kindness is the only correct action, and confronting your abuser is somehow wrong. But that’s not how it works, trust me on this.
Gay people weren’t just given rights, they fought tooth and nail for them. And yes, that includes physical violence. But most people aren’t taught that physical assaults on homosexuals were so common that gay communities had to physically defend the neighborhoods they were forced into (police turned a blind eye to gay bashing).
Even MLK, who white people have warped into a simple caricature, recognized the need for active resistance and violence for the advancement of black people.
“Urban riots must now be recognized as durable social phenomena. They may be deplored, but they are there and should be understood. Urban riots are a special form of violence. They are not insurrections. The rioters are not seeking to seize territory or to attain control of institutions. They are mainly intended to shock the white community. They are a distorted form of social protest. The looting which is their principal feature serves many functions. It enables the most enraged and deprived Negro to take hold of consumer goods with the ease the white man does by using his purse.”
I love Teen Titans have watched it from beginning to end 5 times now. But this is a terrible lesson that actively harms minorities.