zeynep tufekci on Twitter
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If that were the case, he would have chosen his character to be an American or a Brit. Blackface minstrel shows aren't satirizing racism, and neither is Cohen. https://t.co/TC1SiwigMO— zeynep tufekci (@zeynep) October 25, 2020

This is a question and i'm not trying to dunk on the tweet

I thought the main reason why those were bad because it mocked black people and they were the target of the ridicule, and while Cohen uses a similar technique in Borat he is targeting Americans as part of his satire, not Kazakhs.

I saw a criticism in vein of "People he can mock by making them think Kazakhs are actually like this would also believe that there is a country called Loftristan and its people act like that" and i can accept that, but comparison to blackface makes almost zero sense to me.

  • asaharyev [he/him]
    ·
    4 years ago

    I think it toes a line. I fall on the side of it being good satire, but it's also not really my place to judge, since I'm not Kazakh.

    I am going to guess that the person who made the tweet is also not Kazakh and has not really asked Kazakhs how they feel, so they are also not really the right person to make the judgement.

    I know there was some criticism of the character from the Kazakhstan government, but I don't really trust them to make that decision, either. So....I guess I'm just not helpful.

    • vorenza [any]
      ·
      4 years ago

      From what i remember, back in the day, where i am from Kazakh embassy officials were called in for a morning show the day of the release for opinions and they said "Well it's making fun of people like you so i should ask you for your opinion"