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.

  • GrouchoMarxist [comrade/them,use name]
    ·
    4 years ago

    Just something to comment, I think it's kinda bad whenever there's no Americans to satirize. Like when he filmed the parts in that Romanian(?) village? There was no real satire there, the whole joke was "look how backwards my village is"

    In general, this satire doesn't work for everyone, and some people think satirical racism is never okay, and others will fail to grasp the satire and unironically approve of it. You gotta be prepared to take heat in all sides if you make something like this. And tbh, I feel he could have made up a country and every bit would have still worked, so I agree on that