New Asian American Muppet prompts CPAC president to call for defunding PBS

Thanks for proving that your account here should never be taken seriously…

 

No seriously, I'd be fine with the funding of PBS and the BBC being re-routed to Fox News and it established as the new national network of the US and Britain.

 

Given that Asia / Japan has dominated the video game and video game character market since the 1980s (such as with popular characters and franchises like Super Mario, Mega Man, or Sonic The Hedgehog), I don't see why an Asian kid would care much about PBS.

Also the new character is Chinese, and it's not like all Asians (such as Chinese, Korean, Japanese) are interchangeable, anymore than Englishmen and Frenchmen are.

 

Not even a good troll…

 

Well if by them you specifically mean "Chinese" (rather than Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, and so on). It's not like "Asians" are one-size-fits all.

I'm also not seeing any correlation between "seeing someone like you in a children's show" and "preventing racism", or how any studies or evidences would be used to show that it is "preventing racism".

What do you even mean by "the state"? Do you even have an idea what the funding of the network is or has been, and where it's coming from? How do you know it even had the funding to stay in business solely from the public grants sans the private funding?

And what does "universal" source of learning mean either? Not everybody watches PBS, and if it appears on local TV stations then it doesn't "cost viewers money" anymore than any of the "private" channels do.

How is it "available to everyone" anymore than any other locally-broadcast TV network is? Unless people are paying for it via cable, satellite, or online streaming then it's not "available to everyone" anymore than anything else is.

Preschool and kindergarten are about "learning the basics".

PBS is not a "good quality education", nor is most mass-market or public education anyway. PBS, especially in our current Information Age is hardly the "only" source of learning whatever "good qualities" you're alluding to.

Anyone who is serious about "learning" would be doing lots of reading or buying books, not watching 30-minute TV show episodes, and a TV show is definitely not a "surrogate" from the individual, their family, and culture being involved in their "learning" and self-actualization.

 

As far as :race" being a topic alluded to on PBS, I'm sure it's happened in the past, given the history of the show, but this issue is such minutia in the grand scheme of things that I find it's undeserving of the fears related to children's "education" that are being voiced here. Education and life experience isn't reducible to a 30-minute TV show episode.

Not following the rational here? What's your point?

No, accepting self-harm promoted to children as a "lifestyle" is certainly not of that vein, anymore than advocating that children become anorexic, cut themselves, self-mutilate, and so on.

Excepting disease and dysfunction is not equitable with "accepting others". So no, children should learn to discern what healthy behavior and psyche is, and what self-harmful behavior is.

 

Sesame Street is just one of many potential "tools" by which a parent might aid children in "counting" and whatnot.

Also given that the "bare minimum" required to learn how to "count" is basically just one tiny step above the "law of the jungle" in terms of any actual self-education or real mathematics (as opposed to ugly "math"), it's as minute as a needle in a haystack in the grand spectrum of things.

If there really are children who are so unaccounted for by parents and culture that they'd "have" to learn something as bare-bones as it gest from an episodic TV show, then the parents in question are the type of people who shouldn't be having children to begin with, IMO.

 

Do they have a nice white guy Muppet that they use to celebrate being white?

 

What does skin color have to do with this?
And what is this celebration you post of?

 

T

The new character is Asian American.
Read the op.

 

Ji-Young sounds like a Chinese Name.

 

Korean

 

The name may be taken from Baek Ji-young (Korean: 백지영), a South Korean singer. But the muppet character does not look Korean at all.

 

You may be deliberately ignoring the point, but if not ... try this:

The problem isn't the presence of an American with Asian heritage - the problem is in making NOTE of that heritage as though it matters. That's exactly what gets kids thinking in 'racial' terms about their fellows (and coincidentally diminishes the character to that of a token). Include these characters without comment, and you teach kids that race isn't a reason to think differently about someone.

 

Exactly. Kids don't need the added ADULT sized burden of factoring in wild variances, and being forced to try to process those with brains not sufficiently sophisticated or ready for nuance and all the other mechanics of ADULT life.

These shows are already available to 'everyone', and there is no mandate to cater to every last variant of the human experience. Even trying to is an absurdity, and comes at immense cost to much more important functions.

Children need predictability, routine, stability, and boundaries. The more robust these structures are, the better kids do. It's reassuring to kids to know that if they behave in a certain way, a certain result can be expected. Start removing boundaries and predictabilities, and it makes kids incredibly insecure. It predisposes them to a huge array of adjustment problems and potential mental ill health.

 

Post of the week!!

 

All "local TV stations" are "available to everyone", that's no more the case with Sesame Street than anything else, and doesn't make much sense to begin with - as if some people just hear the word "public" and immediately make presumptions without having a modicum of understand of what the definitions, legal or otherwise actually mean.

 

OK do they have a nice Caucasian guy on there who is celebrated because of his being Caucasian?

 

Being white or "Caucasian" is nothing to celebrate.

I'm sure if one looks, they'll probably find homages to actual cultures or ethnic groups, such as French, German, Irish, and so on, but whining about there being no specific reference to whiteness or whatever is just juvenile BS.

 

Wait, so showing an Asian character is now “woke” ?

I didn’t see you guys loosing your minds when they introduced the 2 Republicans:

 

It's worth noting that Sesame Street has also featured celebrates as guests like Katy Perry, who are known for songs and performances with sexually-explicit content.

(Much like other trashy shows marketed to "children" like "The Ellen Show" which have featured sexually-explicit artists like Nicki Minaj, or edited Facebook photos of individuals using a sex toy on themselves).

If they're going to take that route and use it as a vehicle to promote sexual content to kids, they might as well just let cigarette companies sponsor smoking characters as well.

 

And that is what Sesame Street should be teaching all little children including the Caucasian ones?

 

Yep. Celebrating the level of melanin in your skin is stupid. Celebrating an actual culture or heritage is something different entirely.

 

.....and now, a slanty eyed Asian....They’ve gone too far this time...Right Steve?

 

So it's OK to stereotype Caucasians?