Newspace: Twenty-First Century News

Headlines for July 2015 include the successful Russian rocket launch to supply the International Space Station, and a worker killed by a robot in Germany

Below, watch StoryBrain critique modern, slick special F/X, George Takei call out Clarence Thomas on gay marriage, and the cosplay of a couple of Cons… the week before a Con of Some Significance opens in San Diego:

Are slick F/X ruining F/X films?

Takei to Clarence Thomas:

Florida Supercon:

Behind the scenes, Sakura-Con photos:

3 replies on “Newspace: Twenty-First Century News”

  1. Take could have found a way to argue against Thomas’ viewpoint without spewing racism.

    I have lost a HUGE amount of respect for Takei in this instance. He needs to apologize for his racist comments. His other analysis and disagreement is fair and is his opinion. But in my mind he soiled his disagreement and all the points he was making with racist terms and language.

    However, I do support free speech, if Takei wants to say racist things he can. I just want him to apologize so that I can respect him as a fan again.

    • I am not the best person to whitesplain respond to this, but let me try:

      I was very uncomfortable with the phrase “clown in blackface” (for which Takei has apologized), but it’s worth noting that “blackface” refers to the racist old theatre tradition of white actors putting on black make-up and performing in a usually clownish fashion, acting in ways that were denigrating to African-American people. The term sometimes was applied as well to African-American performers who played up to these denigrating stereotypes in order to appeal to racist white audiences (think Stepin Fetchit). In that context, his use of the term may not have been intentionally racist, just woefully inappropriate (ie suggesting that Thomas is acting in a way to please a discriminatory society). Even if that was his intention, the word choice really does distract from his main argument because he sounds, well, racist.

      A number of people have called out Takei for the word choice, and they are worth hearing.

      • Exactly. It was in the context of his comments a horrible phrase to use (well to start out with in fact).

        I really like Takei as an actor and social media presence. I’m glad to hear that he has apologized for that part, I had not seen that yet.

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