It usually just annoys me if they're proxies for absent POC. Well, I've also seen a case when there were POC but the short story specifically drew on Black American references, especially Martin Luther King Jr. in a way that really bugged me, but a lot of that was because it felt like one of those kind of facetious "Not for the color of their skin" things that ignores a lot of what else MLK says. And Pluto bugged me because it had direct references to the KKK and no Black people (Japanese people, obvsly, but given how a lot of manga kind of fails on the depiction of Black people...).
So... I guess it depends? I could probably even see a case in which there were slave robots and no POC but a very conscientious reference to racism and slavery? A lot of times it bugs me because it feels like people just throw in a reference to slavery to be like "Enslaving robots is bad!" and then don't think about it any further.
(no subject)
Sun, Nov. 21st, 2010 12:54 am (UTC)So... I guess it depends? I could probably even see a case in which there were slave robots and no POC but a very conscientious reference to racism and slavery? A lot of times it bugs me because it feels like people just throw in a reference to slavery to be like "Enslaving robots is bad!" and then don't think about it any further.