Birth by Racism

This is probably extremely rare, but there are some questions that I want to ask about it. First off, defining it. In a setting where The Nth Doctor is a regular occurance, there is a soldier who goes AWOL. The soldier is caught, and is forced to regenerate. When the solder wakes up, he finds that he is now Asian, when he was originally White or Black or something else... He doesn't realize it at first, but his species basically made him his own Stealth Insult (I.E. a yellow-belly.) The Stealth Insult isn't really mentioned after the ex-soldier realizes what his appearence is. While this is probably a racist move by his species, would it be considered racist by the creator of the work where this takes place?

edited 7th May '15 2:59:30 PM by Danfun64

Are you asking this in the context of inquiring about a trope, looking for a trope, suggesting a trope, or just a general media question?

The act of changing someone into a thing they hate is not inherently racist; usually it's the exact opposite: it forces a person to confront their prejudices. We even have a trope for it but I can't remember the name offhand.

If the intent of the transformation is to turn the person into something that his society considers "lesser" as a form of punishment, then the society is probably racist in some fashion.

If the outcome of the transformation is not controllable or predictable, and the guy just happens to come out as something he hates, then it is not inherently racist on anyone's part.

edited 7th May '15 3:30:22 PM by Fighteer

Was about to say roughly that, then I reloaded and saw the ninja.

When it comes to whether the creator is racist for putting something in, it usually depends on how it's treated. If it's mentioned or implied to be racist in the story, it's probably intentional, and you can certainly write something racist without being racist, since that's how you write about issues of racism. Generally speaking, it's best not to assume anything about the creator from the works they create.

You mean Karmic Transformation?

That's the one.

Ooh, and we also have the trope for the transformation being inflicted on someone to punish them for racism: Color Me Black.

edited 7th May '15 4:12:27 PM by Fighteer

It's not so much the character being racist as the transformation being racist. In the example provided, the character was never racist against asians. The people forcing the transformation never say anything against asians either. They do associate the color yellow with cowardice, however.

Also, I wasn't (intentionally) referencing a trope. Karmic Transformation seems like the closest thing to what I am referring to.

A transformation is an event, an occurrence, a fact; it cannot be racist or not-racist.

Associating a colour with a mindset or emotion doesn't make it racist unless you also apply the same colour with the same connotation to a race. I mean, we associate red with anger (among other things), but that doesn't mean we think native Americans, who're associated with red, are characteristically angry. Maybe hostile in older westerns, but not angry.

Unlike what Gibbs and lots of other characters say, there are coincidences.

edited 7th May '15 5:58:44 PM by AnotherDuck