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Sometimes its a gas (Real Housewiveswomanyells at cat), sometimes abhorrent (Cuties).
Upon the utterance Oppression Olympics: Lets go!
- You will not be poorer for not knowing the journey that leads to Oppression Olympics: Lets Go!
one that includes slam poetry and a personal-essay contest.
More information will not necessarily yield greater clarity, and in fact may muddy the pure waters of Oppression!
Ginny, feeling behind her overachieving friends, wants to win to help fluff up her future college applications.
(Also derivative schlock but syncopated.)
Ginny course-corrects and writes something in the rhythm of slam poetry.
In the end, the racist Mr. Gitten deems her essay too unconventional, and Hunter wins.
Narratively, this is fine.
Its at this point that the conversation begins to veer.
Ginny: I have to speak up because Im a person.
I have a voice.
Ginny: Youre an artist, you should get this.
Hunter: Yeah, exactly.
I didnt do a song.
Its all about survival.
I keep my head down.
I do the thing thats asked.
Ginny: And youre proud of that?
Hunter: Why cant I just be who I am?
Ginny: Because youre half Taiwanese.
Im not full white, so Gitten cant be full racist.
Ginny: Not in the same way Im not full white.
Asians get to be stereotyped as talented geniuses and prodigies.
Black women are stupid, lazy, angry.
Brodie doesnt fist-bump you.
Hunter: Do you know what it means to be Taiwanese?
Im sorry, soft Americanwhat?
The weird specificity of this dialogue catches in the ear.
According to Gentry, the ugliest lines of the scene came from the actors themselves.
She shared some of the things white people would say to her because she has a Jamaican mother.
The interview frames the scene as a collaborative process between the shows writers and its young actors.
But adults should know better.
The scene is as out of context on the show as it is on Twitter.
The ideas arent baked in so much as tacked on.
Oppression Olympics: Lets go!
In a better world, both characters would have been fully realized beings instead of race-baiting puppets.
Until then, Oppression Olympics: Lets go!
will live in our hearts forever.
