[Citadel] Salarian HV Show Strikes Chord with Turians

Salarian HV Show Strikes Chord with Turians

Zakera Entertainment Network, Zakera Ward

The Salarian Zakera Broadcasting Network continues to be bombarded with complaints from turians across Zakera and nearby neighboring wards after the popular salarian comedy sketch show "Well Shrell" aired a segment mocking the actions of the Hierarchy during the Reaper War.

The sketch involves the late Primarch Fedorian meeting with members of the Hierarchy, answering all concerns with “fight[ing] them head-on,” whether it concerns his people’s safety, coordinating attacks, or even repairing destroyed infrastructure. When Special Forces arrive to escort him to safety, he gives repeats the line, piloting the escape craft toward a Reaper. This leads to the punch line: Fedorian stating it's "The Turian Way" as the Reaper disintegrates everyone present.

SZBN has already received over 50,000 complaints for the 98-second sketch since it's broadcast four days ago, with significant outrage in numerous turian communities residing within Zakera - Several turian organizations operating on the citadel have made claims of the sketch being "racist", "insensitive" and "dangerously ignorant." One group, known as "Reputable Turians Against Ignorance," threatened a libel charge against the network. Veteran Hierarchy soldiers who had fought in the Reaper War have also spoken up regarding the segment and it's contents, claiming that the staff of "Well Shrell" are not “entitled” to the opinions that were put on show, saying that salarians "have no right to spread such malicious slander for something they were barely involved in to begin with."

Non-turian reactions are mixed, though numerous non-turians have stated that they agree and sympathize with what the general turian populace of Zakera. Others, however, have said that the whole situation is being taken too seriously.

"It's just a joke," one anonymous asari resident told ZEN. "I don't see why anyone has to make a big fuss about it. The writers probably don't believe in it themselves."

Okay, I was working when the sketch came on, but I just looked it up on Galaxytube.

I can only say that... it's barely funny... but in an extremely insulting way. Fedorian was a good primarch, making light of his death is ridiculous.

While I fully believe that anyone should have the right to say whatever they damn well want to, that right should be accompanied by an appropriate level of responsibility. Those involved with this show clearly clearly lack said responsibility.

Yeah because the attack on our homeworld and the death of one of our leaders was so hilarious.

No.

All I can say about this poor excuse for a "joke" is that a station in Tayseri Ward better not try and broadcast slander like that while I'm in office, or so help me I'll bring the full weight of my position to bear on them.

A like-minded group of Turian members of the Citadel Assembly- including myself -are already planning on filing a strongly worded complaint with the station-wide communications commission about this "humor."

I've prepared a haiku for your enjoyment. I hope you like it.


Oh, the goddamn stick.

Might remove it from your ass.

No one gives two shits.


People make fun of everything. Deal with it.

Makes sense it'd be salarians doing this. I'd bet their idea of 'too soon' is probably a lot shorter than everyone else's, for obvious reasons.

I looked up the clip. It started off well enough. Over dramatic rhetoric, rediculous promises, species pride appeals, etc. all while promising to fight beside them while leaving with security.

And thn the "punch line" happened. That's where this falls flat, and becomes tasteless. If I were to have done the sketch, I would have had his promises, oaths, etc. reach ludicrous levels, such as "and if our ships explode we shall fly at them with our fists and punch them in their giant faces! So long as one atom of any Turian continues to exist, they shall fight! And when the war is won I shall personally throw the leader of the Reapers into the sun!" and do so while literally being carried out by his security as he refuses to stop giving his grand speech, not even pausing as he's lifted up and carried out. There, a good joke about the Turian warrior culture and a bit of exaggeration about his penchant for dramatic speeches to inspire the troops.

Having his fly off to his brutal and pointless death "because he's a Turian" is not funny; it's blatantly racist.

It's been less than a generation since the end of what is quite literally the worst war in fifty thousand years, and there are far better targets than the primarch that died in the initial invasion of Palaven. Even Victus would make a better target, seeing as he helped drag the krogan into the fight (and, you know, he's still alive). Shrell, they could have easily used the gag White Eyes described above me, and it would make sense.

But this? This is mindless, idiotic varrenshit that was probably aired just to get people riled up for ratings. It's not even racist, it's just cynical.

Now that is weird, because I would consider cracking wise about a cough seriously out of line. Cracking on someone with a breathing problem is picking on a victim. Picking on the Turians is...poor Turians! Routinely excluded from the highest ranking positions and their culture degenerated by their own school system. Yeah yeah no. I'm not sure you can actually be racist against the people on top.

No arguments here, and every individual's idea of 'too soon' varies anyway, so yeah, that was a dumb thing of me to say, sorry.

That said.


Of course you can. Ahem. 'Turians are all jackbooted plateheads that try to steamroll everyone in sight, except the volus, who they suck the dicks of for their money like cheap whores.'

It's not very hard.

(Disclaimer: This is not actually my opinion, I'm just demonstrating for the idiot here.)

You're being crass and overly simplistic and maybe even discriminatory. That's not the same thing.

It is exactly the same thing. Racism (which we should really be referring to here as speciesism, but whatever) is defined as prejudice or discrimination against someone of a different race. Saying that you can't be racist against someone because they're in a position of power is patently ridiculous. If you couldn't be racist to the people on top, no one would ever say a bad word about the asari.

Regarding the actual article, yes, the joke was in horrific taste, but it was only a joke and slapping punishment on them for using their right to free speech isn't going to help anyone. I'd expect an official apology from them and not much more.

Racism/Speciesism should mean more than just someone calling the asari slutty. It's prejudice+the power to make that prejudice a social reality.

Observe, the difference between a drell talking smack about the hanar and a hanar talking smack about the drell. One, who cares? The other can do some serious damage because society backs it up.

There is no difference in what you just said, save your personal stake in the Drell talking smack about Hanar bit, and your overinflated 'woe is my species' bullshit. Which is what I'm getting from it.

Spec/Racism is hate based on their race. Plain and simple. Whether you can doanything about it is irrelevant.

We could use a human example, go back a couple hundred years and have a dark human talking smack about a pale one and vice versa. It's still not the same thing.

There's a lot more to racism than just not liking people. If you're going to talk about discrimination without talking about who's actually in charge you're going to miss the point hugely.

I agree.

Krogans didn't just hate Turinas and Salarians for the genophage.

We hated how they enforced the genophage. How we were treated like second class citizens. How we were only seen as violent, rage filled beasts and how they thought the genophage was only made to civilize us.

Where I'm getting at is this: Racism + The power to do so = Over a thousand years of Genophage.

No one is saying that the effects of prejudice aren't worse when it's directed towards the lower class from the upper class, but to say that you cannot be prejudiced against someone who is in the position of power is varrenshit.

To use your example, a Drell who hates Hanar because they are Hanar is racist. The fact that nobody gives two shits about his opinion doesn't matter. It's still racism.

Oh, for the love of-

Your argument is patently ridiculous. The genophage was in response to the Rebellions, in which you were preparing orbital strikes against Sur'kesh, Thessia and Palaven. It was in response to the reason you were trying to drive us to extinction - that your ridiculous thousand-children-per-year birth rate was unsustainable, and you were being driven by your need to consume everything in the galaxy. It's the reason places like Garvug are dried-out husks today, and why we should be damn worried that you've been restored to it.

Your alleged "thousand years" of oppression comes from most of you being unable to get it through your crests that maybe you should try a profession that doesn't have an 80% death rate. If most of your species weren't jockeying to become warlords and murder/rape/pillage mercenaries, the galaxy would probably have loved you long before the Reapers arrived.

I'm drawing a distinction between prejudice, which is something anyone can do when they're being shitty, and racism, which requires you to have some power. Maybe your language doesn't let you draw the distinction, mine does, and I think the conversation goes better when the distinction is made.

Also, Council Species should be able to take some ribbing. It's not shameful to admit you're on top.

(And if we're going to have this conversation: Primacy racism isn't about the hanar hating us. They don't hate us, they like us. It's about their thinking it's cool to have our minor children bound in service, which is all kinds of racist.)

I think TSS and OneEye are going to provide a whole lot of examples for us.

I think the main problem is that you're using discrimination as the only form of racism. As I said earlier, racism is defined as being prejudiced or discriminatory towards someone based on their race. Racial discrimination is racism, not all racism is discriminatory. Thus, while discrimination does require the discriminator to be in a position of power, racism in general does not.

Was this sketch discriminatory? No. Was it racist? Yes.