Media Is Heath Ledger’s Joker subtextually racist?

[Redbeard7]

TLDR: Yes.

1. “Little (a reference to the racial slur "boy") Gambol (the leader of Gotham's black gang) here won’t be able to get a nickel (used due to its phonetic and structural similarity with another n-word) for his grandma (a reference to the more prominent role of grandparents within the African-American community)”, followed by a furious Gambol’s “Enough from the clown!” (The Joker's immediate hostility with Gambol implies that he is far less "tolerant" than the other underworld crime bosses, who treat Gambol as a de jure equal)

2. “A freeeeeeeak”, mockingly imitating The Chechen’s accent

3. He kills at least seven African men on-screen (including two of the three or four most prominent African characters; Gambol and commissioner Loeb), three very dramatically, burns the most prominent Chinese character alive (who The Joker identified as unmasculine based on his physiognomy and referred to as "the television") and has the third most prominent Latino blown up

4. He forces three unemployed African men to fight to the death for a job; a nod to the apocryphal concept of “mandingo fighting”, with The Joker taking on the role of an especially cruel 19th century slavemaster

5. His “social experiment” with the ferries (one largely European-descended, the other largely African and Latino) utilises and exacerbates racial fears and antagonisms, with his bomb plot foiled by an African prisoner

6. His primary philosophical influences (Nietzsche, social Darwinism) are consistent with the genealogy of fascist ideology

7. His primary targets (police, lawyers, politicians, journalists, plutocrats and criminals) are primary antagonists in fascist ideology

8. He wears white facepaint (the whitest character in the text, like Voldemort, Judge Holden or Mr. Sinister) and is portrayed by an actor of Northern European descent

9. He is a sadistic psychopath, a terrorist and a misanthropic nihilistic cynic, philosophically antithetical to egalitarian humanism (of which "anti-racism" is a core principle) and represents an extreme critique of the Western liberal order (which holds "racism" as perhaps the most cardinal sin and sanctifies certain groups, see George Floyd)

10. Batman/Bruce Wayne is consistently coded as an anti-racist liberal from an anti-racist liberal family, which dialectically positions The Joker (Batman's opposite) as a racist

11. “There are no real boundaries to what The Joker would say or do.” - Heath Ledger


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-sA_7fNQgk&t=3s&ab_channel=MrFuckhollywood
​

 

[Sloth22]

This seems like a jewed article that would be on reddit

 

[wereq]

This seems like a jewed article that would be on reddit

 

[Redbeard7]

This seems like a jewed article that would be on reddit

Most soy redditors don't like this argument, for various reasons:

Why do people want to deny that Ledger's Joker is subtextually racist?​

1. People often don't want to admit that they didn't see something that someone else did​
2. People don't want to admit that their favourite mass murdering terrorist psychopath is a racist (at least in this piece of media)​
3. People don't want to come to terms with the fact that their beliefs about morality and what's true have to a massive extent been subliminally spoon-fed to them by the media they consume​
4. There's a misconception that racism equates to racial loyalty, tribalism or supremacism​
5. People don't want to deny others enjoyment of the character, which is the effect of acknowledging that The Joker is racist​

 

[Regenerator]

Maybe

 

[Carter…]

TLDR: Yes.

1. “Little (a reference to the racial slur "boy") Gambol (the leader of Gotham's black gang) here won’t be able to get a nickel (used due to its phonetic and structural similarity with another n-word) for his grandma (a reference to the more prominent role of grandparents within the African-American community)”, followed by a furious Gambol’s “Enough from the clown!” (The Joker's immediate hostility with Gambol implies that he is far less "tolerant" than the other underworld crime bosses, who treat Gambol as a de jure equal)

2. “A freeeeeeeak”, mockingly imitating The Chechen’s accent

3. He kills at least seven African men on-screen (including two of the three or four most prominent African characters; Gambol and commissioner Loeb), three very dramatically, burns the most prominent Chinese character alive (who The Joker identified as unmasculine based on his physiognomy and referred to as "the television") and has the third most prominent Latino blown up

4. He forces three unemployed African men to fight to the death for a job; a nod to the apocryphal concept of “mandingo fighting”, with The Joker taking on the role of an especially cruel 19th century slavemaster

5. His “social experiment” with the ferries (one largely European-descended, the other largely African and Latino) utilises and exacerbates racial fears and antagonisms, with his bomb plot foiled by an African prisoner

6. His primary philosophical influences (Nietzsche, social Darwinism) are consistent with the genealogy of fascist ideology

7. His primary targets (police, lawyers, politicians, journalists, plutocrats and criminals) are primary antagonists in fascist ideology

8. He wears white facepaint (the whitest character in the text, like Voldemort, Judge Holden or Mr. Sinister) and is portrayed by an actor of Northern European descent

9. He is a sadistic psychopath, a terrorist and a misanthropic nihilistic cynic, philosophically antithetical to egalitarian humanism (of which "anti-racism" is a core principle) and represents an extreme critique of the Western liberal order (which holds "racism" as perhaps the most cardinal sin and sanctifies certain groups, see George Floyd)

10. Batman/Bruce Wayne is consistently coded as an anti-racist liberal from an anti-racist liberal family, which dialectically positions The Joker (Batman's opposite) as a racist

11. “There are no real boundaries to what The Joker would say or do.” - Heath Ledger


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-sA_7fNQgk&t=3s&ab_channel=MrFuckhollywood
​

Most soy redditors don't like this argument, for various reasons:

Why do people want to deny that Ledger's Joker is subtextually racist?​

1. People often don't want to admit that they didn't see something that someone else did​
2. People don't want to admit that their favourite mass murdering terrorist psychopath is a racist (at least in this piece of media)​
3. People don't want to come to terms with the fact that their beliefs about morality and what's true have to a massive extent been subliminally spoon-fed to them by the media they consume​
4. There's a misconception that racism equates to racial loyalty, tribalism or supremacism​
5. People don't want to deny others enjoyment of the character, which is the effect of acknowledging that The Joker is racist​

No, no, no, no, no!
the script only allows for certain claims to be made; however if you provide research to your claims then yes you can make a successful argument. However you’ve failed to provide research therefore no.

 

[lu.jones]

This seems like a jewed article that would be on reddit

 

[Redbeard7]

No, no, no, no, no!
the script only allows for certain claims to be made; however if you provide research to your claims then yes you can make a successful argument. However you’ve failed to provide research therefore no.

Gay. Nothing worse than a low IQ autist.

 

[Redbeard7]

Hollywood writers frequently make their villains politically incorrect in order to delegitimise political incorrectness and encourage majoritarian passivity, among other things. So The Joker, who represents a radical critique of the Western liberal order/America (and in the film Batman, who represents these things) is coded as a racist (as well as a woman-hater).

Goyer, who wrote Batman Begins, said they based the previous main villain (Neeson's Ra's al Ghul) on Bin Laden. Don't underestimate how political these films are, as well as the ingenuity of the writers in sneaking these themes in subliminally. They are essentially regime propaganda.​

 

[Carter…]

Gay. Nothing worse than a low IQ autist.

Young man, please be respectful.

 

[based_meme]

JFL @ these 2024cels man. All of that soylent running through veins.

 

[Stupid Clown]

This seems like a jewed article that would be on reddit

 

[Redbeard7]

@Stupid Clown You as well? Damn.

 

[La Grande Infamie]

I like the idea but it's unlikely

 

[Redbeard7]

I like the idea but it's unlikely

Nah, it's certain.

Nolan and Goyer have high IQ's and knew exactly what they are doing. It's just that the public are largely unaware (even on these forums apparently, where you'd expect far more cynicism) that these Hollywood films are rationally designed to be propaganda, much of it consciously absorbed by the audience (especially these days) but much of it subliminal.

A line like "Little, uh, Gambol here won’t be able to get a nickel for his grandma" has been heavily scrutinised by the writers, there's virtually no chance it's accidental that there were three subtle racial references in a (not to get too schizo) 14 word sentence.

Nor is The Joker's predisposition to violently penetrating the mouths and eyes of his victims with phallic objects (tubular grenade, pencil, knife) accidental:


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbrsiVtMirE&ab_channel=AlexP
.

He's thus subtly and subliminally coded as a rapist, which the scene with him holding a knife to Rachel also supports. This is partially a nod to the most prominent Batman comics (The Killing Joke, Arkham Asylum and The Dark Knight Returns), where The Joker is heavily implied to be a rapist.​

 

[Emba]

Hahaha niggers