Is it just me or is the TV show "Grimm" kind of racist?

I like the show, and I'm not honestly leveling any real criticism at it. It's just that there's a recurring theme that can be interpreted in a negative light. Just about every week, Nick finds out about some new Wessen running around and he has to go ask Monroe about it. Monroe usually tells Nick all about the new Wessen type and describes both physical and personality characteristics. These personality traits can extent to things like "stupid" or "criminal", so the message sort of becomes "your personality and potential are determined by your race". Even Monroe himself reenforces this as an example because Blutbad are violent and bloodthirsty, and while Monroe himself doesn't act this way, the show reminds us that this isn't because he's not like that. He absolutely IS like that, but that he goes out of his way to surpress his natural tendancies (i.e. forcing himself to be a vegetarian, etc).

I don't think this is some deliberate attempt on the part of the shows writers to forward a racist agenda or anything, but I think that's the message that the show unintentionally sends.

Thoughts?

-Byshop

I've never seen it but on the subject I just finished Bioshock Infinite. The racism in that game at first was shocking but then got funny as they started mocking it.

Okay....

-Byshop

I haven't seen the show either but you can't judge like that.

It's like claiming Last Of Us was racist 'cause it illustrated a black person, Sam, turn into a runner, or GTA series are racist 'cause they almost merely use the words "******" , "queen" , "nigger" to refer to specific groups.But deep inside, you know this claim isn't right.

I don't think it's racist at all.

I just think it's a bad show...I mean, everyone is afraid of Nick because he is a Grimm, yet Grimms have no special abilities other than telling wether a guy is a monster or not, I mean they don't have super strenght and they are not inmune to whatever weapon the monster may use, He is just a normal human who can notice monsters.

If you haven't actually seen the show I'm talking about, don't feel compelled to answer because obviously you aren't going to be able to speak intelligently to my question. Also, your comparison makes no sense. Did you even read my post?

Actually there's a lot more to it in the most recent season around what a Grimm can do.

-Byshop

No I ain't no intelligent dude and hadn't read your post.

I was talking about the dream I 'd had the night before.

Lol'able guys everywhere.

They're afraid of him because of what his ancestors use to do Wessen. If you've seen the show, then you've seen his trailer and the books describing in detail how to identify and kill the different types of monsters, and of course his weapon cabinet.

I disagree with you. I think it's an awesome show and this season has really turned up the gore factor and the stories seem to be getting better and better. I mean, it IS NBC primetime, so it'll never be on the level of 'The Walking Dead' or anything. But, the acting and special effects are good enough considering.

To answer the OP questions, I don't think it's "racist" at all. Nick's partner is black, his other officer is Chinese and his boss is French. Seems pretty multicultural to me. I think you're digging too deep to suggest that the Wessen are comparable to a "lesser race". The Grimm tales were pretty violent from what I've heard, so the show has to take some liberties with that, while still remaining somewhat true to the original tales. And NBC is a liberal media station, so I doubt they'd deliberately push a show that condones racism.

I actually like the show. I thought it was a little bit slow in the first season but in the second and the third they've expanded upon the mythos enough to start making it interesting enough to put it on par with like a "Buffy" or "Supernatural". Like I said, I doubt that any message along those lines is intentional, but is more like an unintentional message the stories are putting forth.

You're thinking about what I'm saying too literally. Saying that a multicultural cast disproves my point is like saying that Animal Farm isn't about Stalinism because it is about animals and not people. Also, I'm not comparing Wessen to a "lesser race". What I was commenting on is the -message- that the stories tell, and that message is that behavior, intelligence, personality, and likelihood of becoming a criminal is determined by your birth, which is essentially the logic that racism is based on (i.e. this race are just lazy criminals or that race is good at math, etc).

-Byshop

I still don't see your point. Are you saying that all of the bad guys in the show are Wessen? And that every crime committed in the show is based on the fact that they were born as such? I don't know how else the writers of the show could make it where it would a) be interesting and b) adapt the Wessen characters into the show without them being the "bad race". Without the latter, the show would have no meaning. Based on the tales, the Grimms killed Wessen before Nick, regardless of how they were as humans. Nick is the first of his kind to not do that. So, I think it takes the opposite approach. Nick's character shows empathy towards the ones that are good, hence why he's friends with Monroe, Rosalie, etc.

Maybe I'm not addressing what you're saying correctly. But, I don't see racism as being a factor at all in the show, whether intentionally or unintentionally.

No, it's not about the bad guys being Wessen. It's about the internal logic of the idea that specific Wessen are violent because of their specific species (or race, if you will). Even Nick, who is a Grimm, re-enforces this since the perception of Grimms is that they murder Wessen. While Nick himself may not be a homicidal maniac like his ancestors, the general perception among Wessen is that Grimms are Wessen murdering machines (i.e. a stereotype). The thing is, while Nick tries to go for the non-murder option most of the time, the stereotype about Grimms is otherwise 100% correct since according to most of the journal entries he reads it seems that all the previous Grimm were remorseless killers. Depicting Nick as the first non-homicidal Grimm hardly serves as a counterpoint. That would be like having a TV show about the first black guy to not like watermelon, while every previous black guy in the show verifiably -did- like watermelon.

Now obviously Grimms and Wessen don't exist so any statements about what they are and are not like have no basis in fact or direct social parallel, but my point is that the idea that behavior is dictated by race (which is sort of the premise of the show in the case of Wessen) is the same fundamental principle that racism is based on when you break it down to its core components. Pretty much all racist ideas are based on the core concept of "I don't like (insert race here) because they are all (insert negative behavior here)".

Now that being said, I don't think the show is wrong or that it would be better if it bent over backwards trying to be more PC. You can't have a monster show without monsters and making the show go out of its way to depict all Wessen as equal but some just happen to be jerks would feel forced. The show is fine the way it is. It's not "directly" racist, but one of the central themes of the differences between Wessen parallels a racist's perspective.

-Byshop

Death penalty is about exacting revenge. Everyone has the right to have his revenge.