‘Power Rangers’ Writer Says ‘It Was a Mistake’ to Cast Black and Asian Actors as Black Ranger and Yellow Ranger: ‘None of Us’ Were ‘Thinking Stereotypes’
‘Power Rangers’ Writer Says ‘It Was a Mistake’ to Cast Black and Asian Actors as Black Ranger and Yellow Ranger: ‘None of Us’ Were ‘Thinking Stereotypes’
They "weren't thinking stereotypes" but in the original cast the only woman in the group was the pink ranger as if that wasn't also a stereotype...
K, sure, gotcha.
This is what people mean when they call out implicit bias. I can believe that nobody in the writer's room explicitly said "Oh we should make the girl pink because girls like pink," but I can also believe someone made the girl pink because it "felt right" and nobody ever argued against it, and same with the black and yellow rangers. Having a diverse writer's room is a great way to prevent these implicit biases from getting passed on, but I'd honestly be surprised if Mighty Morphin Power Rangers had more than like, one white dude working on the entire story.
An example that could have come right out of a psychology textbook. Well done.
This works more for the yellow ranger. The pink ranger is clearly female in the original Japanese version - she has breasts and her uniform has a skirt. But the original Japanese yellow ranger was male: no breasts, no skirt. The US execs probably wanted 2 female rangers, but they chose yellow over red, blue, or black as the most likely "girl" color.
the only woman in the group
The Asian yellow ranger would like a word with you.
Yellow ranger was a dude in the original Japanese footage. That's why in the fights he didn't wear a skirt like the pink ranger.
Gatchaman and Voltron checking in with their single female representation. It was...not uncommon in Japanese team shows to have a pink member of a team that was also the only girl.
Make the Red ranger Russian and the Green ranger Irish and have them both be drunk all the time.
I used to think the red Ranger looked kinda native and thought that was why
This says you are partially correct.
"St. John is of Native American, German, Irish, Japanese and Spanish descent."
Team fortress 2 lobby
This is going to be an unpopular opinion, but if there's no stereotype being reinforced beyond a color match, it’s not automatically problematic.
I feel like if a criticism can be levied here it can also be levied to Black Panther or Barbie.
"Yellow" isn't just a colour match though, there are very significant historical prejudices with the association between 'yellow' and 'Asian'
Oh I completely agree that there are harmful historical associations, like the "Yellow Peril" stereotype, and that we need to be aware of it. I'm just saying that not every color/race pairing is promoting those stereotypes.
I'm wondering if using those pairings in a positive way can subvert the old associations, like how Black Panther reclaims blackness as power, or how Barbie's pink means something more empowering.
In Power Rangers, all the characters were portrayed as heroes, respected equally by the team. So while the color choices might not have been intentional, the show, for the most part, didn't show the characters in a negative or stereotypical way. That doesn’t mean we shouldn't be aware of broader sterotypes. It just may mean the it wasn’t necessarily harmful in this case.
The 90s were epic, and the 90s were cringe.
So out of the original five Power Rangers, three somehow just randomly fit their color stereotype? I don't buy that. They may not have consciously done it but it was absolutely done out of bias.
Classic key & peele: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOyE_l80D4Y
What were they thinking when they made the White Power Ranger?
They forgot to give him a pointed hat
The fact that they used a woman to play the yellow ranger while using a man for the Super Sentai footage wasn't great either.
I think that part was pretty defensible. If they had caved to the original footage, they'd have a team of five dudes and one girl. It made sense to rebalance the ratio slightly to make it 2:1 instead of 5:1.
I get why they did it but..."we'll just cast an Asian woman, no one will know the difference" is a little not great. Meanwhile DIC was taking notes while working on Sailor Moon.
They could just apologize but instead they feed us shit
Totally not AI:
The actress who played the original Yellow Ranger, Thuy Trang, tragically died in a car accident in 2001 at the age of 27, while traveling between San Francisco and Los Angeles.
Tragic Circumstances:
Thuy Trang, who played Trini Kwan (the original Yellow Ranger) in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, died in a car accident on September 3, 2001.
The Accident: She was traveling between San Francisco and Los Angeles with her friend Angela Rockwood when their vehicle swerved off the road and hit a rock face. Age at Death: Thuy Trang was 27 years old when she passed away. Other Details: According to RangerWiki, she was to be a bridesmaid to former actress/model Angela Rockwood. Power Rangers Reunion: The Power Rangers anniversary special, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always, confirmed what happened to Trini, the original Yellow Ranger. Tribute: The Netflix special honors both Thuy Trang and Jason David Frank, who died by suicide in 2022, with a song by Amy Jo Johnson.