In this Very Special Episode of Selkie, we discuss racism and the stupidity thereof.
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New Fanart today! Jacqueline from ISO Photo sent me this lovely painting:
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Thanks! 😀
I bet you'll never guess which panel backgrounds in this strip I like best.
Periwinkle! 🙂
Also, craps. The guy has a point. Still, it seems counter intuitive to keep that kind of information from the family that’s raising her.
I’m guessing you like the background for the first panel the best?
Sounds like a certain family needs to fill out a shitload of forms.
My wife had to get a security clearance. Friggin’ form was 74 pages long. Filled that sucker out on a TYPEWRITER.
I’m guessing that Agent Brown is stuck because the existence of the Selkies is classified by the government– he literally CAN’T tell them. The only solution in our government would be to get them a clearance to the classified information.
This is why people from the government can’t access the stuff Snowden is publicizing about the NSA– the documents are still classified by the government.
The minute anyone that doesn’t have the right clearances goes to the page, they legally lose access TO THEIR OWN COMPUTER because it now has classified stuff on it.
It’s kinda f*cked up, but I dunno how else you’d handle it. Todd, start fillin’ out forms.
While I do like the dragon, the one I like the best is the cogs meshing. I always like to see the little squirrels running at top speed, spinning their little wheels and making the gears mesh, as people ponder.
<3<3<3 BIG LOVES <3<3 to that panel! It's adorable!
Although I notice that the teeth aren’t exactly meshing. More “bouncing off each other”. “Grinding the gears”, if you will. Maybe that’s why she came up with the wrong answer. 😀
Out of curiosity, just how ‘periwinkle’ is Selkie?
I ask because I’ve had an idea bouncing around in my head for a brief (3-5 minute) fan movie. (Not sure if it’ll ever come to fruition.) I’m not sure how I’d turn an actress periwinkle. Or, for that matter, remove her nose.
Ummm, Lord Voldemort? How did they do his makeup?
Voldemort’s nose was digitally removed. Hiding a nose without digital effects can be done with prosthetics and would be more easily done for a child because they tend to have smaller noses.
Playing the devil’s advocate to Agent Brown’s argument, is the fear of racism as justified as it used to be? Racism itself has been (rightly) vilified in every facet of our media, De-Jure racial discrimination is strictly illegal, and we’ve elected a black president twice in a row. From a personal P.O.V, I have lived most of my life in a predominantly white community, and I have yet to meet a single person who was racist towards a minority. Are we so certain that a new species wouldn’t be wholeheartedly welcomed?
Yes, we are certain. We can’t play nice with each other(racism, war, etc) why would anyone think we could play nice with another species?
In a word, no.
There would be, as with any social prejudice, a sliding scale. There would be areas where they could walk and mingle without comment, a few pockets of fanatic admirers, places they would be made uncomfortable, and some places they couldn’t go without risking their wellbeing. The same for me and many of my friends.
There is no “need” for racism in predominantly white communities, because they are predominantly white. But I bet if you invited two black friends to meet you at a local bar, every eye would be watching them (discreetly) when they walked in. I live and bartend in a white midwest tourist oriented small town. There is racism. We all know it’s wrong, but because there is no diversity, there’s no true acceptance of it. If your friends or family glance around to see if the one black guy in town is within earshot before telling a joke/story, or preface it with “now I’m not racist, but…” – then there is racism.
I was in completely “white” school, and never even saw a “black” person until I was in 6th grade. When I first saw her, you bet I did the covert stares! And it wasn’t because I thought she was a bad person. It was simply the novelty of it. Like how you’d stare if someone was walking down the street on a hot summer day in a snow suit. Stares are not racism. Stares are “let me process this.” And it didn’t take her long to have friends. Unlike me, the foster kid, the weird kid. Because those kids cared more about -did you live with your real family, and -do you like the same things we like, than anything else.
Also, there’s a lot of things out there which get misunderstood as racism. Example: Some people can’t stand those who listen to rap. A lot of “black” kids listen to rap, so the people in question are seen as racist, even though they treat the “white” kids who listen to rap just as badly. Sometimes, the prejudice has nothing to do with the color of the person’s skin.
Just because my community isn’t ethnically diverse doesn’t mean I’m a cloistered shut in, especially now that we live in a digital age. Nowhere on the evening news, the national debates, the newspapers, and the hundreds of other media outlets have I seen anyone advocate violence against any minority or race. Those who commit such violence (like the sheik temple massacre) are universally despised and prosecuted.
It’s insulting to think that our national pride and identity as a people can be so easily by tainted by a few nasty exceptions rather than the silent, decent majority.
@Eve Matteo; I was going to say something like that, but you summed it up better than I ever could. 😉
My neighbor never acknowledged me before he died. He would also lock the car door if I got to close while trying to be friendly to what I thought was a deaf old man. So yes, racism is quite alive and well, it just likes to hide in some cases.
Did you see the backlash to Miss America 2014 being of east Indian heritage? All those ignorant white people bitterly complaining that she wasn’t a “real” American, claiming that she was an Arab, that she was a terrorist, and had no right to be there. Meanwhile, the community of India commented that she was too much of a “darkie” to ever be admitted to the Miss India pageant if she had been born in India.
Part of the problem of white privilege is that it is invisible to the people who possess the privilege. White folks may think “I never see it, I would not do it, therefore it does not exist”. They … we(I am a walking cotton ball)… don’t see it because it is not directed AT us.
Racism is alive and thriving in America.
If there were a race of sentient, amphibious, merfolk FoxNews would have them branded and demonized faster than you could say “Benghazi”. The gun toting US would react in panic and commit genocide, all the while rationalizing it because they “weren’t even human.”
I disagree with your last statement; there would be shooting, but there would be people on both sides of the fight. Activists have become very well organized in the past decade.
I don’t know what the eventual outcome would be though.
Yes, unfortunately racism IS still alive. It has however both changed… and started to die around the edges. Its having more and more trouble growing.
The root causes however (Scapegoating, exploitation) are turning more take who ever you can get regardless of race/gender/income.
I don’t think a race of merfolk would suddenly be in danger of genocide in the USA if they appeared. In fact, most first world countries wouldn’t start to panic and kill them off.
THe real danger is exploiting them. There’s money to be made off thier backs, and the “they’re not human” excuse is better justification for turning them into effectively slaves than killing them off.
So yeah, Fox wouldn’t demonize them… they’d SELL them. Which is just as bad.
Please quit with the “White privilege” shtick. Every race and ethnicity has it’s share of racist bigots. By singling out whites, you’re simply proving my point, as you’re being just as bad as all of them thar clinging to their guns & god “evil” Fox news watchers. You’re exhibiting a level of ignorance that’s ironic as well as sad. People like you are just as bad as the worst racist Southern Democrat out there.
People like me, that’s sweet. I single out whites, because I
AM white. I know the territory
I don’t think you know what “white privilege” is.
It’s not inherently bad, it’s simply a set of experiences and expectations that are common to white people. White women and white men have different sets of privilege, for instance; affluent whites and impoverished whites have different sets of privilege; rural and urban whites have different sets of privilege.
Here’s an explanation with examples of more generic white privilege: http://www.uakron.edu/dotAsset/1662103.pdf
Upthread, someone was commenting that since they live in a predominantly white area and had never seen/experienced racism, it doesn’t exist/isn’t as common as it used to be. That’s pretty much a glaring example of white privilege right there. Of course they haven’t experienced racism, they’re part of the dominant race/culture/ethnicity! And it’s not inherently bad for them, or bad of them, that they’ve never experienced/noticed racism. Just the opposite: because they are white, they don’t have to deal with the stress and aggravation of racism being directed at them. They don’t have to worry about racism. That’s a really big bonus in life.
Pointing out someone’s (or one’s own) privilege isn’t inherently racist, nor is it an attack. It’s simply reminding people that different sets of folks (Black folks and white folks, for instance; men and women; disabled and able bodied people) experience life differently because they ARE different. They have different experiences. And if one hasn’t experienced racism (or sexism, ablism, homophobia, etc) it’s super easy to dismiss it as uncommon or unimportant. But doing that is harmful. It directly harms already marginalized people.
Beautifully stated. Brigid, your thoughts are more organized and eloquent than mine.
So are you saying that “only white people are racist”?
‘Cause that’s the way that reads.
Nope, not saying that at all.
That was well thought-out and brilliantly stated BrigidKeely; it’s definitely something worth mulling over.
Bunny said:
If there were a race of sentient, amphibious, merfolk FoxNews would have them branded and demonized faster than you could say “Benghazi”. The gun toting US would react in panic and commit genocide, all the while rationalizing it because they “weren’t even human.”
Wow… just… wow.
As a member of said “gun-toting” American public, I think you are deeply mistaken. If there were no evidence that Selkies were a danger (and I think “they’ve lived in Lake Superior forever, and haven’t hurt anybody” is is good evidence they’re not) nobody I know would have a problem. I can’t help but suspect you don’t know very many people outside your own ideological group.
These days I live in a white neighborhood. Wasn’t always so. Many, many friends and family outside my own idealogical and ethnic group, actually. I live in a fairly comfortable subdivision in the American midwest. My husband and children and I are very white. Our neighbors have no idea that we have family members that are Asian, Jewish and Muslim. They assume that because I look like they do, I think like they do and they speak unguardedly and I hear some of their less kind opinions. But you are free to think I am mistaken.
I should add that my adult child is a different ethnicity and race.
Thank you for being so nice about disagreeing with me. 🙂 I really do appreciate that. It’s so common for online debates to turn into flame wars, and goodness knows I’m not always very nice. Thank you.
If we had a thumbs up button, I’d click it!
With all due respect, f–k all the evidence they are not a danger. Just wait until a ship sinks or a surfer gets eaten by a shark – then it´ll be all “We must make the waters safe for humans again! Death to the Merfolk!” The public, American or otherwise, gun-toting or otherwise, is very very good at blaming innocent people for things that they could not possibly have done, or that could not possibly have happened to begin with (*cough* witch hunts *cough*), and they are even better at applying unrestrained violence to said innocent people in the name of justice.
The Merfolk are different from humans, and there is no shortage at all of troglodytes among human for whom “different” equals “threat”.
But usually there is actually an actual threat. Native Americans WERE a threat to colonists. I’m not saying they weren’t justified, colonists were a huge threat to them, but there was reason for people to be scared of them. Fear of Native Americans WAS blown out of proportion, but it did grow from a real seed. There is no seed for fear of Selkies. Healthy people don’t randomly hate on each other. That isn’t a survival trait. Fear and hate grow from something real.
This community seems very open-minded and diverse. Why would people hate Selkie without any reason?
I know wow! You’d think we’d stop making the same dirty moves over and over. Look at our human on human history. The genocide of the Native American population is a prime example. And that wasn’t even a different species, just a different culture and skin tone, but the colonists wanted the land. So they degraded the perception of the culture, demonized the people, killed wholesale, took the children away and tried to kill the language and spiritual tradition.
To be fair, the Native Americans were also guilty of many of the same atrocities the colonists were committing, and had even done similar acts of violence against rival tribes (killing the men, taking the women, brainwashing the children, ect) for thousands of years before the settlers even arrived. I’m not saying the settlers weren’t brutal themselves, but why do those people who rightfully condemn them for their actions turn a blind eye to those Indians who did the exact same thing?
P.S. I haven’t read a single comment on this page, or any other page throughout this website, where someone desired violence against the Selkies. If these ultra-violent pro-human militants are really so common, you’d think that one or two of them would have chimed into our discussion by now.
I’m pretty sure one or two are out there (With 7,800,000,000 people in the world, there will always be outliers) but I don’t percive them having the numbers to be a credible threat.
Everyone who posts here reads the Selkie, and somehow I don’t think this comic is targeted towards racist bigots. Anyone who would end up promoting violence against non-humans would probably not have even read the comic we’re commenting on, so why would they post here?
Err, typo, I mean “Selkie”, not “the Selkie”.
Touche.
Sorry, alow me rephrase that; I haven’t read, heard, or seen anyone write, say, or announce that they think genocide, (even HYPOTHETICAL genocide) would be justified ANYWHERE, not just this website.
I have. On various occasions.
There are thousands of people in this country who would gladly kill other human beings simply based on the color of their skin.
There are millions who would say that Nei Li is a demon and kill her and her entire species for it.
There are tens of thousands of others who would shoot her as a hunting trophy
I cannot argue against this, but I can offer the other side:
There are billions of people who would regard her with nothing more than curiosity, tens of millions who would support such a race’s existence in our world, millions who would actively work to see it happen, thousands who would die to defend them.
Pressure of public oppinion is a tricky thing. Sometimes it falls short, sometimes it changes entire countries.
Tommy Lee Jones said it best, in Men In Black: “A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals and you know it.”.
those gears aren’t quite meshing. selkie doesn’t quite come to the right conclusion. are those facts connected or coincidental?
Do note that she’s also got a fever and isn’t feeling well in general. Plus no-one’s explaining it on age-specific language.
Tell everyone her skin is Prussian Blue and she’s Prussian.
Or Prussia. As in, she’s the living incarnation of Prussia. Hetalia FTW!
What on earth is this Hetalia thing? It seems to be all over the Internet. And no, I don’t usually look up the latest fads online.
Hahahahah! “Prussia”! For a good look at it, either watch it on Netflix or google/youtube it. It is an anime composed of short skits/episodes where the main characters are the embodiment of major countries in the 1930’s and 1940’s– i.e. WWII, or as near as I can tell that is what it is. It’s pretty funny and goofy.
OK, nobody else has commented on your question so I will.
Hetalia is an anime taking World War II and showing it as if the different countries were individual people. Italy is childish and wants nothing more than to make pasta and drink wine. Germany is tough and strict and can’t understand why Italy isn’t as dedicated as “Rome” used to be. ITALY: “You knew Grandpa Rome?” Japan is sitting in the background wondering why he got involved with these two weirdos. On the Allied side, Britain and France are annoyed because America doesn’t do anything but eat cheeseburgers and take credit for everything that’s happening. That’s what happened in the episodes I watched. Don’t know where it went after that.
Am I blue
Am I blue
Ain’t these tears in my eyes tellin’ you
Am I blue
You would be too
If your plans with your man
Done fell through
There was a time
I was the only one
And now I’m the sad and lonely one, lonely, lonely
Was I gay, until today
Now he’s gone and we’re through
Am I blue
Actually what Agent Brown is saying, is not quite logical. Selkie’s dad isn’t wanting information to announce to the public, he’s wanting information to look after Selkie. The information he shares about her eating habits, her breathing and need for heat, doesn’t share any information on her race, or anything else that feeds prejudice. What it does say thought that Agent Brown is willing to jeopardise Selkie’s health and well-being in keeping information from her dad who has her best interests at heart. It’s called ‘Need to know’ and he’s being a little too close-mouthed about that.
This is what I was going to post until you beat me to it. So I’ll just agree with you unilaterally.
To be fair, Agent Brown wouldn’t know that about Todd. Obviously, we know since we read the comic, but I don’t think neither Todd nor Agent Brown know enough about one another to make those assumptions. So far as I can see: Agent Brown thinks Todd is being careless with Selkie or adopted her to keep her as an interesting object and Todd thinks Agent Brown is playing spy games or simply dealing with government clearance bureaucracy.
It doesn´t exactly take a super genius to figure out what kind of information Todd will need to take care of Selkie properly. Keeping this information from Todd is grossly negligent.
He should either give Todd all the information he needs, or if he thinks Todd doesn´t have Selkie´s best interests in mind, he should take her away from him.
It’s completely logical. The existence of the Sel Kie species is classified. Todd and his parents are not cleared for all the classified information. Agent Brown can’t say squat or even give away information by implication. He’s probably pushing the limits already.
Kiri isn’t talking about legality, just the justification Agent Brown provides.
Well said Kiri, I was going to post this myself.
actually, Todd was asking about Selkie’s background just a few comics ago.
https://selkiecomic.com/comic/selkie370/
This isn’t making any sense.
He wants to keep them secret, but lets Selkie walk around in broad daylight in a city.
Is nobody seeing the lack of logic here?
Skin condition!
The question I have been waiting for: If the existence of the Sel Ki race is such a big secret, why did Nei Li get dumped in an orphanage? Why is Pohl De’Madiea (nee Doctor Fishman) on hospital staff? If The Gummint is trying to keep them secret, they’re doing a horrible job of it. Doesn’t add up.
I have three points here:
1. Racism is a misnomer in the classic sense. In this case it would be appropriate, but when considering a single species you only have one race… with different ethnicities.
2. Racism is not limited to white people. Actually, far from it, most of the racism I have encountered is from ‘minorities’. It is very sad that we focus so much on the wrongs of ‘white people’, and ignore the obvious wrongs of others. In both cases it is an injustice that should be noted.
3. The actions of the few worst of any group, should not be used to label the entire group. Everybody has extremists. It is the worst of society we are concerned with here, and that hatred would come from many different backgrounds. The fact that other commenters have singled out specific types of people that would be first in line to attack disappoints me. There would be many groups that would do so, and it shows a lack of thought to single out merely one of those groups. I have grown to expect better from the people here (you are all so very smart a majority of the time!)
Well said. Especially point 3.
I freely admit that I am bigoted when it comes to certain groups of people, mainly because how upbringing, media and my understanding of the fairness of the world has led me to think of them. But I’m aware that over-generalizations are just that; over-generalizations. I try not to let that prejudice me against any one individual, until they’ve proven those over-generalizations “right” or “wrong”.
It might interest you to know that one of my prejudiced opinions is the generalization that all Americans (USA citizens that is) are really stupid. That’s why I keep getting surprised happily every time I find a smart person (and thus not really disappointed when running into jerks online).
Thats racist.
This is true, but how is this relevant? In the comic Agent Brown is stating that there are people who would be racist against the Sel Kie. All your post does is confirm that.
Or maybe as on Discworld, black and white would set aside their differences in order to gang up on green (Dr. Pohl) and periwinkle (our Selkie). Please, let this discussion not turn into the sorts of comments you find under articles about George Zimmerman or President Obama? Please?
I’d like to declare this the ‘Tolerance is Awesome Zone’.
We get enough of the other sort of comments everywhere else on the internet.
:-/ This plot was going all well and good until here, and now it feels like artificially stretching out the mystery by claiming “you can’t know about her because the main characters will get in trouble and be all judged by society if it’s told to them.”
She’s in public school, and nobody notices her black sclera, slitted pupils, lack of a nose, sharp teeth, webbed fingers, and purple-blue skin? And if they do, her family says she has a skin condition and suddenly it’s all totally reasonable? This doesn’t work. She’s too obvious for anyone to artificially stretch out the mystery of her details by claiming “if the main characters knew this, people would freak out.” They’re going to find out on their own *really* quickly. Also, the hospital has a mer-person too; is *he* just a guy with a skin condition as well? I’m pretty sure that unless someone took a human, perma-dyed her skin, cut off her nose, filed her teeth, etc etc., no one is going to mistake Selkie for a human. May as well tell the readers and main characters now, because she’s an adopted child and her family needs to know and no one is fooled by “skin condition.”
On the surface you’re absolutely right. It makes no sense. But remember Amanda’s comments when Selkie was in the infirmary? Remember how the adults called her out for calling Selkie names? Amanda *knows* that Selkie has gills – ie: is really a “fish” … but the adults around her, with grown up thinking, *know* that’s impossible… and so “skin condition” explains this to them in a way they can rationalize and accept.
I’ve never really accepted the idea that “some things are so weird people tune them out.” If I saw a fish-person, I would immediately hit the internet and figure out how the hell I just saw a fish person. I wouldn’t assumed I dreamed it, or mistook something else for it, or whatever. I’d be all over that like white on rice.
You don’t rationalize something like that. You start thinking “conspiracy” or “aliens” or something. You at least talk to fish-girl to see if she’s real. Because some things are so impossible you *can’t* ignore them.
It can go both ways. And it is accurate that the youth are more likely to acknowledge differences.
Several years ago, I was working to increase knowledge and acceptance of sexual minorities, with Intersexed individuals (or individuals with an intersexed condition, a PC phrase that I detest) as a focus. It was fascinating that initially, most adults responded to information with comments like ‘best they keep it to themselves’. Part of that is the lingering taboo on discussion of sex.
But five years on, it turns out I was hardly alone in my efforts; I discovered other movements to increase awairness. As knowledge has become more available, it is apparent that more intersexed people were opening up to friends, and responses changed to “oh! I know so-and-so who’s (this form of intersexed)”.
Information takes time to be accepted.
I agree, if people are so horrible and racist in this community (despite it being incredibly diverse) why would they leave someone who is deformed alone? So far, the only people we have seen being mean to Selkie are other children; and they don’t really seem to be picking on her for her appearance more than they are picking on anyone else’s appearance.
Say what you want about the real world, the Selkie-verse is VERY open-minded and tolerant. There doesn’t seem to be much racism there at all.
The racism or lack thereof isn’t the point. It’s the fact that this plot point is not going to hold because it’s blindingly obvious she’s not human.
thats just it! people aren’t so horrible and racist in her community! but what about the REST of the world outside the town they live in? i can imagine Neo-Nazi and KKK demonstrations outside her front door. not to mention the Westboro Baptist Church declaring her some sort of “seademon!” and protesting againster at her school. then the anti-immigration lobbyists saying these mer people should be deported.
I’m willing to suspend disbelief on this point because it’s the premise of the story. In F&SF you don’t get to challenge a story’s premise, that is, some basic contra-factual assumption that’s been established from the very beginning as the condition for the existence of the story. (Either you suspend disbelief, or you can’t have the story.) In Selkie’s case, we’ve known from very early on that people don’t freak out at her appearance. They will blink, then accept patently inadequate explanations like ‘skin condition’. Oh. Okay. That’s just how things are in this universe, which is not ours. If we have this, then we get a story. Right then, Dave. Get on with telling us this story — it’s a good one!
That said… I really hope Selkie did get it wrong, and Agent Brown is just prefacing his explanation with the point (quite valid, within the story) that what he’s about to tell them needs to be kept secret.
The premise of the comic is that Selkie is a mer-person trying to deal with being an adopted child as well as a foreign species in daily life.
The premise is not “she is not human and nobody notices.” As they say in writing, you get to have one weird assumption per story, one point in which you can just ask your audience to go along with it. We already did that when we assumed merfolk. Now we have to extrapolate from there. It’s also fairly apparent that this is suppose to be pretty close to our universe; we have no reason to believe people are exceptionally blind here. If they are…I want a good reason. It’s just good writing to justify *why* the ordinary-looking people are in fact not ordinary at all; we can’t tell here, and it’s poor form not to explain to us why this universe, which looks basically like ours, is so different.
I hear you. If you think of that as being a separate weird thing, then yes, you only get one, and this is extra. To me, though, the premise includes being an adopted mer-child in this society. None of her life that we’ve been told about could have happened as it did if the people around her were disposed to notice and make a fuss over things like black sclera and razor-sharp teeth. In our world, she’d have been caught on someone’s cell-phone and posted on YouTube — if not long before the story began, then certainly as soon as Todd took her shoe-shopping. And what about the doctor? It’s been implied that he is in regular medical practice. None of his patients have freaked out to the point of calling in the news media.
Dave is world-building. A world in which a mer-person child can live Selkie’s life has to be different from our world. SF&F writers aren’t required to explain their whole world up front. It’s much better writing, in my view, to drop clues that readers have to remember and fit together.
I think we will find out why it’s different. But we’ll find out slowly, as the story unfolds.
Probably the best argument Todd et. al. has is, “Well, have you ever seen anyone else like this?” and thus state that it is a really rare skin condition. See Dr. De’Madiea. He’s a completely different color. They couldn’t POSSIBLY be an unknown race. It has to be a skin condition… Er, or some such. I think if they knew she had gills, ate only meat (and cheese, etc.), they would truly question it, but as in Men In Black, the ignorant masses are something people have come to depend on. … Or some such.
This is completely realistic. Agent Brown is acting how you would expect someone in his position to. And even though there are lots of people of different colors and sexualities not everyone is nice. There are vicious and murderously vicious people out there who would kill that little girl just to have her head up on the wall if they knew she wasn’t human
Actually, I’d say Selkie nailed it exactly.
I have a suspicion Agent Brown is either not telling the whole truth, or has been lied to. (hoping for the latter; Todd, Selkie et all need an ally in the government).
That’s possibly the best suggestion so far. Either he’s trying to weasel out of giving them an actual explanation or he truly believes what he’s telling them. If he truly believes it, there may be some basis for that. Granted this isn’t our universe, but it runs somewhat parallel. Just because most of the people we’ve seen are tolerant (or oblivious) doesn’t mean everyone is. Guess time will tell. Good job on stirring everyone up, though, Dave! 🙂
Agent Brown is doing exactly what he should do.
He’s telling the family all he can legally tell them.
He’s looking out for Selkie’s health and safety.
He’s protecting her entire species.
Bingo.
1) He can’t release classified information to uncleared people
2) He has an accurate view of why the information is classified and the possible consequences
3) Public revelations of other sentient species are WAY above his pay grade. That’s Cabinet level if not Presidential material
4) His job, Selkie’s life and the lives of her entire species would be at risk
5) It sucks bowling balls through 50 feet of garden hose, but that’s how it is
It looks like Todd and his parents will be going through a background investigation and their Q (or higher) levels Real Soon Now in prepaeration for being cleared for this. Enjoy the paperwork, folks!
Ignorance is already putting Selkie’s life at risk, and not hypothetically either; that’s how she ended up needing to see a doctor.
If the existence of her species is strictly classified, then someone’s bending or breaking that rule. Mr. Trunchbull knows at least part of the truth. So do Principal Intervertebrate, and Lisa, and Lillian. If they were all under orders not to give out accurate information about Selkie’s species, then I don’t see how that fits with Lillian writing an official document(her cover letter to Todd when he adopted Selkie) that specifically comes out and SAYS “she is not a human being.”
So I think the restriction may be something Brown DOES have the authority to interpret/alter on his own, on an individual case if not to the general public. I just get the feeling there’s more to this alleged need for secrecy than regulations.
When I dealt with classified information albeit at a low level there were very strict protocols about what you could say, how you could communicate it and to whom. If people already knew there wasn’t much you could do except be quiet. But past a certain point you simply DO NOT decide to tell uncleared people things. You follow procedure and kick the problem upstairs.
If Todd and his parents needed a clearance to know this stuff, then the investigation to decide if they could have that clearance surely ought to have been completed BEFORE the adoption could be permitted.
I am still hoping that Agent Brown is about to say, “So that’s why you have to keep this under your hat. Sorry we didn’t tell you earlier… [insert plausible excuse, which may or may not be true, as the real reason he didn’t tell them right away might be something he can’t say.] Here’s what you need to know.”
Guys?
In Selkie’s case, it would not racism.
It would be XENOPHOBIA.
You are correct, but racism and xenophobia (in this case) stem from the same root.
Ah so that stupid Mermaids are real show on Discovery was a deliberate campaign of misdirection. Brilliant. But Agent Brown is right we can argue all we want about racism but don’t forget it has nothing on SPECISM.
All I can say is. Aquatic Ape Theory, and mention a few “Mermaid” mockumentries. This is what this comic reminds me of quite a bit. In said Mockumenties the existance of Aquatic Ape like / human like species that to me, look very similar to our Selkie Main Character and the Dr. Fish man. (Name?) was hidden and covered up by the government. Though there were “videos” and other such things documenting that these species existed. So to me, The universe where Selkie resides, is pretty damn spot on. Great work Dave. :3
Those last two panels XD
I can’t stop laughing! And I can’t wait to see what happens next!