-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
Is Michael Scott a racist?
- Thread starter BossAttack
- Start date
He promise to fund these kid's education thinking he would never have to do it because they wouldn't finish. Wonder how he came to that decision
Isn't there a scene where he basically says he thought that by the time they all graduated he'd be super rich?
He definitely seemed like more of a malicious asshole in earlier seasons (season 1 in particular), but they softened him up into a bumbling lovable fool as the show progressed. It's hard to categorize him or judge him based on real world standards because he was whatever the show needed him to be in order to advance the plot of a particular episode. Sometimes this was a racist.
No people need to understand how prevalent and how insidious racism is.
Writing Micheal's character off as ignorant is just falling for the insidiousness.
I don't remember if he ever made the effort to change or see a different perspective. But I guess it wasn't that kind of show. Often times when it would be brought up to him he would fall back on the excuse that it's supposed to be funny.
He promise to fund these kid's education thinking he would never have to do it because they wouldn't finish. Wonder how he came to that decision
He thought he was going to be rich by the time they hit school. He didn't think his life would be the way it is.
OP
OP
This is true. I started rewatching The Office specifically because of the thread on that episode, so I had to start from there. He thought he'd be a millionaire by 30 and could fund it only to confess he never even came close and has less money now than he did back then I believe.
Yes, it's actually one of his many recurring characters according to the staff.
It was for that reason. There's no implication of anything else, and it's explicitly stated that he thought he'd be incredibly wealthy and successful by this point in his life. Michael's character by this episode is a sad, inept man desperate for human connection, whose desperation overrides everything to the point that he comes across as aggressively socially inept.
Season 1 Michael is an ignorant racist asshole. His character shifts from idiotic asshole in the early seasons to sad, pitiable incompetency in every arena but sales in the later seasons.
So yes, Michael is ignorant and thus racist, but he learns as the show goes on and is never malicious.
Michael isn't a particularly insidious character though, despite his casual racism / sexism / homophobia etc. Look at the way he reacts when Oscar tells him off, he's apologetic and feels terrible.
This too, basically. He is malleable based on whatever the writers think will be funny or serve the plot of the show. There isnt a single person who is actually like Michael, he's a walking caricature.
He promise to fund these kid's education thinking he would never have to do it because they wouldn't finish. Wonder how he came to that decision
Uh, no, it's because he explicitly states falling in love with those groups of kids and, due to his habit of overdoing things, promises them free tuition if they graduated. Because of this, one of the teachers indicates that student graduation increased significantly due to the promise. Even if it wasn't fulfilled, he motivated students to do well in school.
He promise to fund these kid's education thinking he would never have to do it because they wouldn't finish. Wonder how he came to that decision
Because he thought he was going to be successful and rich by the time they graduated high school and would be able to pay their College tuition.... did you even watch the episode?
Ignorance isn't some excuse for racism, he's never malicious about it, just stupid. Not an excuse but he's definitely got issues in the show and there are moments where Michael causes massive problems despite having 0 bad intentions.
All the same, the dude has straight up racist or homophobic moments and a ton of issues come up.
Oscar in the show literally gets a settlement because Michael fucking kissed him trying to get over his homophobia.
Michael is absolutely a case of racism through ignorance and in the clip above Oscar points out that it's still hurtful even if it's not meant to be malicious. Which is the issue with racism, Michael for as lovable and good innocent as he is, can still do damage with that ignorance.
God that episode... from what I remember he thought he'd be a millionaire by the time they graduated though, not they wouldn't finish.He promise to fund these kid's education thinking he would never have to do it because they wouldn't finish. Wonder how he came to that decision
All the same, the dude has straight up racist or homophobic moments and a ton of issues come up.
Oscar in the show literally gets a settlement because Michael fucking kissed him trying to get over his homophobia.
Michael is absolutely a case of racism through ignorance and in the clip above Oscar points out that it's still hurtful even if it's not meant to be malicious. Which is the issue with racism, Michael for as lovable and good innocent as he is, can still do damage with that ignorance.
Last edited:
No time to watch things when you can just try to start shit for no reason man
Is he racist? Sure.
Is there an equivalence or hypocrisy to point out for enjoying this fictional character from a TV show while forgiving/accepting his racism? I don't think so.
Should he be banned from TV or should the show not exist or anything like that? Nah.
I think part of the character was that he's kind of a terrible person and makes cringeworthy comments/decisions and does cringeworthy things. He's racist, sexist, misogynistic, childish, etc...and we get to watch him on TV and be like "god, so horrible" and point and laugh from a safe, detached distance because it's him doing these things and not anyone here (or anyone watching him).
Is there an equivalence or hypocrisy to point out for enjoying this fictional character from a TV show while forgiving/accepting his racism? I don't think so.
Should he be banned from TV or should the show not exist or anything like that? Nah.
I think part of the character was that he's kind of a terrible person and makes cringeworthy comments/decisions and does cringeworthy things. He's racist, sexist, misogynistic, childish, etc...and we get to watch him on TV and be like "god, so horrible" and point and laugh from a safe, detached distance because it's him doing these things and not anyone here (or anyone watching him).
During Beach Day, Stanley complains about having to do activities to which Michael replies,
"If you don't like it, Stanley, you can sit at the back of the bus."
"Excuse me?"
"Or the front of the bus...or drive the bus."
Again, he was just ignorant and too quick to comment.
Exactly. Michael's ignorance is only trumped by his desperate compulsion to be liked, to be accepted. Oscar is one of the few characters who is occasionally generous enough to work with him on this rather than just prod at it for amusement like Jim, or be (reasonably) unwilling to engage with him anymore like Stanley.
And when Oscar wanted to join the basketball team he's like "no we will need your talents for soccer...or boxing"
Well his character is stupidity incarnate so of course he's racist (though not hateful). He's also dumb, sexist, inconsiderate, sociopathic and abusive, but this is not a real person and the character is funny (though not as funny as Gervais in the original office).
He would be deemed a white supremacist nazi alt right if he was real by era lol
ignorance doesn't excuse a person doing racist things from being a racist. The first page of this thread is weird.
Stanley dying on the floor of the heart attack and Michael over him trying to revive him by screaming that Barack Obama was now president is peak Michael.
A guy that unironically does the Chris Rock joke probably has an under informed picture of "urban youth". I mean the dude tried to whiteplain it to a black man
OP
OP
He promise to fund these kid's education thinking he would never have to do it because they wouldn't finish. Wonder how he came to that decision
He promised to fund the education because he thought he will be super rich by the time they finish.
Yes he is but as many have pointed out it's from a place of pure ignorance, leading him to perpetuate stereotypes that he had learned throughout his life. He liked everyone (except Toby).
Brent is more real, but because of this Brent is also much worse. Brent is a reprehensible monster, albeit a pathetic one. Brent knows exactly what he's doing throughout the entire series.
Michael, inversely, is just a fucking idiot. He learns. He becomes more sympathetic. By Season 7, Michael is a decent person.
Certainly, but the clip you link to is (again) S1 Michael. Had the character remained static until Scott's Totts, sure, maybe the joke is that Michael is a piece of shit and assumed they wouldn't graduate so he could make an empty promise.
The picture the show paints over the next six seasons, however, fully justifies the setup that Michael is just so genuinely naive, idealistic, and stupid that he actually thought he would be a millionaire in his thirties.
He's not racist he's ignorant, I'd say his character is based on the incompetent suburban white male that always falls upward to success but is clueless of everything. What he definitely isn't is politically correct but out of ignorance not seeded hatred or bias.
Michael Scott says racist, sexist and homophobic things but it's not out of malice. He genuinely does not understand how the world works. That's the character. Hes a child in a mans body.
The Chris Rock bit has nothing to do with his reasoning for helping those kids. I'm sorry, but he was not being racist when he decided to help them. He remembered every single one of their names and even had a hall named after him. He just had grandiose thinking that he could afford it someday. There is nothing insidious about his motivation to help.
Michael Scott says racist, sexist and homophobic things but it's not out of malice. He genuinely does not understand how the world works. That's the character. Hes a child in a body.
OP
OP
I disagree with a couple points, but mainly this part. Brent is definitely more real, the show isn't trying to constantly reward him for his bad behavior. But, Brent does not know "exactly what he's doing," he's just as much an ignorant fool as Michael. Which is part of his problem, he fails to recognize his own faults until the very end during the Christmas special.
Yup, but some people think it's innocent enough or they might relate to his racism a bit so want to downplay it.
My favorite is when Darryl is just feeding Michael obviously false street slang and of course Michael doesn't know any better and believes it.
Wasn't expecting the "protection" comment although I should have haha
the dude has shown a pattern of how he think minorities should be, it's part of why systematic racism is so hard to get rid of
Micheal Scott is absolutely racist, it's one of his traits as the worst manager ever. What makes Micheal complicated is that his racism, homophobia and other inappropriate behavior doesn't necessarily stem from his hate of those type of people, but rather his complete ignorance of the world around him and having no situational awareness what so ever.
And that's kinda what his character is all about, being a blissful ignorant in a complex world and most of his social interactions are not acceptable, especially with his responsibilities as the manager.
And that's kinda what his character is all about, being a blissful ignorant in a complex world and most of his social interactions are not acceptable, especially with his responsibilities as the manager.
He's similarly ignorant, but I would argue that Brent, much more so that Michael, recognizes how others perceive him, and has very little excuse to perpetuate this behavior.
The US version gets an additional 4 seasons (for better or worse) to contextualize how depressing Michael's entire existence has been, explaining a lot of his behavior. Brent just comes across as an asshole who will never change, despite his singular moment of redemption in the Christmas episode. The film really reinforces this (although I know it's egregiously awful and probably written off by most).