The only reason Borat is not banned is the lack of presence of Kazakh people in the western world

I am a Kazakh, I liked Borat and I don’t think the movie and its upcoming sequel should be banned. I have a problem with the hypocrisy of the modern western world. People became more aware and sensitive towards other races, however, jokes at the expense of certain nationalities are permitted. Sacha Baron Coen was not doing yellow face in traditional manner, but he was still making fun of nationality based on the stereotypes (Kazakhstan is a central asian country btw). You could say he did something similar in Dictator, but he was not making fun of middle eastern culture only their dysfunctional regime and he made up a country, making the target more ambiguous. You can guess what will be the public reaction if Coen made a movie about a citizen from Zimbabwe/Mozambique/Ethiopia who shits on the streets of NY and acts like an ill-mannered savage. The only difference between that movie and Borat would be turning his skin black, but is makeup the only thing where you draw the line?Now, regarding the movie itself, I understand that the intention was not to make fun of people of Kazakhstan and it is more nuanced than that. We do have corrupt government and certain social problems, things like that should be satirised. Besides, the movie makes the most fun of Americans even though a lot of the viewers don’t realise that. Recently, Hulu removed 3 episodes of Scrubs because they featured black face. There was nothing offensive towards black people in these scenes, but again that is just my opinion. Similar situation with Borat - I did not find it that offensive, but a lot of kazakhs did. But since there are not many kazakhs in general and especially in US - the outlash did not reach western mass media, therefore it is okay to make fun of them.I studied in UK for 5 years and several friends (including a teacher) made fun of me because of Borat. They are well meaning people and I understood they were just joking. But since we have had very little worldwide exposure (Kazakhstan is only 29 years old), the first thing most people outside of our country think about my nationality is Borat and that could be problematic for kazakh people who are trying to integrate into other countries. I realise that there are many movies who make fun of other nationalities, but none were as direct and impactful as Borat. via /r/movies https://ift.tt/3m9az3f