Stan not seeing the issue until it impacts him personally immediately made me think of that scene from Bass To Mouth where he thinks Eavesdropper is hilarious until his email leaks
There’s actually a couple of other instances that come immediately to mind when I think about his aspect of his character:
- A nice chunk of the plot of With Apologies to Jesse Jackson centers around how Stan simply cannot comprehend how it feels to have a slur used against him, because he has the privilege of being a white guy in a predominantly white town. His entire arc in that episode revolves around the fact that he cannot, and will not ever truly understand what it feels like to not have that privilege.
-The conversation the boys have the day after Eric eats all the chicken skin in The Death of Eric Cartman also feels very telling:
Stan: I can’t believe that fat asshole!
Kyle: You can’t believe it? He does this shit all the time!
Stan: Well this time he’s gone too far!
Stan: Why do we even hang out with him, anyway?
Kyle: Hello? I’ve been saying this for years!
Like, of course Kyle isn’t surprised by Cartman’s bullshit, Kyle ends up on the receiving end of Cartman’s special brand of asshole behavior far more than Stan, or frankly either of the other main boys (though Kenny does still get it for being poor). Note here I also find it really telling that when asked why they were ignoring Cartman by the other boys, Kyle answers with “because he’s a fat racist self-centered intolerant manipulating sociopath” rather than either of the other boys actually chiming in with the reason they finally decided to cut him off. They tolerated the blatant bigotry, but chose to cut ties with him only after he did something that actually hurt them personally.
- And obviously, the way he’s behaving in the new season. Both him trying to tell Kyle and Wendy to just “ignore” Clyde’s proselytizing grift in Got a Nut (in which his privilege is literally pointed out to him), and the way he tries to advise Kyle to “let it go” when he’s getting worked up about the bet in Conflict of Interest. As Wendy essentially puts it, it’s very easy for him to turn a blind eye to these things that stoke hate when he isn’t the one on the receiving end of said hate.
I find this character beat really interesting for Stan, because it adds this layer of… ignorance that I think has gotten lost in some of the newer seasons. While the kids were often extremely naive and inexperienced in the early in the show’s run (since, you know, they’re kids) I think most people agree that the last several years have seen them behaving more like adults in most situations. This degree of naivety that comes with not facing the kinds of bigotry or discrimination that someone in a minority group has likely faced (especially in the good ole USA) keeps him sort of grounded in that childlike mindset, while still feeling accurate to a decent portion of the adult population.
From a storytelling/social commentary perspective he plays a really interesting middle man to Cartman and Kyle’s extremes. While Kyle is painfully aware of the way minorities (specifically, obviously, Jewish Americans) are treated, and Cartman has always been a stand-in/parody of the extreme ignorance of bigots, Stan sort of stands somewhere in between. While not actively hateful like Cartman, his inability — or perhaps disinterest — in attempting to step into the shoes of those minorities, shows (in my humble opinion) how unhelpful, and at times even harmful that mentality can also be.
Okay I need to stop there, but thank you for once again giving me an excuse to blab about my favorite cartoon fourth graders! I’ve been so in the mood to blab about them, but I feel very out of touch since it’s been a while since I’ve watched a lot of the older episodes proper. I want to dabble in rewatches though, especially since this show is about the only thing keeping me from falling into a horrible depression about the state of the world! :’)
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