"Tired of white people in movies."

Status
Not open for further replies.

nighttimer

No Gods No Masters
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 4, 2006
Messages
11,629
Reaction score
4,103
Location
CBUS
Aw, spoilsport! ;)

Nothing like a good old rant about the lack of PoC in movies and books -- but as a PoC oneself one has to be careful (and silent), because otherwise you will be accused of having a HUGE chip on your shoulder.

What's wrong about having a HUGE chip on your shoulder?

I look at the b.s. token gestures and the insincere hand waves at inclusion like allowing a Black guy to dress up and be Captain America and giving the power of Thor to a woman while the artists, writers, editors and talent putting together the funny books remain monochormatically as pale as even and that huge chip on my shoulder gets even bigger.

I'm not interested in bussing in Black or Asian or Latino or any other group into a scenario to reflect "diversity" when it is meaningless and griping about Scarlett Johansson for being too blonde for the part is meaningless.
 

aruna

On a wing and a prayer
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 14, 2005
Messages
12,862
Reaction score
2,846
Location
A Small Town in Germany
Website
www.sharonmaas.co.uk
When there were super films being made by, for, and with, non-whites, but they weren't widely distributed.

Yep. I never even knew there was a film to Harry Belafonte's Island in the Sun -- and then I ran into it on YouTube. Made in 1957, about racial politics in the 50's; a story set on a fictional Caribbean Island, which feels so true to life I felt I was back in the Caribbean -- the whole "feeling" is there; white society and black, Harry Belafonte, Dorothy Dandridge, Joan Collins. It's here, (the whole movie) and well worth watching! The whole drama of whites flipping out because of "a touch of the tarbrush"...

The island scenes are very authentic -- they remind me of Guyana in colonial days.


What's wrong about having a HUGE chip on your shoulder?

.

It's not for me. I grew up with one and it's not a good feeling. I worked hard to grow out of it, and now when I draw attention to issues like the one in the OP it's not from a position of chip-on-shoulder but from a position of this-is-just-not-right; an emotionally neutral position.
 
Last edited:

kuwisdelu

Revolutionize the World
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Sep 18, 2007
Messages
38,197
Reaction score
4,544
Location
The End of the World
It's not for me. I grew up with one and it's not a good feeling. I worked hard to grow out of it, and now when I draw attention to issues like the one in the OP it's not from a position of chip-on-shoulder but from a position of this-is-just-not-right; an emotionally neutral position.

I didn't know I had a chip until one day I stood up and almost fell over.
 

Lillith1991

The Hobbit-Vulcan hybrid
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 12, 2014
Messages
5,313
Reaction score
569
Location
MA
Website
eclecticlittledork.wordpress.com
I didn't know I had a chip until one day I stood up and almost fell over.

Same here. But to be fair, it isn't exactly there without due cause. I still complain about them casting Bennedict Cumberbatch for the role of Khan in In To Darkness, because they damn well could have found an Indian actor to play the part. There's plenty of male actors of Indian decent around, so there was no excuse to not even attempt to do the work if they were going to use that plotline from Wrath of Kahn. At least when they original was being filmed they had a POC playing Khan, which considering it was a Latino man instead of someone of Indian decent isn't a huge step up. But at least they tried in the original instead of having some white guy in makeup play someone from India or just slapping an Indian sounding name on a white guy.

Now, don't get me wrong. I love the movie, and Ben is an awesome actor. In fact I love his role in the movie, but that doesn't change that a role which went to a Person of Color originally was given to a decidedly white guy. That they could not even bother to try casting someone who is a POC for the role.

Yes, this chip is very heavy. *falls over*

That said, they damn well could of found a black actress to play the lead in Lucy if they really wanted to.
 
Last edited:

calieber

Couth barbarian
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Aug 7, 2006
Messages
787
Reaction score
58
Location
BK.NY.US
Oh my lor..... the lazyass, can't be bothered to think about it, offense just doesn't stop, does it? They must have got the Chinese off a menu......

That offends me as, among other things, a writer who loves Easter eggs.
 

tashas

Registered
Joined
Aug 19, 2014
Messages
5
Reaction score
0
Same here. But to be fair, it isn't exactly there without due cause. I still complain about them casting Bennedict Cumberbatch for the role of Khan in In To Darkness, because they damn well could have found an Indian actor to play the part. There's plenty of male actors of Indian decent around, so there was no excuse to not even attempt to do the work if they were going to use that plotline from Wrath of Kahn.

I still complain about that too (although I also think Ben is a brilliant actor - but he could have played anyone! Why Khan?). And about the Prince of Persia, and Avatar the Last Airbender, and 21, and that awful Dragon Ball film.

Tasha, who is pretty much all chip.
 

shaldna

The cake is a lie. But still cake.
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 12, 2009
Messages
7,485
Reaction score
897
Location
Belfast
I didn't see this thread until today, so apologies.

I agree that there is too much white emphasis on screen. And I say this as someone who is genetically the whitest of the white (irish, see through skin, freckles, red hair green eyes)

Incidently I was watching Ben Hur with my folks last weekend and my 7 year old daughter commented on 'all the white people' - she's smart enough to know racial geography/

Whitewashing and white casting are defininately a problem in the grand scheme of things, but at the same time I do have to be the voice of objectivity and say that casting and racial casting in particular is very much dependant on location, setting, character social groups etc.
 

Lillith1991

The Hobbit-Vulcan hybrid
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 12, 2014
Messages
5,313
Reaction score
569
Location
MA
Website
eclecticlittledork.wordpress.com
Whitewashing and white casting are defininately a problem in the grand scheme of things, but at the same time I do have to be the voice of objectivity and say that casting and racial casting in particular is very much dependant on location, setting, character social groups etc.

This is true, but when it comes to characters like Khan or Lucy the people playing them if we're going for realism wouldn't have been white. My bugbear with such things is that it doesn't make sense, and takes a away from the story most of the time. As I said upthread, I love Ben's acting, but they had plenty of Indian actors to choose from for the role. And whitewashing a character in a remake of an original is in my mind at least disrepctful of the effort the original creators put in. If they could cast a POC and not some white person painted to look like they're from india in 1981 , they could have done so 30 years after the original hit theaters. To not make the effort to do so is regression, not progression.
 
Last edited:

shaldna

The cake is a lie. But still cake.
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 12, 2009
Messages
7,485
Reaction score
897
Location
Belfast
This is true, but when it comes to characters like Khan or Lucy the people playing them if we're going for realism wouldn't have been white. My bugbear with such things is that it doesn't make sense, and takes a away from the story most of the time. As I said upthread, I love Ben's acting, but they had plenty of Indian actors to choose from for the role. And whitewashing a character in a remake of an original is in my mind at least disrepctful of the effort the original creators put in. If they could cast a POC and not some white person painted to look like they're from india in 1981 , they could have done so 30 years after the original hit theaters. To not make the effort to do so is regression, not progression.

I totally agree.
 

Cyia

Rewriting My Destiny
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 15, 2008
Messages
18,618
Reaction score
4,032
Location
Brillig in the slithy toves...
This is true, but when it comes to characters like Khan or Lucy the people playing them if we're going for realism wouldn't have been white.

Not to mention it would have made the story-telling simpler.

If you use a location like Taipei, and a story-catalyst like an innocent woman being forced to work as a drug mule, it's much simpler to set-up the idea of a local young woman pulled in off the street - or even lured in by a promise of hefty payment. It's real; it makes sense, and she'd have a much easier time wandering from place-to-place, without notice locally than a foreigner. That's what you want if you're trafficking illegal goods - especially if you plan to kill the mule after the fact.

What you don't want is to pick the single (or one of the few) light-haired Caucasians in the area. Someone studying abroad who has friends and family with the ability and right to call embassies if said blondie goes missing.

That's supposedly the set-up for Lucy (I've not seen it, yet). The set-up in the first paragraph could be done in less than a minute at the beginning of the film. It doesn't take complicated back story or story-contortion. The set-up in the second requires the audience to know who the girl is, why she's half-way across the world, what country she's from, if she's got friends there, etc.

In fact, if you need a scene in a movie where your blondie "wills" herself to change appearance and blend with the local population so she can move easier (shown in the preview), then you've probably cast the wrong actress.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.