Rant against racist chick flicks (aka: why the hell is Jennifer Lopez white in Back Up Plan?)

[calmenda]

I’m going to use the R word. Yes, that freakin’ R word; a distant cousin of the race card. If there was ever a way to make mainstream America roll their eyes at you it’s by pointing out a very obvious truth: Hollywood seems to hate latinos. There, I said it.

Clearly, I’m being dramatic with my statement but let me elaborate.

Comments

[thisfalseart]

I agree with donchep about the typecasting. If what you're proposing was actually the case then typecasting would inevitably be the result and I personally would hate for that to happen to all the actors and actresses of color that could pass as white. I get what you're saying about whitewashing actors for them to be enjoyable to mainstream America - most of that is directly the fault of studios who have little faith in the America public being able to receive obviously "ethnic" films. Truth of the matter is that J. Lo is easily recognizable, as you said, as brown. She is Latina. Alllll of America knows this. It is undoubtedly due to her widespread appeal that she has even got to the point that she has in notoriety and fame, and I believe this is for the better for the rest of us. Otherwise none of us would know who the hell she was. And let's not forget that she catapulted to fame by playing an up and coming Latina - Selena. It certainly is a shame that she can't reproduce that same success in her current endeavors but she has never shied away from the "Latino" question, and in my eyes, maybe even repped her cultural background a bit more to be out and visible in the media.

Very quick - I followed your logic for most of the post until you wrote "As far as family, Latinas should have latino parents and family the way nature intended it to be… otherwise it is flat out insulting". I find "the way nature intended it to be" as extremely problematic. What if she was adopted? Or was mixed? Or what if she was Mexican-American or whatever and had one parent who was full on Latino and the other white as they come? Or if that was further on down the road? Point is families and people come in all shapes and colors and dimensions and for us to be throwing out phrases like that have often been used against us (think anti-miscegenation laws) and other marginalized people is a bit...scary. Just some thoughts.