i am furious (yellow)

[bossymarmalade]

So, this Avatar thing.

There have been a lot of excellent posts about this -- many of them from my sister, who in turn:
- addresses the most commonly-seen kneejerk racist responses
- rounds up other links about the casting
- broaches the idea of getting media coverage

And of course there is the aang-aint-white letter-writing campaign, which has tons of people

Comments

[bossymarmalade]

And they often have, considering how white a lot of the fantasy genre is! When in fact with Avatar it's the other way around. But I guess the idea of having just *one* awesome fantasy world with no white people causes fuckloads of anxiety, or something.

[phaballa]

The "regular families"??? WTF.

[bossymarmalade]

RAHM EMMANUEL WOULD SEND THEM A DEAD SQUID FOR THAT SHIT.

[phaballa]

A dead GIANT squid!

[bossymarmalade]

omg, you should TOTALLY finish your post. Because seriously, the idea of kids who delighted in *finally* seeing characters like them having that taken away? Being sent the message that once again, they aren't allowed to have fun things or even the privilege of *seeing themselves* in media? ENRAGES ME NO END.

Lori's rage about this whole thing just keeps snowballing, which is pretty awesome to watch and ride the tailwind of. Hee!

[cereta]

Oh, God, that's...GAH.

(*Redoubles efforts to get Middleman out on DVD so she can send it to her own niece.*)

[delux_vivens]

That? Is why this has me so enraged.

[chrismm]

*\o/*

I need to get off my lazy ass and write my letter. Also, semi-related, but have we heard anymore about Paterson Joseph and Who? Because OMG, pleeeeeze? Pretty please? *swoons*

Man. I REALLY need to do something about my icons.

[bossymarmalade]

I don't know! I've been following the Who-casting peripherally, but the sheer idiocy of people insisting that the show is "quintessentially British" as a reason why the Doctor shouldn't be black have made me withdraw in SHEER RAGE.

[chrismm]

*nods* I hear you--I dipped my toes into a few blogs last night before I found one that talked about the Who casting without making me need to hurt someone. And even that one had one stupid random comment in the middle, but the rest of the commenters shut him down pretty quickly, so I felt a little better about it.

[avenginglioness]

Wut? There are no black people in Great Brittan?

icon not directed at you

[cereta]

All of these, yes. The whole "best actor for the part" ignores the question: why are you auditioning white kids, anyway? Does anyone think that when the casting call went out for Batman, that any casting director seriously considered a POC? Take one look at the casting calls for Stargate: 90210 and tell me that (a) white is not the default assumption in casting and that (b) anyone, agents or casting directors, seriously considers POCs unless specified?

(And don't even fucking dare point me at Shawshank Redemption or Daredevil. Morgan Goddamn Freeman does not prove colorblind casting, nor does an oversized villain being played by a black man who's made a career of playing extremely large men.)

Re: icon not directed at you

[bossymarmalade]

YES, YES. I am so sick of the white default on general principle, and when it comes to the point where white is default enough to cancel out parts that SHOULD BE people of colour? I don't understand why some white people can't see how much that hurts. I'm angry, of course, but part of that anger is definitely from the pain of seeing so many people ask, "what's the big deal?" about my ethnicity *not being important enough* for basic representation.

Re: icon not directed at you

[quiet000001]

Given the amount of money involved in a major film, the notion that they 'can't find' PoC kids talented enough to play the role is just bizarre. It does not cost a huge amount of money to rent audition space and hold open casting sessions- if someone involved had said 'we must have PoC kids' they would damn well have PoC kids who could do the job, because there are people in the industry who get paid quite well to go out and FIND PEOPLE.

In short: I call BS on the "best actor for the part" defense.

Re: icon not directed at you

[honilee]

Totally awesome point. Why were white kids even considered to begin with?