race post/rant

[jaeliyah]

Do people recognize at all that Persia is a real place? That it's still in existence under a different name full of real people that are largely not white and of whom America largely isn't a real big fan?

If there were a prince of Persia, he would look like this:

Comments

[jaeliyah]

This is a good point and exactly where the topic gets squishy. Because in a perfect world, everyone would be able to try out for every part, and the best actor would win, and makeup and props would be able to take care of the rest. The folly in my argument is that I have no actual evidence to back up suspicions that people of Iranian descent were not approached or pursued to the degree that I imagine Jake Gyllenhaal was.

So take Abigail Breslin in The Miracle Worker. I don't know that anyone knows how well or poorly she can affect blindness or deafness, but the complaints are that no blind or deaf actors were given the opportunity to audition. So it's one of those things where the main running assumption is automatically that "normal" people can do it best. So in the way that minority characters weren't considered to play the speaking characters in Harry Potter but for the roles that specifically call for them or in Lord of the Rings, it seems fair to consider people of Iranian descent or at least prioritize them for roles that by definition call for the character to be Persian.

And I dunno! I haven't posted in forever because I keep feeling like I've already talked about the stuff I want to say. I still read my Flist several times a day, but I don't post. I'm trying to do better. Thus far, I fail. Don't die! Write stuff!