“I’m not racist, but…”

[jimhines]

“I’m not a racist by any stretch of the imagination, but whenever people start talking about diversity, it’s a word I can’t stand … What these people don’t like is somebody forcing diversity down their throats.”  -Prescott City Councilman Steve Blair, supporting the decision to “lighten” the dark faces of a school mural.

Comments

[suricattus]

I just had someone on FB who lives in-state try to make excuses for the who Arizona whitewash thing, claiming "If you follow the link in the article you linked to the actual article in the AZ Republic, it's not *quite* as bad as Wonkette makes it sound," that the principal wasn't doing anything wrong and there were only a few complaints about the mural

[jimhines]

I'd be willing to grant that sometimes the news stories are not entirely accurate, and some of them do like to sensationalize stories across the board. But beyond that ... bleah. I know the principal was trying to spin this as a change in the lighting. Nobody is racist, of course, they just want to "improve the artistic composition" of the piece. Apparently, by making it whiter.

I think there are just some people who are going to cling to the idea that racism is all fixed now, and anyone who mentions the word is just trying to stir up trouble.

One of the arguments I saw in a discussion of Prince of Persia apparently goes that we're all post-racial now, which means white people are free to play nonwhite characters. (But God forbid a black actor audition for Spider-man...)

[matociquala]

Remember the Wild Wild West flap?

You know, it was a terrible movie, and hideously offensive on other fronts, but I went to see it anyway. And Will Smith was a big part of why. (Also, I wanted to see who Kevin Kline would kiss this time.)

[jimhines]

I somehow missed that particular flap. (Though I bet I could probably imagine it almost verbatim.)

I still don't understand how Will Smith + Kevin Kline could result in a bad movie. This makes no sense to me!

[matociquala]

Yep, you can read it into the record, pretty much.

Neither Will Smith nor Kevin Kline was bad. (Sadly, THEY did not kiss.)

The script, on the other hand, was amazingly awful.

[starcat_jewel]

My problem with the Will Smith casting in WWW was that it was unbelievable in context, in a period piece set in a time/place where racism was open and blatant. Like casting a 6-year-old kid in The Black Stallion to play Alec Ramsey, who is 15 in the first book of the series. That's not suspending my disbelief, that's asking me to hang it by the neck until dead.

[matociquala]

Except it's a steampunk fantasy piece (three story giant metal spiders) (and) there's a lot more history of African-Americans in the west than you might expect.

The original Jim West (Robert Conrad) reportedly supported casting Chow Yun Fat in the role.

[bookishdragon]

What's said about prince of Persia is that they actually had a prince of Persia audition for the role and he didn't get it because they had the option of an Oscar actor.

[suricattus]

"One of the arguments I saw in a discussion of Prince of Persia apparently goes that we're all post-racial now, which means white people are free to play nonwhite characters."

Actually, that's what they USED to do. 1944. Dragon Seed. Katharine Hepburn plays a Chinese woman. They put tape on her eyes to make her look more "Asian." http://www.imdb.com/media/rm1800968192/tt0036777

If I remember correctly, at that time they didn't want to hire Asians to play leading roles. So the white people played them.

~ Jenn
http://asinglebell.lorsini.com

[ginmar]

Yeah, we've so...what's the word I'm looking for? We've so convinced ourselves that racism is only the huge acts, the huge groups like the KKK that.....we've conveniently excised everybody else out of the equation. If you don't lynch someone, you're not a racist---which is why people get freaked out over 'little things' being criticized. Also, the very same people will often point out the big things as way of shaming people out of criticizing anything less than murderous violence. OF course the icing on the cake is the 'he jests at scars that never felt a wound' angle. The people bitching about PC are the ones who inflict the damage, then complain when the victims dare call them on it.