(no subject)
IT'S WRITE ANGRY LETTERS FOR GREAT JUSTICE TIEMS!
There's a problem in media that usually isn't talked about. What nobody says is this: Producers assume that white audiences don't want to see main characters who aren't white. White cast white actors instead of minority actors. Racial discrimination in casting is rampant.
The live-action Avatar movie illustrates this very well.
Avatar is a cartoon based on diverse Asian cultures. Two of the main characters are Inuit. Now that a live-action movie is being made, however, the actors chosen to play the four main characters are all white.
This exposes a deep societal problem at two levels.
First, there is the problem that colored characters have been replaced with white actors without a second thought. Nobody would cast a black man to play Bruce Wayne, yet Inuit characters have been replaced with with white actors at the drop of a hat. It wouldn't be so bad if minority characters could travel the same road and take the roles of characters who are "supposed to be white," but this obviously is not the case. This is a lack of equality. This is racism.
Second, there is the fact that lead roles that aren't race-specific almost always go to white actors. There's no reason for the main characters in Bones, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, etc. to be white. They could be any color. Yet for some reason, time and time again, minorities are NOT chosen to be leads. They'll be picked for secondary characters, sure, and the sick thing is that producers who do so think they're being "multicultural." Casting minority actors as minor characters and white actors as main characters is not being "diverse," it is being RACIST.
If you agree that it is insulting and discriminatory to use white actors in place of minority actors without a second thought, please write a letter to the producers today. Their addresses and further information on the campaign can be found here: http://aang-aint-white.livejournal.com/646.html
I have little more eloquence than a yodeling potato (though quite a bit more than people who comment on YouTube,) so please give these links a chance to convince you if I cannot.
This is a visual essay of Avatar (the TV series), for those of you who are unfamiliar with it: http://aang-aint-white.livejournal.com/1007.html
And this is what's wrong with the Avatar movie and what we can do about it: http://aang-aint-white.livejournal.com/646.html
There's a problem in media that usually isn't talked about. What nobody says is this: Producers assume that white audiences don't want to see main characters who aren't white. White cast white actors instead of minority actors. Racial discrimination in casting is rampant.
The live-action Avatar movie illustrates this very well.
Avatar is a cartoon based on diverse Asian cultures. Two of the main characters are Inuit. Now that a live-action movie is being made, however, the actors chosen to play the four main characters are all white.
This exposes a deep societal problem at two levels.
First, there is the problem that colored characters have been replaced with white actors without a second thought. Nobody would cast a black man to play Bruce Wayne, yet Inuit characters have been replaced with with white actors at the drop of a hat. It wouldn't be so bad if minority characters could travel the same road and take the roles of characters who are "supposed to be white," but this obviously is not the case. This is a lack of equality. This is racism.
Second, there is the fact that lead roles that aren't race-specific almost always go to white actors. There's no reason for the main characters in Bones, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, etc. to be white. They could be any color. Yet for some reason, time and time again, minorities are NOT chosen to be leads. They'll be picked for secondary characters, sure, and the sick thing is that producers who do so think they're being "multicultural." Casting minority actors as minor characters and white actors as main characters is not being "diverse," it is being RACIST.
If you agree that it is insulting and discriminatory to use white actors in place of minority actors without a second thought, please write a letter to the producers today. Their addresses and further information on the campaign can be found here: http://aang-aint-white.livejournal.com/646.html
I have little more eloquence than a yodeling potato (though quite a bit more than people who comment on YouTube,) so please give these links a chance to convince you if I cannot.
This is a visual essay of Avatar (the TV series), for those of you who are unfamiliar with it: http://aang-aint-white.livejournal.com/1007.html
And this is what's wrong with the Avatar movie and what we can do about it: http://aang-aint-white.livejournal.com/646.html