And This Is What Happens
So over on Goodreads, we've been discussing the Hunger Games racefail in a POC-community in which I belong. One of the members reposted the following comment from Jezebel which eloquently sums up the issues at hand:
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"This is what happens when your culture teaches you that you are the world and the world exists to reflect you when, even counting your cousins back from where your family originally came, you're not even a majority of the world population.
This is what happens when Hollywood makes it okay to take other forms of media about PoC and make them about white people, claiming all the while that it was about "the best actor" when the pool was artificially narrowed to favor even those who aren't great but have their preferred "look." (I see you Angelina Jolie in Wanted, the tragedy that was Earthsea, and the whole heroic part of the cast of The Last Airbender.) We hear how it's about "the story" and that's what matters even if the original context is important to the film. (Hello, there, 21 and Akira.) Stories about PoC that aren't white washed outright are made to revolve around white characters or can't get made without changing history to make one the hero. Good thing Sandra Bullock was there to save the Michael Oher they rendered in more dire straits than he was and neglected her character's role as a booster in herding him toward the school they supported. They were doing it out of the kindness of their hearts, right? I'm sure the Haitian Revolution will be lead by Matthew McConaughey since he already helped change slavery in Amistad. Could we have seen a movie about the last samurai without Tom Cruise playing Tom Cruise in a different costume?
Flip it and there's death threats because a Black guy playing an alien in a movie about a comic book loosely based on the Norse mythology becomes an attack on Western (read: white) culture. Can't have a Black Nick Fury! (....what do you mean they made a version of him based on Samuel L. Jackson and got his permission only if he could play him in the movies involving that version..) Or the Doctor--who regenerates randomly enough to be worried about being a chick or being ginger--can't ever come back as a PoC because the universe would end! END! (Must be why he never gives a thought to traveling back in time with his companions who can't pass for white, which curiously seems to be safe across all space and time.)
Or this girl of recently mixed parentage playing Rue is the most evil nappiest Blackest thing ever why did they change the book for her!?!?!?!?! Or how you can do all kinds of modern reinterpretations of "classic" stories that are supposedly "for everyone," but they better not involve PoC in prominent roles or there will be outcry (see: the colorful adaptation of Cinderella with Brandi, Whitney, and all kinds of PoC and the rage over Lucy Liu as Watson). Or Perseus/Spock/anyone in the True Blood universe/Dean Winchester/anyone in the Potterverse/so on can't really be with Andromeda (Ethiopians have thin noses so they must be really be white people!)/Uhura (has a bad attitude and he'd really be better with someone else no matter what Gene Roddenberry said)/anyone but Sookie but especially that evil Black bitch Tara (who really should just die why is she crying like she just got kidnapped and raped and her best friend didn't care and all the men she could have sent to help didn't)/Cassie Robinson (he didn't really love her anyway so she should die)/I never thought of [insert name] that way and I should get what I want!
The majority of white people don't want anyone that's not them included in any meaningful way because it makes them uncomfortable. Many of them would have to learn to empathize with people that don't look like them--as PoC are expected to every day--for the first time and that makes them mad. It means the world isn't about them like they were taught. It also smashes their Mary Sue fantasies because they can't fathom being that person unless there's something in the way to make them forget the person isn't white (e.g. Spawn's mask) beyond their own willful ignorance or inability to read for comprehension.
Those earlier comments about not being mean to the racist assholes on Twitter because they're just kids? They're talking about a child, too. Where is your concern about her feelings? Oh. That's right. You don't have any.
Those people wondering why it's so wrong to assume everyone you've never seen looks like you? Your empathy chip resources seem to have been taken over by your ego drive. False equivalencies of different colored Santas are just that: false. You've obviously never had to field any of the awkward questions that would precipitate the need for Santas of color or Jesus pictures that aren't blonde/white."
_________________________________
"This is what happens when your culture teaches you that you are the world and the world exists to reflect you when, even counting your cousins back from where your family originally came, you're not even a majority of the world population.
This is what happens when Hollywood makes it okay to take other forms of media about PoC and make them about white people, claiming all the while that it was about "the best actor" when the pool was artificially narrowed to favor even those who aren't great but have their preferred "look." (I see you Angelina Jolie in Wanted, the tragedy that was Earthsea, and the whole heroic part of the cast of The Last Airbender.) We hear how it's about "the story" and that's what matters even if the original context is important to the film. (Hello, there, 21 and Akira.) Stories about PoC that aren't white washed outright are made to revolve around white characters or can't get made without changing history to make one the hero. Good thing Sandra Bullock was there to save the Michael Oher they rendered in more dire straits than he was and neglected her character's role as a booster in herding him toward the school they supported. They were doing it out of the kindness of their hearts, right? I'm sure the Haitian Revolution will be lead by Matthew McConaughey since he already helped change slavery in Amistad. Could we have seen a movie about the last samurai without Tom Cruise playing Tom Cruise in a different costume?
Flip it and there's death threats because a Black guy playing an alien in a movie about a comic book loosely based on the Norse mythology becomes an attack on Western (read: white) culture. Can't have a Black Nick Fury! (....what do you mean they made a version of him based on Samuel L. Jackson and got his permission only if he could play him in the movies involving that version..) Or the Doctor--who regenerates randomly enough to be worried about being a chick or being ginger--can't ever come back as a PoC because the universe would end! END! (Must be why he never gives a thought to traveling back in time with his companions who can't pass for white, which curiously seems to be safe across all space and time.)
Or this girl of recently mixed parentage playing Rue is the most evil nappiest Blackest thing ever why did they change the book for her!?!?!?!?! Or how you can do all kinds of modern reinterpretations of "classic" stories that are supposedly "for everyone," but they better not involve PoC in prominent roles or there will be outcry (see: the colorful adaptation of Cinderella with Brandi, Whitney, and all kinds of PoC and the rage over Lucy Liu as Watson). Or Perseus/Spock/anyone in the True Blood universe/Dean Winchester/anyone in the Potterverse/so on can't really be with Andromeda (Ethiopians have thin noses so they must be really be white people!)/Uhura (has a bad attitude and he'd really be better with someone else no matter what Gene Roddenberry said)/anyone but Sookie but especially that evil Black bitch Tara (who really should just die why is she crying like she just got kidnapped and raped and her best friend didn't care and all the men she could have sent to help didn't)/Cassie Robinson (he didn't really love her anyway so she should die)/I never thought of [insert name] that way and I should get what I want!
The majority of white people don't want anyone that's not them included in any meaningful way because it makes them uncomfortable. Many of them would have to learn to empathize with people that don't look like them--as PoC are expected to every day--for the first time and that makes them mad. It means the world isn't about them like they were taught. It also smashes their Mary Sue fantasies because they can't fathom being that person unless there's something in the way to make them forget the person isn't white (e.g. Spawn's mask) beyond their own willful ignorance or inability to read for comprehension.
Those earlier comments about not being mean to the racist assholes on Twitter because they're just kids? They're talking about a child, too. Where is your concern about her feelings? Oh. That's right. You don't have any.
Those people wondering why it's so wrong to assume everyone you've never seen looks like you? Your empathy chip resources seem to have been taken over by your ego drive. False equivalencies of different colored Santas are just that: false. You've obviously never had to field any of the awkward questions that would precipitate the need for Santas of color or Jesus pictures that aren't blonde/white."