'Annihilation' Criticized for "White-Washed Casting"

[hewontgo]

'Annihilation' Criticized for "White-Washed Casting" https://t.co/uSt3tPhura pic.twitter.com/rrrCMooXFR
- Heat Vision (@HeatVisionBlog) February 12, 2018
The Biologist Lena is played by Natalie Portman, the character is of Asian descent in the books

Comments

[melodiee]

That's disappointing. :( I'm Asian-American and had been looking forward to seeing this because of the strong female roles.

I often feel like Asian-Americans aren't even in the conversation for representation in media. Black Panther is causing a lot of talk around how it's great for black representation and in an NPR interview the interviewee said that Halle Berry as Catwoman, Wesley Snipes as Blade, Will Smith as Hancock don't count because those were more focused on the actor than the character. He said it's great that all his nieces and nephews can see themselves in this movie. There are no big blockbuster movies starring Asian-Americans as superheroes. The ones that should have been were whitewashed, e.g. Ghost in the Shell. What about little Asian-American girls and boys? Same goes for Native Americans--they are often left out.

[getbacknow]

YEP "intersectionality" here is the intersection between white people and black people.

[lalaloopsy98]

Mte

[iznanassi]

lol right

[slinkydinks]

Well, it's not like they were disparaging the Black community. It's great that more Black media representation is happening because of the work of Black actors, writers, and directors being given a chance! But when white people talk about "diversity," they treat it like a dichotomy between white and Black people and outright ignore the LGBT, Asian-American, indigenous, Arab, or Hispanic communities.

I think it'd be impossible to avoid talking about Black people in a conversation about representation in media since they have been the trailblazers in the US. And it's more like the focus should be on white people recognizing what "diversity" truly means.

[melodiee]

But my point is that the conversation around diversity and representation almost exclusively focuses on one race when it should be more inclusive. Do you disagree with that point?

[trueloveisrarex]

you should probably read thebloomroom's reply to you instead of continuing to act obtuse

[myselfdestruct]

Lol I feel foolish for thinking their comment was was not on that same shit. I should know better.

[hiimgosu]

omg right?

[thatsoohot]

well kind of hard to when the asian american community asked for solidarity and black twitter comes up with #notyourmule. i don't get why these movements are always so exclusive

[arielazul_22]

seriously...why do ppl always fucking do this?

[mandapandao_o]

I feel the same way but it's good black folk are starting to get front roles. It's a loaded issue but there are always improvements to be made to include more diversity. Us Asian Americans do have Crazy Rich Asians and Mulan to look forward to though. I know it's not much but baby steps?

[lalaloopsy98]

Y'all need to stop trying to use black people and the media representation we get as a point.

[thebloomroom]

As an Asian American this is such a problematic way of thinking and I hear it a lot tbh. Black people are experiencing hyper visibility, but it isn't guaranteed that they will be in the spotlight and a lot of it is black people giving other black people opportunities. White people care for a second and then move on when they think they have done "good enough" for one cause and then go back to caring about themselves. There is a way to have this argument without resenting black people for minor victories or comparing our lack of opportunities to the small amount they have received, we should be talking about how white people fetishize asians but don't want to give us roles or even see us as humans. It has nothing to do with black people. They have BARELY been included. It shouldn't be seen as them taking roles from other POC, 90% of roles are whites, they need to be the ones casting us over white people.

[veep_throat]

Ia with u!