Surprisingly, Dev Patel, who has the best proven acting chops of the bunch, has the lowest approval rating--I wonder why that is?
The most reasonable explanation is racism, either of the "this actor is too brown not hot enough to play my favorite character" variety (see also: the controversy over Blaise Zabini from Harry Potter) or of the "white people are the default, so they can play anyone, but PoC can only play people they look exactly like" variety.
Combine that with the people who have genuine reservations about making the only PoC the villain (as mentioned by livvylove; though I think that most of those people would choose "all of the above" in this poll rather than focus their indignation on Patel), as well as the people who dislike Patel precisely because he's a known quantity whom they were unimpressed by for whatever reason, but who are willing to give an unknown actor the benefit of the doubt, and you get that 15% disapproval rating.
May I just ask what the controversy is with Blaise Zabini? I don't really follow HP anymore, and when I looked the name up on Google, none of the links mentioned a controversy.
I was actually kind of confused with the Patil girls, because I swear at one point they mentioned one of the twins having a 'golden braid'... I think it was the 4th book? Maybe I read it wrong and it was another character being talked about, but I remember being very confused because the first time the two girls were mentioned, I asked my mom about their names (I was 7, and I'd never heard names like that before) and she told me that they were Indian names. So it was sort of jarring to have the narrative talk about blonde hair on one of them. (I was, however, very pleased when they were Indian in the films, and again, I may have just mis-read the sentence, it's been a long time since I read any of the books.)
It may have been talking about Lavender Brown, when I stop and think about it. Like I said, it was a while ago, and I may have just mis-read. (Which is pretty likely, I read most of book 4 in the dead of night for some reason.)
Heh, they would look pretty nice with highlights, actually.
It might be along the same lines as glockgal's theory where these people have lived very sheltered lives and have never actually met or heard of someone with the last name Chang or Patil?
Haven't read those links yet, but just what you described sounds ridiculous. Oh, HP fandom, how glad I am I never got involved with you.
I for one like that there are people of color shown in the movies (even if they get all of one line) because if there is a magic school in Russia, and dragons can be imported from China, then it's pretty obvious that not all magic users are from the UK, and therefore it stands to reason that there will be users of color. I personally would like to see JK write a spin off of HP set in a magic school half way around the world, like in South America or Asia. She probably never will, but that could be some really interesting world building.
People thought that Cho Chang was white? Seriously? Have these people never heard any Asian names before? And my goodness, this is coming from the people who probably think that all Asian languages sound like "ching, chong, CHANG." As in Cho CHANG. And I still CANNOT believe that Katie Leung got criticism for playing an Asian character, I really can't. Come on, I knew that Cho Chang was Asian the moment that her name was first mentioned. I also knew that the Patel twins definitely weren't white because I recognized the name Parvati from Indian mythology
( ... )
I remember one of the Cho Chang arguments! It went something along the lines of..."If Cho was Asian, JK Rowling would have mentioned it!"
Hermione has brown hair and brown eyes, IRRC, but if an Asian girl with brown hair had been cast I'm sure people would have been up in arms. =/
I like how the fact that Cho was Asian did not need to be mentioned like it was some awkward, special trait of hers. I think her name was enough but I guess these are the same folks who need a sworn affidavit from Bryke to believe that Aang is Asian. Granted, Dean Thomas was explicitly described as black, but I think this was intentional since the name "Dean Thomas" does not give any hints, and Rowling wanted readers to not simply assume he was the default white.
Hermione has brown hair and brown eyes, IRRC, but if an Asian girl with brown hair had been cast I'm sure people would have been up in arms. =/
Interestingly, there was this interesting side discussion in ontd_political's thread regarding the Avatar casting that veered into fan perceptions and many people mentioned that, not having cues about Hermione's skin color but knowing about her unruly brown hair, they had assumed that Hermione was actually black (and many were disappointed to learn about the casting of Emma Watson for the role because it was surprising to them). I was discussing it in my personal journal and I think it would be an interesting interepretation if a black girl could be cast for the role in a possible future adaptation of the series way into the future. :D
The most reasonable explanation is racism, either of the "this actor is too brown not hot enough to play my favorite character" variety (see also: the controversy over Blaise Zabini from Harry Potter) or of the "white people are the default, so they can play anyone, but PoC can only play people they look exactly like" variety.
Combine that with the people who have genuine reservations about making the only PoC the villain (as mentioned by livvylove; though I think that most of those people would choose "all of the above" in this poll rather than focus their indignation on Patel), as well as the people who dislike Patel precisely because he's a known quantity whom they were unimpressed by for whatever reason, but who are willing to give an unknown actor the benefit of the doubt, and you get that 15% disapproval rating.
But mostly I think it's racism.
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They didn't bother to even check what races usually have names like Chang and Patel??
These fans cannot be British people?
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Also, I've met a few Britisn Asian Indian girls who liked having highlights.
Now that you mention it. The Patils would look nice with blonde highlights. wonder if they could include that in the next film...lol
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Heh, they would look pretty nice with highlights, actually.
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I for one like that there are people of color shown in the movies (even if they get all of one line) because if there is a magic school in Russia, and dragons can be imported from China, then it's pretty obvious that not all magic users are from the UK, and therefore it stands to reason that there will be users of color. I personally would like to see JK write a spin off of HP set in a magic school half way around the world, like in South America or Asia. She probably never will, but that could be some really interesting world building.
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Hermione has brown hair and brown eyes, IRRC, but if an Asian girl with brown hair had been cast I'm sure people would have been up in arms. =/
I like how the fact that Cho was Asian did not need to be mentioned like it was some awkward, special trait of hers. I think her name was enough but I guess these are the same folks who need a sworn affidavit from Bryke to believe that Aang is Asian. Granted, Dean Thomas was explicitly described as black, but I think this was intentional since the name "Dean Thomas" does not give any hints, and Rowling wanted readers to not simply assume he was the default white.
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Interestingly, there was this interesting side discussion in ontd_political's thread regarding the Avatar casting that veered into fan perceptions and many people mentioned that, not having cues about Hermione's skin color but knowing about her unruly brown hair, they had assumed that Hermione was actually black (and many were disappointed to learn about the casting of Emma Watson for the role because it was surprising to them). I was discussing it in my personal journal and I think it would be an interesting interepretation if a black girl could be cast for the role in a possible future adaptation of the series way into the future. :D
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