The Avengers, a reaction post
Yes, I'm late to the party. But I finished watching The Avengers this morning. (I had to break it into sections to fit around family life.)
And all I can think about is that, with the notable exception of Nick Fury, what I noticed most is that every single person in this film appears to be white.
And before you can say, "But the Incredible Hulk is greeeeeeen...." Hulk is not treated as a person. Hulk is a force of nature, a plot device. He is "other". He has as much agency and personhood as Tony Stark's suit. Heck, the Hulk is so "other" he's constantly referred to as "the other guy". He's also, except for his skin tone, very clearly modeled on a white guy, cosmetic dentistry and all.
And with the exception of a little asian kid in a reaction montage near the end, if you had a line, you were white. Frequently blonde, as well. In fact, with the exception of the couple in the shawarma place post-credits, if you had more than three seconds of screen time, you were white. The aggregate population of New York City seemed fantastically skewed toward caucasian faces. If you were a screaming black guy, you were in the company of three or four of your closest white friends. S.H.I.E.L.D. appeared entirely staffed by caucasians. (Though the gender ratios appeared more balanced than your normal military installation, there are also no ugly women in S.H.I.E.L.D. Hell, I doubt there are any short women. Only tall, willowy, pale models need apply. But that's just Hollywood, so I'm not going to call that out. Much.)
I will cut a certain amount of slack for canon characters being white. Sure it's lamentable that we're telling stories written in an age where men were white men and women were token white women, but there is absolutely no excuse for the extremely whitewashed palette of extras and secondary characters. Heck, even the pointy-toothed, double-thumbed aliens looked pasty white under their crazy armor.
So, to those responsible for the casting of The Avengers... shame on you. Shame. If you're going to tell a story set in the modern day, you're going to break my suspension of disbelief if your urban landscapes are so devoid of diversity that even clueless white people like me start noticing and calling it out.
And all I can think about is that, with the notable exception of Nick Fury, what I noticed most is that every single person in this film appears to be white.
And before you can say, "But the Incredible Hulk is greeeeeeen...." Hulk is not treated as a person. Hulk is a force of nature, a plot device. He is "other". He has as much agency and personhood as Tony Stark's suit. Heck, the Hulk is so "other" he's constantly referred to as "the other guy". He's also, except for his skin tone, very clearly modeled on a white guy, cosmetic dentistry and all.
And with the exception of a little asian kid in a reaction montage near the end, if you had a line, you were white. Frequently blonde, as well. In fact, with the exception of the couple in the shawarma place post-credits, if you had more than three seconds of screen time, you were white. The aggregate population of New York City seemed fantastically skewed toward caucasian faces. If you were a screaming black guy, you were in the company of three or four of your closest white friends. S.H.I.E.L.D. appeared entirely staffed by caucasians. (Though the gender ratios appeared more balanced than your normal military installation, there are also no ugly women in S.H.I.E.L.D. Hell, I doubt there are any short women. Only tall, willowy, pale models need apply. But that's just Hollywood, so I'm not going to call that out. Much.)
I will cut a certain amount of slack for canon characters being white. Sure it's lamentable that we're telling stories written in an age where men were white men and women were token white women, but there is absolutely no excuse for the extremely whitewashed palette of extras and secondary characters. Heck, even the pointy-toothed, double-thumbed aliens looked pasty white under their crazy armor.
So, to those responsible for the casting of The Avengers... shame on you. Shame. If you're going to tell a story set in the modern day, you're going to break my suspension of disbelief if your urban landscapes are so devoid of diversity that even clueless white people like me start noticing and calling it out.