Race & Ethnicity On TV

[Trini]

'The story behind the iconic Vietnam episode of 'Hey Arnold!''

Quote

The episode, entitled “Arnold’s Christmas,” was the first in-depth look into the world of Mr. Hyunh, a recurring character on the show. It also served, for many Asian American kids in the 1990s, as one of the only times a piece of their history was recognized in mainstream pop culture. To this day, it remains a compelling television moment for a community whose stories have long been distorted, overlooked or flattened.

For the 25th anniversary of the pilot of “Hey Arnold!” on Saturday, show creator Craig Bartlett talked to NBC Asian America about the storyline that a generation of Asian Americans considers ahead of its time.

Bartlett said since there was no social media reaction at the time, it wasn’t until many of the show’s Asian American fans grew up and talked about their emotions about it that he learned of the episode’s impact.

“It's so gratifying that it's received as such a positive,” Bartlett said.

 

 

[Hiyo]

Some people are shocked to learn in Vietnam it's called the American War.

[Annber03]

Saw that article the other day online elsewhere. I like how it also does a good job of highlighting why it helps to have people voicing characters who actually share the character's background/ethnicity/experience.

Quote

 Many have remarked on how authentic Mr. Hyunh’s accent and manner of speaking was, which was due to Coleman's similar background to the character. Bartlett revealed that in the recording process, he would rewrite any lines that felt uncomfortable for Coleman to say, editing them on the spot if there were any that the voice actor felt were difficult.

See, people? It's not that hard to do. 

I love that episode of "Hey Arnold". Definitely one of the show's best-never fails to bring tears to my eyes whenever I watch it. 

[Inquisitionist]

On 6/7/2021 at 8:03 AM, biakbiak said:

The Vanishing Half which is about passing is being made into an HBO series. 

I hope the series has more character development than I found in the first few chapters of the book.  I expected to tear through this novel, but found it less well developed (at least in its first few chapters) than I was expecting.  I'll pick it up again later for a fall book discussion group. 

On 7/2/2021 at 8:11 PM, DearEvette said:

 Anyone with Hulu, I totally recommend Summer of Soul a documentary of a little known summer music fest in 1969 in Harlem that basically featured anyone who was anyone in R&B and gospel music in the  60's.

Apparently, they filmed this and it sat in a vault unseen until now.  Questlove was tapped to put it together.  It is fantastic, imo.

Just watched this on Hulu and it was AMAZING!  I had to pause and catch my breath after some of the performances.  I also loved the interspersing of current reactions by people who were there, especially Marilyn McCoo and and Billy Davis of The 5th Dimension.  Rolling Stone has some reflections on that.

It was also sad and infuriating to think that this chapter of Black history was nearly erased.  Thank you, Questlove, for bringing it to us now!

[xaxat]

A while ago, there was a discussion about shows with predominantly Native American casts. Here is the latest from Taika Waititi.

 

[UnoAgain]

1 hour ago, xaxat said:

A while ago, there was a discussion about shows with predominantly Native American casts. Here is the latest from Taika Waititi.

 

Been looking FWD to res dogs

[krankydoodle]

On the same subject, I think news of a new adaptation of Tony Hillerman's crime novels was already shared here, but this article goes into some detail about the struggle to get it made: The Decades-Long Road Behind AMC’s ‘Dark Winds’ Native American Drama Series.

I remember enjoying the PBS movies and being surprised they never went beyond 3. I'm really excited for this, though.

Quote

One sticking point was maintaining the novels’ pricey 1970s time period, which the producers felt was essential for the character of Leaphorn, who was raised in a forced assimilation boarding school common to the mid-20th century that attempted to detach young Native Americans from their cultural roots...AMC stepped up on July 9 with a series order, paving the way for an adaptation of Hillerman’s series that finally had all the elements: a major platform, an ongoing serialized story, a Native American writers room and cast (led by Westworld breakout Zahn McClarnon), plus permission to film on Navajo lands in New Mexico.

I might have to give in and subscribe to yet another streaming service to watch this.

[DearEvette]

3 hours ago, xaxat said:

A while ago, there was a discussion about shows with predominantly Native American casts. Here is the latest from Taika Waititi.

 

Oh man, I have been waiting for this and the trailer does not disappoint!!!

[xaxat]

 

[Inquisitionist]

Terry Gross did a Fresh Air interview with Questlove about Summer of Soul and other topics.  Well worth a listen!

[aradia22]

Does anyone like Run the World? I tried watching the pilot and got bored but maybe I should give it another shot. Pilots can be rough. 

[DearEvette]

6 hours ago, aradia22 said:

Does anyone like Run the World? I tried watching the pilot and got bored but maybe I should give it another shot. Pilots can be rough. 

You know what... I liked it...ok.  The best thing about it was the Harlem setting that the show used a lot to great effect and the score that was very Spike Lee-esque.

There were some set pieces I liked...Amber Stevens West plays a high powered exec who I believe comes from a privileged background and she is engaged to a man whose family is from Africa (I forget what country) but there are some points where the show highlights her navigating the intricacies of incorporating his family's African traditions in the wedding and the implied disapproval of his mother.  She is also having moments of cold feet.

One of the characters is a progressive grad student who is having and taboo relationship with her grad advisor.  So that is a plot point, but there is a great scene where he is throwing a faculty mixer at his house and again a lot of great scenes of black academics and literati and all the political stuff that happens in academia.

So there are a few things that are spot on with black bourgeosie.

Also, the biggest pro is that the show seems to just celebrate  Black Girl Joy.  It is noce to see.  Even though they have a fair amount of relationship angst amongst the four of them, none of it comes from black pain.  it is just universal ups and downs and none of it feels too high stakes.

But the biggest con is that overall it is really familiar.  It takes the Sex in the City formula and leans into it.  Some of the characters can be a little too over the top at times and once or twice it comes perilously close to advancing a 'right way to be black' narrative. 

In the end it is easy to watch and is made for a binge.  Also, Erika Alexander plays a character named Barb who damned near steal every scene she is in.  She was perfect.

[aradia22]

Quote

But the biggest con is that overall it is really familiar.  It takes the Sex in the City formula and leans into it.

Yeah, that was happening for me. I feel bad because I put up with Younger but I think I'm just tired of the formula now. It's not that I couldn't watch another show with four female friends but the emphasis on heavy drinking, casual sex, and weird "fashion" outfits feels alienating to me. It just feels very fake (or at least far removed from my own experience of my 20's/30's) and very SATC. Also, full disclosure I got to watch some of Amazon's Harlem show so this seems extra repetitive even though Run the World came first. Max was always my favorite from Living Single so that is selling me. I have less than a month left on my Starz subscription. I'll try again if I can find the time.

[aradia22]

I've been watching ZIWE and Just Another Immigrant with my Showtime subscription. (Yeah, I did the Prime Day thing.) I think her show is still finding its footing and Romesh's show is obviously a little staged but they're both hilarious and I wish they weren't relegated to premium cable/subscriptions that most people don't have.

[aradia22]

Quote

On the 65th anniversary of Emmett Till’s murder, ABC has given official green light to Women of the Movement, a six-episode limited series focusing on Mamie Till Mobley, who devoted her life to seeking justice for her son Emmett Till following his brutal killing in the Jim Crow South. The series, from writer Marissa Jo Cerar and a producing team that includes Jay-Z, Will Smith and Aaron Kaplan, is set to premiere in 2021.

https://deadline.com/2020/08/abc-women-of-the-movement-limited-series-marissa-jo-cerar-jay-z-will-smith-kapital-gina-prince-bythewood-direct-1203025965/

Still no premiere date but this recent article is about Timothy Hutton "joining" so maybe they're still filming?

https://deadline.com/2021/08/women-of-the-movement-timothy-hutton-recurring-cast-abc-limited-series-1234818983/

 

[possibilities]

Funny how the headlines are about all the dudes associated with the project about Women in the Movement. 

[aradia22]

I started from a Broadway site so the headline was about Adrienne Warren but yeah, not great from Deadline.

[Ms Blue Jay]

Extremely relevant and interesting article; sorry if already posted

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2021/10/the-unwritten-rules-of-black-tv/619816/

I really liked "Happy Together", a sitcom starring Damon Wayans Jr. and Amber Stevens West.   Of course cancelled after 1 season.

I also really liked "Marlon", which was done after 2 seasons.  I was rewatching it recently and goddamn, Marlon went OFF on that show.  He should have been nominated for his work.  (If you're interested, it might be on Netflix.)

Edited September 13, 2021 by Ms Blue Jay

[possibilities]

I'm watching Room 222 on You Tube. It's more than 50 years old but somehow manages to do a better job than a lot of current shows, at things like having a Black male lead in a mixed race ensemble, not putting the Black female character into the background, and addressing racism and other related issues in ways that still manage to seem relevant. I don't know if this says more about that show in particular, vs. just how much TV itself since then (and maybe the world around it) has failed, but it's interesting to see.

Edited September 14, 2021 by possibilities

[praeceptrix]

There really needs to be a biopic, or better yet, a miniseries about the life of the incredible Betty Reid Soskin.

She is the oldest active ranger in the National Park system (today is her 100th birthday!), and it is thanks to her that the Rosie the Riveter WWII Home Front historical park has become more accurate in portraying history of everyone, not just the white women symbolized by the Rosie the Riveter image.

 

[andromeda331]

On 9/22/2021 at 3:20 PM, praeceptrix said:

There really needs to be a biopic, or better yet, a miniseries about the life of the incredible Betty Reid Soskin.

She is the oldest active ranger in the National Park system (today is her 100th birthday!), and it is thanks to her that the Rosie the Riveter WWII Home Front historical park has become more accurate in portraying history of everyone, not just the white women symbolized by the Rosie the Riveter image.

 

That's just so awesome!

[arc]

the new Saved By The Bell show did an episode where the Latinx/Latine students asked why the school was teaching Spanish-from-Spain instead of Latin American Spanish: https://www.refinery29.com/amp/en-us/2021/11/10758815/high-school-spanish-saved-by-the-bell

[Constant Viewer]

21 hours ago, arc said:

the new Saved By The Bell show did an episode where the Latinx/Latine students asked why the school was teaching Spanish-from-Spain instead of Latin American Spanish: https://www.refinery29.com/amp/en-us/2021/11/10758815/high-school-spanish-saved-by-the-bell

I've often wondered the same thing.

[Stats Queen]

On 9/13/2021 at 10:43 PM, possibilities said:

I'm watching Room 222 on You Tube. It's more than 50 years old but somehow manages to do a better job than a lot of current shows, at things like having a Black male lead in a mixed race ensemble, not putting the Black female character into the background, and addressing racism and other related issues in ways that still manage to seem relevant. I don't know if this says more about that show in particular, vs. just how much TV itself since then (and maybe the world around it) has failed, but it's interesting to see.

I was commenting to my husband the other day (I am 57 he is 54) that TV shows in in 60s - early 90shad a lot of lead and ensemble characters who were black and racism and other issues were addressed in great and relatable ways.

I don’t know why these types of shows disappeared from broadcast TV, but it is disappointing that TV shows for a couple of decades seemed to become less racially integrated or about non-white families or communities.

[PepSinger]

1 hour ago, Constant Viewer said:

 

23 hours ago, arc said:

the new Saved By The Bell show did an episode where the Latinx/Latine students asked why the school was teaching Spanish-from-Spain instead of Latin American Spanish: https://www.refinery29.com/amp/en-us/2021/11/10758815/high-school-spanish-saved-by-the-bell

I've often wondered the same thing.

 

Me three. Whenever I hear vosotros, all I can think is “colonizer,” much like the characters in the show.

[Blergh]

1 hour ago, PepSinger said:

Me three. Whenever I hear vosotros, all I can think is “colonizer,” much like the characters in the show.

I believe the thinking is that    since Spain was where [Castillian] Spanish originated, teaching that Spanish  dialect   would ensure the speakers would know the original (or, some might say, proper ) dialect in much the same way teaching folks how to speak English spoken in the Home Counties of  England instead of in the US, Canada, Australia or South Africa.

Please note that the above is an attempted explanation NOT justification on my part. 

[paulvdb]

45 minutes ago, Blergh said:

much the same way teaching folks how to speak English spoken in the Home Counties of  England instead of in the US, Canada, Australia or South Africa.

I am in The Netherlands and that was certainly the case here when I went to school. If you were an American exchange student you'd better learn to include the u in colour if you wanted to get a perfect grade in English. But that was changed some time ago and American English is now accepted in schools. Not sure about Australian or other versions. They are not as common in our music, tv and movies as British and American English so students are probably less likely to use Australian English unless they happen to be from Australia.

I am not as familiar with the Spanish language, but I am guessing that immigrants from different Central and South American countries all have their own different versions of Spanish. And just like with English there are probably also regional dialects, especially in larger countries.

So I can certainly understand why the teacher in that episode of Saved by the Bell was teaching just one version of Spanish, especially since this seemed like it was supposed to be a class to teach Spanish to non-native speakers.

[Irlandesa]

1 hour ago, Blergh said:

I believe the thinking is that    since Spain was where [Castillian] Spanish originated, teaching that Spanish  dialect   would ensure the speakers would know the original (or, some might say, proper ) dialect in much the same way teaching folks how to speak English spoken in the Home Counties of  England instead of in the US, Canada, Australia or South Africa.

Very likely.  Although, I don't recall my classes in high school being nearly as strict. We had some teachers who studied abroad in Mexico/South America and other teachers who studied in Spain.  They taught in the version they felt the most comfortable using but students weren't required to follow one form or another.

 

Edited December 4, 2021 by Irlandesa

[possibilities]

People in the USA are FAR less likely to have a use for Spanish as spoken in Spain than pretty much ANY other kind of Spanish. We have a SIGNIFICANT Spanish-speaking population here. It would be like Canada teaching French according to Paris, not Montreal. I actually don't know what they teach in Canada, but I studied French lit from France and Quebecois lit, and there's a difference in dialect for sure. Also, in the USA we teach American English, not British English. Honestly, the only reason to preference Spanish-from-Spain in the USA is a preference for the colonial mindset.

[Kel Varnsen]

On 12/4/2021 at 3:03 PM, possibilities said:

It would be like Canada teaching French according to Paris, not Montreal.

That is what actually happens. I grew up on the west coast and my school French classes were absolutely Parisian French rather than Quebecois French. Of course now I live close enough to Quebec where I can't quite see it from my house, but if it was a few storys higher I could. And unfortunately I can barely speak any French either way 

[Irlandesa]

On 12/4/2021 at 2:03 PM, possibilities said:

People in the USA are FAR less likely to have a use for Spanish as spoken in Spain than pretty much ANY other kind of Spanish. We have a SIGNIFICANT Spanish-speaking population here. It would be like Canada teaching French according to Paris, not Montreal. I actually don't know what they teach in Canada, but I studied French lit from France and Quebecois lit, and there's a difference in dialect for sure.

Maybe seeing this episode would help me.  I overall agree about not being overly picky about correcting a native speaker in pronunciation or word choice.

However, language classes in school tend to be formal and foundational.  It's not just about being conversational but being able to write in the language.  There are quirks with things like vosotros (Spain) and vos (Argentina), but for the large part, they share most of the same "official" rules that get looser and looser the more conversational things get.

 

[supposebly]

10 hours ago, Kel Varnsen said:

That is what actually happens. I grew up on the west coast and my school French classes were absolutely Parisian French rather than Quebecois French.

I can attest to that. When I moved to Canada in 1998 and had to take French, I was taught European French with European textbooks. It was bizarre. 

[proserpina65]

On 7/17/2021 at 9:31 PM, krankydoodle said:

On the same subject, I think news of a new adaptation of Tony Hillerman's crime novels was already shared here, but this article goes into some detail about the struggle to get it made: The Decades-Long Road Behind AMC’s ‘Dark Winds’ Native American Drama Series.

I remember enjoying the PBS movies and being surprised they never went beyond 3. I'm really excited for this, though.

I might have to give in and subscribe to yet another streaming service to watch this.

Hopefully this will be better than the PBS movies because they were not very good and strayed far too far from the books.

[proserpina65]

On 12/4/2021 at 3:37 AM, Irlandesa said:

Very likely.  Although, I don't recall my classes in high school being nearly as strict. We had some teachers who studied abroad in Mexico/South America and other teachers who studied in Spain.  They taught in the version they felt the most comfortable using but students weren't required to follow one form or another.

 

My high school taught Latin American Spanish, something I discovered when I visited Spain and got my vocabulary corrected.  I'd assumed that most US schools did the same.  Interesting to find out otherwise.

[Lugal]

My high school Spanish classes tried to have it both ways, they would teach the vosotros forms, but the teacher said, you'll never see this unless you go to Spain. I remember they briefly touched on seseo/ceceo differences (in that they told us it existed) and it was weird in that c had to be pronounced like th but ll was pronounced like y.

As for Quebecois/Parisian French, there is definitely a difference.  Most of my French I picked up in Quebec, so I tend to speak it (what little I can) with something like a Quebecois accent.  Trying to speak to a Parisian, she laughed, and asked "What the hell was that?"  She also said that she prefers Quebecois speak to her in English.

[Haleth]

On 12/10/2021 at 11:21 AM, Lugal said:

She also said that she prefers Quebecois speak to her in English.

That is about the Frenchest thing I've ever heard. 🤣

Edited December 14, 2021 by Haleth

[Danny Franks]

For those unaware, The Wheel of Time show has done a really good job of casting with a diverse eye (much to the disgust of some fanboys who imagined every character should be white, even when the text in the books indicates otherwise).

Madeleine Madden, one of the stars, is an Aboriginal-Australian woman and talked about the casting process, as well as other aspects of her life as the member of a repressed indigenous group:

Quote

 

When she walked into the London casting room of The Wheel of Time, Madeleine Madden scanned the faces – a sea of white – and thought, “Yep, standard.”

To announce her presence, she politely inquired, “The Wheel of Time?”

“They were like, ‘Oh no – upstairs’,” she recalls. “Then I walked into the actual room and it was such a diverse room of people, I just felt so relieved. For so much of my life I was the odd one out. Here they’d done a worldwide search and brought in people from all over who they felt they were the best for the job.”

Madden had starred in Australia’s first Indigenous teen drama, Ready for This, and Redfern Now, a critically praised drama following Aboriginal families living in the Sydney suburb, which should have been considered a triumph – yet she was told by an industry insider that she’d never need to get dialect sessions because she’d never find a job outside Australia.

“It was something that was just such a casual throwaway comment, but I was like, ‘Yes, I’m being put in this box once again, and being told what I can and can’t aspire to,’” she says.

 

Other non-white actors in major roles in the show are Zoe Robins, Sophie Okonedo, Marcus Rutherford, Daniel Henney, Priyanka Bose, Hammed Animashaun, Abdul Salis, Johann Myers, Kae Alexander and Fares Fares.

Oh, and Meera Syal is joining the cast next season, probably in a role that is a real fan favourite.

Edited December 15, 2021 by Danny Franks

[Trini]

A few in-development projects that might be of interest to this thread:

'‘Kindred’ Pilot Based On Octavia E. Butler Novel Picked Up To Series By FX'

Quote

FX has given a series order to Kindred, an adaptation of Octavia E. Butler’s influential novel, with newcomer Mallori Johnson set to star. The project, which received a pilot order in July, hails from writer Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (Watchmen), Courtney Lee-Mitchell (The Reluctant Fundamentalist), Darren Aronofsky and his Protozoa Pictures (Black Swan, The Wrestler), Joe Weisberg (The Americans) and Joel Fields (Fosse/Verdon). The eight-episode series will be produced by FX Productions.

Written by Jacobs-Jenkins, FX’s adaptation of Kindred is centered on Dana (Johnson), a young Black woman and aspiring writer who has uprooted her life of familial obligation and relocated to Los Angeles, ready to claim a future that, for once, feels all her own. But, before she can get settled into her new home, she finds herself being violently pulled back and forth in time to a nineteenth-century plantation with which she and her family are surprisingly and intimately linked. An interracial romance threads through her past and present, and the clock is ticking as she struggles to confront the secrets she never knew ran through her blood, in this genre-breaking exploration of the ties that bind.

-----

NAACP-CBS Venture Sets Slate

Quote

A year after NAACP’s production partnership with CBS Studios formally launched with the hire of Sheila Ducksworth as President, the venture has sold its first projects. The five shows — spanning platforms (broadcast and streaming) and genres (drama, dramedy, comedy, limited series), include a reboot of cult 1991 movie Soapdish for Paramount+, with original co-star Whoopi Goldberg reprising her role and Jane the Virgin creator Jennie Snyder Urman co-writing the dramedy adaptation.

 

More info on the projects and quotes at the link.

[arc]

https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2021/12/30-rock-tina-fey-race-blackface

Quote

For seven seasons, 30 Rock won the hearts of critics and buckets of Emmys with its absurdist, joke-a-minute style, hyper-specific references, and distinctly female sensibility. But since its premiere in 2006, and especially in more recent years, the show—and Fey’s work more broadly, particularly her collaborations with 30 Rock co-showrunner Robert Carlock—has been critiqued for the way it treats race and racism.

“Race has been kind of an Achilles’ heel for Fey and Carlock,” critic Alan Sepinwall told me in an interview for The 30 Rock Book, my new behind-the-scenes history of the show. NPR’s Bullseye host Jesse Thorn put it this way: “I’m completely unconvinced that Carlock and Fey have a sophisticated understanding of the problematics of the show.”

Quote

The show also lacked much grace in the less-than-careful ways it dealt with Native Americans, trans people, and other underrepresented groups throughout the series. The show frequently employed stereotypes with a wink, indicating that it wasn’t really being racist while still using those racist tropes.

In each case, 30 Rock failed to bring the same level of insight that Fey often brought to discussions of gender—perhaps because of its largely homogenous creative team. “It’s the intention behind the joke, and also it actually being formed into an actual joke, that makes it okay,” Fey said on a 30 Rock DVD commentary, explaining a series of jokes about the show’s riff on the LGBTQ-focused Logo network, “TWINKS.” By the time Fey called for the blackface episodes to be pulled from streaming in 2020, she’d changed her mind: “I understand now that ‘intent’ is not a free pass for white people to use these images,” she said.

 

[Ms Blue Jay]

I was never okay with Tina Fey hiring Jane Krakowski to play a Native person on "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt" and to  my recollection I don't think Tina Fey has ever backed down from her choice there, always just providing justifications why it needed to be done that way.

(sorry Zella, edited because I made an error in the show title!)

On 12/3/2021 at 12:31 AM, arc said:

the new Saved By The Bell show did an episode where the Latinx/Latine students asked why the school was teaching Spanish-from-Spain instead of Latin American Spanish: https://www.refinery29.com/amp/en-us/2021/11/10758815/high-school-spanish-saved-by-the-bell

This show is just insanely brilliant.  I love it.

Edited January 20, 2022 by Ms Blue Jay

[Zella]

2 hours ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

I was never okay with 30 Rock hiring Jane Krakowski to play a Native person and to  my recollection I don't think Tina Fey has ever backed down from her choice there, always just providing justifications why it needed to be done that way.

This show is just insanely brilliant.  I love it.

I'm probably biased because I don't actually like Tina Fey, but I've always felt like she unfairly gets a pass for things like this because she's considered some sort of darling. And yes she's been defensive when called out about it. 

[Ms Blue Jay]

On 1/20/2022 at 11:40 AM, Zella said:

I'm probably biased because I don't actually like Tina Fey, but I've always felt like she unfairly gets a pass for things like this because she's considered some sort of darling. And yes she's been defensive when called out about it. 

Omg, sorry, my error: Jane played Native on Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, a show that came out YEARS AFTER 30 Rock, so it's even worse, but same issue.  Tina wouldn't back down on it.

Wikipedia:

Quote

 It premiered on March 6, 2015, on Netflix and ran for four seasons, ending on January 25, 2019. An interactive special premiered on May 12, 2020.

Quote

Some reviewers have criticized the show's portrayal of Native Americans, with Vulture referring to a prominent Native American subplot as "offensive."[39][40] BuzzFeed wrote that the show has a "major race problem" and cited the lack of a plurality of portrayals of Native Americans as the main issue with the subplot, stating that "the way Native Americans are represented on this show matters. It's not one representation among a cornucopia of representations; it's the single mainstream representation in years."[41] The Daily Beast stated that when it comes to race, “especially in its portrayal of a key Vietnamese character, the show leaves much to be desired.”[42]

In the wake of the controversy, Tina Fey responded: "I feel like we put so much effort into writing and crafting everything, they need to speak for themselves. There's a real culture of demanding apologies, and I'm opting out of that."[43]

This is awful.

More:

Quote

There was controversy surrounding the third episode from this season, “Kimmy Goes to a Play!,” which involved the use of yellow-face and the name of a group of Asian-Americans who were critical of yellow-face. The group is referred to as "Respectful Asian Portrayals in Entertainment", or "R.A.P.E" for short. The Asian-Americans shown protesting against yellow-face in the episode are conveyed as unlikable buffoons. Anna Akana criticized the use of yellow-face and the R.A.P.E. acronym during her 2016 Asians in Entertainment Key Note speech. Alex Abad-Santos wrote, “The odd thing about this episode is that it's another Tina Fey project that paints Asian people, specifically Asian women, as crappy characters. [...] The plot feels like a pointed, ironic response to anyone who has criticized Fey's past projects for being lazy and racist.”[45]

To me, it's very simple.  You insist on hiring Jane Krakowski, fine, but have her play a WHITE CHARACTER.  Or, you insist on having Native American characters in your show, fine, but HIRE NATIVE AMERICAN ACTORS ONLY and do proper research.  Why do you think you're so entitled that you get to have it both ways?

Edited January 25, 2022 by Ms Blue Jay

[Zella]

7 minutes ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

Omg, sorry, my error: Jane played Native on Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, a show that came out YEARS AFTER 30 Rock, so it's even worse, but same issue.  Tina wouldn't back down on it.

Jane Krakowski did blackface on 30 Rock too. 

https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2021/12/30-rock-tina-fey-race-blackface

Edited January 20, 2022 by Zella

[janie jones]

19 minutes ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

To me, it's very simple.  You insist on hiring Jane Krakowski, fine, but have her play a WHITE CHARACTER.  Or, you insist on having Native American characters in your show, fine, but HIRE NATIVE AMERICAN ACTORS ONLY and do proper research.  Why the fuck do you think you're so entitled that you get to have it both ways?

Don't get me wrong, I don't think this is better, but I don't think she wanted Native American characters. I think she just thought it would be funny if this WASP-y looking person turned out to actually be nonwhite, and Native American was a "funny" thing for her to turn out to be.

[Ms Blue Jay]

1 hour ago, janie jones said:

Don't get me wrong, I don't think this is better, but I don't think she wanted Native American characters. I think she just thought it would be funny if this WASP-y looking person turned out to actually be nonwhite, and Native American was a "funny" thing for her to turn out to be.

Oh I agree.  And I agree, she doesn't give a shit about Native Americans which is why she did what she did and then defended it several times after.

[Guest]

5 hours ago, janie jones said:

Don't get me wrong, I don't think this is better, but I don't think she wanted Native American characters. I think she just thought it would be funny if this WASP-y looking person turned out to actually be nonwhite, and Native American was a "funny" thing for her to turn out to be.

Which is one of the problems with many people who see themselves as “allies”. They think they are supportive and inclusive but still view BIPOC as the punchline. 

Edited January 20, 2022 by Guest

[methodwriter85]

On 6/18/2021 at 9:24 PM, Dani said:

I agree. Agents of Shield is a good example for me. They took Chloe Bennet’s character and made her biracial to match Chloe’s own ethnicity and still had Ming-Na Wen on the show. Sadly, most shows would have let one of those women check the “Asian” box rather than showing two examples of what Asian woman look like. 

Darren Barnet was cast on Never Have I Ever and they decided to write in Darren's half-Japanese heritage with his character Paxton after he agreed to it. The show itself is pretty diverse, which I liked, although I ultimately stopped with the show because I just really couldn't with the protagonist of the show. LOL.

[Luckylyn]

This conversation is making me think of how the media and some fans assumed that when Coach returned to New Girl then Winston would have to leave as if there was some rule about how many black men were allowed.  

New Girl Cast Recalls Racist Questions About Winston & Coach

[Lugal]

I think of Brooklyn 99 when Stephanie Beatriz and Melissa Fumero both auditioned for the part of Amy Santiago and when Melissa got it, Stephanie assumed that due to the "one Latina per show" rule she should start looking for another show, but the producers liked her so much they reworked another character into Rosa Diaz.

[Guest]

On 2/1/2022 at 1:32 PM, Lugal said:

I think of Brooklyn 99 when Stephanie Beatriz and Melissa Fumero both auditioned for the part of Amy Santiago and when Melissa got it, Stephanie assumed that due to the "one Latina per show" rule she should start looking for another show, but the producers liked her so much they reworked another character into Rosa Diaz.

I heard one of them recently tell that story on a podcast. They didn’t believe the network would let them both stay even once they were cast. They deliberately styled their hair differently hoping it would keep the network from seeing them as interchangeable. 

 

On 2/1/2022 at 12:09 PM, Luckylyn said:

This conversation is making me think of how the media and some fans assumed that when Coach returned to New Girl then Winston would have to leave as if there was some rule about how many black men were allowed.  

New Girl Cast Recalls Racist Questions About Winston & Coach

It’s sad how often that is true. It’s a big part of why I stopped watching Walking Dead. 

Edited February 3, 2022 by Guest