Race & Ethnicity On TV

[ribboninthesky1]

The Unsinkable Effie Brown Makes HBO's 'Project Greenlight' a Must-See: "I'm not his favorite person"

 

Even though it holds final cut, HBO still had to deal with powerful Damon and Affleck. "Pearl Street could have kiboshed it," said Brown. "They all saw all these cuts and approved them. Ben Affleck was the cat who had my back. Ben is down. All right, good! That was surprising to me, I thought it would be Matt, who has this liberal reputation.

 

I confess, never thought we'd be closing out 2015 with Ben Affleck, the walking trainwreck, coming off as more enlightened than his friend Matty. I've never liked Damon (beyond thinking he was overrated as an actor), and no one I know understood why. And frankly, the Project Greenlight controversy was just the tip of the Damonsplaining iceberg. The verbal diarrhea has been highly entertaining to read over the last several weeks.   

[galax-arena]

Artists sneak 'Homeland is racist' Arabic graffiti into the latest episode of Homeland.

 

Oops. 

[arc]

Vincent Rodriguez III: CW star paves the way for Asian Americans onscreen and onstage

 

Josh Chan is basically “a SoCal Asian bro,” Rodriguez described. Coming from a family of mixed parents (Filipino, Chinese, and Spanish, just like Rodriguez), Josh–the one that got away–is also finding his place in reality and romance.

“You’re going to meet Josh Chan, find out that he’s Filipino, and see his family values,” Rodriguez shared.  “The Chan family dynamic is very true to form–it feels very real to my own family.”

“It’s exciting to see Filipino culture being portrayed in the mainstream,” he added.

At the 2014 PaleyFest Fall TV Preview, main actress Rachel Bloom said she wanted the location of “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” to be in Southern California, based off her own childhood experience living inland.

“We knew we wanted it to be a fish-out-of-water story, but most of those happen in the Midwest or on the East Coast,” Bloom said this month in an interview with Vulture, adding that she and McKenna were drawn to the number of chain businesses and cultural diversity that San Gabriel Valley is known for. “We also liked how multicultural Southern California was, which is…what new suburbia is, and will continue to grow and be—people from all different cultures going to the same Applebee’s.”

Since the show is set in a suburb notorious for Asian American (and especially Filipino) families, the writers were careful to make sure actors accurately represented the culture and diversity of West Covina.

“We always wanted the male lead to be Asian,” Bloom shared, “because I grew up with Asian bros, and I hadn’t seen that represented on TV.”

[Rick Kitchen]

"Notorious"?

[DeLurker]

San Gabriel Valley is often referred to as Chan Gabriel Valley, but notorious is a funny choice of words.

[jhlipton]

I mean, nothing wrong with disliking Minority Report, but Meagan's breasts have fuck all to do with perception of poor writing, plot holes, derivative storylines, etc.     

 

The bolded part refers to Blandspot, right?  Because that show is a mess, held in ratings by Jamie Alexender's body (which, for me, yuck.  I'd much rather see Megan Good, and Nicole Beharie even more).

[ribboninthesky1]

Heh, you're the only male I've read that isn't salivating over Alexander. But to answer the question, I wasn't explicitly referring to Blindspot in that quote.  I was responding to the Minority Report pilot criticism I'd read at the time.  For what it's worth, I think the show has gotten a little better with each episode. Can't say the same for Blindspot. 

[cynic]

SAME OLD SCRIPT

On screen, TV is more diverse than ever. Why aren’t writing staffs catching up?

 

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2015/10/diversity_in_the_tv_writers_room_writers_and_showrunners_of_color_lag_far.html

[Ronin Jackson]

I'm seeing some positive signs... Aziz Ansari's Netflix show Master of None features a diverse cast (at least as far as the males go) and addresses media diversity head on in the Indians on TV  episode. And the new AMC series Into the Badlands features an Asian-American lead... who is, it should be noted, a bad ass martial artist, which is the one type considered acceptable for Asian leads in American entertainment... but unlike many previous examples he's not de-sexualized... and the romantic interest is black, to boot.

[DearEvette]

I have been watching Master of None and the thing that I immediately appreciated was the nature of the diversity of his show.  One of the things I that I've noticed in recent efforts to bring diversity to tv is that it tends to be a single ethnic minority along side white folks. Or if there is more than one ethnic minority they still largely tend to still revolve around white people.  it is rare to see different groups of minorities interacting with each other without an obligatory white person present.  In Aziz's show his inner circle is an Asian guy, a black Lesbian and one white guy.  And there are a lot of times the white guy isn't present when the other three are. So you'll have scenes with three different ethnic minorities hanging out.  It is nice for tv to finally realize that yes, members of different ethnic minorities can be friends with and interact with other ethnic minorities without the need for a white person to somehow give validation to those relationships.

[kiddo82]

I've actually wondered how many shows would pass a racial Bechdel test. Probably an embarrassingly low amount.

[BoogieBurns]

On the newest episode of Grandfathered, they had an entire subplot about the two black women on the show becoming friends. Christina Milian plays one of the ladies, so I think her character is half black. But still, black female allies are a hard thing to come by in comedies. Two black (not related) females in speaking roles on the same episode is actually rare in itself. The only time I recall seeing it was Ann and Donna on Parks and Rec. 

[arc]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2015/11/17/why-the-co-creator-of-crazy-ex-girlfriend-made-a-bernadette-peters-sex-tape/?hpid=hp_regional-hp-cards_no-name%3Ahomepage%2Fcard- on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend:

 

Was it important, early on, when you knew that Josh was going to be Asian, to have someone who could write to that voice?

It really was because, first of all, you want a staff that reflects the show you're writing. And so it was very important for us to have someone Filipino on staff, and not only that, Rene is just fantastically talented. And in writing, he brought to the episode things I didn't even anticipate. Just little things. I knew he would bring the experience of a Filipino family and the cadence of how parents talk. When I write Jewish parents, it comes very easily to me because that's my experience. It's just a dogwhistle-type thing -- that sounds authentic. That doesn't sound authentic.

The episode ended up being all about Rebecca trying to impress the family by making dinuguan, which is a very well-known, popular Filipino dish and we knew wanted the episode to be that, the idea of her trying to impress them by making Filipino food. But the mainstream idea of what Filipino food is different from what actual Filipino food is. Another little thing: We asked, well, what would a Filipino family do after Thanksgiving? And [Rene] said, "Well, they would go to mass." Coming from a secular household, that wouldn't even occur to me.

That's why diversity on writing staffs is so important, is to not only reflect the characters that you're writing, but to add authenticity and deepen the world you're creating and take you down avenues and roads you otherwise never would have. No way would Rebecca have made dinuguan if we were just writing the episode. ... There's a level of depth and knowledge that was really important for us to get.

[Wax Lion]

I was just coming to bring up Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. That was an amazing excerpt from Rachel Bloom. Earlier she commented on how she wanted her show set in West Covina, it was important to her to, at the least, cast extras with the diversity of the city in mind (and the number of PoC supporting characters is impressive).

 

It's also worth mentioning that, a year after Selfie was cancelled, it's only the second show with an API actor cast as a romantic lead (or co-lead considering that he's in a central love quadrangle?)

 

That's a great point about "dog whistles," a lot of the jokes involving the API characters ring true to someone who grew up in Hawaii, another place with a large API population, I'm thrilled to learn she hired a Filipino writer to have that voice. I guess that explains how this week's episode had a scene about Rebecca going to an Asian grocery story that had just the right tone.

 

Sometimes jokes about a white liberal exoticfying the PoC in her life feels like the writers are having their cake and eating it too, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend got it right.

[possibilities]

On the newest episode of Grandfathered, they had an entire subplot about the two black women on the show becoming friends.

Not only that, but they passed the Bechdel Test, also. Two for one, from one of the least likely places (the show is not one I'd expect to succeed on either front)!

[DearEvette]

Yup, great insights on the diversity of the writing staff.  Do you hear that Matt Damon???

 

And yes, I love that Crazy Ex-Girlfriend has an API male character as the romantic ideal for the heroine.  His name is Josh in the show and he has a white friend also named Josh who they call 'White Josh'  What I also love is that White Josh is tv conventionally attractive -- very handsome, muscular etc.  But Rachel is completely oblvious to White Josh.  And there is a great scene where he is flexing and doing all this attractive man stuff and she's like "here's my phone go play with it."  cuz she wants to him to buzz off so she can stare at her Josh. 

 

Speaking of Asian leading men, Badlands is interesting with both a bad-ass Asian male as lead but also with him having an AA girlfriend.  The show actually has some casting diversity in the extras area .. lots of brown faces... but I am a bit disappointed that of course the people in power or the Barons as they are called are still overwhelmingly white.  It is only the first episode and we've only met like two of them... so maybe they'll surprise us.  But it does get old if you are going to re-imagine a world that as usual your power brokers are all white people.

 

Caught the premiere of Chicago Med and the opportunity to witness not just two, but three non-related black women having conversations and forming friendships is totally available with this show.  And they are all main, regular characters.

 

And finally, been watching the Aziz Ansari show and have to give yet another shout out to it.  The episode I just watched was one that featured Condola Rashad as an actress friend of Aziz's and the contrast between the experiences that women have when walking down a street and men have was so well done.  But even more so, his version of New York's denizens is wonderful.  The POC are represented very well in just the extras & background people.  It is so interesting how numbed you get to seeing all white extras in so many shows so that when you watch a show like this and see so many non-white people just in the background it it kinda like an electric buzz.

[ChromaKelly]

I know it's not TV, but I'm wondering if the phenomenon of Hamilton is going to help break down barriers in terms of casting. Almost the entire cast is POC and it works. Alexander Hamilton is portrayed by a Latino, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Aaron Burr are black. Hamilton's wife is Asian. Does it matter if the actual people were white? So many times casting is hung up on the race of the historical person or the book/ source material character and we all accept that as the reason for lack of POC on the screen. Hamilton is showing us that casting can move past that.

[Ronin Jackson]

I just saw on the Hulu subscribers home page a Fall TV graphic:

 

 

Perhaps they are just going out of their way to highlight diversity but the four most prominent figures on the left feature a black couple, a white woman, and not one but TWO Indian women (!!). It's obviously not representative of the television landscape as a whole but it's an interesting thing to see...

Edited November 19, 2015 by Ronin Jackson

[UYI]

I know it's not TV, but I'm wondering if the phenomenon of Hamilton is going to help break down barriers in terms of casting. Almost the entire cast is POC and it works. Alexander Hamilton is portrayed by a Latino, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Aaron Burr are black. Hamilton's wife is Asian. Does it matter if the actual people were white? So many times casting is hung up on the race of the historical person or the book/ source material character and we all accept that as the reason for lack of POC on the screen. Hamilton is showing us that casting can move past that.

 

There is a Race & Ethnicity in the Movies thread, too:

 

http://forums.previously.tv/topic/8233-race-and-ethnicity-in-the-movies/page-8#entry1728747

 

Shortly after One Life to Live began in  1968, the character of Carla Gray, played by light-skinned black actress Ellen Holly, was introduced. Carla was an actress trying to pass as a white Italian-American named Carla Benari, and she actually succeeded for awhile until she and her mother, Sadie, saw each other again--they had been estranged for sometime before that. It resulted in an interesting controversy--there was an uproar over Carla kissing a black man, but once the truth came out, it turned out the kiss she had shared with a white man was the REAL interracial kiss.

Edited November 19, 2015 by UYI

[Wax Lion]

Perhaps they are just going out of their way to highlight diversity but the four most prominent figures on the left feature a black couple, a white woman, and not one but TWO Indian women (!!). It's obviously not representative of the television landscape as a whole but it's an interesting thing to see...

 

If so, it's a reflection of the popularity of diverse TV shows since the four shows shown, Empire was a massive ratings hit last year, Quantico has turned out to be the fall's biggest hit, Scream Queens hasn't done great but it came from the creator of two huge hits and The Mindy Project is Hulu's most high-profile original series.

[arc]

One more about Crazy Ex-Girlfriend: http://www.vulture.com/2015/11/crazy-ex-girlfriend-filipino-culture.html

 

On Monday's episode of Crazy Ex Girlfriend, Rebecca cooks a traditional Filipino dish called dinuguan to impress Josh's family at their Thanksgiving celebration. By the time it came to filming the scene that included eating the pork blood stew, the meal looked more like carnitas than the hearty soul food it was meant to be.

 

"The dinuguan had been sitting on set all day in the heat, so it no longer looked accurate," said episode writer Rene Gube. "I started thinking about whether I'd say so because the props guy was working his ass off, and if I slowed down production, we might run overtime, and it would cost thousands of dollars. But [executive producer Aline Brosh McKenna] saw my face and asked what was wrong. When I told her, she immediately stopped everything and said, 'It's done, we'll fix it.'" This might be perceived as a minor course-correction in other circumstances, but for the Filipino-American actor and writer, it was proof that his bosses are committed to representing Filipino culture authentically on the CW musical comedy -- the first TV series to depict Filipino-American family life, with a large Filipino cast of actors, in a single episode. "I was encouraged every step of the way to make it truthful and accurate," Gube said. "That's something I've never felt the agency to do by my previous bosses."

[Neurochick]

I know it's not TV, but I'm wondering if the phenomenon of Hamilton is going to help break down barriers in terms of casting. Almost the entire cast is POC and it works. Alexander Hamilton is portrayed by a Latino, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Aaron Burr are black. Hamilton's wife is Asian. Does it matter if the actual people were white? So many times casting is hung up on the race of the historical person or the book/ source material character and we all accept that as the reason for lack of POC on the screen. Hamilton is showing us that casting can move past that.

 

I think when it comes to the stage for some reason, people don't get too caught up with race; the show "Chicago" comes to mind.

[proserpina65]

I think when it comes to the stage for some reason, people don't get too caught up with race; the show "Chicago" comes to mind.

Some of that may simply be due to the suspension of disbelief required for musicals, at least.  Once you accept people going around singing and dancing, it gets harder to criticize casting decisions based on race or ethnicity.  Not impossible, of course, because a-holes will be a-holes, but more difficult.

[galax-arena]

I think when it comes to the stage for some reason, people don't get too caught up with race; the show "Chicago" comes to mind.

I think where Hamilton is concerned, it also has to do with changing characters from the privileged/dominant race to marginalized/minority races. That makes a difference. There probably would have been a bigger outcry if someone tried to put on the new Broadway play Allegiance, which is about America's WWII internment of Japanese-Americans, and cast it with white people. 

 

There was some controversy this week when a rural, mostly white university tried to put on a play featuring South Asian characters cast with white actors (+ 1 non-SA mixed race actor). When the playwright found out, he insisted that the university recast the roles. The university said that that wouldn't be possible due to their student body makeup. The playwright then pulled the school's right to do the play. I cut a school production more slack than I would a Broadway show because the talent pool is more limited, but apparently the school never even finalized the rights, so they kinda blew it on that one.

Edited November 20, 2015 by galax-arena

[Irlandesa]

I think when it comes to the stage for some reason, people don't get too caught up with race; the show "Chicago" comes to mind.

While I do think this is mostly true, there was a bit of a controversy when some actors of color were cast in Les Mes.

[LeeLeePanda]

I think where Hamilton is concerned, it also has to do with changing characters from the privileged/dominant race to marginalized/minority races. That makes a difference. There probably would have been a bigger outcry if someone tried to put on the new Broadway play Allegiance, which is about America's WWII internment of Japanese-Americans, and cast it with white people.

There was some controversy this week when a rural, mostly white university tried to put on a play featuring South Asian characters cast with white actors (+ 1 non-SA mixed race actor). When the playwright found out, he insisted that the university recast the roles. The university said that that wouldn't be possible due to their student body makeup. The playwright then pulled the school's right to do the play. I cut a school production more slack than I would a Broadway show because the talent pool is more limited, but apparently the school never even finalized the rights, so they kinda blew it on that one.

Kent State recently did a production of The Mountaintop with a white Martin Luther King Jr. The playwright was not informed about the casting, and was horrified. She just added an addendum into the rights for the show stating that MLK must be played by an actor of color.

[possibilities]

2015: The Year Asian-Americans Finally Got a Shot on TV

http://www.vulture.com/2015/11/asian-americans-on-tv-2015.html?wpsrc=nymag

 

They say, among other things, that FOB being good made it possible for Dr. Ken to be mediocre.

[possibilities]

Is anyone watching "Truth Be Told"? I know the ratings and reviews are horrible, but has anyone here seen it?

[DearEvette]

Is anyone watching "Truth Be Told"? I know the ratings and reviews are horrible, but has anyone here seen it?

 

I watched the pilot.  It was unfunny and the character's attempts at being frankly casual about race felt forced.  I haven't gone back.  Should I try a second ep?

[cynic]

I don't know that I would bother. It's basically dead in the water.

[Ohwell]

Is anyone watching "Truth Be Told"? I know the ratings and reviews are horrible, but has anyone here seen it?

I've seen a couple episodes.  It seems to me that the actors are trying too hard to make their points about the various hot topic issues.  I just don't think they're very good actors.  I expect the show will die a quiet death pretty soon.

[Neurochick]

One show I won't watch is season two of "Girlfriend's Guide to Divorce."  Why, why, why does a show have to feature an overweight, brown skinned black woman with a scowl on her face who can't get a man?  I saw the trailer for that show and that's all I needed to see.  

[cynic]

Ciare Renee who plays Hawkgirl on The Flash is getting some flack on Twitter. She's multiracial (white, black, Indian, and Native American) and looks it. People were touting her as a diverse hire. But someone asked her ethnicity on Twitter and she answered "white". After some back and forth, she explained that she's a lot of things and that her claiming one thing, doesn't mean she's denying the rest of what she is. She also said she doesn't want to be categorized, but that seems to be a bit disingenuous when she was quick to categorize herself as white.

[memememe76]

I'm confused. How is she NOT a diverse hire? 

[LeeLeePanda]

That's odd. I know Ciara, and she's pretty vocal about her struggles as a mixed race woman in the entertainment industry. Her mother is white, which is what she was referring to when she mentioned being white.

[Cobalt Stargazer]

I'm confused. How is she NOT a diverse hire? 

 

Because if she says she's white, then that negates the rest of her heritage?

 

Yeah, I don't know either.

[cynic]

Oh no, I agree that she's a diverse hire, but then I wouldn't call her white. Regardless of my personal feelings though, people were pointing out the dissonance of celebrating a diverse hire and that person being all "I'm white".

As a biracial person myself, I get the whole argument of identifying however you want to, the suckiness of feeling like you're forced to choose, and that you're not necessarily denying one aspect of your heritage by claiming another. But I also understand the reality that people will go by how you look. My mom's Korean and my dad is black. I look mixed and/or black to people. I grew up with my mom and identify more with her though. If someone asked me my ethnicity and I said "Korean.", like she said "white.", I wouldn't act all confused or offended when people were like ???. And then she said she doesn't like categories, but she didn't say that originally. She just said white. For what its worth, if I choose to answer a question like that, I just say I'm biracial.

Edited December 4, 2015 by cynic

[Neurochick]

Ciare Renee who plays Hawkgirl on The Flash is getting some flack on Twitter. She's multiracial (white, black, Indian, and Native American) and looks it. People were touting her as a diverse hire. But someone asked her ethnicity on Twitter and she answered "white". After some back and forth, she explained that she's a lot of things and that her claiming one thing, doesn't mean she's denying the rest of what she is. She also said she doesn't want to be categorized, but that seems to be a bit disingenuous when she was quick to categorize herself as white.

 

See, I find this interesting.  She looks more black than my own mother; yet my mother will tell you that she's black and if you say she's not she'll think you're quite ignorant and should go read or something.

[galax-arena]

Oh no, I agree that she's a diverse hire, but then I wouldn't call her white. Regardless of my personal feelings though, people were pointing out the dissonance of celebrating a diverse hire and that person being all "I'm white".

That tweet said something like, "White. European white," right? I wonder if she was trying to be sarcastic because she so obviously does not look 100% European white. 

[cynic]

The tweets went like this -

Fan: "Ciara, I've always wondered, what's your ethnicity?"

Ciara Renee: "White."

Fan: "That low-key hurt my feelings. I was honest wondering."

Ciara Renee: "Why are your feelings hurt? I am white..."

Then, other people chimed in over time and turned into a discussion about racial identity. She says she claims different things at different times and she's all of these things. You can read it on her Twitter starting back about November 29. She actually says she's going to write an essay on it.

[allyw]

She's free to identify as whatever she likes but I find it odd that she identifies as white yet chose to audition for "Iris" when the casting call was for an African-American.

[DearEvette]

She's free to identify as whatever she likes but I find it odd that she identifies as white yet chose to audition for "Iris" when the casting call was for an African-American.

 

Yeah, that is my take too.  I mean, Go on' head with your mixed self girl!  Rep all your identities!  But then **needle scratch ** "I'm white."  Dang. 

 

The weird thing is, there was a recent article done of her where she is repping hard as Latina.

 

What was really interesting was the back and forth on twitter she had with Nina Perez who is an author and does a lot of geek-fandom stuff with Project Fandom.  Nina pulled no punches with her disappointment that not only would  CR refuse to rep as a WOC but she also cosigned a rather rude tweet that snarked at Iris fans the majority of whom are WOC.  Nina also pointed out the Iris West audition an asked if she was white why would she then go out for a role intended for a WOC? Especially given how few roles there are for WOC, especially black women in genre roles.  It got rather heated.  In the end CR kinda came off as clueless, imo, really as to what choppy racial waters in the fandom she had navigated herself into.  The essay she's going to write, I believe, is a result of that exchange with Nina and one or two others.

[allyw]

Yeah, that is my take too. I mean, Go on' head with your mixed self girl! Rep all your identities! But then **needle scratch ** "I'm white." Dang.

The weird thing is, there was a recent article done of her where she is repping hard as Latina.

What was really interesting was the back and forth on twitter she had with Nina Perez who is an author and does a lot of geek-fandom stuff with Project Fandom. Nina pulled no punches with her disappointment that not only would CR refuse to rep as a WOC but she also cosigned a rather rude tweet that snarked at Iris fans the majority of whom are WOC. Nina also pointed out the Iris West audition an asked if she was white why would she then go out for a role intended for a WOC? Especially given how few roles there are for WOC, especially black women in genre roles. It got rather heated. In the end CR kinda came off as clueless, imo, really as to what choppy racial waters in the fandom she had navigated herself into. The essay she's going to write, I believe, is a result of that exchange with Nina and one or two others.

Oh wow I didn't know all that was going on as I don't do social media. But as for her repping Latina and identifying as white, maybe she sees them as two separate entities as Latina/Latino is not a race. I know a couple people irl who view themselves as both.

And in general, I think some bi/multi-racial people comes off clueless/ignorant simple because they grow up in a bubble and their parents didn't prepare them for how society will treat them based on what they look like rather than their identity preference.

Edited December 6, 2015 by allyw

[LeeLeePanda]

I think she was being sarcastic. I've known her for a while, and she's never said anything like that before. It might not have been clear sarcasm, but I don't think she's serious.

[cynic]

I really don't think she was being sarcastic going by some of the other tweets. Bear in mind, this is a selection though. You might want to go read the whole feed to get an accurate feel of the context. 

 

Interesting. I am white. About 70% white. That is not, ALL of the ethnicities that are a part of me, but so?

 

I never denied being black. That's what I'm saying. Why is claiming one, denying the other? Ive always (next tweet) been open about what my ethnicity is. I love that a few tweets has caused this uproar. Very interesting

 

Im not relinquishing any side. I've claimed white, black, Native American, and Indian at diff times becuz they're all true.

 

So funny. I claim black, the whites get ideas, I claim white, the blacks hate me. So, where shud I stand

[Ronin Jackson]

I'm not familiar with the show or the actress, but I googled a pic of her. I think there are two different ways this can be looked at... how she identifies herself and how others perceive her. And as much as I respect people's right to create their own identity, the latter is probably a bigger factor here, especially for her, as an actress.  Like it or not, in the world of media, she will never be perceived as white by anyone but herself.... even those who are committed to a post-racial or non-racial perspective (I'm not sure there's a term for this yet... I'm referring to the viewpoint that there's no authentic or scientific distinction between races) would not identify her as "white". That's significant because she's not going to be up for roles that specify that they're looking for a Caucasian actress, no matter how much she claims she is one. And for better or for worse, it all boils down to appearance. Another bi-racial actress, Rashida Jones, could "pass" for white more than she can. Is that fair or right? Perhaps not, but that's the way it is.

 

I would be surprised if she does not know this, and I doubt she is as perplexed by the reaction to her identifying herself as white as she claims. I can perhaps, understand where she's coming from, since she grew up with a white parent and what not, but given the struggle for POC to get legitimate speaking human parts in American media, the backlash is understandable since she was asked a simple question and chose to only refer to whatever part of her is "white". It's something that can be taken out of context so easily. It comes off as her denying the struggle even though she's going to have to deal with it. It would have been better if she had said something like her ethnicity is "human".

Edited December 6, 2015 by Ronin Jackson

[jhlipton]

Some of that may simply be due to the suspension of disbelief required for musicals, at least.  Once you accept people going around singing and dancing, it gets harder to criticize casting decisions based on race or ethnicity.  Not impossible, of course, because a-holes will be a-holes, but more difficult.

 

Case in point -- people claiming the production of The Wiz -- Live! is "racist"!  I kid you not!

[DearEvette]

I think it is interesting to bring up race-bend casting in talking about both Hamilton and the The Wiz because I think Hamilton is Lin-Manuel Miranda's Wiz.  Just like The Wiz is  a re-imagined Wizard of Oz for a specifically  all black cast, Miranda's Hamilton is a re-imagined life of Alexander Hamilton for a non-white Hip Hop cast.  He has said when he read Hamilton's biography he immediately felt that Hamilton's life was analogous to that of hip hop star.  He began writing what at the time was a concept hip hop album which was circa 2008-2009.  So when the show came about his intent was a predominantly black cast.  This isn't simply color blind casting in his case but actual intent.  I've linked to his performance at the White House from 2009 where he talks about this below.

 

re: Ciara Renee, I have to admit I was so happy to see a  WOC of color being cast as a superhero in the DC franchise stuff on the CW.  So like some of the people on Twitter I was very taken aback with how easily she seemed to shed that piece of her identity.  I have no issues with a person identifying how they see fit, but in her case it feels so incredibly disingenuous because like I said, I'd just read an article where she was talking up repping for Latinas -- btw she still doesnt mention being Latina in that listing -- so I am scratching my head about that one.

 

I get that multiracial people get extremely tired to being asked 'what are you'  It can be so irksome and does make one want to say something flippant and sarcastic to that next person just to show your frustration.  But she is now a public persona and you can't have the same reactions (especially on a public space like twitter) that you would have if you were still a private citizen.  She had the option of simply ignoring the tweet.   If she were smarter about social media and the platform she was on she could have either done that or just answered with her melange of ethnicities -- after all twitter allows 140 characters and 'white' is only five of them.  People would have shrugged and gone about their business.  Nobody raises an eyebrow about inclusion.  But the exclusion of all else in that one tweet reeks of shame and denial and wanting only to claim privilege.  It'll be interesting to see what sort of fandom following she continues to enjoy with POC after that.

 

Anway here is L-MM:

[cynic]

Six characters, since she put a period at the end which seemed to imply that was the whole story. "White." And then she acts like people are forcing her to choose. I don't know what is going on in her personal life, but the people asking her ethnicity on Twitter aren't asking her to choose. She could have just listed them all as Dear Evette says and no one would've batted an eye. In fact, that's what the OP probably would've preferred for her to do, since most people who ask that sort of question are wondering why you don't look stereotypically like one thing or another. If she truly hates the question or is tired of people asking or wants to make a point about rejecting categories, then just don't answer it or tell them to mind their own business or say your are a person of the world or whatever. I get it. I get asked a lot too. But there are better ways to handle it then to pick whatever you feel like that day or benefits you the most (as in being black when the casting call asks for it) and then getting bent about being categorized. What threw me the most about it, was the line about "whites get ideas" and "blacks hate me". What does that mean? What kind of ideas? And blacks hate you, yeah okay. *eyeroll*

 

But whatever. She can identify however she wants, but as Ronin Jackson points out, there may be a difference in how someone chooses to identify themselves and how society will perceive them. Choosing to be white doesn't mean that people aren't going to look at her and then treat her as a WoC no matter what she says. With race being a social construct, so much of it is based on how society views you and what you look like, no matter what your actual heritage is. The only reason that she gets to even have it be a question is her looks are somewhat racially ambiguous, which is a privilege in its own right that she should recognize. She has a lot more flexibility in what roles she can go for than many black and biracial people, hence her auditioning for the black Iris West and getting the latina Kendra Saunders.  

 

Jordin Sparks, Toks Olagundoye, and Lenny Kravitz will never be white in society's eyes, despite each having a white parent and they would be considered diverse hires. See the flap over casting Kravitz as Cinna in the Hunger Games because "he wasn't black in the book" even though his ethnicity simply isn't described at all in the book. 

 

Otoh, Wentworth Miller, Meghan Markle, and Troian Bellasario all have some black heritage, but can play "white" roles and wouldn't necessarily be considered diverse casting. (Though I was pleasantly surprised when Markle's character ending up being biracial in Suits).

 

Mark-Paul Gosselaar and Chad Michael Murray aren't helping to bring Asian representation on to the screen despite being part Asian. No one would say putting them on tv increases the level of diversity.

 

It doesn't matter how any of these people identify themselves, Hollywood will judge them based on looks.

Edited December 6, 2015 by cynic

[Rick Kitchen]

Wentworth Miller is playing Captain Cold in the upcoming "Legends of Tomorrow".  The character has been portrayed as both black and white in various versions of comics and TV series, so it's interesting to see if they will develop a racial identity on that show.