A female-cast Ghostbusters reboot leads to a debate on race in r/movies (np.reddit.com)
SubredditDrama
154 ups - 0 downs = 154 votes
350 comments submitted at 16:39:30 on Aug 3, 2014 by TheGraduation
A female-cast Ghostbusters reboot leads to a debate on race in r/movies (np.reddit.com)
SubredditDrama
154 ups - 0 downs = 154 votes
350 comments submitted at 16:39:30 on Aug 3, 2014 by TheGraduation
does it ever occur to these assholes that maybe a black girl was the best actress that auditioned?
i know, i sound crazy right
No man, this has to be a case of Affirmative Audition.
The director will be like "Places......aaand.....affirmative ACTION!"
Quvenzhané Wallis is an Oscar nominated actress, and just about the cutest thing ever! I think she's going to make a fantastic Annie.
She looked adorable in the previews for GotG. It made me think about looking into seeing it when it comes out.
Of course not, that's ridiculous. How could a black girl ever out-act a white girl?
Can we talk about the real minority group here? Redheads.
POC lose roles or don't even get the chance to audition for roles, but white people aren't the ones winning jobs based on the color of their skin?
Am I the only one who thinks "POC" is offensive? It lumps everyone into white or non-white, which is bullshit. Tell my Okinawan grandma she's Japanese and she'll throw a fucking shoe at you. Tell any of my Filipino co-workers that they're Chinese and they'll throw a shoe at you. Tell any Japanese dude that Chinese and Japanese are the same and they'll throw a shoe at you. Hell, the same can be applied to white people, Irish aren't German, swedes aren't Dutch, French aren't Czech.
Is love to know where this concept of all white people are the same came from. We're only one generation past "no Irish need apply" in North America, and mainland Canada shits all over the Maritimers who leave home to find work.
That's not how People of Color is used, though. Yes it separates people into white and non-white, but people who actually know how to discuss issues of race wouldn't use that if they're talking about a specific ethnicity. Only an idiot would do what you're saying, which is bad because it erases people's experiences by lumping everyone together when it's not needed. Like if I'm writing a paper about the lack of representation of Black/Asian/Latinx people in mass media, I would use People of Color since it's talking about all of those groups. If I'm just talking about one of them, I would just say what group I'm talking about. The term People of Color isn't supposed to homogenize every non-white person, it's just an easier way to say "non-white" and was formed as an alternative to "colored" people.
> Tell my Okinawan grandma she's Japanese and she'll throw a fucking shoe at you.
Yeah, but the term PoC isn't saying they're all the same ethnicity.
While I get what you mean...it's just used to say "non-white". It's just an easy way to lump non-white's together when they all face a common issue. For example, ITT we're talking about roles being "white-washed" and casting White people in roles that "should" (for whatever reason) be given to others. The issue is, "white-washing" hasn't just happened with Black characters, Asian characters, or Hispanic characters, it's happened with tons of non-white characters from many different backgrounds. This is where people say POC.
Also, given the history of racism, white-supremacy and the like, many historical issues came down to "Whites vs. Non-Whites" like the issue of the "White man's burden".
Okay but that's not the same thing. People of color is a term used to describe non-white people in a country where everyone who isn't white is at a disadvantage.
Classing Irish as white is new, too. Telling an Irishman (or Ashkenazi Jew or an Albanian or a Lapp) that they're oppressing "People of Colour" simply by existing, you deserve a shoe to be thrown at you.
You know who else used "white" and "POC" as categories? Apartheid South Africa. Blacks should be separate from whites who should be separate from coloureds. It's such a thought terminating process that somehow whitewashes everyone. Nobody gets an identity or history, just a rung on a discrimination totem pole.
So if I wanted to talk about non-white people what term would I use?
Why would you want to distinguish the two in the first place?
If you are talking in terms of relative disadvantage, talk about the disadvantaged.
If you're talking about racism, talk about the ethnicity or ethnicities being picked on in particular. I doubt the racism faced by one ethnic group resembles the racism faced by all ethnic groups enough to justify "POC" as a term.
Strictly drawing an impenetrable circle around "white" and "non-white" just reinforces the distinction. In some circumstances it just invites people to flip who is dominant and who is subservient (see: Zimbabwe). That helps nobody.
non-white representation in media is terrible. There, I'm talking about something that affects all PoC.
Across the board "terrible" in exactly the same way?
What's the remedy? All news reporters should be Native American, any on-screen text should be in Arabic and they should all speak Chinese! There you go, POC interests satisfied.
Wait, you mean POCs aren't one size fits all?
I think you're missing the point. Saying PoC are underrepresented is just a blanket statement. It doesn't equate PoC or say anything about individuals ethnicities.
It's a trite statement that offers absolutely nothing constructive. Instead it offers a waffly observation that would be shot down by the very people it's aimed against simply by their holding up their token minority media person as a shield from criticism.
Why not was break it down and actually make it usable? For instance, "X people make up Y percentage of the population, but only Z percentage of the media. Please explain why Y and Z aren't the same?"
If you make a thoughtless, stupid broadbrushed generic complaint you'll get a thoughtless, stupid broadbrushed generic answer.
If you actually require thought and justication for reasoning, you'll get something far more considered and thoughtful.
Lump all "POC" together and you're inviting casual dismissal because it's a nonsensical term.
Given that it's being produced by Will Smith's production company and his daughter was originally slated to play the lead role before she outgrew it, I'd wager that race was in the cards from the get-go.
Really? You'd think the /r/movies crowd would be happy they cast anyone other than Willow Smith.