Racebending

But how can we ease the transition into REAL colorblind acting when most of the acting community is white? As mentioned before, reserving certain roles for certain races is only the means to an end—we aren't going to do this permanently.

First we need more roles for minorities, which will mean that we need to reserve certain roles for certain races—otherwise the most talented actor will end up being Caucasian just because there's more Caucasians than minorities. With certain roles reserved for them, more minorities will be encouraged to become actors.

With more minority actors, there will be less need to reserve roles for them, which means less restrictions in general.

With less restrictions and more minority actors, this means any given role has a higher chance of being truly colorblind.

At which point we'll stop calling them "minority actors" and just call them "actors."

edited 22nd Jan '12 7:18:46 PM by Sharysa

Oh, no, I'm saying that finding one race's features preferable to another race's probably is influenced by cultural depictions of those races, I just don't see a problem with that. All standards of beauty are subjective and superficial, after all. If you've got a particular fondness for tall, fair skinned people with blonde hair and blue eyes, odds are you've probably had your view of beauty influenced by the "Aryan ideal", but so long as your preference for Aryanism is limited to aesthetics, than it's no better or worse than any other definition of beauty.

So, as you see it, the derth of non-white actors in Hollywood productions is primarily the result of non-white people being less likely to choose acting as a career, rather than a lot of the people in charge of casting having a preference for white actors? I'm not gonna say you're wrong, but it does sound awfully close to "blaming the victim".

edited 22nd Jan '12 7:28:46 PM by RavenWilder

That wasn't remotely my point—I was illustrating just HOW FUCKING HARD it is for minorities to get into acting. It's not just on a social-disapproval level, it's "My own mother is blatantly discouraging me from becoming an actor because she wants me to pick something I'm more likely to SUCCEED in."

The inherent statement is that "You can't succeed in acting because you won't get many roles, because most of the directors want white people."

The problem is not merely "preference for white actors" or "discouraging minorities from acting," it's BOTH. One will lead into the other, and it is a vicious cycle that most Caucasians have no clue exists.

edited 22nd Jan '12 7:33:46 PM by Sharysa

I can see how racist casting leads to a cultural rejection of acting as a career, but I don't see how the latter leads to the former. If a casting director is racist, it's not gonna matter how many non-white actors audition for the part.

Actually, it will—at least indirectly.

Word Of Mouth spreads that X is racist in some manner, so actors won't audition for him because they don't want to waste their time—or worse, be TARGETED by him.

But people who AREN'T racist don't get attention; since they treat EVERYONE decently and people tend to assume that Rousseau Was Right, nobody would think to ask "Do you care about race?" Which is good, but since they get more offers from actors and most actors are white, they probably end up unknowingly perpetuating Caucasian-centric casting.

edited 22nd Jan '12 8:18:10 PM by Sharysa

If word gets around that the casting director is racist, then actors they're racist against may avoid them, yes. But actors the casting director is racist for . . . well, I suppose a few may refuse to audition out of principle, but I imagine the vast majority would prefer to get a paying job even if it comes at the expense of a more talented candidate.

I think when black women bleach their skin and chemically fuck their hair because their natural look isn't accepted as attractive by the wider society, it's a little myopic to claim there's no problem.

And when people starve themselves or make themselves vomit because they want to look thinner, that's also a problem. It doesn't mean there's anything wrong with thinking thin people look sexy.

Individuals thinking X is sexy is not quite the same as the media telling people, both indirectly and overtly, that X is sexier than not-X. Do you follow?

But media is made by people for people, and what the creators and/or audience enjoy is going to affect the product.

Mainstream media is made to sell a product. Any enjoyment that people get out of it is perfectly incidental.

But thin is something you can become. You can't make yourself white (or change your race).

Barring medical problems, maybe most people can't be 'thin', but they can avoid being fat and/or remain a reasonable weight with enough effort. You're born a particular race and there isn't anything you can do to change it.

Drat, ninja'd.

edited 22nd Jan '12 10:20:54 PM by LoniJay

What do you call tanning beds?

That's the identical argument made about anorexic thinness.

I'm not sure I get this statement. Normally, I hear of media as the product being sold, or the entertainment is the product being sold. Unless you're thinking of advertisements first and foremost?

Media is an advertisement. When you're watching a TV show, you're essentially watching an advertisement for an advertisement. They're less interested in you watching Sabrina the Teenage Witch than they're interested in you watching a commercial that airs during it.

It isn't an argument. It's clarifying that personal preference is different from the artificial forces that seek to dictate personal preference. This is awful when body image is in question, and doubly awful where what is construed as attractive (i.e. whiteness) is truly unattainable by some.

To clarify further, anorexic thinness and obsessive dieting are different phenomena.

edited 22nd Jan '12 11:19:34 PM by Gwirion

See, while I agree that people loathing their own bodies is a problem, I don't think portraying various body types as equally beautiful is the way to go. Rather, we should get people to treat beauty as a fairly unimportant thing. I decided for myself long ago that the benefits of looking good just weren't worth the necessary effort and self-denial, so I just let myself go instead.

Has it worked for you?

It's worked for me.

So far it's worked out fine. I consider myself a happy person. Though I'm also kind of an anti-social person, so what I want out of life doesn't always mesh up with what other people want out of life.

Myself as well.

And has it stopped the rest of the world from thinking that beauty is important?

Who said anything about large scale behavioral modification?

Raven has, by suggesting earlier that people individually ignoring race will make racism go away.

If everyone did, it would. Apathy is a wonderful thing like that.