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Hollywood's New Buzzword: Racebending
RACEBENDING - verb, a practice referring to a situation or series of situations where a movie studio, or similar visual media entertainment industry outlet, has changed the ethnicity of a character in the adaptation of another creative work, causing the under representation of a cultural community and actors from said community.
Okay, so the term is technically a made-up word by the group that created Racebending.com, but it’s still a buzzword that will be getting used in the future should similar events like this happen again. And they will.
In any event, this group of advocates isn’t just using calling for a boycott of M. Night’s The Last Airbender because of their casting. It goes far deeper than that.
What the group is advocating is equal treatment in Hollywood when casting ethic-centric roles. The argument against Hollywood’s “We hire the best talent” defense is that Hollywood isn’t looking hard enough. In their four-part video intro to the site’s mission, they cite Samuel Jackson from about 15 years ago when he said casting an African-American was a rare thing for Hollywood to do. Yet who is the number one Box Office draw? Will Smith (and by proxy for the next several weeks, his son Jaden).
According to the site, Hollywood believes that Asian faces don’t really sell very well, despite big name actors like Bruce Lee, Jet Li, and Jackie Chan being on the top of that list. Now if they are talking about sex appeal, then tell me how John Cho isn’t sexy? The man photographs really well.
While the Asian community is in the forefront for right now, the group is advocating that all ethnic groups be given the opportunity to represent their culture in all forms of entertainment. Hollywood, however, seems to favor a more cut-and-dry approach to the situation by casting lighter-skin actors as heroes and darker-skin actors as villains. Doesn’t matter if they are white, black, Asian, Latino, or Middle Eastern. Hollywood would favor to have the hero be a lighter shade than the villain.
Bottom line is that this group is pretty much saying what Korey and the rest of the Spill crew has been saying for a while. Kingpin should have been white in the Daredevil movie, there should have been Persians in Prince of Persia, and the fact that you have an Inuit tribe with two white kids as the main heroes of the tribe is rather glaring.
Why? Out of respect for the source material. After all, how would you feel if Harry Potter was black?
Okay, so the term is technically a made-up word by the group that created Racebending.com, but it’s still a buzzword that will be getting used in the future should similar events like this happen again. And they will.In any event, this group of advocates isn’t just using calling for a boycott of M. Night’s The Last Airbender because of their casting. It goes far deeper than that.
What the group is advocating is equal treatment in Hollywood when casting ethic-centric roles. The argument against Hollywood’s “We hire the best talent” defense is that Hollywood isn’t looking hard enough. In their four-part video intro to the site’s mission, they cite Samuel Jackson from about 15 years ago when he said casting an African-American was a rare thing for Hollywood to do. Yet who is the number one Box Office draw? Will Smith (and by proxy for the next several weeks, his son Jaden).
According to the site, Hollywood believes that Asian faces don’t really sell very well, despite big name actors like Bruce Lee, Jet Li, and Jackie Chan being on the top of that list. Now if they are talking about sex appeal, then tell me how John Cho isn’t sexy? The man photographs really well.
While the Asian community is in the forefront for right now, the group is advocating that all ethnic groups be given the opportunity to represent their culture in all forms of entertainment. Hollywood, however, seems to favor a more cut-and-dry approach to the situation by casting lighter-skin actors as heroes and darker-skin actors as villains. Doesn’t matter if they are white, black, Asian, Latino, or Middle Eastern. Hollywood would favor to have the hero be a lighter shade than the villain.
Bottom line is that this group is pretty much saying what Korey and the rest of the Spill crew has been saying for a while. Kingpin should have been white in the Daredevil movie, there should have been Persians in Prince of Persia, and the fact that you have an Inuit tribe with two white kids as the main heroes of the tribe is rather glaring.
Why? Out of respect for the source material. After all, how would you feel if Harry Potter was black?
Comment
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Comment by mlj on July 8, 2010 at 2:26pm
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Comment by John Lemus on July 7, 2010 at 10:21pm -
Now that you mention it you are correct madam. Oh man how could I forget. yeah him and Angelina Johnson
I had always hoped they would end up together but did not look to be in the cards after Fred died. I think they made him younger in the movies though in the books he was the same age as Ron's Older Brothers.
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Comment by Ashley Brooks on July 7, 2010 at 10:01pm -
A reply to John Lemus-- Wasn't Lee Jordan black in the Harry Potter books? He was in the movie... *ponders*
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Comment by Supersax on July 5, 2010 at 7:50pm -
I read a review that said it best regarding the casting of avatar. "The actors who didn't get to be in The Last Airbender are like the passengers who arrived too late to catch the final flight of the Hindenburg."
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Comment by Don Panini on July 3, 2010 at 10:28am -
I actually would LOVE a black-Harry Potter franchise.
Bend the races, mix things up
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Comment by BlackMagic on July 3, 2010 at 9:09am -
Well, if Harry Potter was black, the series wouldn't be called Harry "Potter." I know that joke's been done to death, but still.
And yes, you ought to adhere closely to the source material as possible. Same goes with the aforementioned movies and even more so with the whole Donald Glover/Spider Man debacle (even though that's settled now). I mean, is a white person more likely to bring in money to The Last Airbender than someone of Asian descent just based on looks alone? Seems like Hollywood's way of thinking.
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Comment by Dominika Oliver on July 3, 2010 at 1:37am -
neat blog. I'm curious why they didn't use Inuit actors or Asian actors for Avatar: the Last Airbender as well since it's not like any of the actors/actresses are well known. That movie seems to suck beyond belief anyway, but screw you Hollywood.
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