Should Hollywood stop blackwashing characters?

[Ganoncrotch]

AngryLittleAlchemist said:

Ganoncrotch said:

[deleted to look nice]

I don't understand why you're automatically assuming that I'm trying to race-bait you or call you a racist. I haven't even implied that thus far. When I replied to you and pointed out you're only talking about white families, I only did so because I assumed you knew that there actually are a lot of sitcoms nowadays featuring a predominantly one-ethnicity cast, which would refute your argument about diversity. Not because I was trying to paint you as a racist or someone who wanted white-exclusive programming. 

When I said that you were "shifting goal posts", I said it because you changed the subject from how it's "positive racism" or "discrimination" to look for specific races in order to have a diverse cast, to talking about how it makes sense to have shows which are specifically one ethnicity. These are not really the same thing being argued here. They are similar, and you can lump them in, but while I did argue against the latter in my original reply, most of what I was responding to originally was the first idea, not the second one. 

 So, a little bit of artistic license is given and a diverse cast is made to appeal superficially to many demographics. Otherwise, you can look up shows that have one ethnicity, I'm sure there's a lot of them. 

Ah... I understand what you were getting at now with the shifting part, but.... I wasn't though, the "reverse racism" works both ways, it isn't just when a different ethnicity to Caucasian is added to an all Caucasian cast but also if you have a cast with a large number of say African Americans like in "That's so Raven" then if the final spot in the cast for the friend was yet to be cast while the rest of the cast was in place then a African American girl would have had a far lesser chance at the role when the series producer would look to see that there was 0 diversity in the main cast, again by the reboot of that series last year more of the original cast doesn't return in key roles so that the balance is now 50%, I still think there is absolutely nothing wrong with a show featuring a group of friends which has zero diversity in it because that is the way a lot of if not the majority of friend groups form in a lot of regions. For me racism doesn't stop being racism when it's whites losing a role because of their colour or when it's a African American losing the role, it's a role lost due to the colour of the skin and nothing else.

And the last bit I left in just makes me feel a little sad about today's media, you're correct in that board room puts shows together and even movies like star wars where we have disabled Asian roles injected into Rogue one in a very calculated and blunt way to try to make the films appeal (failingly) to those audiences , it's just that point where a show has introduced you to 90% of the cast and it's all Caucasian... oh, there's a knock on the door, "hey hey guys, it's me Jerome, wassup my homies" I can't help but cringe a little and think there is a reason that character is present and it's a cold, calculated reason which had nothing to do with the actors talent nor their actual part in the main story arc's or plots (say.... it's animated but Cleveland Brown from Family, that role).

This isn't a failing on your argument for why it happens btw but a failing on the boardroom of directors choice when a show is pebble dashed with diversity just to try to appeal to everyone.... Bel Air comes to mind again... zippo diversity, appealed to everyone regardless of that if not like the example I gave the lack of diversity in the main cast allowed people who are as white as casper like myself to have my eyes opened to things like racism suffered by African American youth in a 6pm show for teens. I know we have some of those issues handled in drama shows now and more late night shows, but chances of someone 9-13 being awake still at 9pm to watch those shows is fairly slim in comparison to my youth getting Fresh Prince.

 

Just yeah the TL:DR of my feelings is a persons skin colour should never really be a factor of if they get a role or not, just what makes sense to the show should trump getting that diversity cast in place.