#Racism In Hollywood

[silveragelovechild]

This has got to be Robert Downey Jr’s most dubious achievement - appearing in movies in both Blackface and Yellowface. That’s a White Actor wears make-up to impersonate a Black/African character or makeup to portray an Asian character.

RDJ in YellowFace in “Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows” (2011)

RDJ in Blackface in “Tropic Thunder” (2008)

These were common practices in Hollywood throughout the 20th Century, but less common in the 21st Century. Some people in Hollywood still defend the practice (Ben Stiller who directed RDJ in Tropic Thunder.)

[dasphinxone]

Stay shitty and racist, Hollywood.

https://x.com/thefablemans/status/1767665834049053135?s=20

[fandomshatepeopleofcolor]

Ke Huy Quan Lost Health Insurance Because He Couldn't Land a Job

[princeescaluswords]

Is calling Allison Argent “anything with a pulse” not being used in a misogynist context? / You tell me, Pew. Is calling and reducing Allison Argent to "Scott's dead white girlfriend" not misogynist? You are the one who used those words after all

I would usually put something like this in the trash bin, but you brought up something that I want to talk about: context.

I did say the words "Scott's dead white girlfriend" because I was expressing my displeasure with the show's writing in Apotheosis (5x20). In it, for those who might not know, Scott is fighting with The Beast, Sebastien Valet, who by sheer coincidence (something else that displeased me) shoves his claws into the back of Scott's neck, thereby seeing images of Scott's memories of Allison.

I would argue that describing Allison in Apotheosis as "Scott's dead white girlfriend" is not misogynist because, at the time, she was actually dead, she has always been white, and the memories in which she was appearing were flashbacks to romantic and emotional scenes between them. So yes, I did describe Scott's dead white girlfriend as "Scott's dead white girlfriend."

But why did I do it? Why was I disappointed by Allison's appearance in Apotheosis? Well, that's something I feel is worth talking about.

Contrary to some people's opinions, I've never been shy about talking about how the writers of Teen Wolf fed into fandom and Hollywood racism by establishing repeatedly that Scott, to be a hero, can never act in behalf of his own emotions, but must overcome adversity and pain only to be in service to others. Don't get me wrong, it's a noble characteristic, and one that makes me like Scott, but it became racist when the production veered, as it so often did, into making it mandatory, in a way they never did for any other especially white character. It seemed to me that in Season 5, the writers had characters forget that Scott didn't seek to become a werewolf, he didn't seek to become an alpha, and so had his own mother give him a speech in Status Asthmaticus (5x10) in which she told him, essentially, that he had to let people abuse him in order to be a good leader. In a similar vein, The writers had Mason say that Scott had to forgive Liam in Damnatio Memoriae (5x12). Fighting to preserve the lives that would be lost to La Bête du Gévaudan isn't enough, Scott has to let people like Stiles and Malia and Liam hurt him and the Beast himself violate him to justify his own survival.

DEAD. In keeping with that injustice, the violation of Scott's memories in Apotheosis is portrayed as a triumph. It's just another thing that Scott has to sacrifice to save people, and the writers were very eager to portray this as necessary. "Allison saved him," Stiles tells Lydia, but the truth is -- Allison is dead (at that point). She didn't save shit. Scott isn't dead, but the writers hardly care. How does Scott feel about another serial killer rooting around in his head? We'll never know. The writers put the consequences of that into Things That Are Unnecessary, such as Mason's reaction to being the host for Valet.

WHITE. We all know how hard Kira got screwed as a character in Season 5B. We know that scenes elaborating on Kira's time in the desert was cut, and the way that she was written out was flaming hot garbage, to be compounded later by the "her story was finished" crap of Season 6. Contrary to the Asshole Anon's rantings, I do pay attention to the way the production treated Kira and Arden Cho, and while I also know that Jeff Davis placed special narrative importance on Scott and Allison's relationship, the execution of Kira and Scott's relationship in 5B (especially the Cheap-Ass Green Screen scene) managed to damage the relationship for the audience in a totally unnecessary way, compounded by the fact that after 5x20, Scott never mentioned Kira again.

So yes, I was critical of how they employed Allison in Apotheosis, and I said so. If they wanted to show how powerful Scott's love for others and willingness to sacrifice they could have spent more time on how that affected Scott. The dynamics of Scott saying goodbye to Kira at Shiprock and then very next scene having him wordlessly focus on Allison (instead of letting Stiles tell Lydia about it, it should have been Scott) are just terrible. I don't think that describing how the production messed up is misogynist at all.

Indeed, one of the things I loved most about the movie is that there wasn't a hint of Scott having to justify his survival in how he treats other people, especially in how he treats Allison.

[stoplookingup]

I have a feeling when Maureen Ryan's book "Burn It Down" comes out in a few days and we find out the truth about Sleepy Hollow, it's gonna be a lot more horrifying than a headless horseman.

[lyledebeast]

I’m gonna stop posting about this movie someday, but . . . today is not that day!

The filmmakers lazily dismiss the idea of racism in the movie by making its hero, a South Carolina farmer with enough social standing to be invited to a Charlestown assembly, not an enslaver, but the problems persist.  It’s not enough that Benjamin Martin is not explicitly racist himself when no Black person in the movie has any priority or purpose other than protecting White people. 

*For the purposes of this meta, I’ve chosen to focus on Black characters tasked with protecting Martin’s children for the sake of (ha!) brevity.  Occam and his fellow militiamen’s response to him is a whole other clown show that deserves its own meta.

If we look behind Martin when he rushes to get between Colonel Tavington’s gun and his children, we see that his Black housekeeper, Abigale, is also pulling the children behind her, using her own body as a shield in case the ball misses their father. When Abigale is taken into British custody along with the rest of Martin’s employees, all her protestations focus on the children is she is being take from.  When she, for reasons never made clear, appears in the sea island community of free Black people, her sole line is “why it’s the children!” when Martin’s brood arrives to, again, be placed under Black protection.

The people the children’s aunt enslaves are not so lucky.  When Tavington arrives seeking Martin’s children, the only people he finds are enslaved men who come out of their quarters to see what all the ruckus is.  He asks them where Martin’s children are and shoots them when they fail to answer.  This violence appears to exist in the narrative for shock value . . . except it’s not that shocking.  When Tavington first appears in the story, before he shoots one of Martin’s children, one of the Black men he kidnaps points out that they “work this land as free men.” At the moment, though, they are acting as orderlies in the field hospital Martin has set up for Continental and British wounded, a task that is well outside their job description if they are indeed freemen.  

Martin involves his Black employees in his rash decisions, and they are forced to share in the consequences.  While the ones who work for Martin loose whatever measure of freedom they had, those on Charlotte’s plantation suffer a more permanent loss.  Martin has left his children, who have already been targeted by the British once, in the care not only of their aunt but the enslaved people who live with her in the expectation that she and they will die to protect them if need be.  The plantation also turns out to be a location so obvious that Tavington learns the children are there by asking a Loyalist in his own regiment.  Again, Martin’s thoughtlessness not only endangers his children but visits consequences on Black people who, in this case, definitely had no choice in the matter.

Ultimately, Martin not being an enslaver is a technicality.  Connection with him and his family brings nothing but peril to Black people, peril that goes largely unnoticed by Martin, his family, and the narrative generally. And yet all the Black people in the movie seem delighted to serve him.  It’s Gone with the Wind with more realistic war violence.

[afragmentcastadrift]

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[cinemaquiles]

Você sabia? Era assim que os estúdios de Hollywood tratavam atores e atrizes na chamada Era de Ouro!

[callsignavenger]

You wanna talk about the real racism-within-racism issue when it comes to redheaded characters being portrayed by black people? A lot of the traits associated with redheads (bad-tempered, promiscuous, etc.) are also traits attributed to black people. Some of these characters were even meant to be black from the beginning (Starfire anyone?) but there was pushback from someone higher up, so they took the character and gave them a recolor; casting black actors is a correction in these cases, but there’s still the underlying issue of how their characters were written.

The problem isn’t that black people are being cast as redheaded characters; it’s the stereotypes used for these characters that make casting directors so much more willing to cast black people as redheads than as another hair color.

[fandomshatepeopleofcolor]

so I'm watching the Resident and I know Jessica Lucas doesn't have that dark skin but I feel like most of her recent projects like the Resident makes her almost look white idk if it's my tv tho or if it's the shows light choices

ok so I looked up Jessica Lucas and here's a pic of her

now from I can see there's a BIG disparity between how she looks here and her red carpet complexion and professionally shot pix like this

and finally from the same event these too

So like... I know this isn't the first time they don't use the appropriate lighting on brown ppl. Just look at all the night shots they did in Teen Wolf where they'd keep using blue lights which washed out tyler posey? I remember people literally arguing that because he wasn't visibly Mexican American they weren't being racist when they shoved him aside.

but yeah like I think several things are happening like they're probably washing her out on the show with their bright lights but also they might be putting lighter makeup on her.

so yeah its racism all around. and for those that wanna argue that the show isn't being racist just do me a favor and watch insecure, they have all sorts of scenes from under the bright LA sun to dark clubs and the cast is always well light with makeup that catches the light and doesn't wash them out.

mod ali

[hotvintagepoll]

philip ahn was an old hollywood character actor, mostly underused in stereotypical bit parts but i always remember him bc of this brief scene in something to sing about (1937), which is kind of shocking in how forthright it is in addressing asian-american stereotypes (sadly he isn't in the rest of the movie much) cw for containing examples of said racist stereotyping

https://youtu.be/bUQff8S7jJE

Thank you for this. This is a wonderful clip, showcasing a wonderful actor. (Huge content warning for the first 30 seconds.)

I've actually put Philip Ahn in two Dracula polls already—he was up for the First Mate and (as a much older man) Mr. Swales. I wish I had known about him for the first Hot & Vintage Movie Man Tournament—he was smoking back in the day!

[alwaysbewoke]

[the-blueprint]

The Slap Heard ‘Round the World. The film ‘In the Heat of the Night’ contains one of the most important moments in cinema history. The moment in reference is when Sidney Poitier’s character in the movie slaps the character Larry Gates in retaliation to being slapped by him. This was a very rare depiction back in the sixties as it was very uncommon to show a black man standing up for himself to a white man much less striking him in the face.

The scene was particularly powerful for Nelson Mandela. Mandela took interest in the slap scene after it had been censored by authorities and had the moment removed when he first watched the movie while imprisoned. Mandela eventually found the clip and was inspired by the scene “because he felt this would never happen in a film in South Africa.” What do you think? Let us know and don’t forget to follow @filmaticblack for more dope content!