#culture war is dumb and I am dumb for wasting brainspace on it

[centrally-unplanned]

The In The Heights ‘whitewashing’ drama is another one of those cases of left-discourse eating its own over the worst possible examples of the supposed crime. Its totally true that media has a tendency to cast lighter-skinned actors & actresses (particularly actresses) in roles. It has much more to do with audience demand than any racism on the part of casting directors, but that doesn’t make it any less disheartening for darker-skinned industry participants, aspirants, and audiences - market demand is not a blank moral check. So you can go ahead and have those conversations around the industry.

In the Heights is the worst possible example of this ‘problem’. A musical meant to accurately portray the Washington Heights/Inwood district of Harlem (NYC), its cast is virtually all Hispanic, but only one of its main cast members is what people would consider Afro-Latino. As such it is getting accusations of white washing, which of course the creators kowtowed to immediately and issued the requisite apologies. The problem is these accusations make no sense based on the numbers.

Washington Heights is a 70% Latino neighborhood, with 20% white and 10% black population (2% Asian as well, I am rounding). Okay so only 10% black, but “Afro-Latino” is different, right? It is, and certain Latino populations are overwhelmingly Afro-Latino. So what Hispanic ethnic groups live in Washington Heights?

Puerto Ricans, Cubans, and Dominicans, apparently. I (fortunately) do not have a “tier list of Hispanics by whiteness” link, but you are gonna have to trust me that it is extremely common knowledge that Puerto Ricans and Cuban-Americans are the palest Hispanics around this side of Argentina. Dominicans are a bit more wide-ranging but certainly not on the ‘dark’ side of the tier list. Of course there are Afro-Latino Puerto Ricans, many of them, but in the numbers if you go to a place like Washington Heights, the Hispanic population looks more-or-less like the cast of the movie does. Because of course it does! That was the intent!

“That doesn’t change the fact that they should still have some representation” okay I agree, how about 20% of the main characters are afro-latino/black, and similarly for the background characters? That makes sense, right, roughly matching US demographics? Well they did that! Remember how ‘only one of the main characters is afro-latino’? ...how many main characters do you think a movie has?? Like most other movies, it has about 5, which is hey, 20%! It does have ~3 supporting characters, and then background characters, who are quite diverse, like one would expect. Could maybe one more role have been Afro-Latino? Yeah, I guess? Is...that what this is over? Literally one casting switch and the criticism goes away?

Look, a dirty secret of Hollywood activism is that black representation is actually quite fine to possibly even overrepresented given their demographics, as they slot in at just ~12% of the US population and bat at 10-15% of roles in TV and film (its better in TV than film, and its complicated, not saying there are zero issues) Hispanics, meanwhile, despite approaching 20% of the US population hit a dismal 3-4% of leading roles, and not much more supporting. Its really common for Hispanic actors to be treated as ‘pretty-much white” and not count as diversity, while pushes for “diversity” are actually just code-words for more black roles with Asian-American and Hispanics thrown under the bus. Its a trap leftist circles fall into around media all the time, and to be honest some of the criticisms are so obviously self-interested “only I count as real diversity” its laughable. This fake non-troversy is just a particularly shining example of that trend.