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 Post Posted: Wed Aug 07, 2013 10:17 am 
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Hmm. Data point: Rising Sun. The book was completely color-neutral as to the protagonist. It really added something to the book retroactively to make him black. A lot of the race comments got a lot more pointed.

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 Post Posted: Wed Aug 07, 2013 10:20 am 
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caffeine wrote:
. Similarly, the casting of Twenty-One doesn't seem so important. The fact that the students were Asian isn't really relevant to their story (though I understand commentary about this as part of a wider point about Asian men in films).


This was a story about real people who are still alive. I'm sure if they had cast Mark Zuckerberg with a black actor in Facebook people would have found it relevant.

Also, race played a big role in the book. Part of the group's success was that they were able to exploit people's stereotypes. There was also a larger subtext about the invisibility of Asians in American life. Not to mention that the only major Hollywood release I can think of that featured an Asian lead actor in a non-martial-arts-related role is "Harold and Kumar".

I'm sure there's ever a case where race is entirely irrelevant in American public life.

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2. Does it clash with the setting? I find it inteferes a bit with the suspension of disbelief when film makers go for, say, black Vikings. In criticising these, though, you do have to be careful that your criticism isn't simply a result of your own historical ignorance - as when people complain about casting black men as cowboys.


If it's not an ultra-realistic, ultra-accurate historical depiction, you're probably already suspending disbelief for anachronisms bigger than the occasional black Viking.

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 Post Posted: Wed Aug 07, 2013 3:11 pm 
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To be fair, the anachronisms will not be as obvious to the initiated.

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 Post Posted: Wed Aug 07, 2013 8:34 pm 
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Most people accept horns on Vikings helmets.

How ignorant!

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 Post Posted: Thu Aug 08, 2013 12:37 am 
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I was really quite annoyed when they whitewashed the cast of the Last Airbender movie, despite the fact that it was about a fantasy universe. The message seemed to be "Hey Asians, we love your culture and your writing and your architecture and your costumes and your martial arts, but we don't actually want to have to look at your people."

I'm almost glad that the movie was such a trainwreck that whitewashing was the least of its problems.

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