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Oh. And. The people and their cultures: POC and the movies by

the_future_modernes. About the white-washing going on in Hollywood. MUST READ.

The Examiner’s Ed Moy inquires Does Hollywood ‘white-wash’ the casting of Asian characters in movies? Then he proves it…

After doing some research, I discovered that “The Last Airbender” wasn’t the only recent movie that cast white actors in roles that were originally created as Asian characters.

For example, the character of Kyo Kusanagi will be played by Sean Farris in an upcoming live-action feature based on the video game “King of Fighters”.

There’s also the casting of Jake Gyllenhaal as Prince Dastan in “Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time” along with a British actress Gemma Arterton playing his love-interest Tamina. The movie was also based on a popular video game.

And then there’s the recent announcement that Leonardo DiCaprio and Joseph Gordon-Levitt are starring in a live-action version of the Japanese anime “Akira.”

And finally, there’s the casting of Keanu Reeves as Spike Spiegel in the live-action adaptation of “Cowboy Bebop.” (Although, I do admit that I think Keanu Reeves looks similar to the character.)

This all of course pales in comparison to the fact that last year, the producers of the movie “21″ took poetic license in rewriting actual Asian American card playing MIT students as white characters.

The movie “21″ was based on the best-selling book “Bringing Down the House”, about a real-life team of mostly Asian American students led by an Asian American professor John Chang and his teaching cohorts. (To read about the real “21″ students and their professor click here.) MORE

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This is super-disgusting, and also obviously true. It seems the only kind of racism that really disturbs people is American blacks / American whites. Everybody else is on their own.

The 'creative' anime-movie casting is not only appalling, but also confusing. Most fans flock to anime because of its perceived 'Asianness' -- casting live-action remakes starring white people is not only retarded, but also counterintuitive. And offensive.

I won't be seeing any of these movies (I didn't see 21 or Speed Racer, either). I just hope that if fans stay away from racist productions like these, they'll stop being funded. The only color that really matters to Hollywood is green, after all.

The 'creative' anime-movie casting is not only appalling, but also confusing. Most fans flock to anime because of its perceived 'Asianness' -- casting live-action remakes starring white people is not only retarded, but also counterintuitive. And offensive.

Yeah, but there is also the tendency of white anime fans (and some non-white too) to immerse themselves in orientalism and "love the Asian feel this gives me!", but are totally refusing to see their favorite characters, heroes, etc. as non-white. Here it comes the "why do Japanese people make their anime/manga characters look like white people?" argument I have heard so much by western fans. (Or you know, just plain fetishize Asian characters, but that's another maybe-not-so-different matter. XD Characters who look Asian are cool by fans standards and they sexualize them/orientalize them, and white/perceived-white characters are seen as more human.)

(By the way, I have a problem with the use of "retarded" as an insult, or as a way of devaluate something/someone -able people who do fucked up things-, calling it "not smart." Heck, I won't say I'm innocent of this, I have used the word a lot in the past before a disabled person really called me out. :))

Yeah, I think the Avatar kerfuffle made a lot of fans who were never questioning race issues more aware of these things, but I still don't think these kind of movies will stop. I see everyday fans/people/movie-makers who are so immersed in their privilege and so happy about it. :/

As for my use of retarded: nearly all words used to describe stupid people -- idiot, moron, cretin, and even dummy -- were once clinically significant descriptions of people with mental disabilities. In the census records from late 19th century America, there's a column where the census taker is required to indicate whether or not the citizen is an "idiot." So if you've ever called someone a moron, you've called them a retard. Name-calling isn't nice under any circumstances, but I don't find that globally inoffensive language is either useful or possible. Having said that, though, since you mentioned that it bothers you I'll certainly avoid the term when I comment on your LJ.

I think that most anime fans orientalize their favorite series and characters because most of them are either really stupid or very young. Fetishizing anything "foreign" is a common mistake in popular culture. It doesn't just happen with brown people, either; I'm sure that Austen fans are just as infatuated with the outdated depictions of English culture as they are the sterilized romances. Lots of Harry Potter fans like the English-boarding-school elements of the novels just as much as the magic. There are whole sections of the population who call themselves Anglophiles, and reduce British history and culture to a series of images which they repetitiously invoke for their personal amusement. Which is not to say that it's all right, of course -- it's just something unpleasant that happens that's difficult to measure. At what point does a person who's legitimately interested in another culture become a -phile who's fetishizing it? If we just take that as a definition, then I'm afraid I'm probably guilty myself. I went to the trouble to learn to read Japanese, but I hope I'm still capable of recognizing that the people who speak the language natively are real, fallible, ordinary people.

But for me, that's a separate issue from this clearly defined problem. There are very few "white" characters in anime (at least the anime that I've seen), and it's just plain insulting to cast white actors in Asian roles. Also, Japanese artists do not, as far as I can tell, make their characters look like white people. Most Japanese anime and manga artists develop a highly-stylized depiction of human anatomy which is no more "white" than it is realistic. If anime fans are watching their favorite shows and thinking they're seeing white characters, then I really do feel sorry for them. I also question their intelligence.

Which is itself a completely separate issue from something like 21, in which characters that described actual living, human Asian people were swapped out with white actors in what could be absolutely nothing but an act of commercial racism. That hearkens back to an era of Charlie Chan movies, blackface, and institutionalized bigotry. If we haven't come any farther than that as a culture, even as a culture of consumers, then I'm even more worried for our future than I already was.

Having said that, though, since you mentioned that it bothers you I'll certainly avoid the term when I comment on your LJ.

Yeah, thank you. Personally, I don't think I'm one to decide what is offensive and what isn't for a group of people whom I have advantages over, since I'm non-disabled and that word has never hurt me. A lot of disabled people, including people diagnosed with "mental retardation" which are way smarter than me already talked about this, and I just can respect that.

Oh yeah, I don't deny that it happens with every culture, and I don't want to oversimplify, but sadly, since WWII, the power differences between a lot of white western World Powers and the rest of the world got them in a position where they are even capable of transform and assimilate lots of cultures (it happened to mine, but that was waaaay before that war). Boy, I don't deny Japan is very powerful and has its own story of imperialism (never towards a USA or Europe though), but I'm not capable of compare white-American fans fetishizing Asian women/men to white-American fans who just looooove the British. The power dynamics are different, in my opinion.

Yeah, totally. That's the problem with "white as the default" in Western culture, and lot of western fans apparently expecting "slanted eyes" for drawing East-Asian characters.

That's pretty much the problem, and specially for Asian-American or Asian descendants living in western countries who want a decent representation, and instead get... things like these.

No, I would never dream of telling someone else what ought to constitute offensive language, either. Also? I was diagnosed with a form of autism when I was little. I was in a special track at school (all 12 years) with a lot of other people who had a variety of "disorders" and "handicaps." I seem to be pretty okay, though. I don't find the word "retarded" offensive, nor do I find it descriptive of myself or anyone else with perceived mental "disabilities."

I wasn't equating Angolphilia with racism -- or, actually I was. My point was that a 12-year-old girl who's infatuated with Harry Potter's accent and a middle-aged white male racist who travels to Thailand to have sex with an underage hooker because he's fetishized female Asian sexuality are engaged in a similar process. But, one results in a cute and appropriate crush, and the other results in sexual and social oppression. I was just suggesting that the activity of abstracting any given culture into a series of images and signs happens on a spectrum, and that what any given idiot says, thinks, or believes doesn't necessarily count in the global market. Moronic anime fans ought not to inform the decisions made by the giant, multinational corporations who bankroll movies.

I'm not too clear on why a country's imperial past (or lack thereof) ought to factor into whether or not its culture deserves to be reduced to a series of stereotypes. If Japan actively tried to take over the world every three weeks, it still wouldn't "earn" racism.

I'm not white myself, so perhaps I see things differently. I don't assume that every story I read or watch features white characters. In fact, I'm typically disappointed when I find out they usually do.

...That movie looks horrendous. Racism is only one of its many, many problems :[

I'm sorry. And see, that's why I can't talk, I pretty much just assumed. But you are right, and I have no business in telling you what is offensive and what isn't.

I have to say I disagree. I think the process may be similar, but the results, specially for the people who are victims may vary greatly, and I personally believe that's has a lot to do with systemic racism, and the power than nations, cultures, ethnics, etc. have.

I think imperialism and the story of racism and race have a lot to do. If Japan would take over the World things would change, and I believe a lot of power dynamics would be shaped.

I have a problem with the "reverse-racism" term. For example, let's say I'm a brown person in my country with lots of prejudices and stereotypes over white western people, and that could have some effect, but in the end it wouldn't affect them as a group much: the beauty standards here would still be pretty much white, white people of western countries would still come here to have better jobs (create jobs mostly) and be treated better, and they would still be more respected than a lot of brown natives. And that's due to imperialism, colonization, and the story of race and racism. Mind you, it's not the same for everyone, and doesn't affect everyone the same way. A lot of people here have some kind of resentment towards USA or white Americans, or a lot of stereotypes, but it wouldn't change that in the end of the day most people here prefer to be seen with an white foreign than with a indigenous native, and that, of course, have a lot of systemic causes and effects.

I can't generalize, and I know it's not the same in every part of the world, and not everybody is affected in the same way, bu yeah, I think that a white man fetishizing a woman of color because she is non-white has some ugly connotations than white on white "fetishizing" doesn't have.

I personally always liked this article, I know a lot of people disagree with it, but to me it talks about kinda my experience. (And mind you, I don't say that white people can't be treated bad or something due tor race, just that it's different.)

I'm not white myself, so perhaps I see things differently. I don't assume that every story I read or watch features white characters. In fact, I'm typically disappointed when I find out they usually do.

Oh, I know, I'm not white either, and today I feel the same. But I have to say I fought with a lot internalized racism for a long time.

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