• TheEighthDoctor@lemmy.world
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    58 minutes ago

    I only care when it’s stupid, like Medieval Poland being full of black people, not even modern day Poland has that many black people.

    You can call me racist if you want but casting a black guy to play the president of the USA in like 1910 would be as stupid as casting a white guy to play Nebuchadnezzar.

    • androogee (they/she)@midwest.social
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      21 minutes ago

      … It’s fiction.

      Representation matters. Giving the few traditionally non-white roles that get written in Hollywood to white actors is the problem.

      Getting mad about the skin color of fictional characters is fucking stupid. Really fucking stupid. Unjustifiably fucking stupid. 🤙

  • pjwestin@lemmy.world
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    10 minutes ago

    In fairness to Tilda Swinton, they decided to entirely rewrite the character to be a Celtic woman instead of a Tibetan man. This was probably to avoid being censored in China, but getting away from the racist 1930s, “oriental mysticism,” trope was probably a good idea. It’s certainly a lot better than letting Jonny Depp pretend to be a Native American because he’s one-eighth Cherokee.

  • agamemnonymous
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    2 hours ago

    Can I be upset at all of them? The little mermaid should probably be Dutch, and all the rest should be their canon ethnicities. White Disney princesses don’t bother me because most of those stories are European folktales, but that cuts both ways.

  • MolochAlter@lemmy.world
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    2 hours ago

    The only one of these that is remotely acceptable, to me, is Tilda Swindon, because they explicitly detached themselves from the character to avoid getting shat on by the CCP for casting a Tibetan and from Americans for casting a Chinese person.

    The others are all crap, IMO.

    Every time a character is <color>washed we lose the chance to be exposed to global actors that would fit their profile.

    • MouseKeyboard@ttrpg.network
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      42 minutes ago

      The only one of these that is remotely acceptable, to me, is Tilda Swindon, because they explicitly detached themselves from the character to avoid getting shat on by the CCP for casting a Tibetan and from Americans for casting a Chinese person.

      That makes it worse tbh

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    1 hour ago

    Don’t forget Snow White who looks like a white person but is mixed-race white and Latina, so she isn’t white enough to play Snow White.

    And also don’t forget the very light-skinned black woman who couldn’t play Cleopatra because Cleopatra wasn’t black. (How do we know? We don’t? Cool. Cool cool cool.)

            • kameecoding@lemmy.world
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              20 minutes ago

              Well I was going by the logic that illegitimate child wouldn’t tule Egypt, but that may in fact that be the case, but the argument that her mother isn’t known for sure as an argument that she was black is not very strong, when the only depiction of her being black comes from Jada I cheat on my husband then make him talk about it on video Smith

              • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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                16 minutes ago

                You’re still making no sense.

                What does illegitimacy have to do with it?

                Why can’t her father have been legitimately married to a dark-skinned woman?

                Edit: Wait, you know the Ptolemys, like all pharaohs, had multiple wives, right?

        • potustheplant@feddit.nl
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          2 minutes ago

          You do realize that that is mainly from a USA point of of view and mostly directed towards mexico, right? So this isnt’t only kinda xenophobic but you’re basically telling me I should consider myself a different race because random yankees think I am? Yeah, no thanks. The country you were born in does not determine your race.

  • z3rOR0ne@lemmy.ml
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    5 hours ago

    “You will not replace us!” shouted the white supremacists after centuries of erasing a multitude of other cultures, histories, and societies.

  • Kusimulkku@lemm.ee
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    3 hours ago

    So were native american, arab, romani people fine with those white actors in those roles?

  • Dusktracer@lemmy.world
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    5 hours ago

    Scarlet Witch wasn’t originally Romani… she was originally still Jewish. You know, since she was Magneto’s daughter. The Romani thing came later. So that’s kind of a mischaracterization. The Johnny Depp as native american was super wierd, like the black face RDJ in Tropic Thunder. It was cringe @.@.

    • JackbyDev@programming.dev
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      2 hours ago

      like the black face RDJ in Tropic Thunder. It was cringe @.@.

      Did you actually see Tropic Thunder? It’s pretty good. His character is meant to be looked down on and the movie makes that clear. It’s more of a criticism of actors doing things like black face and playing disabled characters to chase awards.

    • TheFonz@lemmy.world
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      5 hours ago

      I don’t know how people got that take from Tropic Thunder when they explicitly make reference inside the movie to how messed up and wrong it was. Like, that was the joke. RDJ was playing a character so full of himself that took method acting to it’s extreme. Am I missing something? Id love to be educated

    • This is fine🔥🐶☕🔥@lemmy.world
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      5 hours ago

      Scarlet Witch wasn’t originally Romani… she was originally still Jewish. You know, since she was Magneto’s daughter. The Romani thing came later.

      She could still be both from each parent’s side?

      That would make her… Jewmani? Rowish?

        • This is fine🔥🐶☕🔥@lemmy.world
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          2 hours ago

          BTW I checked Wikipedia and it’s hilarious how often her ancestry changed

          The character’s in-universe backstory and parentage have changed more than once. During the 1960s, she and Quicksilver were said to be the mutant twin offspring of two unnamed parents. Later, it was said the children were given to the geneticist called the High Evolutionary, leaving their true parentage a mystery. In 1974, it was said their parents are Golden Age heroes Bob Frank / Whizzer and Madeline Joyce Frank / Miss America. Wanda then refers to herself as Wanda Frank for a time. In 1979, they are revealed to have been raised by human Romani parents, Django and Marya Maximoff. In 1982, Magneto concludes he and a human Sinti woman named Magda are Wanda and Pietro’s parents. In 2014, the AXIS crossover revealed Pietro and Wanda are not related to Magneto. In 2015, the twins discover they are not mutants and their superhuman traits are the result of the High Evolutionary’s experiments combined with Wanda genetically being a Witch, born with natural magical abilities. The 2015–2017 Scarlet Witch series reveals that Wanda and Pietro’s adoptive parents, Django and Marya Maximoff, are biologically their aunt and uncle. Their real mother is confirmed to be Natalya Maximoff, the previous Scarlet Witch, a Serbian Roma sorceress whose father was the Scarlet Warlock.

          Fucking comics smh

  • feedum_sneedson@lemmy.world
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    5 hours ago

    Some of these might have been to avoid blatant racial stereotypes, particularly with Tilda Swinton and Liam Neeson. Johnny Depp, not so much.

    • kameecoding@lemmy.world
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      13 minutes ago

      Well Liam Neeson being white was explicitly part of the story and a play a play on blatant racial stereotypes, he had an asian stand in who “looked like” ras al ghul would so he could hide his identity. In fact because it’s a rather “realistic” take on the superhero it’s implied that Ras Al Ghul is not a single person, it’s always just a cover for the current leader of the league of shadows or whatever they are called

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      1 hour ago

      I really don’t think it would have hurt to cast an Arab actor as Ra’s Al Ghul. And then you wouldn’t need a convoluted explanation like that.

    • CyberEgg@discuss.tchncs.de
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      5 hours ago

      No, I don’t thinking would work since his daughter’s called Thalia Al Ghul, indicating Al Ghul is a family name.

      Also,we don’t need to make up apologies for whitewashing.

      • This is fine🔥🐶☕🔥@lemmy.world
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        4 hours ago
        1. He literally says 'we have been around for 1000 years and since Nolanverse is devoid of any fantastical elements, passing the torch is the only possible explanation.

        2. Her name is Talia Al Ghul from Doylist perspective but not from Watsonian.

        For all we know, she doesn’t have any last name/family name in-universe and uses the alias of Miranda when she’s globetrotting for a bit of terrorism.

        • CyberEgg@discuss.tchncs.de
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          48 minutes ago
          1. He literally says 'we have been around for 1000 years and since Nolanverse is devoid of any fantastical elements, passing the torch is the only possible explanation.

          I always thought he meant the League of Shadows, not a single position.

          1. Her name is Talia Al Ghul from Doylist perspective but not from Watsonian.

          She calls Ra’s Al Ghul her father. It may be an interpretation that Al Ghul is a name, but so is the title interpretation. And imho the name is far less of a stretch.

  • AVincentInSpace@pawb.social
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    9 hours ago

    Personally I think a large part of the lack of outrage over the first four is that no one who watched the movies had heard of the source material. People who watch Marvel movies don’t tend to read the comics, but Ariel was a Disney movie (one of the most famous of all time) remade as another Disney movie.

    • FinishingDutch@lemmy.world
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      7 hours ago

      Correct. Nobody was bothered by Nick Fury’s change for example, even though he went from white to black. That was a wholly unknown character for most Marvel moviegoers. And Samuel L. Jackson is awesome in that role.

    • bassomitron@lemmy.world
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      9 hours ago

      Personally, I think the lack of outrage is because the people who get outraged by black people being cast for roles that were previously white characters, aren’t concerned when it’s white people being cast no matter the source material.

        • bassomitron@lemmy.world
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          7 hours ago

          Name one outrage among conservatives in the US when a white person was cast for a role that was any other ethnicity in the source material. Sure, it happens on the Left, Netflix is especially accused of white washing (recent example: Three Body Problem). But, conservatives don’t give a shit when it happens the other way around.

          Regardless, I truly couldn’t give a shit who gets cast for what regardless of source material. If the actor/actress is able to play the part well, I come for entertainment and couldn’t care less.

          • AA5B@lemmy.world
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            13 minutes ago

            People made a big deal over Sean Connery in The Highlander, although no one was really offended. It was just another joke

          • Sarmyth@lemmy.world
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            6 hours ago

            The best example I can think of where the race choices really got stupid to the point of offensive was the first “The Last Airbender” movie where the director race swapped the entire fire nation to Indian, made the water nation white when they probably should have been Innuit or something similar, then chose to mispronounce the main characters name to make it sound more ethnic when the source material was in English, so they knew exactly how it should be pronounced.

            Then for whatever reason, people got mad that the main character was white when it was the only character animated in such a way they could be white, and the tribe was a nomadic collection of people making it somewhat possible albeit not relevant to the nation theming of the other nations.

            Anyways, this triggered my annual Last Airbender rant, so sorry about that.

            • bassomitron@lemmy.world
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              2 hours ago

              That poor movie was a travesty on multiple levels. Why Shyamalan was chosen to write/direct that movie, I care not to look up. My off the cuff theory was that he had kids obsessed with the animated show and he wanted to destroy something they loved after they accidentally broke his one and only Golden Globe award.

        • trashgirlfriend@lemmy.world
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          8 hours ago

          “Personally, I just want to chalk it up for people being mad for no reason so I can feel safe in my view that racism is over because Barack Obama or something.”

          • AVincentInSpace@pawb.social
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            8 hours ago

            Could this be because people don’t tend to get mad over things they don’t know exist? Naaaaah, must be racism. Anyone who disgagrees that racism is the most likely explanation thinks racism is fake.

            What is it with leftists and making mountains out of molehills?

            • trashgirlfriend@lemmy.world
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              8 hours ago

              I am a silly little ignorant guy therefore everyone else is a silly little ignorant guy, I am the very model of a modern human.

              • AVincentInSpace@pawb.social
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                7 hours ago

                I’d pull up statistics on movie ticket sales versus comic book sales and point out that the movie outsold the comics by (conservatively) 200 to 1, but there’s no point bringing facts into an argument against a troll.

      • Peasley@lemmy.world
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        8 hours ago

        Personally, I think you are correct, but the person you replied to might also be correct. One likely amplified the other.

  • AhismaMiasma@lemm.ee
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    8 hours ago

    Eh, plenty of people voiced issues with the racial (and gender) recast of the Ancient One when Doctor Strange came out.

    Tilda Swinton is great btw.

    • TheSambassador@lemmy.world
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      6 hours ago

      I think that this is making fun of the people who were upset at Ariel being black in the remake. The people this is making fun of don’t care about recasting race until it’s done from a white character to a black one. It’s pointing out hypocrisy.

      • AA5B@lemmy.world
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        18 minutes ago

        Wasn’t it not just the casting of one character, but that they recast the movie to be all black? When I see something that looks like “recast the movie to be X”, I don’t expect very much and usually don’t bother watching. If this was one my favorite movies, I can see being upset that they would remake it just for race or gender (although now that I mention that, it could be hilarious to remake for gender)

        That includes “recast the movie to be white”, now that we’re getting lots of well done videos that don’t start as white.

        But I suppose it’s white privilege that I never saw an issue with most of these (but wtf, Johnny Depp?). They’re close enough and generally the character is not written overly specific anyway. Ms Marvel must be correct because the entire movie was based on her culture, ethnicity, history. If the movie was written about “generic American teenager” declared to be something other than white, would we care? Should we? Meanwhile, who cares about Scarlet Witch? Aside from”European”, there was nothing in the movie to make her anything specific. From the post about the comics, the source material is horribly muddled

      • yeather@lemmy.ca
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        5 hours ago

        True, but it is not done in a very genuine way. Each role had people complaining about the changes, the only real difference is the few times a white character is casted black the movie ends up being bad anyways.

        • CyberEgg@discuss.tchncs.de
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          only real difference is the few times a white character is casted black the movie ends up being bad anyways.

          Shawshank Redemption. In the source novel, Morgan Freeman’ character was a white irish guy. The reasons nobody complained were probably that a. there was no Xitter when the movie hit theaters and b. nobody knows it’s an adaptation anyway.

          • yeather@lemmy.ca
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            4 hours ago

            Same with Samuel L. Jackson playing Nick Fury or whatever The Boys is doing with characters. When the adaptation is good no one really cares.

            I have a feeling Hollywood companies intentionally do this to stir discourse and interest in the film when they know the script is weak. You never hear about these things when the movie is good, only when it’s the Ghostbusters reboot or The Little Mermaid.

    • yeather@lemmy.ca
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      8 hours ago

      Most people realized it was done mostly to skirt the Chinese market. I think the major problem with the other groups is the lack of major starpower. I don’t think I can even name a Romani actress.

      • AhismaMiasma@lemm.ee
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        8 hours ago

        This is a good point. Casting a genuine Tibetan actor would cause the house of mouse to lose all that sweet china money.

          • yeather@lemmy.ca
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            4 hours ago

            No I think people would have been more angry if they got someone Asian but not Tibetan to play the character. Changing an Asian Male character to a White Woman makes it more obvious and direct.

            • I_Has_A_Hat@lemmy.world
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              25 minutes ago

              I don’t think anyone had an issue with Benedict Wong as one of the head monks so I think your theory is bad.

        • yeather@lemmy.ca
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          5 hours ago

          I suppose, then again it appears the main reason race was changed is to increase star power in a prominent role. Which is not the case in The Little Mermaid, as Halle Bailey is not a star. Doesn’t matter much now since the movie is bad.

      • Miaou@jlai.lu
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        4 hours ago

        Considering most Americans lose their shit at the slightest hint of an accent, it’s not really surprising.

    • Wrench@lemmy.world
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      6 hours ago

      I also thought Liam as ra’s al ghul was a really bizarre pick during the movie, too. But I guess I got over it quickly enough, because Liam Neeson.

  • assembly@lemmy.world
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    8 hours ago

    To me, the weirdest one was Johnny Depp as a Native American. Like I couldn’t wrap my head around it in the movie. I kept thinking the plot was that he was a delusional person who believed he was Native American.