Typecasting

As of April 6, I started a boycott of the music industry.

I don't think I will boycott, but I will definitely be skeptical towards another industry I despise: Hollywood.

I saw The Forbidden Kingdom last weekend, an action film starring Jackie Chan and Jet Li. I expected them to be the protagonists, but instead it was some dumb white kid. He ruined the movie for me! The action sequences were great, because he got owned and the Chinese people owned, but the story revolved around him. This was a problem since he's a dick. Another movie that I haven't seen because I'm boycotting is 21. It's the story of Chinese American MIT student Jeff Ma, but they hired a white British guy. The story of a mostly-Asian blackjack team became the story of a white-dominated team. "There are Asians in the movie," people tell me. Fair enough, there are two Asians, even though neither has a serious role in the movie.

That's the problem, apparently. American people don't want to see minorities taking on serious roles. Another, less reasonable, argument is that there aren't enough minorities in Hollywood to cast serious roles. That's total bullshit, and it's a terrible way to justify racist casting.

Look at it this way. 30 Rock is a great show, and in it, Tina Fey satirizes show business. One recurring issue is that, as a brunette, she can't be an actress. Only blondes can.

The problem is you need serious actors in order to establish a precedent. You need a precedent in order to disrupt racist casting. But you need to disrupt racist casting in order to hire serious actors. What Hollywood is doing right now is refusing to give the minority actors their opportunity. They subsequently get roles that hardly anyone can take seriously, thus perpetuating the cycle.

I don't know what can be done. But I do know that I would love to see some casting with a hero that's NOT white, or a black guy that does NOT die or go to jail.

FIGHT TYPECASTING AND RACISM