How is it racist?- Page 2

Posted: 2/29/12 at 12:26pm

Not to kill the buzz-kill, but America looks JUST like America and hardly ever elects black people, either.

[newintown]

Posted: 2/29/12 at 12:34pm

"The beef that black performers have is that there is a scarcity of quality roles for us."

Honey, there's a scarcity of quality roles for everyone.

It's a lot easier to say "The world has caused me to fail because of the color of my skin (or gender, religion, sexual preference, height, hair color, accent, body odor)," than to say "I failed."

No actor is guaranteed a career. Actually, let me amend that - no one is guaranteed a career. Our failures are not someone else's fault, they're our own. One of life's most difficult lessons, and one learned by few people.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 2/29/12 at 12:38pm

Newintown if you say anything remotely like that you ARE A RACIST! BLIDIOT SAYS SO!!

[newintown]

Posted: 2/29/12 at 12:40pm

Sorry, Jordan, I have to go to my blaccountant and invest all my white devil money I stole.

[whatever2]

Posted: 2/29/12 at 12:41pm

JoeKv99: i don't take your point ... your observation is undeniable, but i don't see its relevance to the fact that the Academy's demographics are out of sync with the larger society's.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 2/29/12 at 12:41pm

Well in this blinstance, it's blacist.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 2/29/12 at 12:53pm

Mysterious, Viola Davis is a Broadway star. I don't see that this thread is out of place on the Broadway board just because it's about her not winning an oscar. It's no more out of place than threads about Cheyenne Jackson's getting married or Jan Maxwell getting hit by a car.

Newintown, the complaint that black actors aren't getting commensurate quality roles isn't primarily, if ever, made by black actors to vainly justify their not being successes. To the contrary, it is a complaint made by highly successful black actors, and people of all colors, most of whom are not even actors, who simply note the obvious injustice of it and of the underrepresentation of non-whites in movie roles.

If you can't see that injustice, if you think non-white actors are given equal opportunity in the movies, then there is no arguing with you.

You're deluded. But there's no arguing with you.

Updated On: 2/29/12 at 12:53 PM

[newintown]

Posted: 2/29/12 at 12:55pm

Jan Maxwell was hit by a car?

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 2/29/12 at 12:57pm

No. A hot dog cart.

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 2/29/12 at 12:58pm

Oh, I don't care on any serious level about this being posted here. I was 99% joking. If I were the arbiter of things appropriate, personally, I'd say it *more* belongs on the Off-Topic Board. If any story were appropriate to post here just because it involves someone involved in Broadway theater, just imagine the things we'd see. It sits in something of a gray area, but it's certainly about the movies and the Oscars and specifically Viola Davis' work in film, not theater. You can make a case for it "belonging" here, but you'd still be making a case.

And I agree with the rest of your post 100%.

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 2/29/12 at 1:00pm

No. A hot dog. Jan Maxwell had a hot dog in her bag.

[newintown]

Posted: 2/29/12 at 1:04pm

But seriously.

"...if you think non-white actors are given equal opportunity in the movies, then there is no arguing with you."

Who's arguing? Entertainment isn't an equal "opportunity" sector. It's a supply demand sector. Sure, I think there should be smarter entertainment out there, but there isn't much demand for it, so we get Jonah Hill. The money goes where it will make more money, plain and simple. Whether that's right or wrong is a problem no one will ever solve.

Complaining about employment opportunities/quotas/whatever in the arts is more useless in the real world than a grad school debate on semiotics.

[tazber]

Posted: 2/29/12 at 1:14pm

I think the entire entertainment industry is racist. I wish someone would have the balls to do a color blind version of an American classic.

Something by Tennessee Williams perhaps.

I'll be it would look really good.

Updated On: 2/29/12 at 01:14 PM

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 2/29/12 at 1:16pm

Just the idea is blacist.

[Fosse76]

Posted: 2/29/12 at 1:34pm

Most of the replies in this thread are racist. It's absolutely disgusting.

[newintown]

Posted: 2/29/12 at 1:35pm

Including yours. Racist.

(It's just so fun to say.)

Posted: 2/29/12 at 1:50pm

Of course it's "out of sync" with America. It's mostly actors. Actors are nuts.

[whatever2]

Posted: 2/29/12 at 3:47pm

oooooohhhhhhh .... now your post makes perfect sense ...

[The Distinctive Baritone]

Posted: 2/29/12 at 6:06pm

Jesus Christ.

Newintown, you made some good points. So did that article on workers.com, but any validity it had was wiped out by the writer's indignant, whiney, bleeding heart outcries of racism. Mankind is strange and complicated. Our workforce and socioeconomic constructs are no exception. Saying "that was racist" is, from my experience, often just as ignorant and small-minded as actual racism is. It's an easy way for people of any color who are lacking in certain areas of intelligence to explain something they don't like or don't understand.

Viola Davis' Oscar loss was not an act of racism. It was the result of many factors--mostly that Meryl Streep got the most votes.

I'm white, straight, and male. Sometimes I wish I were a black lesbian so I could take the easy route and blame my failures on others instead of myself.

Are some people held back because of racism and other forms of bigotry? Yes. Is our socioeconomic makeup "even"? No. But life isn't fair to anybody.

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 2/29/12 at 6:24pm

I wish we could find a middle ground here.

I don't think it's so difficult to appreciate Jordan's satire of the narrowest sort of political correctness while at the same time appreciating the truth in what Blactor writes.

Yes, racism persists. And because it does, it shouldn't surprise us if now and then somebody overreacts.

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 2/29/12 at 6:30pm

America is racist. But the Oscars aren't. Get it???

[The Distinctive Baritone]

Posted: 2/29/12 at 6:33pm

Care to elaborate, Phyllis?

[Almira]

Posted: 2/29/12 at 6:52pm

I don't think Phyllis needs to elaborate.

The original quote speaks VOLUMES.


Just for fun...

Warning: Don't watch if you are an angry white man:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uH0vpGZJCo

Updated On: 2/29/12 at 06:52 PM

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 2/29/12 at 6:58pm

"I'm white, straight, and male."

You didn't need to tell us.

[tazber]

Posted: 2/29/12 at 7:01pm

Of course racism exists. But Meryl's win probably had nothing to do with the Academy not wanting to honor an African American.

I mean, I think that Octavia Spencer would agree with that assessment.