Racebending.com

A Tennessee judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by two black men who were suing ABC over alleged racial discrimination on “The Bachelor,” essentially deciding that casting is protected by the First Amendment. ABC has denied their practices are discriminatory, despite the fact its crop of “Bachelor” bros are the whitest crop of white dudes this side of a Tea Party rally.

The plaintiffs, Christopher Johnson and Nathaniel Claybrooks, had both auditioned for “The Bachelor” in 2011 and were not cast. But instead of skulking away with their tail between their legs, they sued. The men argued that casting a television show is essentially hiring employees and that ABC had a pattern of hiring only white employees for that particular position. There has never been a non-white “Bachelor” or “Bachelorette,” despite the occasional non-white member of the dating pool; one theory was that the show shied away from appearing to promote interracial dating. ABC argued — and the judge disagreed — that casting was part of the creative development of the show and was that protected by the First Amendment. NPR’s culture blog Monkey See has a good, concise breakdown of the legalese:

What ABC successfully argued in this case (which could be appealed, by the way) is that it has a First Amendment right to exclude people of color as a creative decision in the process of casting shows. The judge isn’t saying it happened and ABC isn’t admitting it happened, but the judge is agreeing with ABC that even if it happened, it’s not illegal, and that’s why the case was dismissed.

That’s a sticky wicket: both sides are right in their respective justification in their arguments. I do think “artists” (if you will indulge me for a second and call “The Bachelor” producers/casting director “artists”) have to have their First Amendment protections and should not be told how to create their art. In her motion to dismiss, the judge pointed out that networks market their programming towards different groups based on gender, race or sexual orientation, such as BET and LOGO. “[T]he content of any television show that does not have a sufficiently diverse cast would be or would have been subject to court scrutiny,” the judge wrote. Don’t worry, MTV. You will not be forced to cast smart people on “Jersey Shore.”

But I also think that ABC is completely full of shit. Essentially the judge said, which ABC isn’t disputing, that this show is a “white people show.” It has not just happened this way that “Bachelor”/”Bachelorette” cast members are predominantly Caucasian. To that end, it’s also not a coincidence that everyone cast on the show is (to the best of my knowledge — feel free to chime in, Frisky Chief “Bachelor”-ologist Amelia McDonell-Parry) attractive by conventional standards, slim, and able-bodied. They are casting these people as desirable for a reason — not because reality TV shows are a reflection of reality, but because they are often a reflection of mainstream cultural prejudices of who is worthy of love and who isn’t. It’s a shame that these guys lost their case not just because they’re missing out on all those chicks in bikinis and hot tub action, but because TV networks now have a precedent for continuing to reinforce those prejudices in their reality show casting.

The full ruling is available online here and worth a read. One fundamental question explored by the judge is how can we legally determine when a role should be color-specific versus colorblind? Unfortunately, people in Hollywood and people who support Hollywood’s exclusion of PoC will use this ruling to support how things currently are. This ruling holds Hollywood to a different standard than other fields of employment. Here, freedom of speech trumps equal opportunity employment laws.

peaceloveandafropuffs:

I can find actors and actresses of most races/ethnicity by using IMDB a public website. There is a part of the website that costs money but that is not the part I use.

Step 1: Find one well known actor of the race/ethnicity that the character is.

• For example if I’m looking for an actor/actress…

so-shinny:

Review and responses about Red Dawn by Racebending.com

gloryandus:

(Completely stepping over the fact that so much of the books was about race, and that has been removed from the films.)

Panem is a futuristic North America, not a futuristic USA. North America is actually made up of 23 states and territories, but most of those get divided into regional blocks…

brashblacknonbeliever:

Back in January, the Plano Children’s Theatre in Plano, TX decided to put on a production of Hairspray. The decided to do it however without any black children. None. Not one. Their explanation for doing a play whose main premise is about racism and segregation without any black children?

At intermission, I spoke to Darrell Rodenbaugh, president of PCT’s board of directors. My question was “Why do you have white kids playing black characters?”

“Well, should we deny these kids the opportunity to do a fun show?” he said. “We’d paid for the rights to the show six months in advance. We couldn’t cancel it.”

Didn’t any black kids audition? No, said Rodenbaugh, it’s hard to recruit black kids to PCT because there aren’t that many in Plano. (African-Americans make up less than 8 percent of the Plano, Texas, population of 259,841, according to the most recent census numbers.)

So why do a show with black characters in it if you know going in that you won’t have any black kids to play them?Rodenbaugh had several answers about how much the kids wanted to do Hairspray, how they weren’t going to bow to “political correctness” and how “the parents expect this.”

They expect to see white kids playing black characters? “Yes,” said Rodenbaugh, who has kids in the cast of Hairspray, one of them playing Little Inez. He said PCT also did the musical Once on This Island with an all-white cast. (It’s an Ahrens and Flaherty show that’s basically Romeo and Juliet set in the French Antilles. It’s usually cast along racial lines, with black actors playing the peasants and Anglos playing the upper classes. There is a version of the show that removes references to skin color and makes the story about class differences. I don’t know if PCT did the latter.)

Rodenbaugh said they might do To Kill a Mockingbird with an all-white cast or Othello or The Wiz (three shows I mentioned to him that feature African-Americans either in prominent roles or as a majority of the cast). He said he saw nothing offensive or amiss about having no black actors in a show about racial segregation. I had to ask: Doesn’t having an all-white cast ignore the core message of Hairspray - you know, the message about how the black kids weren’t allowed to be on a show with white kids until brave little Tracy took a stand?

Rodenbaugh told me each young member of the PCT Hairspray cast had been asked to write a “report” about what the plot was about. “They’re learning a good lesson in this show,” he said.

I’m sure they are. I’m just not sure it’s the right lesson.

Now, I know a lot of y’all are gonna say “but he said no black kids auditioned!” Well, it’s interesting you bring that up. A little later in the article, we get this quote.

Later, I spoke by phone with Hairspray’s choreographer Darius-Anthony Robinson, an African-American who’s well known in the DFW professional musical theater community. He’s currently working in Casa Manana’s upcoming production of Rent. Robinson said when he went into rehearsals for PCT’s Hairspray, there were several black kids in the ensemble, but after a few days, they all dropped out for various reasons.

Hmmm… so we went from “no black kids auditioned” to “there were several black kids but they all dropped out.” Now isn’t that interesting. I’d really love to hear some of the reasons every single black child had to drop out. I’m sure it’d be very enlightening.

In order to put on an all white production of Hairspray they had to contact the rights holders, Musical Theatre International, and ask for permission. The one “good” thing about this was the use of blackface was strictly forbidden. If anyone puts on a production of Hairspray that features a white person in blackface MTI will fine them $13,000. (Oh and before you ask, yes, people have asked MTI if they could have white folks in blackface in the play. The answer has always been no.)

This definitely ranks on the top 15 list of the most egregious, unrepentant, and just straight up insulting displays of whitewashing I have ever seen. Here’s a protip for the masses, if your cast is all white, don’t do a play about racial segregation. You’ll never be able to pull it off in a “not racist” way.