Racebending.com

wherenowomenhavegonebefore:

No, Ricardo Montalban wasn’t Indian.  He looked more like my Nana and her brothers and sisters, olive skinned and dark haired, spoke like them in a softly accented English.  He looked more like the Gonzalezes, Almeidas, and Reals that fill the roots of my family tree than a Singh, that is true.

But television casting, like most other racial matters in the late 60s, was beyond problematic.  Yes, Montalban was asked to play a South East Asian man.  But what was extraordinary was that Roddenberry, after casting Montalban, imagined this villain to be brilliant, mercurial, and charismatic, and a man of color.  And a man who had become pigeonholed by the limited roles offered to Mexican actors became one of science-fiction’s most iconic characters.  

Being a Latina sci-fi fan is to be a bit of a stranger in a strange land.  I love the Walking Dead, but the only Hispanics we’ve seen have been typical gangbangers, however well-meaning.  Star Trek has had one lone Latina character, B’elanna Torres.  The people with brown skin in the Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones aren’t exactly people you want to be.  We’re exotic or swarthy or lazy or thuggish or stupid, and after a while you just give up hope of seeing someone who defies those stereotypes at Phil Coulson’s side or in science blue or on SG:1 or as a tribute in the Hunger Games.  

So yes, Ricardo Montalban was Mexican.  Yes, his parents were Castilian.  Just know for some of us, it doesn’t make this any easier.

robotmutant:

Fresh off a disastrous attempt to trademark Dia de los Muertos , Disney has announced another, hopefully much better planned out expedition into multiculturalism. Big Hero 6  , Disney’s long-awaited first animated Marvel movie, will be directed by Don Hall ( Winnie the Pooh ) and is set for release in 2014 and takes place in the fictional city of San Fransokyo. I actually think that Hall is a huge talent so I’m swallowing a bit of skepticism and really hoping for the best on this one. Check out a very nice-looking still below (click for hi-res), and see the concept footage at Hero Complex .

View original post on http://robotmutant.com/disney-announces-big-hero-6-animated-marvel-movie/

Hmmm.  Do you guys think that resetting the original story from Tokyo to San Fransokyo was done to free up Disney from using an all-Asian cast of characters or cast of actors?  (San Francisco has a huge Asian American population, too, so they’d better still have an Asian American lead even if they make the group more diverse…)

*rimshot*

oftheforest:

fatpinkcast:

reverseracism:

starryeyedheroine:

I just would like to educate the hipster idiots on this website who think “olive toned” skin means someone of darker skin color. Olive toned skin means your skin has a yellow-green hue. It’s a common skin tone for those of Asian, Northern African, Southern European, and Middle Eastern heritage. 

My paternal grandmother is 100% Italian and has olive toned skin (because Italy is in southern Europe for you idiots). She is considered Caucasian. She is white. My father and my sister also have olive toned skin. They can tan pretty easily in the sun but they’re both still considered Caucasian. Yes, people with olive toned skin can be darker skinned but that doesn’t mean that a character who is mentioned to be olive skinned means they are dark.

So next time you write a post about how an olive toned character in a book, or movie, or tv show has been white washed, you should just shut the hell up. Clearly you’re retarded and just want to bitch and moan.

“Even though olive toned could mean that the character is a person of color, pointing out how ‘olive skin’ is almost always interpreted as white and how it could be a case of whitewashing is supposedly bitching and moaning and warrants albeist slurs.”

Olives come in several shades (in addition to green, which is not a skin color.)

mmmmmm olives.

mmmmmmmmm Oberyn.

-M

As someone who matches foundation for people all day long, let me say this: most people with olive-toned skin are not white. Like maybe 10% of people with an olive tone to their skin are caucasian. And I work in a pretty white area, so…

No, we’re not aggrieved by the possible casting of an actor of color as the Human Torch.  The casting of an actor of color to play the Human Torch does not take away from the number of opportunities white actors have to play characters in The Fantastic Four.  

In fact, there will almost certainly be more white male actors in the film (some at higher billing) than whoever gets cast to play the Human Torch.  (eg. Reed Richards, Ben Grimm, whoever they pick as the villain, etc.)

And while we’re at it—the same goes for stuff like Man of Steel and Thor.  Casting an actor of color as Perry White or Heimdall didn’t take away any opportunity for a white male actor (in this case, scads of them) to still be the film’s center of attention.  It is not the same as the type of systemic discrimination Hollywood uses to approach characters or actors of color.

The casting of a white male actor in some significant role in The Fantastic Four is pretty much a guarantee.   The casting of an actor of color, at this point, is still speculation.  That’s the difference.