Racism in Hollywood's portrayals of different cultures

[sunlit_music]

My thoughts on vejiicakes marvellous post here:

http://vejiicakes.livejournal.com/254810.html Let me show you them.

It's sad (but not so surprising) that whitewashing and racism still persists in movies nowadays (from the casting of Asian characters as white people) to the hideous lack of research in movies. And why is it that the *real* Asians keep on getting typecasted as the villains even in films nowadays? (see: Avatar: The Last Airbender and Prince of Persia)

It sends out the message that real Asian people can't play positive/heroic roles. It implies that Asian people can't be heroes and aren't worth talking about. I don't care that this might not be what Hollywood directors are intending - it's the message that's being sent out by whitewashing. In this day and age when people are being flooded with images everywhere they go - the images used in movies, ads, cartoons matter. Who you use to represent in movies matters. This stays in people's minds.

And it's unsupportive of Asian actors seeking roles that don't stereotype or dehumanise their race.

lady_jafaria and suburbanspleen sum things up very well about the Prince of Persia movie here:

http://wazira-sharira.livejournal.com/111876.html

http://suburban-spleen.livejournal.com/127341.html

Seriously, people. Not that hard to do research on other cultures. Hollywood makes huge efforts to do research on how people lived in the past. They can do the same when it comes to researching other cultures too.

Comments

[rosehiptea.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's a great post. Thank you for linking it.

And I agree with your comments. It's really sad that Asian actors still can't be cast in positive and heroic roles. I really expected better for Avatar: The Last Airbender.

[sunlit-music.livejournal.com]

You're welcome. :) I expected better for Avatar movie too - especially considering how the director (M. Night Shyamalan) happens to *be* of South Asian descent.