#birth of a nation
As a person of color, I’ve learned to expect a certain level of whitewashing from Hollywood. Jake Gyllenhaal as The Prince of Persia? Dude, wtf? Random white dude as Goku – wow, WOW, take it easy, buddy!
And yet, Hollywood execs surprised us with yet another bottle of fuckery by casting Emma Stone as Allison Ng, a character described as a quarter Hawaiian and a quarter Chinese. Let me lean in closer so I can say that again:
Emma Stone, a blonde haired, blue eyed WHITE WOMAN, was chosen to portray an ASIAN-HAWAIIAN PERSON with an Asian last name. I don’t approve of whitewashing, especially when Asian characters get swapped with white ones (see: Ghost in the Shell), but this is a new level of lazy bullshit. How can you go 80% of the way, write a script ABOUT AN ASIAN PERSON but not cast an Asian actress? That’s like making a movie about the Jackson 5 set in the 1960s but casting Honey Boo Boo as Tito and a ham sandwich as Michael – did you even try, bro?!
Hollywood continues to whitewash because white folks don’t see ethnicity as an IDENTITY. They don’t believe race and ethnicity can effect your opportunities and personality in real life, or in a fictional movie. Instead, race is treated like a COSTUME you steal from one person and give to another. In fact, white culture has ALWAYS taken ethnic labels and slapped them onto white products.
We needed more R&B artists so we slapped a label on Justin Timberlake.
We lacked diversity in the workplace so we made a category called “White Latinos.”
And yet, when they do consider our ethnicity it’s used in a way to exploit us: to paint us as uneducated thugs, awkward math nerds, and illegal immigrants. They never meet us half-way and write a script about normal ass POCs, acting as if we’re either born into our designated stereotype or we’re colorblind.
If you wanna know how white folks feel truly feel about us, take a look at ANY Hollywood movie and observe the POC characters. When white men were at their peak of Black male intimidation, they made ‘Mandingo’ and 'Birth of a Nation.’ When they were afraid of Asians, they filmed 'Fu Manchu’ and 'The Interview.’
If we can accept the writings of Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston as expressions of Black thought, why aren’t we accepting racist Hollywood films as expressions of white ones?
Think about it.
Armie Hammer is grateful to have touched lives with ‘Birth of a Nation’ (2016 Twentieth Century Fox)
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Birth of a Nation (2016)
Slave and preacher Nate Parker (played by Nat Turner) is publicly flogged.
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I remember watching this interview a few months back discussing the ebola “outbreak” & the ongoing propaganda of western media portraying Afrika as a helpless, disease -ridden cesspool… (while secretly being plundered for its resources)… There is so much more to be said on this issue, but this sista (Robtel Neajai Pailey), spoke like a true nationalist Queen! Voices like hers are the future of Afrika, & I support them!
I titled this design, ’Prelude of a Nation’…
More of my works here.
-M-
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Nate Parker’s Film, Birth of a Nation, premiered this past Monday. He recently sat down and commented on the racism in this country and why he chose that film title.
“This is what I think: that we as artists have to understand that there is pervasive racism in Hollywood and in America, and we can either pick the weed, or we can roll up our sleeves and get our hands dirty and get into the root. Our problem, what we’re dealing with right now, is foundational. The business of Hollywood was built on the propaganda of D.W. Griffith and [1915’s] The Birth of a Nation. It was the very first feature film that played in the White House and it was an enormous success, yet it said one thing: Embrace white supremacy, and you will survive. That was his message. And America embraced it.
It was critical that I use this title. I wanted to put a spotlight on this film — what it did to America, what it did to our film industry, what it did to people of color with respect for domestic terrorism. There’s blood on that title, so I wanted to repurpose it. From now on, The Birth of a Nation is attached to Nat Turner, one of the bravest revolutionaries this country has ever seen.”
Post By @KingKwajo
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