Color Blind?

Dear Sarah,
I, by nature, have a mental block about hype.  So if there is a majorly hyped book or movie, I usually have difficulty bringing myself to read/see it.

Up until yesterday, I knew little about Hunger Games.  All I knew was that it seemed like the new Twilight (poorly written soft-core teenage romance novels).  But then my facebook feed was filled with articles about the hoopla regarding some of the movie's casting.  Namely, it seems some fans are upset that certain characters were played by black actors:

Racist Hunger Games Fans Are Very Disappointed
I See White People: Hunger Games and a Brief History of Cultural Whitewashing

The second article there links to another article, explaining how in June 2010 people went ballistic when someone suggested Donald Glover (known best for his role as Troy on Community) be auditioned for the next Spider Man: Donald Glover for Spider-Man: The evolution of a meme.

Of course people went crazy, because everyone knows Spiderman isn't black!  That isn't possible. You have to stay true to the source material.  Blah blah blah.

This whole issue got me thinking back to 1997.  In 1997, the Wonderful World of Disney produced a made for tv version of Rogers & Hammerstein's Cinderella.  (On a side note: I was personally super excited for this because I'd been in a production of R&H Cinderella the year before.)  But I won't lie, I was very confused when the casting was announced.

Cinderella was to be played by black R&B artist Brandy.
The wicked stepmother to be played by white Broadway legend Bernadette Peters.
The tall skinny wicked stepsisters was played by a white actress and the short stout one was played by a black actress.
Prince Charming was played by Paolo Montalban, a Phillipino actor.  And his parents, the queen and king, were played by Whoopi Goldberg (black) and Victor Garber (white).
And Cinderella's Fairy Godmother was played by the late Whitney Houston (black).

As someone who gets upset when casting kids that don't look like parents, flash back kid characters who have different eye color than the grown up characters they are supposed to be, I was having a bit of trouble reconciling the United Benetton of Colors cast they had going on.

Sure, it's not a problem for Brandy's step mother to be a different race, they aren't related by blood.  And it's not impossible for Bernadette Peters to have one white child and one mixed race child (no one ever said the baby-daddies of her two children were the same guy...Cinderella's dad could have easily been the third husband).  But ain't no way Whoopi Goldberg and Victor Garber could have laid down and come out with a little Phillipino baby!

And there was definitely some of the "but Cinderella is white" going on in my head too...I won't pretend to be perfect. But in the end, I loved this movie.  I thought it was too cute.  Sure, the acting was corny (it is a Disney produced made for tv movie after all), but the sets and costumes were gorgeous and the music was awesome.  Hello! Whitney Houston! Benadette Peters!  Brandy! Jason Alexander. Whoopi Goldberg.  These were actors hired for their musical talents, not their ability to look like their fake-relatives or cartoon character.

I think the whole "that just isn't possible" problem I had bugged me for about 10 minutes.  Then I got over and just enjoyed the movie.

But here is the real point of my post, Sarah.  I cannot believe that it is 15 years later, and this is still such a big deal!  Haven't we made ANY progress in 15 years?  Who cares if Rue was described as white in the book.  Does it really matter that she is black in the movie?  Did it make one iota of difference?  It shouldn't have.

And for that matter... Why not a black Spiderman?  Why not an Asian Superman?  Or an Indian James Bond?  That's impossible! Right?

But I'd like to leave you with a quote from Cinderella's fairy godmother (whatever color she may be):
Impossible, for a plain yellow pumpkin to become a golden carriage.
Impossible, for a plain country bumpkin and a prince to join in marriage,
And four white mice will never be four white horses!
Such fol-der-ol and fid-dle-dy dee of course, is--- Impossible!
But the world is full of zanies and fools
Who don't believe in sensible rules
And won't believe what sensible people say.
And because these daft and dewey-eyed dopes keep building up impossible hopes,
Impossible things are happening every day!



P.S. I have in the process learned that Hunger Games is a post-apocalyptic/dystopia type story (a la Brave New Work, 1984, Handmaid's Tale, etc) which is a genre I really enjoy, so I have decided to suppress my hype-snobbery and read it.  See, anything is possible!

Dear Amber,

First allow me to say "Shame on you!" for not reading the Twilight Series!!  I am appalled, but more on that later.

I don't know why anyone who read "Hunger Games" is surprised that Rue is black.  I just finished reading the book on Sunday and from reading it, I assumed that she was.  I believe Rue is described as "dark skinned with big brown eyes."  How anyone could interpret that as anything but a black person? 

"Hunger Games" was a great book, though not as good as Twilight (IMHO).

Your description: (poorly written soft-core teenage romance novels) is disappointing.  Have you read them?  I love them!!  They are a delicious read.  I have to say the movies are not as good as the books, but that is to be expected. 

Whatever happened to creative freedom?    The movie crew and screen play writers can do as they please while they're interpreting the book.  We all do, how many times have you read a book and not developed a mental picture of the characters?  I've never been able to do that.  What a silly thing to be worked up about anyway.

Dear Sarah,

Re: Twilight.  I have not read them and do not plan to.  I have to admit that I'm kind of a book snob.  I typically stick to literature (classic or modern) or non-fiction.  I never read the Harry Potter books either.  Maybe I will one day if my kids get into them.

I did read a Janet Evanovich once.  I was on bedrest and desperate.  And I read plenty of VC Andrews novels back in junior high school.  ;)

 Dear Amber,

What a shame?!  Geek!

Sarah