The problem with blacks appropriating white characters like Lil' Orphan Annie

The best part is that Coolia would probably not identify himself (or herself) as a racist.

 

Oh please. Where in the world did you get that from?

 

especially considering his MANY racist comments

 

It wouldn't be right to have a White "Shaft", so leave James Bond alone.

Remember the Black version of "The Wizard of Oz"? "The Wiz" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078504/

 

We can argue over whether or not it's ok to have Black actors play traditionally White characters but I have to call you out when you blatantly lie like this. There are plenty of Black characters, movies and screenplays out there.

Shaft's racial identity is specific to his cultural background. He's a Black cop with a unique personality. Because of this a White Shaft doesn't work. James Bond can be re-imagined as another race and the concept still works. There's nothing about his character that makes it important for him to be White. Besides characters like Shaft were created at a time when there weren't alot of Black characters in the movie industry. It may seem like a double standard but it simply makes sense to me why they can make traditionally White characters Black and not the other way around.

James Bond can be Black and the concept still works. Now I already mentioned well-established historical figures whose race shouldn't change (e.g. JFK) but if we are talking fictional characters then I think Rocky Balboa is a good example of a character whose Whiteness was important to the character. Balboa was imagined as a White underdog from an Italian background. The movie had racial undertones but wasn't racist in my opinion. Rocky himself wasn't racist but you could tell that Stallone intended him to be a White guy trying to make it in the Black dominated sport of Boxing. They could make a movie with a Black underdog but I think Rocky works better as a White guy.

At the end of the day it's all entertainment and not a big deal. I watched Annie without seeing the original and thought it was good. The racial element really wasn't expressed much in the movie and the concept simply worked. I walked away from the movie having felt I watched a good movie and not a cheap "Black version" of a classic. If you can do that, if you can entertain people and connect to them then race really doesn't matter.

 

James Bond is a White British dude.

 

"James Bond" should be a disabled tri racial lesbian dwarf in a wheelchair named "Shaniqua Bond" who carries a rape whistle, drinks Colt 45 mixed with grape drank, and solves crime through meditative mind projection from her commune, or it's racism.

 

He has been for awhile. Now they're thinking of making him a Black British dude. I see nothing wrong with that.

 

I think they should get a San Bushman for the part.

 

The fact that he's firmly established in the collective mind as white makes a black Bond just another black 'version' of a white character. If you want to get technical about it, there could be a white Shaft. They could re-write the character as a white who was raised in the ghetto by a black woman.

Yes, but their not as well-known and white people aren't demanding to play them.

 

According to leaked e-mails, Sony Pictures could cast a black British actor as the next James Bond after Daniel Craig's retirement. It's a Japanese-owned company and Sony Pictures can make its casting decisions without being constrained by racial stereotypes in Western society. It was in 1971 when Trina Parks starred in the film "Diamonds Are Forever," making her the first-ever black James Bond Girl.

 

Why can't Bond be Chinese?

 

AHHHSOO!! Money Penny....you wan Pork Flied Lice with dat?

Yeah...I don't see it happening.

AboveAlpha....p.s...I also don't see Craig playing a role designed for Jackie Chan.

 

I don't care. As long as they make a good movie why should it matter?

It's still not a factual statement to say that there are no Black characters in the movie industry. It's not like Black people are fixated on making Black versions of everything.

 

Just not the same. Ratings will plummet.

 

If it's a good movie then I doubt it.

 

Have to get folks there first.

 

If you make it people will watch and generally when a movie gets a lot of buzz more people watch it.

 

Wesley Snipes should be the next Bond.

 

Did he finish paying his back taxes?

- - - Updated - - -

Perhaps, but I don't think they should changed a good formula.

 

Joking aside the Bond character has a story. He's British. Blacks would go nuts if they created a popular Black character and some White dude got the part.

 

(My bold)

Black slaves were ripped from their culture, torn from their families, religion, language, customs. They were forbidden to learn to read & write, forced to learn enough English to obey, trained only in the interests of their owners. Shipped across the Atlantic, subjected to scanty, poor food, lack of water, fierce corporal punishment, & on & on.

As slaves in the US, African Americans had no rights @ all - you might as well talk about the rights of a chair. If you don't like the outcomes for current Blacks in the US - we can try to cultivate a different set of values in those communities. But it's an uphill battle, after centuries of ill treatment.

 

(My bold)

African Americans? Because they're born & bred in the US - weaned on TV, Disney, movies - the usual assordid suspects. Blacks had been in the British colonies here, not many, but here. Black slaves were stripped of their culture - including their legends, religions, languages, myths, etc. African characters would be African - they would have African names, speak an African language (likely), have African customs, body langauge & so on.

Hispanics have a long cultural history - & languages, literatures, religion - mostly Western in orientation. & even @ that, there's a lot of resistance in the US to the notion of Hispanic culture. The descendants of Black slaves in the US don't have that luxury - if they're aware of their African cultural antecedents, it's because they went out & looked for them.

 

(My bold)

Nah, they were/are marketing mascots, meant to evoke who-knows-what impulse - to buy? to feel comforted? among the targeted demographics - which, judging solely by the two images, must have been households in the US South.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aunt_Jemima

"Aunt Jemima
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Aunt Jemima is a brand of pancake mix, syrup, and other breakfast foods currently owned by the Quaker Oats Company of Chicago. The trademark dates to 1893, although Aunt Jemima pancake mix debuted in 1889. The Quaker Oats Company first registered the Aunt Jemima trademark in April 1937.[1] Aunt Jemima originally came from a minstrel show as one of their pantheon of stereotypical African American characters. Aunt Jemima appears to have been a postbellum addition to that cast.[2] ...

"Idealization of plantation life[edit]

"Aunt Jemima embodied an early twentieth century idealized domesticity that was inspired by old southern hospitality.[14] There were others that capitalized on this theme, such as Uncle Ben's Rice and Cream of Wheat’s Rastus.[15] The backdrop to the trademark image of Aunt Jemima is a romanticized view of antebellum plantation life. The myth surrounding Aunt Jemima's secret recipe, family life, and plantation life as a happy slave contributes to the post civil war idealism of southern life and America's developing consumer culture. Early advertisements used an Aunt Jemima paper doll family as an advertising gimmick to buy the product.[14] Aunt Jemima is represented with her husband, Rastus, whose name was later changed to Uncle Mose to avoid confusion with the Cream of Wheat character, and their four children: Abraham Lincoln, Dilsie, Zeb, and Dinah.[14] The doll family was barefoot and dressed in tattered clothing with the possibility to see them transform from rags to riches by buying another box with "civilized" clothing cut-outs.[16]"

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncle_Ben's_(rice)

"Marketing origins[edit]

"Uncle Ben’s products carry the image of an elderly African-American man dressed in a bow tie, said to have been the visage of a Chicago maître d’hôtel named Frank Brown.[11] According to Mars, Uncle Ben was an African-American rice grower known for the quality of his rice. Gordon L. Harwell, an entrepreneur who had supplied rice to the armed forces in World War II, chose the name Uncle Ben’s as a means to expand his marketing efforts to the general public.[12] "Uncle" was a common appellation used in the Southern United States to refer to older male Black slaves or servants.[13]"

(My emphasis)

 

(My bold)

Yah, well, a mythological character. But of course, hardly anyone in the US takes history - let alone mythology - seriously. Yes, I would prefer to see an African American actress in the part - but it's Show Biz, & the Biz doesn't care about accuracy. It's all about marketing, & pulling in the bucks.

& so we'll get most-common-denominator solutions to every problem, because that's what the bean-counters say pays. A pity, really. I think there are talented actors languishing out there, that we'll likely never see - because they don't fit somebody's formula for box-office success.