The Big Picture: Skin Deep

[Corran006]

I have to say I was loosing a bit of faith In movie bob for the past few reviews he gave and the big picture.

This episode of the big pictured has restored a lot of my lost faith. He really understands why Black actors playing white actors is ok given our history of priivatge and power.

 

[Irony's Acolyte]

I'm okay with race-swapping in certain situations. When you hire an actor based on their skill rather than their race, I see that as a very good thing. I believe that the only way for us to reach social racial equality will be for us to stop worrying about race all together (even positive worrying). There are situations where I don't think we should do it, like when a character's race is integral with his personality (his race had to deal with oppression or prejudice) or they're trying to be historically accurate (I don't care how good the actor is, I don't want a black George Washington or a white Harriet Tubman).

So in the end am I okay with this particular example of race-swapping? It depends upon the reason. If they hired the guy because they felt he was a good actor and that he was the best choice for the role, then great, go for it. He isn't playing a Norse God, he's playing a character in a movie based off a comic book that is based loosely off an old dead religion. It's okay to have a little leeway. If they choose him just to get some token minority actor in (which it really doesn't sound like, from what I've heard he did a great job in his role) then no, I don't like their choice. Sure the world ain't perfect and we can't always solve everything, but sometimes you have to think in the long-term rather than the short term and solve the problem, not the symptoms.

 

[Dangerious P. Cats]

Good episode.

I really feel the need to point this out when the Airbender comparison comes up but there's a really big difference between changing the race of the entire cast of of a cannon and changing one member of the supporting cast.

 

[Eldarion]

One African tribe capture another African tribe and sold them to the Spaniards who treated the captured Africans worse than any slave holder.

That's all I really have to say about racism in history.

^This.

All this "slavery is the white man's fault" nonsense rings a little false considering that black people captured/enslaved/sold eachother as well, so they aren't really any better are they?

Not to imply that there wasn't a huge amount of wrongdoing on our side, a whole ton in fact. But it wasn't just whitey doing it.

 

[Namewithheld]

I am amused that MLP:FIM is referenced as the perfect world without racism.

Zecora, anyone? There was only a whole episode about how all the Ponies were racist against her for being a zebra.

 

[Crabby_the_Frog]

Great vid this week!

Also I liked how his ideal world is MLP. Maybe he IS a brony!


If you're looking for a topic for an upcoming week, throw some fuel on the fire and do one on MLP!

 

[MBE]

so correct me if I'm wrong but he's basically saying we're responsible for the actions of people that no living person can remember, even when there were plenty of white people involved in the equal rights marches. I suppose he also thinks that modern day Germans are responsible for the holocaust or modern Christians for witch burnings. yes it was a tragedy and an atrocity but there's sod all we can do about it now and a troubled history is not a license to label any critics as racist (I'm looking at you Israel, yeah we see what you've been doing to Palestine for the last God knows how many years)

I agree, to make this a perfect world, instead of the shitty one we currently have, we need to round up everyone who was alive in 1860 punish them for what they did! Yeah, that'll fix everything.

As for Israel, using MovieBob's logic, we should let them do anything they wish within Israel in compensation for what we Caucasians did to them during WWII and the centuries preceding. For as long as we of European decent had been oppressing Jews, we should facilitate them to flourish in Israel.

Please refresh my memory... How many Jewish suicide bombers are there in a given week? How many rocket attacks have there been from Jewish civilian population areas, thus preventing the "Palestinians" from retaliating? Yeah, I thought so.

 

[Ampersand]

Does anyone else think that black superman is a great idea? Cause I sure as hell do

You know I had this exact arguement with my father on the way home from Thor and my answer is no. Since WWII Superman, Clark Kent, the main character of the DC universe, has been depicted with caucasian features. Now if krypton was written to also have black residents, and one of them worked along side, or took over for Superman, I'd be cool with that. But turning Clark Kent black is something I can't get behind.

The DCU has infinite versions of earth. There's a black superman somewhere

 

[PrinceofPersia]

Does anyone else think that black superman is a great idea? Cause I sure as hell do

I agree, I also want to see a frair Tuck who is a Moor and some actual Middle Easterner heroes get on it Hollywood. Plus Idris Elba rocked as Heimdall he got that character of a watchman down pat.

 

[Grey_Focks]

Holy crap Bob, this is one of those rare episodes where I can say "Yeah, I agree completely."

Well done, sir.

As for the topic at hand, my stance is this- If they either fit the character nicely, or just do a fantastic job of their interpretation of the character, their race really shouldn't matter, though making a non-white character into a white one is still a dick move, it's forgiveable if it's at least a good performance. This is a very rare thing.

 

[lordofthenight]

With Thor, I felt it was a weird choice, but didn't really have a problem with it. After all, the premise (I've never really read much of the Thor comics, but how it came across in the films), was that the Norse Gods existed. Not that they were actually of Scandinavian origin or anything. So while they were worshipped by the Norse, there's no reason they should have been of Scandinavian ethnicity. Only have a few ethnic minorities amongst the Gods might've unmined that slightly, as it made them more obvious, but still.

What does annoy me more though, is the colour-blind casting in BBC programs (I'm British, so I have more experience with them) which are supposed to be historically set. Merlin and Robin Hood, both set in medieval England, but featuring black characters in important roles, without it ever remarking on why they're there just irritates me.

 

[Xman490]

"...an ideal world..."
Woah, woah, woah! Even MovieBob has identified the awesomeness of My Little Pony? That's it, I'm watching an episode!

 

[bj_waters]

I don't care what ANYBODY says, I want an episode (if not multiple episodes) devoted to Samurai Pizza Cats. And, while I'm dreaming, I want the entire series remastered put on DVD or Blu-Ray along with its Japanese original with subs. And a big screen television to play them on. With home theater surround sound. And some cake.

 

[Vausch]

It always feels good when there's somebody with a voice that has an opinion mirroring your own. When I heard about Elba playing Heimdall, I really didn't care either way for two reasons: I'm not a big Thor fan and didn't know much about the characters, and we can all admit black comic book characters in the early days were... less than respectable? *coughEbonyWhitecough*

In any case, as long as the actor is good and the story is good and their part is good, I say race doesn't matter much. Heck, I wasn't even that upset that Goku wasn't Asian in Dragonball Evolution because he's an alien. I was upset and so downright enraged that the movie sucked so horribly I bought 5 copies in the dollar bin so I could destroy them over and over, but that's a tangent.

 

[Patton662]

The reason why so many comic book characters are white is because the early comic book industry was racist as hell. Being racist was part of American culture at the time.

 

[RitsukoAkagi2000]

Movie bob, I am a half black, half white, female gamer nerd. THIS WAS THE BEST EPISODE EVER! WELL DONE! I just had to tell you that