Star Trek: Round Spaceships

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Dolphin: Dec 5, 2008; by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

Amethyst posted:

I'm going to guess you are white. You may not understand this, but for many non-white people, it can be frustrating to never see anyone of your own race in decent roles. For people to write off changing a character who is of an ethnic minority to a white character as 'not a big deal' and raise a bunch of little excuses like you are can be maddening, because the opposite very rarely if ever happens.

Ricardo Montalban was a Mexican of Spanish descent--so his race (race is a scientifically meaningless term except as a cultural phenomenon) was basically white. He spoke with a Latin American accent and his skin was tan at the time and he was cast as an Indian character.

Now think about that for a second... a Mexican of Western European ancestry was used as a placeholder for an Indian. And you're upset that Khan is being played by Benedict Cumberbatch? Would it make you happier if Bennedict Cumberbatch developed a dark tan and acted like an Indian man instead of a British one? Minorities are way underrepresented in cinema, but in this case the "non-white" character was completely racially ambiguous in the first place and the actor was basically a white dude. Would it have been better to cast a minority instead? I don't know, I'm not the casting director, maybe there wasn't a good candidate.

I understand what you're saying and I agree that minorities are underrepresented in cinema, but don't go around assuming that anyone who disagrees with you is just a racist white man because that undermines your credibility.

# ¿ May 6, 2012 22:43

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# ¿ May 20, 2024 22:22

Dolphin: Dec 5, 2008; by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

MrMo posted:

I am an Afghan, by most I am considered a racial minority but on any form I am defined as being Caucasian, or an Aryan. In no way does this make me white to anyone including myself; racial identity is a strange and mysterious thing that I feel is super poorly and ill defined.

Also Khan is definitely an Indian racially, Space Seed defines him as such very clearly, it is also super cool that a man from India is a superhuman and controls one of the largest Empires in the history of earth and also was not a total oval office about the whole thing.

I agree with everything that you're saying.

My point is that in terms of the underrepresented minorities in cinema issue--Benedict Cumberbatch isn't a substitution of a white actor for a minority actor--and Ricardo Montalban passing as an Indian is an example of another race issue that has been present since early Hollywood. Hollywood has been using tanned white guys and generic "ethnic" characters in place of every non-white character since the beginning.

I think you're right that the character is more interesting as an Indian man, and I personally think that they would have been better off casting someone like Kal Penn (they could do a White Castle joke!). I just don't think that Benedict Cumberbatch is any more an example of white washing than Ricardo Montalban was.

Dolphin fucked around with this message at 23:19 on May 6, 2012

# ¿ May 6, 2012 23:16

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