Bantu Thoughts- In Bob We Trust: The Great Wall
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJDtBLCT6hY
By William Rivers
For some future context, Bantu Thoughts is a segment where I give quick responses to articles and videos about the film industry or about films themselves, or just share a few original thoughts of mine of the sort. Today, I watched a video from a Youtuber that I highly respect, who goes by the name "MovieBob". Please go watch his video for the context of the following article, and please check out his channel. I have been following his stuff for a while now and anyone who is deeply interested in film will greatly benefit from hearing what he has to say.While I do understand what Bob is trying to say, I think that the main issue that I have stems from the idea of what America is, as a concept that is pitched to the rest of the world, as opposed to what the product actually looks like. When Chinese filmmakers want to create a movie and they cast white actors, that is their decision to do so, and this explanation of why is a legitimate one. The problem lies in the fact that for over a century, the US has produced movies solely staring white actors despite have literally always having a diverse set of local cultures. From nearly the beginning, this country has been considered to be a "melting pot", so all sorts of people can all be considered to be American. When an Indian film company produces a movie, they use Indian actors, unsurprisingly. Therefore, when an American company produces a movie, they are expected to use American actors as well. The issue is that "American" in the eyes of the world, and even Americans themselves is far too often connected to "White", rather than the mixture of many races and cultures that the word has always been said to represent. (For instance the fact that once many generations of Europeans have been in this country for a time, they tend to refer to themselves as simply Americans, where as POC are never expected to be separated from their hyphenated origin culture: I.E. African-American. I rarely hear my white friends refer to themselves as Irish-American or Italian-American unless their family just got here in the past couple generations.)
We have Asian-American actors and actresses that would be available to any movie, and many who likely audition for these sorts of roles, yet we don't cast them in our own productions. There have ALWAYS been POC who could have lead movies, yet they were rarely given their shot and are thus now considered to not be as legitimate and note worthy as white actors. (I.E. If any given person of color was given a shot at staring roles on a regular enough occasion, with well known filmmakers, they too would be big stars. The excuse that there are no widely known Asian-American actors to use that would make the film in question profitable enough, wouldn't be valid at all. If you put people in the limelight, they will become big names)
The production quality that we as Americans are used to, and that the rest of the world is used to seeing from us, is just that: Production Quality. The race of the actor has never been important and never will be as long as we try to challenge that idea. The reason a good portion of the world expects movies that feature their own people to not look as stunning, is because the US spent a century building that facade. That is just another way that white supremacy has altered the world as a whole. For instance, Black people expect very little from "Black Movies", myself included at times. (Which is why I review Black movies just as harshly as I would any other) We can say "See, Black people don't expect the same depth and quality from their films, so it's okay if we don't cast Taye Diggs in a big budget film because he's not as legitimate in actor". The problem is that a statement like that is all too often followed by, "Black actors aren't as SKILLED as white actors and THAT is why we won't cast Taye Diggs." (Taye Diggs being simply an example of a VERY skilled actor who is nearly only featured in movies that are panned as being ONLY for Black audiences and are thus not judged in the same manner as other films.)
Black people settle for movies that aren't the same quality as movies staring white actors, not because we can't make good films, but because we have been trained to believe that any movie made by or starring a Black person, WON'T be the same quality. That is false, and is a problem that would have been solved a long time ago if Hollywood had used any of the many POC available all these years and shown the world (China included) that the skin of the actor, does not a good movie make.
No, this doesn't really get us anywhere in the discussion, and no there is nothing that can be done about this issue that isn't being already done by companies like Marvel, (Much to the joy of fans such as myself) but I find it important to acknowledge such things when discussing the state of the world and the ideas that fuel the actions of its people. There are many reasons why things are the way that they are, and while it is true that many people in other parts of the world don't seem to have a problem with the belief that movies that come from their own people aren't as legitimate as movies starring white Americans, we can't forget to acknowledge that this idea isn't a good one, and should be challenged.
The production quality that we as Americans are used to, and that the rest of the world is used to seeing from us, is just that: Production Quality. The race of the actor has never been important and never will be as long as we try to challenge that idea. The reason a good portion of the world expects movies that feature their own people to not look as stunning, is because the US spent a century building that facade. That is just another way that white supremacy has altered the world as a whole. For instance, Black people expect very little from "Black Movies", myself included at times. (Which is why I review Black movies just as harshly as I would any other) We can say "See, Black people don't expect the same depth and quality from their films, so it's okay if we don't cast Taye Diggs in a big budget film because he's not as legitimate in actor". The problem is that a statement like that is all too often followed by, "Black actors aren't as SKILLED as white actors and THAT is why we won't cast Taye Diggs." (Taye Diggs being simply an example of a VERY skilled actor who is nearly only featured in movies that are panned as being ONLY for Black audiences and are thus not judged in the same manner as other films.)
Black people settle for movies that aren't the same quality as movies staring white actors, not because we can't make good films, but because we have been trained to believe that any movie made by or starring a Black person, WON'T be the same quality. That is false, and is a problem that would have been solved a long time ago if Hollywood had used any of the many POC available all these years and shown the world (China included) that the skin of the actor, does not a good movie make.
No, this doesn't really get us anywhere in the discussion, and no there is nothing that can be done about this issue that isn't being already done by companies like Marvel, (Much to the joy of fans such as myself) but I find it important to acknowledge such things when discussing the state of the world and the ideas that fuel the actions of its people. There are many reasons why things are the way that they are, and while it is true that many people in other parts of the world don't seem to have a problem with the belief that movies that come from their own people aren't as legitimate as movies starring white Americans, we can't forget to acknowledge that this idea isn't a good one, and should be challenged.
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