Vin, Hannibal, and Racial Slurs.. wtf!

Ok I am kind of upset. I will probably regret even starting this post, but it is on my mind so here it goes.

RE: Vin Diesel, and Hannibal

I was just over at AICN reading some of the user posts down there at the bottom. What's up my burr at the moment is the amount of posts just discussing the fact of whether Vin is dark enough/not dark enough to play this role. WTF! I guess I was naive in the notion that people were starting to deal with the fact that we are all of the race of freakin HUMANS reguardless of what pigment our epidermis has. Appernetly I was wrong. There are post after post of people going over the actual history aspect of the movie to get it accurate then each of them actually comments on whether he should have gotten the role because of his skin color.

Gawd, it makes my skin crawl

Shouldn't it matter that the guy is a good acotr with the potential to be a great one day? That he isnt afraid to take a role that may not propel him into the big bucks catagory at the freakin box office?

Apperently all that matters is that a few folks think he needs to tan alittle for the role, or that he shouldnt play it all, because he is not of the correct race...

wtf.

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I dunno if it's all that bad. Wouldn't we all be pretty upset if they cast Kevin Spacey as Booker T. Washington, after all?

See, I think that's a different sort of case. When casting a non-fictional character as modern as Washington, there is a need to find an actor who both at least marginally resembles that person and who can convincingly portray that person. For historic (and I'm talking ancient, here) characters, there's a lot more room to move around, and a lot of boundaries can be bypassed, if the actor in question is good enough.

And if Vin has been cast as Hannibal, there's a reason, and it's his f*cking part. But, unfortunately, people are always gonna find something to b*tch about. Inset shrugging Smilie here.

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So, are you saying that race shouldn't matter, necessarily, if the historical figure being portrayed is, well, less than modern?

I realized my mistake as soon as I posted the damn thing. And went back and edited it.

But I stand by my point... although it's a bit altered...



EDIT: Damn! Stop editing, Chris, when I'm not looking! Now I have to go back and with the thing and the typing and the craziness...

I saw your edit just after posting mine, and changed mine, too.

I think.

Damnitt, this is confusing.

See my above edit.

Okay, now we must start anew. No more edits, unless they are done after a suitable warning. I'm thinking something like: "STAND BACK. I AM ABOUT TO EDIT YON POST."

Okay. To address the point, and get us back on track :

I think it does matter, but I also think there's room to be flexible. And what's really strange is, we're not even dealing with the issue of a white guy being cast as an African historical figure, which would really get some panties in a bunch, nowadays.

These are some sticky waters we're wading into, for certain, and there's a whole lotta history behind the debate of what exactly "color-blind" casting means...

But with Vin it doesn't seem to be a question of race, or even his mixed heritage--it's a question of "Is he dark enough?" And I find that ridiculous.

What I find more ridiculous is that we take people who are mostly white or European, and call them black or African American. If we are to truly treat all races equally, shouldn't we call a mostly white person white and a mostly black person black? Three examples: Vin Diesel, Jason Kidd, Mariah Carey. It makes no sense to me to call these people black. Yes, we should all just be considered members of the human race, but while we still have a need to have racial names, we should at least try to get it right.

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Who is Jason Kidd?

Basketball superstar.