I'm keeping a running tab, this is Part 5 of this series. Let's review:
I'm keeping a running tab of these bitter fruits because a lot of AAs like to play games when these issues come up. Too many of us pretend to have amnesia and choose to be “perpetually surprised” about the extremely predictable consequences of our choices.
A lot of y'all got mad when I originally questioned your knee-jerk, rabid, UN-reciprocated crusades in support of 12 Years a Slave.
I'm rubbing your noses in this mess because too many of y'all got belligerent when those of us who saw this type of thing coming questioned your knee-jerk caping in support of 12 Years a Slave.
I want you to remember these bitter fruits the next time you get the urge to throw on your Superwoman cape in support of random Black-skinned (or random Black-ish) faces.
I want you to think twice before caping for anybody or anything.
I want you to learn to ask simple preliminary questions, such as:
(1) What's in it for me and African-American women like me to support this?
(2) Who benefits from this [movie, TV show, record deal, etc.]?
(3) Who benefits the most from this [movie, TV show, record deal, etc.]?
Well, let's see . . .
So far, there's the Vanity Fair magazine cover I discussed HERE. There's the growing bad feeling some of y'all are belatedly experiencing that I discussed HERE. There's the casting of two foreign Black performers as Dr. King and Coretta Scott King in an upcoming biopic about Dr. King that I discussed HERE.
I also mentioned this: Lupita Nyong'o joins 'Star Wars' cast. Your unsolicited caping in support of 12 Years a Slave has worked out VERY well for the foreign Blacks who are reaping the lion's share of the material and career benefits from that movie. Meanwhile, you and AA actresses are still empty-handed.
Thirty-four (34) years ago, the first negro male actor was cast in the Star Wars franchise (Billy Dee Williams). The second negro male actor was cast in the Star Wars franchise in 2005 (Samuel Jackson).
And now that the first BW will appear in the American Star Wars movie franchise, your unsolicited caping for 12 Years a Slave has helped a foreign BW become that first (and most likely last) BW cast to appear in Star Wars. Full article HERE.
And now there's THIS from West Indian-British director Steve McQueen:
"HBO has given a pilot order to a drama from “12 Years a Slave” helmer Steve McQueen and scribe Matthew Michael Carnahan.
“Codes of Conduct” revolves around a young African-American man who enters New York high society but his past may not be what it seems. The project will be toplined by Devon Terrell (pictured), a Long Beach native who grew up in Perth, Australia where he has studied acting and recently attended the prestigious National Institute of Dramatic Art."
Please note that this actor who has been cast to play "a young African-American man" is apparently yet another biracial with a nonblack mother: "Devon was born in Long Beach, California to Anglo-Indian and African-American parents. Moving to Perth at an early age Devon was brought up in a sports-based lifestyle developing a natural drive and passion for basketball, but that was not all he was limited to." Sounds like his mother is probably ethnically East Indian and/or Pakistani.
Check out THIS post (partially quoted below) about how the casting for that part in McQueen's project was conducted:
So parskis brought to my attention this conversation going on about the Steve McQueen HBO series auditions and the casting of a very lightskinned Australian in the lead role on karnythia's twitter. Those of you who were following me like two months ago when the open call went down know I was there that day.
I was in line for several hours and didn’t even get within a block of the door, but there were people who were there for twelve hours or more. Sometime before I had to leave for work, one of the dudes next to me in line started getting updates from a friend of his who was inside. He had been there since 8 AM and had just gotten inside. He told his friend that they were sending all but the prettiest darkskinned dudes home and aside from those prettiest dudes, the only people seeing the casting directors were lightskinned.
It’s fucked up that this is accepted practice in the industry and it’s fucked up that our own filmmakers, once they’ve made it, are perpetuating it.
wow, what the fuck
Not at ALL surprised.Right. So Steve McQueen is using the career boost he got from YOUR knee-jerk, rabid, unreciprocated support of 12 Years a Slave to make MORE projects about African-Americans. All while discriminating against Black African-American performers. And while engaging in colorism.
Just like Ava Duvernay got a Black Brit playing Dr. King.
Couldn’t find a Black American actor for nothing.
As I mentioned in an EARLIER POST, a lot of these various others that you cape for (BM in general, foreign Blacks, Latinos, other so-called people of color, cross-dressing/transgender men, etc.) disrespect, demean and hate you in large part because you cape for them. Oh, for example, such as the sexism faced by the idiotic mammy mules who are protesting (read = muling and caping) in support of Black males in Ferguson. The extreme folly involved in this particular caping episode has been discussed by various BWE and BW-centric bloggers; links are provided in THIS post.
Straight African-American Black women, stop caping in general. Please just stop caping.
