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The Woke Always Eat Their Own
This is the top story on Twitter this morning about a casting announcement for a new movie about Serena and Venus Williams:
When you click on the story, the objections appear to just be from a handful accounts, and none of them notable. That hasn’t stopped Twitter from elevating their complaints to the mainstream, granting them undeserved legitimacy.
The purpose is for clicks, for engagement, for conversation on Twitter about the topic. It’s their business model, and you can’t fault them for trying to initiate a conversation. The problem is, Twitter (and its ultra-liberal Silicon Valley engineers) are willing to let the enemy of the good be the enemy of the perfect; stoking race wars within the black community in order to do it.
It’s not enough for a movie to be made about a black American family that deserves praise and the big screen treatment; but one of the lead actors has to be subjected to a skin darkness check. Should anyone auditioning for the role show their arm alongside a palate of acceptable skin tone pigments to ensure they’re dark enough? If the woke police got their way all the time… boy… what a disturbing world we’d all live in.
Published in General
There’s only one logical choice to replace Smith
Scarlett Johansen
Now that’d be interesting – I hear she’s already got the Venus role. I always like those movies where one actor plays two characters.
I’m eagerly waiting for them to decide that, in order to be perfectly woke, Will Smith will have to perform in blackface.
Just wait until somebody makes a bio-pic about Johnny Winter (RIP).
Some days, there is just not enough popcorn in the world.
I hear Will Smith is taking guitar lessons.
As my 13 year old nephew would say: seriously?
Wasn’t it just yesterday that the left pushed black actors playing traditional white roles in Shakespeare? Hamlet, or an English monarch?
Probably. I couldn’t keep up even if I wanted to.
And despite the fact that this complaint is an obvious attempt that click-baiting here we are promoting it? I propose a new strategy. Ignore this kind of wanton stupidity. If give the attention seeking nitwits the attention they crave they will only keep acting out more.
Plus I thought the real Will Smith scandal is that his portrail of the genie in the live action Aladin looks like a bad CGI mess.
So, it is not really a scandal but we are going to be stuck having to listen to cable news blowhards bloviating over it anyway? Thanks Twitter.
Bethany, that “disturbing world” you fear may be just around the corner. This “blacker than thou” is just another version of the attempt to be “holier than thou” in the new radically intolerant Progressivism , and is the logical conclusion of the move to exclusionary tribalism and preferential segregation of the Social Justice movement.
Many of the most famous “black” celebrities display strong European features. Those people include among a long list, Will Smith, Beyonce, Vanessa Williams, Halle Berry, Denzel Washington, Cuba Golding Jr, Dwayne Johnson, Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali, Sammy Davis Jr, and of course our last President Buraq Obama. It’s possible that most on that list have a greater European ancestry than African. In the near future, it may be that in our new Progressive reverse Aryan society where racial purity will count far more than character, talent or accomplishment, these celebrities may be too much of an American Mutt like OMG! me and probably you to qualify as a more noble African who is untainted by any hint of the despicable White Man’s curse.
This is my objection to the degree of attention paid to Ocasio-Cortez, funny or not.
And tell me again the reasons people are on Twitter??
You’re not wrong but in fairness to him neither of these things are his fault.
As far as I know.
Ralph Northam in blackface . . .
That is probably fair. But I expect Smith to be able to have the forethought to demand that they not ruin his good image by making him look so stupid. I mean, he is a big star, and it will go down as his performance.
Though from the preview I saw of the movie I think the bigger scandal is the guy they got to play Jafar. He sounds nothing like the real Jafar. He had this high pitched girly voice. It was just shocking. Jafar is such a cool villain (I think he is my favorite Disney villain certainly top three). And they got some twerp to play him!? Ugh…
I’m sure the Virginia State AG would probably do a better job. Though I should point out the genie is blue not black. And as far as I know blue-face is perfectly acceptable, unless Blue Man group is now the new Minstrel Show.
I’m not sure. Sometimes it’s best to get a handle on these things before they get out of control.
True. By now he ought to be able to exercise some degree of creative control. Although that can usually be overcome with a big enough paycheck.
Haven’t seen the preview but I don’t disagree.
I only go on to poke fun at Jamie Lockett.
Yep. Anyone but Othello.
Clicking on a Twitter story was your first mistake.
I’m almost never an advocate of the “ignore it” strategy. Ocasio Cortes is the lonely exception – we should ignore her. Conservative world can’t help themselves, though.
Overall, I favor understatement. Conservative world tends to go too far in the wrong tone for my tastes, but we should comment that this is racist and dumb, preferably employing humor and memes. Then we should move on instead of belaboring the point and stretching it’s importance and effect beyond reason.
I also wouldn’t go so far as to say that skin color is never important to acting roles. If the story is about a particular time, place, or people, then it would be a distraction to cast without regard to race: a white guy as Nelson Mandela? A black guy as Prince Albert? A black woman as 007? An Asian guy as a a viking? A white woman as Dr. Who?
But sometimes it’s not about a particular place, time, or person. Any race can play any role in any Hallmark movie. It’s the stories and the relationships.
In this case race matters, but does specific skin tone matter? I say no that’s ridiculous bordering on unbelievably racist.
I saw one news item that suggested Bond will get killed off in the next movie. This makes the way for a new, “woke” British secret agent. Instead of Bond’s License to Kill, he/she/it will have a “License to Abort at Any Age” . . .