white people in movies

It sometimes matters more than you might imagine. Have you ever seen one of those studies where they show kids photos of people of different ethnicities and ask them questions about what kind of people they are? You uniformly get them repeating negative stereotypes, because that's the only representations they regularly see. So - it's not so much a problem that there are too many white people in films, and more that virtually anyone who isn't white in mainstream films and TV is presented in an incredible reductive light.

I agree with you, it shouldn't be some end-all criteria to judge a movie by.

Unless it's just obviously bad like... having Matt Damon play the lead in The Great Wall :P

psst. also im asian..

This makes you even more privileged than "white" people these days. Didn't you get the memo? :P

Just read some scientific research on self esteem and image representation
who gives a shit? Anyone who isn't a white guy should. And some white guys too.
When all you see through your whole life, starting in infancy is white guys saving the day, you tend to believe that's the way life is.
Some people, including a whole lot of psychologists and sociologists believe that it's important to be exposed to role models you can identify with, to a variety of points of view and to perspectives different than your own.

Books do that and have a positive impact on personality and empathy.

Now I agree that people ignoring or trolling movies because of that are being irrational and counter productive .It's the drama queen social media effect. But I disagree when you say it doesn't matter. Yes we are all humans, that's why it matters.

Since we are all humans, we should get to a point when anybody can watch a movie with an Asian female character and find something to relate to, or be interested even if they can't identify. It won't happen without some change though.

Think from what you are broadcasting from long ago ...
It will be a remake from Japan to the United States as an example of "Sentai Anime" ....
Spirit of gender equality!
Male 4 changed woman 1 and increased the number of women.

Spirit of racial equality!
"Reduce yellow people, increase blacks and whites"

Other, discrimination! And the rest of the filtering all the sticking labels was remodeled in America.

Is it originality?
Either white people, all black people, or all of us yellow people do not mind.

I want you to express it freely.

Any expression can "choose not to see".
Freedom which does not permit expression is not permitted.

If possible, look it up.
I want to think, want to laugh, I want to get angry.

I feel like that.

ikr, damn white people and their

shuffle deck
pick first card on top

presence in western movies!

unironically those same people that makes of racial quotas an issue on various aspects of society have nothing to complain about when white are underrepresented, or not represented at all in those same areas.

You're speaking from the privilege of the current times and recent cultural representation . You have to realize this has racially been a turning tide for most of film history. One of the earliest works of full-narrative film was D.W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation in 1915, which portrayed the KKK as heroic saviors to the tyranny of "negro oppression."

We have come a long way in film's relatively short history, but still a ways to go. It also tends to ebb like a tide, sometimes receding. The Blaxploitation movement in the 60s/70s is a great example of this flow. It initially led to an unprecedented surge of non-white employment in the industry, especially at the producer and directorial level. But, less than a decade later Hollywood had regressed to the studio norms of the 50s.

"Too many white people"? Sounds like a review on "Super Mario bros."

Intersectional feminism is cancer. That's why. It's racist and sexist, and pretty much everything this authoritarian hell ideology accuse other of being.

If people want diversity, watch diverse movies. Too few black people? Watch African movies. Too few asians? Watch Korean/japanese or Chinese movies. Too few Indians? Watch the 3 billion bollywood movies out there.

witcher will have so bad reviews then :(

Maybe this is why "The Walking Dead" is so popular.

The topic of "whitewashing" and all that reminds me of this debacle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXZKgk01G-A

Many people in the west are bored and need something to get them going and to excite them, and want something easy to make them feel good about themselves, and to feel like a "warrior for justice", and what's an easier and quicker way to get that than being offended; especially being offended for other people (where you're not the victim anyway)? You can get offended by anything you want since it comes down to feeling. Even if it's not really justified.

While I'm not complaining about it, I really think a lot of it is to with how comfortable the people in the west have gotten; we live in the best, most fairest and most peaceful age humanity has ever known thanks to many advances in both technology and social progress (although you wouldn't think these things from looking at headlines), and many of us have more free time than any of our non-rich ancestors ever had, and all this coupled with how these issues really were major issues in the past; certain people will milk these things for all they can. It's easy feel-good fuel, and even easier attention.

Odd... Personally I don't care what color anybody is. I like actors from all races. I never even thought about it.
But then again... I don't really like the smurfs, so I could be racist against blue people. But I did like avatar who are also blue.
I have watched Asian movies before too. But it really never crossed my mind that it was weird that almost all actors were Asian. It made perfect sense to me and didn't bother me at all.

I think people are just over sensitive these days. They start crying over literally EVERYTHING. I constantly see things pop up in the news where a little group of people is angry about "something". I always wonder how simple their lives must be to get angry over such little things. Don't they have real/important things to worry about?

I'm just waiting to see which character will be black in Witcher from Netflix. Triss? Dandelion? Maybe even Geralt..?
Today's media are just too "politically correct".

Hollywood is located in California, so the majority of local talent is caucasian (white), thus caucasian actors are more likely to audition for the various roles (see statistics here). I expect if Hollywood was located in China the movies produced would mostly employ actors of Asian decent, or if it was in Africa it would mostly be of African descent.

The reason people are offended by a 'lack of diversity' varies, but ultimately I think a lot of it stems from the fact that many consider Hollywood and USA produced films as representing the worldwide movie industry, instead of considering its actual physical location. If a films racial balance varies wildly from what their local talent pool provides, unless its due to the plot of the film itself, it likely means that there is some form of discrimination going on.

Rule nr. 1 of Movie critics... Ignore all movie critics.

Read the stuff of actual regular people. Really.

I couldn't give a shit who is what color, as long as the film is entertaining.
Doesn't anyone just go to a movie to be entertained anymore?

If a movie is based on books, real life, other media, then I think the race should stay the same as it was based on.

Denzel Washington in The Equalizer comes to mind. Arguably better than the TV series it was based on. And you can't tell me Idris Elba wouldn't make an amazing James Bond. Of course, on the opposite end of the spectrum, there's Johnny Depp playing Tonto in The Lone Ranger. (cringes) ;)

"concerned about which race" you state we are all humans, that is our race.
people mistake skin color / ethnicity for race.

as for movies, what movies are you referring to?

i agree a review stating "too much white people" is not appropriate or useful.

I look in 99% of the cases on the actors QUALITY, not on his skin color.
Only at a few times i look at this too. I give a few examples.

• Newer Star Wars movies, a stormtrooper take the helmet down and i see a afro-american actor. Sorry at that moment i want puke. A Stormtrooper have to be "the same as all other ones" ... and that was NOT afro-american at the beginning of the Star Wars Saga.
  When they were Afro-American looking from the beginning no problem but change that after MANY YEARS and MANY MOVIES is stupid and wrong understand "political correctness".
• Other movies were white people (western Europeans/US people) play Asian Fighting Champions/Masters or a Leader of a Group/Clan/Village (anything "special"). That is sooooooo stupid. When the movie plays in a asian country the oldest of a village/special guy should not be Matt Damon or similar actor (i think on "The Great Wall" and such stupid things...).

I think i look a bigger part asian movies then the common/usual western Europe and US guy.
Because they use much lesser patriotism then Hollywood, the action scenes are really action with real punching not at 100% strength and not only barbie plays from a fight (a lot of "action heroes" from hollywood are only embarrassing -special in the last 10 years more and more of this "faked action guys" come up-), the movie content is more different from my normal life and let me look on different things in a other way and the asian movies looks on a deeper at least past culture. I see there mostly a liveing with lesser property, more poorly, lesser space at houses/flats/citys but not unhappy people from that facts -you don't need much to be happy-, and at the medieval movies you can learn a bit too and you know... "the real fighting scenes"^^. And as a sidenote i prefer the asian females when i see all the botox/surgery victims at the US female actors (i don't like actors that can't make different face expressions, i am not a fan of silicon and lips that can be sold as dinghies -all that is NOT beautiful for me-).
In Europe you have different movie "handling/making" countrys too, as example the french movies are mostly very much of theatre playing. Much talks, much in the direction of artists/bohemians -by the talk too-, for myself it is partly exhausting to look such movies but they are always different then the common ones. Or take the nordic countrys (Sweden and Norge as biggest ones), often very dark humor -how i like it-, sarcasm and very direct. I like it that way and it is a bit of "Quentin Tarantino Style" in it.
And then you have the US common/equal stuff that repeats, repeats, repeats and repeats (soooooooooo boring and too often with really bad actors -i would normaly not use the word actors for such people...-, they are more Barbie & Ken -choosed only from the looking-). When they repeat/copy asian movies the result is ALWAYS shit :o(. Yes it give other, good, movies too but the overwhelming stuff from hollywood is "the same old story". Quentin Tarantino is one of a few ones that bring different movies then the usual US ones. And yes i like them exception Inglorious Bastards.

In an ideal world we look at two things if a story doesn't demand a certain race or gender; skill, and a way to improve skill.
Ideally you'd have the best person for the job do the job.
However we should also try to give a more diverse group the chance to improve their skills, preferably in a setting more catered to that, so not a blockbuster. In education we do this by giving minorities that are not necessarily at the top of their class a chance to improve themselves. In some cases it's like throwing someone that can't swim well in the deep end of the pool, but more often they do just fine and it gives opportunity and motivation to other minorities. This creates an upward spiral that helps natural diversification.

Unfortunately sometimes the issue gets forced, that's when you get female Ghostbusters, female burglars, or a wave of movies that are over diversified...making them under diversified...
When segregation is not intentional and gets noticed, the reaction is often too extreme, causing intentional segregation on the other side of the fence.

I think it's simply an attempt to combat the idea of "white as the default".
Like, if it's a movie about an african king kickpunching bad guys in Africa, sure, they'll probably go with a black person.
If it's a movie about Gandhi, they'll probably go with an Indian.

But if it is a movie about a cop trapped in a building. Or a movie about an adventuring archaelogist. Or a movie about a space adventure with magic powers. Or a movie about going into people's dreams to implant ideas. Or a movie about a dinosaur tamer rescuing kids on an island

They'll go with a white person. The idea that when the race of the person is inconsequential, the vast majority of the time, they are defaulted to being the "standard" or white (at least until recently). And this is in spite of the fact that (at least according to the stats someone posted in here earlier), white people only make up about half of the below 65 population in the US.