Are you making the point that only a small percentage of black people make it in the entertainment industry? Only a small percentage of white people make it as well; what’s your point?That's 14% of everything and that's probably only a small portion relative to the supposedly 13% or so of black people, so I think your understanding of statistics is pretty terrible, and I never took it. No, it isn't, because that's 12% of a number we have yet to determine, but I'd hazard it's probably not that big in the grand scheme of lead actors. How about we go with 10000 as a rough number for now, maybe even 50000, which comes out to about 6000 black people at best, which is a pittance for the 12% of the entire U.S. population? You really want to bring up math when it seems like you just want to utilize the flat numbers without context?
If you care, you can do a count of all the people in the entertainment industry and see how many are black vs white. I personally don’t care because I’m happy with the number; however if you are not satisfied, feel free to count and let me know what you come up with.And that's just your opinion, by your own admission, so how are we to determine if it's anything substantive?
Doesn’t mean they will be either.Represented and represented well are not the same thing: merely because we can find them doesn't mean they aren't still going to be viewed in that historical lens of black women stereotypes
I didn’t say “absolute representation” those are your words. (talking about straw manning) You speak as if you know how most white people judge black people.Did I claim absolute representaiton? No? Then stop strawmanning me with this caricature that I was so certain I'd claim I represent all white people
I don’t believe there is such a thing as a white hegemony in this country because white people are too diverse in their beliefs, ideas, and standards. If all white people believed, thought, and acted as one, you might have a point; but that is not the case.The standards that have been historically as the hegemony, that's not complicated. And they're different because the black standards were regarded as unimportant historically, or do you deny that?
Systemic racism (if it actually existed) or even racism has little to do with black people coming up short in America. 95% of our problems are self inflicted. Why do you think black people who migrate to America from Africa, Caribbean's, and other parts of the world, for 2 generations will out preform black people who are decedents of slaves in education, and income? As I said before, our problem is culture; not racism, but nobody wants to talk about that.So representation in one area means it's getting "better"? How? You admit that's one out of several groups, which might as well mean you've gotten up one rung on a proverbial ladder and thus the progress is punishingly slow, even by generational standards. Yet you seem to deny systemic racism even though by your own admission, black people come up short in pretty much every other area beyond entertainment, which is easy enough to do when you're viewed as a freaking joke or a token by the majority white culture.
Don’t assume that because I don’t obsess over the racism of the past, that I haven’t studied, learned, or have knowledge of it; and don’t assume that because I don’t agree with your belief of the role it plays in the predicament my people find ourselves in today, that somehow this disagreement is based on ignorance.Because those who fail to learn from the past are doomed to repeat it. Or is that too radical? And I never said focus, I said acknowledge and consider that it isn't just gone from cultural influence,
I suspect the fact that you live in the South and I live in the West, and we deal with the people we live around, this may have a lot to do with our different opinions concerning racial issues in this country.
No more than they can be applied to many of the roles white women play. There are plenty of white actresses who play the motherly type, (Sandra Bullock from the move The blind side comes to mind) there are plenty who play the “hot head/quick tempered, (Fatal Attraction comes to mind) and plenty who play the traitor/cheater (Linsey Lohan from the movie Mean Girls comes to mind). This applies to all actor/actress; regardless of race or gender. The fact that you would criticize when black women do it but look the other way thus giving them a pass when white women do it is telling to say the least.Let's take recent Oscar winners, like Octavia Spencer or Monique. I've seen The Help (should rewatch that sometime in the future) and pretty sure Octavia Spencer's character is simultaneously the Sapphire and the Mammy, even Viola Davis as the lead fit into that Mammy role, taking care of the children. And as for the Jezebel could arguably fit into Jennifer Hudson's role in Dreamgirls, from what I gather, though honestly I'd leave some of this to you, if you're more familiar with black women that may fit into that Jezebel stereotype.
Do you acknowledge that possibility of these stereotypes being used in some sense to apply to black women?
No more than they can be applied to white men.And do you not think there are similar stereotypes applied to black men, like Sambo or Mandingo or Uncle Tom (which ironically almost mirror the 3 "archetypal" black women)
Last edited:
Upvote
0