"Too brown to play an imaginary creature."

John Oliver's New York Stand-Up Show
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Just to confirm that Wyatt was not making this up for funzies, here is another source for the story: Are The Hobbit's Casting Agents Racist?

I was reminded of this when I was reading yet another article about certain people conspicuously missing from Peter Jackson's latest movie: So, Where Have All the Middle-earth Ladies Run Off To?

So, let me get this straight: to participate in this fantastical world, no coloreds and no womenfolks need apply? Only white men allowed?

No, I have not seen The Hobbit, but I have seen all three interminable Lord of the Rings movies, and those had an Elijah Wood incentive. This new (unnecessarily extended) trilogy has the guy from the British Office and a wizard I enjoyed more in the X-Men movies.

These are times when I think to myself, "I can't write everything that I want see." Meaning, if I want to see more books, more television shows, more movies, more commercials, with a modicum of diversity, projects that actually acknowledge that there are people that exist in the world who consume media who aren't young, white and male, I cannot possibly write all of these projects myself. I definitely couldn't distribute them by myself. There is clearly a demand. Why is there almost no supply?

It's so frustrating.  White male people do not make up a majority of the population of the country I was born and raised in. The majority of the world population is neither white nor male. Yet heaven forbid I actually see the media produced in my home country, on my home planet be reflective of that reality.

Frowny face.


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It's not "if", but "when".

Comedy Central

"There's a greater chance that, because of the lack of opportunities there are for minority actors, I will have to be in a Tyler Perry production . . . It's when I have to. Angela Bassett won an Oscar."

That's exactly what I was thinking, Wyatt! Although Angela Bassett hasn't actually won an Oscar, she was nominated for one, and did win a Golden Globe for What's Love Got to Do With It. Yet, she has starred in a Tyler Perry movie. With Rick Fox. And Sofia Vergara? Who knew? (I didn't. I've only seen one Tyler Perry movie, and that was enough.)

I think of other notable black celebrities like Idris Elba, Whoopi Goldberg, Taraji P. Henson, Janet Jackson, Thandie Newton, Blair Underwood, Gabrielle Union, Mrs. Huxtable and Maya Angelou! Maya Angelou, national treasure and recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, was in a Tyler Perry movie. Not even the prestigious one.

"These are people who presumably, they, the world should be their oyster. And instead, they're like, 'I gotta make rent. All right, do you want me to put the dress on, Tyler? Oh, you're gonna wear it? Okay, fair enough.'" 

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