Lit Ignorance is Bias: The Diversity Manifesto

I would much rather see some exotic species or ships on the cover.

 

I always saw him as slavic

 

And while we're on the subject of protagonists not being allowed to be black: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/jun/26/us-writer-self-publishing-industry-rusch

An article about the EU's own Kristine Kathryn Rusch! Shared from Stackpole on facebook.

 

Now that's an interesting read! I'll share it on my own FB.

 

Jorge you CRADLE ROBBER!

 

She's 44.

 

So by extension would people be fine with seeing Luke Skywalker as a black person? Movies to comics I know, but that is one of the key points that the author seems to be encouraging.

What the article says does have some merit, but I'm kinda with you. I have no issue with Spiderman being black - but Peter Parker was never black. No reason a new Spiderman can't be of a differing ethnicity, but there is little reason to re-imagine Peter Parker. I guess if it is an alternate universe it wouldn't bother me - then Clark Kent could be black as part of a what if story.

Fantastic Four is a little further down the icon list for me so changes there wouldn't bother me as much, but I get what your saying. I don't want to go and watch the ST and have Lando as a white guy, or have Mace Windu retroactively made white when he shows up to train Luke's daughter minus an arm.

What I would like to see is more main characters flat out represent human diversity. I'd actually be more likely to watch Star Wars Episode 7 if I found out that all the main characters were not white - heck, make Jaleel White the lead for all I care - but but I'd be much less likely to watch it if Luke Sykwalker was portrayed by anyone but Mark Hamill..

 

What if Michael Jackson had played Luke in the seventies, when he was still black?

And he were still alive today, and he ended up playing Luke as a white guy in Episode VII?

(note: not serious about this one )

 

If I remember correctly, Will Smith was offered the role of Superman in Bryan Singer's Superman Returns, but he turned it down.

It's not really a question of "messing up," though. I do like Will Smith as an actor, and he did well in Hancock. Whar I don't like is when movies change a character's ethnicity "in a spirit of tolerance." It's just a clumsy move. Casting a black man as Superman would only highlight the lack of "high-ranking" black superheroes, and this is insulting. What they need to do is not changing a beloved white superhero into a black man, they should create good black heroes instead.

 

How would we feel if there were some sort of Star Wars reboot and Obi-Wan was recast as black? That was a great article, but as Star Wars fans does there exist a modicum of NIMBYism?

 

What is NIMBYism?

 

NIMBY - not in my backyard

 

Thanks, but I still have no idé what that means

 

Wasn' Obi Wan originally supposed to be played by Toshiro Mifune? I wonder how different the Star Wars landscape might have been if that had gone down. We know atleast Lucas would have been resistant to prequel whitewashing.

Basically saying that you'll accept the fact that something exists, as long as you can't see it.

See all those guys in the movie threads who sign off about their fine with gay people existing, but not in my Star Wars dammit.

 

One of my great hopes for the sequel trilogy was that Luke (and Han and Leia, for that matter) would be recast with nonwhite actors.

 

It did all happen a long time ago. We can't know what they really looked like....

 

I hope they cast an obese female Danish opera singer as Luke. Now that would get people talking.

 

Why Danish?

 

I do not understand this at all. It's one thing for a movie adaption of a book/comic to change the race. Artistic license and all. But changing the race of existing characters in the ST would be ludicrous. It would destroy the consistency of the Saga. The far better solution to lack of diversity is to introduce new characters into the Star Wars universe in the ST not changing the race of characters firmly established to be white in the previous 6 films.

 

I'd be fine with that. I just don't want the so called continuing story to change the goal posts. A new story, or a rebooted story, that would work. Of course Will Smith as Superman would have been terrible, but that has nothing to do with his skin color.

Were you not one of them folk upset that Karen Traviss didn't use the Verpine Shattergun correctly in her work

It's a joke, I don't know if you were or not - it just came to mind.

 

Would Lando then be white in your fantasy alteration?

 

Certainly not.

 

I think maintaining consistency in movies that are a continuous narrative is a different matter entirely. Even JJ's Trek is iffy since it's at least theoretically the same universe at the outset. But full-bore reboot? I could care less what race people are. Japanese Obi would be an awesome nod to the original Mifune plans.

 

I don't think fans need to be freaking out about major white characters being made into people of color in Star Wars. I really don't see it happening. People would run around waving their arms indignantly even though there already exist classic Star Wars films rife with white lead actors and adding to the universe doesn't diminish anything for white fans/viewers/communities etc.

That being said, while a "reboot" would be interesting I would be more interested in seeing a production that is slightly AU and based off of Lucas's original notes. I'm thinking like, "The Adventures of Luke Starkiller" type stuff. Because then you could have the Asian actor playing Akira Valor, a Latino Annikin Starkiller, a black actress playing Princess Zara, etc. I feel like it would be a lot of fun to explore some of Lucas's early concepts but with a modern twist.

 

You are in semi-luck.