I’m fine with any and all representation (obviously not fascist or reactionary ones) in art and culture. But it always irks me whenever historical figures are changed like this. If say, it is an adaption of some famous play in the past, it’s fine to take an artistic license as long as it isn’t important to the character and story. (Looking at you Othello and every single blackface performance).
All historical fiction takes liberties with the "true story" for artistic effect, and there's no reason facts like a historical person's race can't be subject to that as well. Of course that's not a neutral decision, and changes what the work says, but it's not necessarily some sort of bastardization of the truth.
And another comrade elsewhere in this thread worded their comment much better which is where I was going with this. I wasn’t sure how to word it myself exactly.
It just serves no purpose to racially recast a historical figure. Especially a monarch which race also was a huge factor regarding their attitudes and subjugation of others. And what purpose does it serve as “art” if all it’s only substance is, “but what if this person was actually black?”
I think the idea with these representations is, if say British or American film/theater does historical works, they will basically always be working with a white cast. The cumulative effect is there ends up being a lot more work for white actors than for POC actors, so it's almost more of a workers rights issue than anything else.
That said, I agree with another comment here that when there is casting like this, it means the character essentially has to "pretend" they are interacting with a white person and not a POC, which brings up other issues.
I mean at some point it is unironically liberal Hollywood that prevents things like emancipatory or liberating revolutionary movies. Anything with class consciousness isn’t going to go either. They have ties to elites, the ruling class, they’re bourgeoisie, have offices in the pentagon and state department and vice versa.
I mean it just goes to show that it is one of the institutions of the state that is complicit in capitalist white supremacy and as such it will need to be destroyed.
For me I think the actual racism is a bit more subtle than how many actors of a certain race get work. I mean, that's part of it to be sure, but if the historical drama genre was adapting stories from all over the world then there would surely be work for every actor, but instead we're stuck adapting and readapting stories from the same handful of colonizers and their grandparents.
Casting a black person in a white role is fine, but what we need is more black roles.
That’s my overall point. We need more roles that expand upon other cultures and races, etc. I feel that changing the race of historical people as characters on a show has some sort of propagandizing effect, how it does or even if it does I couldn’t tell you.
I agree with you. I just think we won’t get anything like that until Hollywood is destroyed in a sense. Everything else now will be liberal empty of substance reboots and shit. Idk though.
Correct me if I’m wrong here please.
I’m fine with any and all representation (obviously not fascist or reactionary ones) in art and culture. But it always irks me whenever historical figures are changed like this. If say, it is an adaption of some famous play in the past, it’s fine to take an artistic license as long as it isn’t important to the character and story. (Looking at you Othello and every single blackface performance).
All historical fiction takes liberties with the "true story" for artistic effect, and there's no reason facts like a historical person's race can't be subject to that as well. Of course that's not a neutral decision, and changes what the work says, but it's not necessarily some sort of bastardization of the truth.
Hamilton is still a bad play though.
Thankfully I’ve never watched Hamilton.
And another comrade elsewhere in this thread worded their comment much better which is where I was going with this. I wasn’t sure how to word it myself exactly.
I think I pretty much agree with you, I just don't want to throw the artistic possiblity of racial recasting out entirely
It just serves no purpose to racially recast a historical figure. Especially a monarch which race also was a huge factor regarding their attitudes and subjugation of others. And what purpose does it serve as “art” if all it’s only substance is, “but what if this person was actually black?”
I think the idea with these representations is, if say British or American film/theater does historical works, they will basically always be working with a white cast. The cumulative effect is there ends up being a lot more work for white actors than for POC actors, so it's almost more of a workers rights issue than anything else.
That said, I agree with another comment here that when there is casting like this, it means the character essentially has to "pretend" they are interacting with a white person and not a POC, which brings up other issues.
I mean at some point it is unironically liberal Hollywood that prevents things like emancipatory or liberating revolutionary movies. Anything with class consciousness isn’t going to go either. They have ties to elites, the ruling class, they’re bourgeoisie, have offices in the pentagon and state department and vice versa.
I mean it just goes to show that it is one of the institutions of the state that is complicit in capitalist white supremacy and as such it will need to be destroyed.
For me I think the actual racism is a bit more subtle than how many actors of a certain race get work. I mean, that's part of it to be sure, but if the historical drama genre was adapting stories from all over the world then there would surely be work for every actor, but instead we're stuck adapting and readapting stories from the same handful of colonizers and their grandparents.
Casting a black person in a white role is fine, but what we need is more black roles.
That’s my overall point. We need more roles that expand upon other cultures and races, etc. I feel that changing the race of historical people as characters on a show has some sort of propagandizing effect, how it does or even if it does I couldn’t tell you.
I agree with you. I just think we won’t get anything like that until Hollywood is destroyed in a sense. Everything else now will be liberal empty of substance reboots and shit. Idk though.