I feared something like that. To be honest, I'm a horrible fit for a casting thread, but I figured maybe I'd get lucky. Beyond gender, age and maybe pose/stature physical descriptions mostly don't register with me while reading, and then I sort of automatically make up my own mental image by matching up on attitude and preconceived patterns. Even knowing the above, my mental Sandesjo will continue to look like Raymund.
You know, I've never read a Stargazer novel, and the only stories featuring Gilaad Ben Zoma I've ever read were "What Dreams May Come" (from Tales of the Dominion War) and Part I of The Buried Age. I don't recall seeing a description of him in either one, but I honestly just assumed that he was an Israeli and probably looked Middle Eastern. Of course, it occurs to me that between cultures mixing, increased immigration, and the presence of groups like Beta Israel, it's entirely plausible to have an African American playing an Israeli. Having a different interpretation of the character than her author isn't necessarily a bad thing.
Sure, but if the author actually describes the character physically and I just go ahead and gloss over that, that might be seen as lazy by some. That said, I went back to Harbinger real quick, and found this: This might help carry my Raymund association a bit, since she sometimes had (fairly dark, admittedly) auburn-ish hair on Good Wife. For example: http://www.imdb.com/media/rm747015680/nm2834669 Unlike Heigl, who is usually seen with blonde hair. Edit: You gotta admit, she fits the Klingon mold: http://assets.hdfreewallpaper.info/...00x1200/monica-raymund-maskiert-1600x1200.jpg - of course that might be cause to call it a bad disguise .
Well, she may have been a Klingon, but she was undercover as a human with a Swedish surname, which suggest she was given a Nordic appearance.
"Gilaad Ben Zoma" is an Israeli name, although "Gilaad" can be Arabic as well. I think the reason some people think he's black is because when he appeared in a flashback in DC's TNG comic, the colorist gave him very dark skin for some reason. But I chalk that up to a coloring error. I tend to imagine Oded Fehr as Ben Zoma.
Black, dark-skinned, people in Israel: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_people#Israel http://www.greatlinx.com/jericho.htm
Not unlike how the cover of that Mission Gamma book confused a lot of people about the ethnicity of Prynn Tenmei. Oded Fehr in anything can only be for the good.
i Think Terrence Howard would make the best Ben Zoma: http://www.imdb.com/media/rm490778624/tt0485985 Zoma: http://www.memory-omega.com/images/b/b0/Ben_Zoma,_2354.jpg
Despite the colorist's odd choice, it's clear to me that the way artist Deryl Skelton drew ben Zoma's features in that issue is not consistent with a "black" ethnicity. His hair is straight (or slightly wavy) rather than tightly curled, which is kind of a dead giveaway. And his features look more Middle Eastern or Mediterranean to me. Maybe the idea was for him to be of Arab ethnicity, to have a skin tone similar to Julian Bashir's. But back then, comic-book color palettes were more limited and some attempts to represent ethnicities other than "white" or "black" could be awkward. (There are some DC TOS comics from just a few years earlier where Sulu's skin is a rather garish shade of orange.)
Well, you can't marginalize or generalize all black men. Some of us black men do wear our hair "wavy" as a style. The aforementioned, Billy Dee Williams still does to this day, as do other black male actors. Not too mention the mixed-race black individuals (be they half-Asian, half-Caucasian, half-Latino, etc.) who will gain certain features from both parents.
What? I'm not trying to do anything of the sort -- it's a ridiculous and insulting suggestion. I'm just saying that his features -- and I did include his facial structure in the discussion, not just his hair -- did not look "black" to me, but rather Middle Eastern or Mediterranean. I think that too many Americans are brought up to see ethnicity purely in "black-and-white" terms and fail to realize that there are a lot of ethnic groups on this planet that have brown skin. I'm arguing against marginalization -- the marginalization of ethnic groups other than the ones that Americans perceive as "white" and "black."
It's fair to note that not all black men have tightly curled hair, but it's completely unfair to Christopher to accuse him of trying to marginalize anyone. He's having a difference of opinion about what the creative intent was in the depiction of a character, not trying to perpetuate the oppression of African Americans.