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Racebending and other Asian-Americans speak up against Akira whitewash

Re: Racebending and other Asian-Americans speak up against Akira white

Professor Zoom said:
Forbin said:
Re: Grace Park and Daniel Day Kim on 5-0. Note that they are both Koreans playing Hawaiians. Neither actor is actually Polynesian/Hawaiian. Racebending? Racism? Just Hollywood?
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I don't think they are supposed to be playing Polynesian.

How many Polynesian's are named Chin?

Of course, his last name is Kelly. So maybe he's Irish.

May favorite Asian race bending is John Cho, Korean American, playing Sulu, Japanese American....
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I've brought that up before apparently any Asian will do. It seems Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, etc can play a character of any other Asian race and that's perfectly acceptable.
 
Re: Racebending and other Asian-Americans speak up against Akira white

Professor Zoom said:
Forbin said:
Re: Grace Park and Daniel Day Kim on 5-0. Note that they are both Koreans playing Hawaiians. Neither actor is actually Polynesian/Hawaiian. Racebending? Racism? Just Hollywood?
Click to expand...
I don't think they are supposed to be playing Polynesian.

How many Polynesian's are named Chin?

Of course, his last name is Kelly. So maybe he's Irish.

May favorite Asian race bending is John Cho, Korean American, playing Sulu, Japanese American....
Click to expand...
Sulu was always meant to be of mixed Asian descent, not just Japanese. Hence his last name being taken from a sea in the Phillippines.

As for Kim and Park on Hawaii 5-0, I figured Chin was of mixed Chinese/Irish American descent, given his name. Since Kono is his cousin, but she looks more Hawaiian and has a Hawaiian name, that makes me think they're related through their maternal lines. There are a lot of Asian Americans in Hawaii, after all.
 
Re: Racebending and other Asian-Americans speak up against Akira white

I just realized something. This is an incredibly boring issue. Who cares if Sulu was supposed to be one-eighth Philipino or whatever??? :rommie:
 
Re: Racebending and other Asian-Americans speak up against Akira white

Wait, no one's been offended for a few posts or misused the term "racist", so I'm here to fill the quota and continue making the word "racist" less meaningful than it already is.

I'm HIGHLY offended that these racists in Hollywood would do what they believe will sell this movie better and keep them in the black. Holy crap, the phrase "in the black" is so racist! I can't believe how racist I am!
 
Re: Racebending and other Asian-Americans speak up against Akira white

Bishop76 said:
Wait, no one's been offended for a few posts or misused the term "racist", so I'm here to fill the quota and continue making the word "racist" less meaningful than it already is.

I'm HIGHLY offended that these racists in Hollywood would do what they believe will sell this movie better and keep them in the black. Holy crap, the phrase "in the black" is so racist! I can't believe how racist I am!
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FINALLY! Someone with a sense of humor! :)
 
Re: Racebending and other Asian-Americans speak up against Akira white

Temis the Vorta said:
Deckard does have a point, as a whole, we Americans typically do not understand that India, Afghanistan, Pakistan and the other ...Stans are also part of Asia.
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I can't recall ever running across Americans who don't know that India, Afghanistan and Pakistan are part of Asia.
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And Asia Minor, don't forget. My only point is that this is identical to Hollywood's attitude to Asia.
 
Re: Racebending and other Asian-Americans speak up against Akira white

JarodRussell said:
But actually, the "Middle East" is officially a region that contains parts of "Western Asia" and "North Africa".
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"Officially" my ass. First, there is no official definition of where continents end or begin, second, it's called the "Middle East" because it's located to the east of Europe. North Africa is right there on the south, it makes no sense to include it in the Middle East. Including the Maghreb countries in the Middle East seems to be a fairly recent American invention, meant to avoid more culturally-specific terms such as "Arab countries".

And er... if "Akira" is the great story I believe it is, I'm sure it will still be a great story with American actors, trained mice or string puppets.
 
Re: Racebending and other Asian-Americans speak up against Akira white

The Mirrorball Man said:
North Africa is right there on the south, it makes no sense to include it in the Middle East. Including the Maghreb countries in the Middle East seems to be a fairly recent American invention, meant to avoid more culturally-specific terms such as "Arab countries".
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By "a fairly recent American invention", do you mean one that is 54 years old? From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_East#Criticism_and_usage:
The first official use of the term "Middle East" by the United States government was in the 1957 Eisenhower Doctrine, which pertained to the Suez Crisis. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles defined the Middle East as "the area lying between and including Libya on the west and Pakistan on the east, Syria and Iraq on the North and the Arabian peninsula to the south, plus the Sudan and Ethiopia." ...
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Re: Racebending and other Asian-Americans speak up against Akira white

The Mirrorball Man said:
JarodRussell said:
But actually, the "Middle East" is officially a region that contains parts of "Western Asia" and "North Africa".
Click to expand...
"Officially" my ass. First, there is no official definition of where continents end or begin, second, it's called the "Middle East" because it's located to the east of Europe. North Africa is right there on the south, it makes no sense to include it in the Middle East. Including the Maghreb countries in the Middle East seems to be a fairly recent American invention, meant to avoid more culturally-specific terms such as "Arab countries".
Click to expand...

Wrong, wrong and again wrong. Look it up, please.
 
Re: Racebending and other Asian-Americans speak up against Akira white

IndyJones said:
Forbin said:
Re: Grace Park and Daniel Day Kim on 5-0. Note that they are both Koreans playing Hawaiians. Neither actor is actually Polynesian/Hawaiian. Racebending? Racism? Just Hollywood?
Click to expand...


Or just hiring actors that you think will help your show?


Besides, there are plenty of Koreans living in Hawaii.
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Sure, but are they pretending to be ethnic Hawaiians?
 
Re: Racebending and other Asian-Americans speak up against Akira white

Professor Zoom said:
Forbin said:
Re: Grace Park and Daniel Day Kim on 5-0. Note that they are both Koreans playing Hawaiians. Neither actor is actually Polynesian/Hawaiian. Racebending? Racism? Just Hollywood?
Click to expand...

I don't think they are supposed to be playing Polynesian.

How many Polynesian's are named Chin?

Of course, his last name is Kelly. So maybe he's Irish.
Click to expand...

Good point, I forgot about that. Chin Ho (in the original series) was Chinese American. Kono, was pure Hawaiian, though. And of course, they weren't relatives.
 
Re: Racebending and other Asian-Americans speak up against Akira white

Deckerd said:
The Mirrorball Man said:
JarodRussell said:
Where?
Click to expand...
In "Histoire du Moyen-Orient: de l'Antiquité à nos jours", by Georges Corm and "Histoire de l'Afrique du Nord", by Charles-André Julien.
Click to expand...

Yeah we'd like the relevant quotations, if you're going to play that game.
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Well you're not going to get them. If it goes to trial, I promise I'll lend you the books, but as long as this is just a BBS thread, I'll have to live with your not believing me.
 
Re: Racebending and other Asian-Americans speak up against Akira white

In University we referred to the "Middle East" - a very Eurocentric term - as Western Asia. Depending on how pedantic I feel I'll refer to it as the "Mid-East" or "Western Asia" in conversation; most people seem to know what I'm talking about.

In the UK "Asian" as an ethnicity = South Asian (India/Pakistan/Bangladesh), which skips a lot of people, so I tend to use "South Asian" or "East Asian" for distinction myself. In the States, "Asian" refers to East Asian peoples, skipping other folk.

Asia is a big place; a lot of people live there. Given it's kind of a peninsula of Asia, I think referring to Europe as a "Continent" is a bit rich myself...
 
Re: Racebending and other Asian-Americans speak up against Akira white

Whatever. Countries that belong to the Middle East are Bahrain, Cyprus, Egypt (which is sometimes in, sometimes out, but most of the time in), Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, Arab Emirates and Yemen, and possibly one or two I've forgotten.

And the G8 definition of the "greater middle east" includes the entire North African continent and Afghanistan and Pakistan.
 
Re: Racebending and other Asian-Americans speak up against Akira white

The Middle East doesn't exist in geographic terms, so you can include whatever you like under that banner.
 
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