Brett Ratner makes racial slur

[Dream]

If your contention was instead that Ratner's films were awful because he doesn't rehearse his cast, well then certainly there's room to discuss that point, but you made no specific allusion to that comment in your initial post.

I think he is a dick for making those comments and a bad director since he doesn't think rehearsals are imporatant.

 

[doubleohfive]

Well he's certainly a dick, no doubt about that. I liked the Rush Hour films, and thought Tower Heist was ok. Otherwise, his films have been mostly lackluster in my opinion.

 

[scotpens]

Race is slippery, because it's only... well, conceptual. There's nothing really empirical to back it up.

Quite true. The more one tries to define race, the more it eludes one's grasp.

Hmmm . . . Is "slippery slope" a racial slur?

I'm reminded a little of when director Stephen Frears joked that he knew Daniel Day-Lewis 'before he was Irish' . . .

Which reminds me of Oscar Levant's famous quote, "I knew Doris Day before she was a virgin."

 

[Nerys Myk]

So... he banged her when she was just a Caucasian sperm in her dad's nutsack?!

So confused...

Maybe it went like this:

RATNER: Wow, that was the best, ever!!!

MUNN: Uh...sure

RATNER: Who's woman in that picture?

MUNN: My mom.

RATNER: Your mom's asian???

MUNN: Yeah, Chinese.

Ratner runs to the bathroom screaming and turns on the shower.

RATNER: Unclean!!!!! Unclean!!!! Unclean!!!!! Unclean!!! Unclean!!!!! Unclean!!!!!

Well to add some slightly mitigating context (not much mind you) apparently she used to go by another name that was far more anglasized, Lisa something or other, and that was what he was talking about.

Olivia vs Lisa??????

Her full name is Lisa Oliva Munn.

 

[Broccoli]

Has anyone here actually seen the interview in question where he talks about Olivia Munn? It is pretty obvious that he was simply joking around with no racial malice attached to his comments.

The rehearsal comment...yeah, that was tactless.

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

I heard that because of this Eddie Murphy stepped down from being the next Oscar host

 

[doubleohfive]

Yeah, CNN reported that about an hour or so ago.

 

[Nerys Myk]

So did post 30 by Indy Jones.

 

[Goliath]

I heard that Eddie Murphy won't be hosting the Oscars because of this.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

People who are united or share a common history are considered a race. Homosexuals are a race of people, using the word "fag" is a racial slur.

No, they're not, and it isn't. It's a slur, but not a racial one.

The "before she was Asian" line, however, is a racial slur

I would say it's racially offensive (perhaps just racially insensitive), but not a racial slur. I tend to view racial slurs as literally racial epithets.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

I don't actually know what the 'before she was Asian' thing means.

Did she have some kind of plastic surgery to make her look 'more Asian' or something?

When I read that the only thing I thought was that maybe she used to downplay her heritage and background. I remember being a bit startled when The Daily Show had her as their "Asian Correspondent" as I had never made that connection.

 

[RandyS]

I see the "slur" part, but where's the "racial"?

People who are united or share a common history are considered a race.

Hold on. One of my best friends is black. I'm white. But, we both have cerebral palsy (except his is slightly worse than mine, he needs his wheelchair full time, I don't.), and THIS makes us the same race?

 

[Trekker4747]

I didn't get that the "racial slur" was the pejorative to gay people, I thought it was him saying he was into Olivia Munn "before she was Asian" which struck me as a bit stronger of slur than the one against gays which in itself was bad.

 

[Gaith]

^ Calling half-people Asian is a slur now? I'm not defending Ratner's remarks specifically, but, what?

 

[Nerys Myk]

Half-people?

 

[Turtletrekker]

So thats two bullets dodged?

Yes, now we don't have to watch the Oscars at all.

I wouldn't have cared about Eddie Murphy hosting the Oscars anyway.

However, this is an Oscar host that would get my viewership...

 

[Sci]

The ultimate irony is that the man uses a slur against LGBT Americans... yet his dream project is to adapt a Broadway musical.

Broadway musicals are for... ?

They're for everyone. But the theatre industry has a disproportionately large percentage of actors, directors, writers, and other creators who are LGBT Americans. That's not even a stereotype, it's just how the American musical theatre has evolved -- Broadway: The American Musical, a lengthy PBS documentary on the history of the musical form, had Harvey Firestein talking about how the loss of so many LGBT Americans in the 1980s to the AIDS epidemic really set musical theatre back decades in his view, because American musical theatre has traditionally been so dominated by LGBT Americans.

Bottom line: No one has any business getting involved in theatre or musical theatre if they have problems with LGBT persons. LGBT contributions to the American musical theatre form are numerous, essential, and unavoidable.

 

[Nerys Myk]

So thats two bullets dodged?

Yes, now we don't have to watch the Oscars at all.

I wouldn't have cared about Eddie Murphy hosting the Oscars anyway.

However, this an Oscar host that would get my viewership...

I was hoping for Olivia Munn.

 

[Trekker4747]

^ Calling half-people Asian is a slur now? I'm not defending Ratner's remarks specifically, but, what?

I took it to mean he only liked her when he thought she wasn't Asian, that her being Asian made her "less worthy" to be interested in.

Sort of a "I only sleep with white people" sort of thing.

 

[RoJoHen]

^ Calling half-people Asian is a slur now? I'm not defending Ratner's remarks specifically, but, what?

I took it to mean he only liked her when he thought she wasn't Asian, that her being Asian made her "less worthy" to be interested in.

Sort of a "I only sleep with white people" sort of thing.

Well, looks like the joke is on him then.