One of the things I have noticed about American television shows is that each and everyone of them has exactly, at least one actor of another race than Caucasian. Now that´s a pretty obvious thins, seeing that America is a country with every possible ethnicity and race in the world. And naturally media should reflect that.
But the thing is, that it seems it´s enough for producers to cast only 1 (maybe 2) actors that are of other races than white. If they do so, they are obviously not racist and therefore are hardly (if ever) criticized for the way they handle racial matters. So they go scott-free. However, dare cast a series that has only white actors and you open up a can of worms and suddenly, everyone is allowed to criticize you all the time.
Case in point - Lena Dunham. In her series Girls, there are only white actresses. I have never seen the show (and will not, seeing I am too hooked on police dramas). I am however aware of the controversy and criticizm concerning her casting choices. I am not defending Lena Dunham´s choice of having white actresses only. I strongly favour multi-national/multi-racial media and TV shows should reflect the diversity in the society around us. So yeah, Dunham would have made a wise choice by casting an actress of another race but she didn´t. And that´s her choice.
However, just because she didn´t cast a character of racial minority does not make her a bad person. And it does not give the rest of us permission to slander her in media or criticize her every move. Because, we have no idea of knowing her own opinions or thoughts/ideas on race and racial matters. I am not saying her choice was wise but I despise the fact that this choice of hers suddenly makes people feel like they can talk down everything she does.
I never see the producers of my favourite TV shows (that all have actors of multiple races) being slandered or criticized in media for their choice in how they deal with racial/international ideas. No matter how they treat them (which is 99% of the time very well) they are never criticized. Dunham doesn´t do anything and still she is slandered. And the one case where she doesn´t comment, people automatically assume she is a racist and happily begin ripping her to shreds.
Jezebel - Lena Dunham
The photo was not her fault and she had no idea that the terrible n-word would be used. Yet people start picking a fight with her on twitter (so adult) and when she doesn´t reply people happily assume all sorts of racist and bad ideas about her. Only because she didn´t comment. And to her credit, when she replies, she does it very eloquently.
This frustrates me. People are happy to pick on a person because of her casting choices for her show but no one ever criticizes those producers whose show has at least one person of another race. Never mind the fact that in most TV shows, racial minorities are vastly unrepresented and often harmful stereotypes are used. Casting a character of racial minority doesn´t mean people automatically treat racial matters sensitively and with respects. It doesn´t make them innocent. Just like, not casting a person of racial minority, doesn´t necessarily mean that a person is racist and that everything said person does can be interpreted as predjudice and racism.
Racism pops up anywhere, irrespective of casting choices.
So can people just lay off Dunham and actually start concentrating on the racial things that really matter. Dunham is not perfect but neither does she deserve the treatment she gets.
I am 100% Caucasian. My family, my ancestors, all my friends are Caucasian. I live in a country which was, until the 1980´s predominantly Caucasian. That does NOT make me a racist. My thoughts and opinions are influenced my race but they are also my own, irrespective of my race.
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