Black Bear

Imagine a film such as Inception with an entire cast of black people – do you think it would be successful? Would people watch it? But no one questions the fact that everyone’s white. That’s what we have to change.

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Idris Elba (via lavender-labia)

I had this very same conversation with some friends a few weeks ago. How would people react to a black-casted film with such intellectual depth? There are plenty of black actors who would have done a exceptionally well in Inception. Denzel Washington, Lawrence Fishburn, Samuel L. Jackson, or even Idris Elba himself just to name a few, all of whom have the skill sets needed to deliver a powerful performance. Suppose that Inception was filmed exactly as it is now, with the same dialogue, same action sequences, plot and settings, same scenes, same director,  but with an all-black cast. How does that make you feel?  Would you watch it? How about if the actors were Latino or Asian? Would you still be interested then?

Should you have lost interest, your decision may be the result of the Hollywood film industry’s conditioning to believe that white is the standard for likability and marketability. It’s a form of a not-so-subtle Eurocentric business model, which does not make any sense, for it panders to a global market in which those of European descent are  clearly the minority.

Let that sink in a bit.

(Source: jerrymuffinbutt, via numinousnegrita)