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Black people are to other people of color what white people are to black people
I was looking at the new movies and albums coming out and realized how "diversity" in America just seems to mean "add more black people and women" If I asked you to name 10 black or white celebs, I'm sure you'd have no problem naming people both old or new.
However, if I asked you to name asian celebs? hispanic celebs? Arab celebs? Would it be as easy? what about politicians, people of power? I bet you could name more black people of power than people of another colored minority.
Black organizations, like BLM, also do little for other races and its most vocal supporters also do little to help other races or even show the same sensitivity they demand for themselves. BLM expects universal support but have heard little from the BLM people about Chilean children kidnappings, Native American denial of benefits, or even Ukraine
There's so much hype and concern about black people being represented but there's nothing being said about other races being represented and it's a shame because until that happens no one can say they're about equality and representation.
The tireless focus on blacks exclusively really gives away an America-centric worldview. I'm enjoying Sandman on Netflix but wow does that colorwash everyone except blacks and whites.
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This is a weird sort of handwringing. I’m not convinced that the problem is real and not just your projected disgust for BLM.
Maybe for Hispanic representation? I’m a Texan, and locally Latinos are pretty prevalent in culture and government. I can think of celebrities, but probably not to the ratio of 1 in 5. Somehow I imagine that the Hispanic population can name more.
Black Americans both make up the second largest minority and the largest historical impact. Seems like a natural target for marketing. You see Native American films and representation getting recognition for similar historical reasons.
Asian casting gets plenty of press. It’s usually because Hollywood’s trying to exploit the Chinese mainland market.
All in all, not seeing a huge disparity here. Maybe you should provide more statistics instead of complaining that a domestic policy movement doesn’t have a statement about Ukraine?
There's a whole continent of real fully formed countries producing music, books, films, sports in Spanish; they don't need mainstream America's hand-me-down tokenism.
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Major confounder is that Hispanics and Arabs can very often pass for white, and frequently do.
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I hope this doesn't detract too much from your message but I don't think the average Indian- American ( From India) at least first gen really cares that much whether there are enough Indian actors in Hollywood or not, they would be far more likely to ask you whether you can confirm or not that the police will come on time and keep the hooligans out ( Will likely mention the race of the "hooligans" as well because profiling is bad is a very 1st world concept.)
I feel mildly confident in my assessment that outside of blacks and whites, most minorities don't really care about culture wars once you guarantee them that their children will be given a chance at getting a better life than them.
I don't think the average black American really cares that much whether there are enough black actors in Hollywood or not either. What the average person of (race) cares about really isn't a concern when it comes to the claims of the activists who do care about it.
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I think one difference between immigrant minorities and non-immigrant minorities is the direct connection to an outside culture.
An Indian immigrant can watch Indian made movies that take place in India with Indian actors.
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I think you're probably right but this caveat undercuts your point and its broad applicability.
The minorities that immigrated for economic reasons are, obviously, concerned about material realities.
The generations that come from them, that know no other home and are more tied to the cultural issues of their home and their issues around identity.
For example: /r/hapas on reddit is made up of children of Asian migrants struggling with identity and the sexual market, not the immigrants themselves. And, trust me, they're highly concerned about how they're portrayed by their new society and its media.
But as the point that started the conversation stated, even other minority groups outside of blacks and whites don't seem to care that much in general, so obviously it applies for longer than just 1st gen immigrants.
hapas is an online group, 1% of all people online comment at most and usually those are the 1% with more extreme views, better to base your data on a survey of the local population.
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In 2014 or so I saw a silly Facebook video from some low-tier rag (I think it was called NowThis -- I think they're still around but they no longer put out low effort CW) praising the "hella diverse" cast of some sports team or something -- it was all black women. That was probably the first time I noticed "Diversity" was one of one of those words.
If the legacy of slavery etc. really is as damaging as claimed, then the focus on the blacks over the browns, reds, and yellows makes sense. It doesn't explain the focus on women, gays, and trans though.
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I don't think other minorities see black people the way you claim. From my experience they don't seem to mind black pandering because "they clearly have bigger problems" and they don't see themselves as particularily disadvantaged. There is nothing American black people have that would elicit feelings of jealosy or unfairness from non-black minorities. Asians and Hispanics might have an undersized representation in media, but there's plenty of media coming from their origin countries that they can consume so it's not that big of a deal.
The race most critical of black Americans I've encountered were Africans from Africa.
IME it's a love-hate thing. People on the continent like American media since it's their main chance to see black faces in prestige products. I saw a lot of Jamaican music too, presumably for similar reasons (though that seems to have been fading out with this generation)
But African migrants to America can be - and this has been noted by black Americans - hostile. First off: this likely involves having faced racial stereotypes from black Americans themselves
But, more importantly, they have to defend a separate identity against a highly assimilationist black culture* - which, due to seeing race the important element of "being black", is especially open to devouring African migrants' children - and hatred and disdain always helps there.
* Which they consider to have serious problems, not least due to sharing many assumptions with the white assimilationist liberal culture and having extra maladaptive cultural patterns on top of that.
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Americans are the Americans of Americans.
That's the real issue here. Black (or white for that matter) doesn't really mean shit to anyone except select colonies that made it a political issue, and now hegemonic Americans are forcing it on a world that sees itself in very different lines.
I don't blame blacks for the reduction of every social issue and it's representation to the tight prism of the American mythology of race. They quite deserve their own large place in that mythology given they are really of no other nation. No I blame Americans in general for their constant navel gazing they never seem to even notice.
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In my experience, they ignore these "exceptions" to their narrative because they don't have the depth of historical knowledge necessary to address them. On rare occasions they'll attempt to, say, tie the Coptic Christians to "whiteness" and "colonialism" by saying that all Christians benefited from European hegemony, or something.
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Some Hispanics can pass as close to being white, and the other groups are tiny relative to US pop. So about 1 Asian for every 3 Blacks, which seems about right from what I have observed.
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