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Culture War Roundup for the week of September 12, 2022

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Sweet Eru Iluvatar. If some studio were making a new movie - hang on a mo, I just thought of the perfect example.

Now, suppose the studio thought "We really need an A-list actress in the lead role to make this a sure-fire blockbuster", and they cast, lemme see, Scarlett Johansson as General Nanisca. Would you say that was "naturally cast" or rather that casting black actresses, be they African-American or other black ethnic mix, was the "natural casting"?

One argument would be "they should only cast native Dahomeans in the parts". That's not the argument we're making.

The second argument would be "wait a minute, that's completely the wrong actress to cast in the part, it doesn't matter if she's really good".

You are trying to make the equivalent of "Why not cast Scarlett Johansson?" and telling the rest of us we are racists if we say "That's not the proper casting for this character". If they have (and they probably do) white European slave purchasers in this movie, or white European generals etc. then casting Scarlett as Lady Brassnobs is fine and appropriate. But casting Scarlett as part of the Dahomean Amazon army, and the only white Amazon, is going to make people go "What the hey, movie studio, this is not the correct thing to do even if white people do exist in this world and the Dahomeans are in contact with them".