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Protect organizers and activists.
Last week, CBS announced a new TV competition series called "The Activist," which pits changemakers against one another to see who can garner the most social engagement. The show, bolstered by celebrity talent, is being criticized for promoting “performative activism” and positioning social impact as a competition (Hollywood Reporter).
TAKE ACTION
Support the Allied Media Conference, an annual community-designed event that promotes collaboration and connection between media-based visionary organizing projects.
Support Budding Roses, a space to empower youth critically engaging with social justice issues.
GET EDUCATED
Last week, CBS announced a new TV competition series called "The Activist," which pits changemakers against one another to see who can garner the most social engagement. The show, bolstered by celebrity talent, is being criticized for promoting “performative activism” and positioning social impact as a competition (Hollywood Reporter).
But I think we need to spend more time talking about why this concept is a miss. There are reality shows for almost any talent, from starting businesses to singing and dancing to knowing obscure trivia. In some ways, a show that centers on charitable initiatives and good causes may feel like a refreshing addition to the lineup.
But the role of community leaders is far more complex and controversial in mainstream society than the hidden talent next door. Activists are routinely arrested and jailed for amplifying causes that matter. (Just last month, over 800 people have been arrested so far for protesting the Line 3 pipeline in Minnesota (TruthOut).) They receive harassment and doxxing online for sharing their stories. Naysayers are quick to discard an entire movement based on the actions of one activist, placing unfair scrutiny on imperfect people trying to do good (AP). And as Andrew wrote in another newsletter, our nation has a long history of surveilling and persecuting influential leaders (Anti-Racism Daily). One primetime show isn’t going to change the conditions that place activists in danger; in fact, it might encourage them.
Also, you can argue that community leaders are already forced to compete for resources. Smaller grassroots organizations are less likely to receive funding than larger, more established ones – particularly if they’re run by people of color (NYTimes). Beyond this, many philanthropists are still hesitant to support work that treads on “sensitive ground,” like the racial equity movement of the past year (Financial Times). Mainstream media tends to sensationalize the issues at hand, but rarely offers insights on who is actively addressing them or how the readers can support their efforts. Investing time and energy into growing large social followings, driving engagement on causes, and crowdfunding for sustainability isn’t a game; it’s often the only option left when white-led institutions fail to support. “The Activist” is only reformatting the same systemic inequities for views.
Ultimately, it seems “The Activist” is focused on creating the same tenuous relationship between leaders and their communities – one often fueled by mistrust, skepticism, and scrutiny. But what we need now, more than ever, is a relationship based on trust. One that centers changemakers as voices that deserve to be heard, regardless of their Instagram following count. What would it look like if we centered the systemic issues instead of judging the people trying to change them? What if, instead, we challenged those with power and privilege to do better? And re-allocated our time spent gawking towards working to change the conditions that created the show? We can support community-rooted projects aimed at fostered collaboration between activists rather than pitting them against one another. Detroit’s Allied Media Conference brings together media activists to share ideas and build connections, while Portland’s Budding Roses provides a space for youth to learn about social justice issues together. Pushing for systemic change and building collective power isn’t a game or a competition — it’s something we do in community, and the stakes have never been higher.
The show is unlikely to change. But we can. We’re still the audience, even if we’re not watching this show on CBS. So how will we choose to support the activists in our community?
KEY TAKEAWAYS
The upcoming CBS show “The Activist” will feature activists competing against one another for social engagement.
Activists are already forced to compete for limited resources, with many facing repression and incarceration instead of public acclaim.
Instead of viewing organizing as a competition we watch, we can engage with collaborative, community-driven initiatives for justice.
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End anti-Asian stereotypes in media.
Marvel’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of Ten Rings opens this week, the first Marvel film to feature a predominantly Asian cast. When screenwriters scripted the movie, based on a 1970s comic book character, they went so far as to write a “physical list” of racist parts of the story “we were looking to destroy” (Inverse). This highlights the long history of anti-Asian stereotypes in American pop culture — depictions that carry through to the present day.
TAKE ACTION
Support PALMS, AYPAL, the Chinese Progressive Alliance, or a local Asian American group organizing for justice.
Support the Foundation for Asian American Independent Media and other Asian media initiatives.
Consider: How are people from your racial, ethnic, or cultural background portrayed in popular media? What about people from other communities? Do these depictions influence how you think about people from other backgrounds or yourself? How might they determine people’s safety, well-being, and access to resources and decision-making power? How can we modify, add to, support, or reject these depictions?
GET EDUCATED
By Andrew Lee (he/him)
Marvel’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of Ten Rings opens this week, the first Marvel film to feature a predominantly Asian cast. When screenwriters scripted the movie, based on a 1970s comic book character, they went so far as to write a “physical list” of racist parts of the story “we were looking to destroy” (Inverse). This highlights the long history of anti-Asian stereotypes in American pop culture — depictions that carry through to the present day.
In the original comics, Shang-Chi’s father is Fu Manchu, an evil magician plotting to take over the West. According to a description written by the creator in a 1913 novel, Fu Manchu possesses “all the cruel cunning of an entire Eastern race, accumulated in one giant intellect, with all the resources of science past and present … Imagine that awful being, and you have a picture of Dr. Fu Manchu, the yellow peril incarnate in one man” (Inverse).
Yellow peril refers to the long-held white American fear that “Asians, in particular the Chinese, would invade their lands and disrupt Western values, such as democracy, Christianity, and technological innovation” (BGSU). The fear of the yellow peril presented by Asian people was borne out of labor competition between white and Chinese workers, eugenicist fears about “race-mixing,” and supposed “moral degeneracy” (Association for Asian Studies).
When such depictions are criticized, we’re often told that they were mere “products of their time.” This is always a bad-faith retort for two reasons. First is that Asian people, including Asian people in America, are not some sort of recent invention. We had been here for generations when the first Fu Manchu book was published, and it was as hateful in the early twentieth century as it is today. 1913 also saw the passage of the California Alien Land Law to ban Asian people in California from owning or leasing land (Immigration History). Anti-Asian beliefs fuel anti-Asian practices.
The second reason why the “product of their time” rebuttal falls short is that such stereotypes don’t suddenly disappear. Stereotypical depictions of Asian sex workers led some to make jokes mocking the deaths of six women in the Atlanta shootings (Variety). A 2013 General Motors ad called China “land of Fu Manchu” where people say “ching ching, chop suey” (SCMP). The myth of the yellow peril continues to this day. Today, nine out of ten Americans view China as “a threat” (Pew Research) though China is, in fact, the United States’ largest trading partner (Forbes). The American right crows about “kung flu” and the “China virus.” One in four Americans has seen someone blame Asian people for Covid-19 (USA Today). Eight out of ten Asian-Americans report that violence against us is increasing (Pew Research).
The fact is that Asian stereotypes — along with risks to Asian people — persist in the United States. In the words of Shang-Chi actor Simu Liu, “As a progressive Asian American man, I’ve always wanted to shatter barriers and expectations of what Asian men are and be very aware of the boxes that we’re put into — martial artists, sidekicks, exotic, or Orientalist… But I grew up watching Jet Li and Jackie Chan, and I remember the immense amount of pride that I felt watching them kick ass. I think Shang-Chi can absolutely be that for Asian Americans. It means that kids growing up today will have what we never did — the ability to watch the screen and to really feel seen” (Swift Headline).
Asian artists are dismantling stereotypes while Asian communities are organizing and standing in solidarity with other communities of color, as well. Groups around the country are organizing for health, disability, economic, and language justice.
The Black Power movement inspired student activists to coin the phrase and political category “Asian-American.” This wasn’t merely a demographic self-identifier, but a way to join diverse Asian immigrant movements together in a political struggle against white supremacy (Time).
A picture of Richard Aoki man holding a sign reading “Yellow Peril Supports Black Power” has been resonating with a new generation of activists (Huffington Post). It’s not a picture with an uncomplicated legacy, especially since Aoki — the only Asian American person in Party leadership — was revealed to be an FBI informant (NBC News). But building on a history of struggle, inter-racial solidarity, and deconstructing negative stereotypes and the violence they facilitate are all steps in creating a world where all of our communities have safety, power, and dignity.
Key Takeaways
The original Shang-Chi character was the son of Fu Manchu, one example of the idea of the yellow peril.
The yellow peril myth described Asian people as immoral foreign invaders.
Permutations of the yellow peril myth and other anti-Asian stereotypes persist to this day. Artists and organizations are working to build safety and community in the place of stereotypes and fear.
PLEDGE YOUR SUPPORT
Thank you for all your financial contributions! If you haven't already, consider making a monthly donation to this work. These funds will help me operationalize this work for greatest impact.
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End Hollywood whitewashing.
Happy Tuesday!
With the recent release of Mulan and Concrete Cowboy, and the Oscars' new standards on diversity, I thought it might be a good time to discuss the role of whitewashing in Hollywood – and how it has perpetuated harmful stereotypes about people of color.
As many of us continue to stay home, WEAR A MASK, and scour Netflix for something new, it's a good time to invest in watching more diverse stories, celebrating the works of filmmakers of color, and analyzing how our worldview is shaped by what we watch. Jami does a great job of analyzing the many ways whitewashing persists, even in today's times.
If you're enjoying these newsletters, consider making a contribution. To support our work, you can give one-time on our website, PayPal or Venmo (@nicoleacardoza), or subscribe for $5/mo on our Patreon.
– Nicole
Oh and one more thing – last night the Aurora council voted unanimously to ban the use of ketamine by law enforcement until the investigation is complete 🎉
TAKE ACTION
Pick one of your favorite movies or TV shows. Do a deep dive into the cast, directors, writers, and producers and reflect on the following:
Are they predominantly white?
Are there any people of color with decision-making ability?
How did actors and staff of color feel during production? (Twitter is often an excellent place to find behind-the-scenes information.)
Ask yourself why you relate to the storylines or characters.
Do the characters look like you?
Do their experiences mirror yours?
Are you resistant to TV shows with main characters that aren’t like you?
Speak out against whitewashing when you see it. Public backlash is one of producers’ strongest motivators.
Reject the idea of whiteness as the default.
GET EDUCATED
By Jami Nakamura Lin (she/her)
In the Hollywood and media context, whitewashing usually refers to the practice of casting white actors as characters of color, though it can also refer more generally to “preferring white actors, directors, cinematographers, and so on, over equally qualified people of color, as in the Oscar nominations,” (Merriam-Webster). (Here, for ease of use, we’ll use the word actors to refer to people of all genders who perform).
Often whitewashing occurs when the film is based on the life of a real person or adapted from a book. In some cases, a white actor’s appearance is altered to fit the role, as when Jim Sturgess’s eyes were digitally altered to appear almond-shaped for his Asian character in Cloud Atlas (Hyperallergenic). While this technical ability is new, it is merely the latest step in a long history of white actors donning garish makeup and outlandish costumes to depict racist caricatures and stereotypes (Paste).
As our past newsletter on digital blackface explains, “Minstrel shows gained popularity in the 1830s in New York, where white performers with blackened faces (most used burnt cork or shoe polish) would don tattered clothing and imitate enslaved Black people. These performances characterized Black people as lazy, ignorant, superstitious, and hypersexual.” Later this tradition expanded into brownface and yellowface, with white actors performing as other races and ethnicities explicitly to dehumanize them. Many contemporary movies and TV shows still depict people of color as flat and stereotypical, as shown in a Native professor’s examination of Jane Krakowski’s Native character in Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (CutchaRislingBaldy.com).
Whitewashing also happens when characters that were people of color in the original material are changed to be white characters in the film, as in the movie 21 (IndieWire). While this bypasses the problem of blackface, yellowface, or brownface, it leads to the same result: rendering actual people of color invisible. Such casting often results from the belief that white actors are more capable than actors of color (Teen Vogue), or that it’s simply too difficult to find actors of color to fit the roles.
In every whitewashing controversy, defenders often ignore the context in which whitewashing occurs. They often fire back responses like, “Is someone of British descent not allowed to play someone with French descent?” But this is deliberately obtuse in a media landscape when the flipside doesn’t apply: people of color are not considered for white roles and are underrepresented in general.
A study of the 100 top-grossing movies from 2013 showed the racial breakdown of cast members by race: “74.1% were White, 14.1% Black, 4.9% Hispanic, 4.4% Asian, 1.1% Middle Eastern, <1% American Indian or Alaskan Native, and 1.2% were from "other" races/ethnicities. No meaningful change has been observed in the frequency of any racial/ethnic group on screen in 600 popular films between 2007 and 2013” (University of Southern California). More broadly, whitewashing takes place alongside structural oppression. In those minstrel shows, white actors assumed Black roles while Black people were still enslaved; later, white actors assumed Asian roles while Asian people were still not allowed to enter America (Teen Vogue).
These choices happen—whitewashed casts, stereotypical characters—often because the people making the decisions behind-the-scenes are also predominantly white. Despite people of color constituting almost 40% of the population, in 2016-17, they represented only 12.6% of movie directors, 7.8% of movie writers, and 9.4% of TV show creators, according to the Hollywood Diversity Report (University of California-Los Angeles). While detractors are quick to point out tentpole examples like Black Panther, these statistics prove that such movies are the exception, not the rule.
A goal, of course, is more representation for people of color in Hollywood across all roles. But representation is not enough. As Hari Ziyad explains, “ ‘Representation matters’ cannot be the beginning and the end of the conversation. Representation matters, but only when the white gaze doesn’t” (Afropunk). Hollywood is about veneers, and a diverse cast can provide cover for endemic behind-the-scenes problems. Even directors and producers of color can only do so much when we have an entire media system that privileges white stories and white identity, when Hollywood is inherently “imbued with white supremacy and a patriarchal structure designed to proffer advantages unequally,” as Elaine Low and Angelique Jackson outline (Variety).
Most of us can’t control who gets cast in the latest blockbuster, but we can denounce the beliefs that lead to whitewashing. If we reject the idea that whiteness is the default (APA PsycNet), we also reject the idea that white actors can invisibly inhabit any role. We can support directors of color, Black filmmakers, indie studios, and other people pushing for change in media. We can question what stories feel relatable to us and why. “So long as whitewashing continues to occur, we need to be conscious of whose stories are being marginalized and whose stories are not being told in mainstream media,” sociologist and author Nancy Wang Yuen told Teen Vogue.
Whitewashing exposes which identities Hollywood sees as being worthy of the big screen, what kind of audience it desires, and whose experiences it sees as universal and whose experiences it sees as niche. As moviegoers (during non-pandemic times!), we can make a difference with our wallets, our views, and our support.
Key Takeaways
In a Hollywood context, whitewashing is the practice of casting white actors in roles that were initially designed to be people of color, while overlooking actors of color (who are underrepresented in movies and TV).
America has a long history of white actors portraying people of color in dehumanizing, caricature-driven ways (as in blackface, brownface, and yellowface).
Despite people of color constituting almost 40% of the population, they represent only 12.6% of movie directors, 7.8% of movie writers, and 9.4% of TV show creators (University of California-Los Angeles).
While representation is a step forward, it is not enough in a Hollywood that structurally privileges white identities and white stories.
RELATED ISSUES
7/13/2020 | Respect the roots of Black hair.
7/10/2020 | Understand the role of cancel culture.
7/9/2020 | Acknowledge the harm of microaggressions.
6/15/2020 | Diversify your media consumption.
PLEDGE YOUR SUPPORT
Thank you for all your financial contributions! If you haven't already, consider making a monthly donation to this work. These funds will help me operationalize this work for greatest impact.
Subscribe on Patreon | Give one-time on PayPal | Venmo @nicoleacardoza