Tagged: culture vultures

“Opportunities for black and minority ethnic actors in Britain are worse now than when David Oyelowo left for Los Angeles eight years ago and the biggest problem, he says, is the white, middle-class men in charge of commissioning. Oyelowo made his blunt, devastating assessment at the launch of a report exploring the state of diversity in the UK’s creative industries. The actor said the situation was getting worse, not better, and the central question was: ‘Who is curating the culture? Predominantly it is white, middle-class men. We go to the movies to see ourselves and the best movies you or I have ever seen [are] where we are able to project ourselves on to the protagonist and wonder[, ‘W]hat would I do? How would that affect me? How would I get through that situation?[‘] What we predominantly have, in movies especially, are younger, better-looking versions of the people curating culture.'”

Source: Mark Brown. “Roles In UK For Black And Minority Ethnic Actors Worse Than Ever, Claims David Oyelowo.” The Guardian. September 28, 2015. http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/sep/28/roles-uk-black-minority-ethnic-actors-worse-than-ever-claims-david-oyelowo.

“Bale feels the time will come when another film about Moses will be cast with a North African or Middle Eastern actor. ‘To me that would be a day of celebration. For the actors it would be wonderful. It would be a wonderful day for humanity, but also for films and for storytelling in general,’ he said.”

If Kemet (original name of Egypt) meant “land of the blacks” and in Exodus chapter four, verse six, it states:

And the LORD said furthermore unto [Moses], Put now thine hand into thy bosom. And he put his hand into his bosom: and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous as snow

how could ANYONE believe and/or portray all of the kings, gods and other religious figures in the film as white, while making sure that all slaves are depicted as black? [If the miracle was that God turned Moses’ hand white as snow, then clearly Moses’ hand (and body) was of color.] Based on the director’s casting choices, Scott Ridley is basically perpetuating a very dangerous myth that people of African descent have made no contributions to civilization and that we have been slaves all of our lives! That is FALSE!!! Hence one of the reasons for the film’s backlash.

So, yes Bale, it would be a “wonderful day for humanity” if the TRUTH became more important than MAKING A PROFIT, so we could ALL stop having our realities shaped and distorted by a bunch of European myths and lies. Although Bale seemed a little more sensitive to the issue of historical accuracy, the arrogant ass director’s response to [black] people being offended by the fact that he and Hollywood are continuing to make millions by whitewashing/rewriting history and exploiting/misappropriating our culture, is that we need to “get a life.” Smdh!

Source: John Carucci. “Scott, Bale Defend Choice on Exodus Casting.’ Associated Press. December 8, 2014. http://www.philly.com/philly/entertainment/movies/20141208_ap_29866a953d034ab891d2fd87a79ff54b.html?c=r.