I assure you, Erik. As a Black man, many of us are not wailing in agony over not being represented in this movie. Only ones who are wailing belong to a very small but vocal minority.
Another great piece! I do enjoy your balanced takes. I know mine aren't always so.. I try lol.
Its interesting, the end of the "whiteness is bad" and "lighter skin is whiteness" road is that only Africans, specifically women, are the most "pure" and "untainted". Its like they just flipped a certain facist rule book to work the other way around and also twisted all the negative things with positive sounding words. The noose will keep closing as more and more groups aren't dark enough. Even other africans wont be dark enough eventually I imagine. I dont pin this on african people anywhere, this is the doing of a small hateful group that has spite towards other groups disguised as hate for one acceptable target... especially when its profitable. I dont think this was all on purpose, I think its what happens when you rile up mobs and then validate their hate over and over for profit and dont care about consequences. Not trying to be inflammatory or a conspiracy crack pot, just my opinion.
Amen! I’m so sick of the apologizing! This small group needs to stop the f***ing whining. I can’t wait to bring my elderly PR mom to dance in the aisles whilst watching this movie. Loved the article.👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽
Holy cow. You’re a broken record at this point. Just like Maher. Every single show of his. All your columns. They’re the same. Stop making me think about race. We passed the civil rights act and that should be enough for you people.
You’re a critic. That’s your day job, so to speak. You acknowledge 70% of the Washington Heights is Latino. I promise you that 100% of them, unlike the film, are not all very light skinned. That seems to me to be a valid criticism of the casting. Lin acknowledged as much.
Meanwhile, repubs in Georgia and Texas are removing POC from local election boards as fast as they can. But it’s this that gets you and Maher in a lather.
It is important for the liberal to see that the oppressed person who agitates for his rights is not the creator of tension. He merely brings out the hidden tension that is already alive.
Oh do you suppose Ms. Leon is the oppressed person agitating for her rights and LMM is the oppressor? Also, people can be outraged by more than one thing at a time. My focus is generally on entertainment and politics, not voter suppression. Though I've spoken out against that and plenty of other things as well.
Maybe she is. Maybe he is. I have no idea. Possibly, and I don’t care to put words in her mouth, she’s just tired of “Hollywood” whitewashing every project. And so it’s a sore subject to her and she calls it out whenever she thinks she sees it. Lin agreed with her!
I don’t know these people. I’m not the target audience of this film and most likely will never watch it.
You write about entertainment and politics but not voter suppression. Do you mean politics in entertainment? Because if not voter suppression seems awfully political to me.
Literal white nationalists dominate political radio and TV. They recently had control of all 3 branches of govt and seem more likely than not to control all 3 again sooner rather than later. 3 men whose opinions I value, yours, Maher’s and Andrew Sullivan, have gone full throated into castigating the so called woke left. Maher and Sullivan (and perhaps yourself) would agree that the fascists are at the gates. And yet the lion share of column inches are spent demonizing folks who want black faces to be more prominent in media and entertainment.
It just feels to me like not a big deal in the grand scheme of life in America right now.
Look, fuck the fascists right? That's just easy low-hanging fruit. Why do I critique the woke left? Because it's a losing ideology. This shit plays right into the eight's hands! They want the left to ignore the economy and class issues and go full bore identity politics. They relish it. They relish watching these scolds turn off anyone less radical. It's a losing position for the left and it's going to backfire spectacularly. So I stand against it because I stand against fascism. That's my take, feel free to disagree obviously. And thanks for engaging.
One of the main characters in the movie is Afro-Latino and another is black. Hollywood has whitewashed at times but I'd say is much better now on the whole. I do not think it's fair at all to accuse lighter skinned Latinos of being white given they are not considered white by many white people and this puts them into a deeply fucked up purgatory state of being too white but also not white.
Yeah. I would suggest race is already a factor in every issue. And it’s tremendously privileged to think otherwise. It’s certainly an issue in a Dominican community in Washington Heights that’s probably 95% Afro-Latino yet they have very limited representation in the movie - written by a light skinned man of Puerto Rican descent. I empathize with the critic’s position well enough to understand where she is coming from.
I assure you, Erik. As a Black man, many of us are not wailing in agony over not being represented in this movie. Only ones who are wailing belong to a very small but vocal minority.
I think you're probably right.
"whinging endlessly into the void," I feel like you're channeling your inner Sandor Clegane. Great piece.
Another great piece! I do enjoy your balanced takes. I know mine aren't always so.. I try lol.
Its interesting, the end of the "whiteness is bad" and "lighter skin is whiteness" road is that only Africans, specifically women, are the most "pure" and "untainted". Its like they just flipped a certain facist rule book to work the other way around and also twisted all the negative things with positive sounding words. The noose will keep closing as more and more groups aren't dark enough. Even other africans wont be dark enough eventually I imagine. I dont pin this on african people anywhere, this is the doing of a small hateful group that has spite towards other groups disguised as hate for one acceptable target... especially when its profitable. I dont think this was all on purpose, I think its what happens when you rile up mobs and then validate their hate over and over for profit and dont care about consequences. Not trying to be inflammatory or a conspiracy crack pot, just my opinion.
Amen! I’m so sick of the apologizing! This small group needs to stop the f***ing whining. I can’t wait to bring my elderly PR mom to dance in the aisles whilst watching this movie. Loved the article.👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽
Holy cow. You’re a broken record at this point. Just like Maher. Every single show of his. All your columns. They’re the same. Stop making me think about race. We passed the civil rights act and that should be enough for you people.
You’re a critic. That’s your day job, so to speak. You acknowledge 70% of the Washington Heights is Latino. I promise you that 100% of them, unlike the film, are not all very light skinned. That seems to me to be a valid criticism of the casting. Lin acknowledged as much.
Meanwhile, repubs in Georgia and Texas are removing POC from local election boards as fast as they can. But it’s this that gets you and Maher in a lather.
It is important for the liberal to see that the oppressed person who agitates for his rights is not the creator of tension. He merely brings out the hidden tension that is already alive.
Oh do you suppose Ms. Leon is the oppressed person agitating for her rights and LMM is the oppressor? Also, people can be outraged by more than one thing at a time. My focus is generally on entertainment and politics, not voter suppression. Though I've spoken out against that and plenty of other things as well.
Maybe she is. Maybe he is. I have no idea. Possibly, and I don’t care to put words in her mouth, she’s just tired of “Hollywood” whitewashing every project. And so it’s a sore subject to her and she calls it out whenever she thinks she sees it. Lin agreed with her!
I don’t know these people. I’m not the target audience of this film and most likely will never watch it.
You write about entertainment and politics but not voter suppression. Do you mean politics in entertainment? Because if not voter suppression seems awfully political to me.
Literal white nationalists dominate political radio and TV. They recently had control of all 3 branches of govt and seem more likely than not to control all 3 again sooner rather than later. 3 men whose opinions I value, yours, Maher’s and Andrew Sullivan, have gone full throated into castigating the so called woke left. Maher and Sullivan (and perhaps yourself) would agree that the fascists are at the gates. And yet the lion share of column inches are spent demonizing folks who want black faces to be more prominent in media and entertainment.
It just feels to me like not a big deal in the grand scheme of life in America right now.
Anyway, you keep writing and I’ll keep reading.
Look, fuck the fascists right? That's just easy low-hanging fruit. Why do I critique the woke left? Because it's a losing ideology. This shit plays right into the eight's hands! They want the left to ignore the economy and class issues and go full bore identity politics. They relish it. They relish watching these scolds turn off anyone less radical. It's a losing position for the left and it's going to backfire spectacularly. So I stand against it because I stand against fascism. That's my take, feel free to disagree obviously. And thanks for engaging.
There’s no need to respond and I promise to leave you alone after this.
Does Hollywood have a white washing problem?
Does it seem at all at odds for a film about a Dominican area of NYC to feature zero Afro-Latino actors?
One of the main characters in the movie is Afro-Latino and another is black. Hollywood has whitewashed at times but I'd say is much better now on the whole. I do not think it's fair at all to accuse lighter skinned Latinos of being white given they are not considered white by many white people and this puts them into a deeply fucked up purgatory state of being too white but also not white.
I do believe Mr.Kain is being rather critical of the very people that will force race into every issue.
Yeah. I would suggest race is already a factor in every issue. And it’s tremendously privileged to think otherwise. It’s certainly an issue in a Dominican community in Washington Heights that’s probably 95% Afro-Latino yet they have very limited representation in the movie - written by a light skinned man of Puerto Rican descent. I empathize with the critic’s position well enough to understand where she is coming from.