Special guest post serving! This came out of the oven post-FacePainting reaction and steady discussion. Enjoy!

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Hullo my name is Viet Le. And today I have taken a few minutes away from my busy schedule napping and scratching myself to address the issues of institutionalized racism, specifically as it pertains to dogs. 

Now, it is well known that dogs are an unspeakably rude, dull-tempered breed of animal, however there remains a significant contingency of people who have no opinion of the average intelligence of cats and dogs, and an even more inexplicable contingent of people who are actually of the opinion that dogs are smarter than cats (for shame). 

The point being that in any deliberation upon matters of race - cat or human – there will be a number of people who will want to change society to be more accepting of dogs, a number of people who wish to keep society less accepting of dogs, and a number of people who don’t care. Arranged into a pie chart, it would look like this. 

Of note to those who would like to know, in the above chart, people who would like more representations of Asians in cinema are strawberry rhubarb pie, people who don’t care are apple pie, and people who would prefer to see White people in cinemas are cow pies. 

Now it may very well be that all of these actors chosen for the roles were in fact chosen on the basis of their performances, and they were simply the best of the lot (If so, M. Night should fire his casting director. Then burn down their trailer. With fire.) But what cannot be denied is that in casting all the leads caucasian, only two out of the above pies are appeased: apple pies and cow pies. What makes something racist is not the ideology of the individual performing the action. What makes a policy racist is which population it appeals to. For many people, racism is simply confined to statements, ideologies and policies that appeal exclusively to those who enjoy cow pies. This fails to take into account that some policies may have ambiguous valences such that they could either be motivated by those who enjoy apple pie, or those who enjoy cow pies. Many have written in with the protestation that Avatar is in fact, an apple pie. This may be so, but by virtue of simultaneously appealing to those who enjoy cow pies, while discriminating against those who enjoy strawberry rhubarb pies, this makes the policy racist. 

The ramifications of a policy may be vague and ambiguous. But it is worthwhile to mention that Apartheid in South Africa did not begin with the ascendency of a vile dictator who rose upon a wave of white-hooded thugs imposing a fully-formed policy of apartheid upon a majority-black population. Rather Apartheid began as small policies such as these: prioritizing the viewpoints of racists above those who advocated for the beliefs and viewpoints of minority populations. Policies such as Arizona’s which in its wide-reaching ramifications, places the views and actions of racists officers in the right. Policies have distinct repercussions and define how our society is formed, and in defining which positions and opinions are acceptable, we define the eventual progress of society. 

We ask that in the process of making marketing decisions, in deciding which population to service, that the owners of movie studios, corporate leaders, businessmen and elected officials choose – regardless of the consequences or ramifications – to exhibit courage and moral fortitude in defending the viewpoints and representations of minority populations. It exhibits no bravery to cast a caucasian lead in an asian role. It speaks to the higher intentions and capacities of art that we challenge audiences to identify with character leads who look different from themselves. Those who enjoy and appreciate strawberry rhubarb pie will not be able to flourish without the aid and support of society. We are better as a country and a people not servicing the minds and viewpoints of those who enjoy cow pies. The future is with strawberry rhubarb, we hope you agree. 

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Viet Le is the primary writer of word/game, an excellent blog for critical writing on various mediums. While laying out an article that is currently two months in the making, he decided to write this one off-handedly after we discussed some additional issues on racism and cinema. I highly encourage anyone and everyone to take a look a some articles – personal favorites are On “My Neighbor Totoro,” which is not Western and “Kick-Ass” – Gender and Hit-Girl.

Here at Floating World, I’m extremely appreciative of his supplementary views on racism in Hollywood and for clarifying a concept I failed to mention in my article; I am also relieved that it was not the form of a suppository.