Talent over Colour

Elske Toot

“The property of whiteness, to be everything and nothing, is the source of its representational power. On the one hand as one of the people in the video Being Whites observes, white domination is reproduced by the way the white people ‘colonise the definition of normal’” p. 45.

Whilst on Facebook the other day I came across the image above. Curious, I clicked on the link and saw a bunch of pictures in which John Cho was photoshopped into famous movie posters. It turned out to be a new hashtag: #StarringJohnCho. William Yu had began the campaign and now others followed in his footsteps. The idea behind it is to prove that Asian leads can look good in romantic comedies, action movies and so on and so forth. The quote above illustrates what William Yu meant: If white is the normal and whiteness is the representational power, then it is very difficult to break through that.  

Nonetheless, this young man and his followers try to do so. It is of course not only this guy that has been thinking about the whiteness in Hollywood. Several people did not attend the Oscars this year because they found the nominees to be ‘too white’. Terms such a ‘whitewashing’ also seem to be used more often and the ‘whiteness’ of Hollywood is continuously questioned. It is quite interesting to see such discussions on Facebook as the opinions vary enormously.

#StarringJoCho tries to break the idea that white people could take on any role because their normal in every kind of role. This may sound ridiculous, but it is a reality. Just think of a movie such as Colonia. Now, do not misunderstand me, I very much like Emma Watson. However, I also understand people that wonder why she was chosen over an actress who is actually from Chile. The counterargument is that the actor should be chosen for talent and not skin colour. Yet the choice for a black Hermione in the Harry Potter play was criticised by many people who regarded that casting as unfit solely because of her skin colour. I believe #StarringJohnCho is eye opening and thought provoking. We could have a more diverse range of characters portrayed in Hollywood and I my opinion we definitely should have.