Harold Perrineau: Stop Saying My Daughter’s Not Black Enough for ‘Jem and the Hologra

If at least one of her parents are black, and she claims black, then she's black and should be able to play the part. End of story. Leave that girl alone and let her build her career.

 

I do understand why black women in general are sick and tired of seeing light skinned black chicks (many who could pass for an ethnicity other than black/African/etc.) get what it appears to be a majority of roles handed out to black women. Nonetheless the amount of harassment that comes from "black twitter" will never cease to astound me. Those folks are ruthless and pathetic and don't have an ounce of class.

 

Yeah I agree with this. Its something I notice a lot and these same women get to be racially ambiguous until it suites them otherwise. It's a slap in the face to women who work just as hard if not harder and get next to no recognition.
But then again the best thing they can do is boycott the movie and stop attacking this young girl who has absolutely no control over casting. She's chasing her dreams like everyone else.

 

Some of these people really need to stop being so pessimistic. They could have easily white-washed the role like hollywood has done in the past and will continue to do.

Just be happy they let a woman who can honestly claim black play the role instead of some ambiguously brown chick with identity issues.

 

Wait this is the biggest problem that someone has?
Has anyone seen the cartoon series? This movie is nothing like the tv show.
People need to concentrate on the bigger picture here.

 

I could understand if darker skinned black women weren't getting roles. But, they are getting roles left and right on TV and movies. Way more than their black male counterparts because white men seem to not have the same problems with casting brown skinned black women as romantic love interests.

Maybe, I'm missing something.

Scandal, How To Get Away With Murder, The Flash, Sleepy Hollow, Mnority Report, ZNation, TWD, etc ... all have female leads or are built around those dark brown skinned women.

 

Good point

 

You beat me to it. Good point indeed.

 

Having seen the cartoon Jem, the show didn't focus much on race as a pejorative. Jen and the Hollograms were a group of orphans who used their talents to inspire young people everywhere. They were having fun and trying to change the world through their music. A critic once observed that some of the better looking guys were heroes and ugly guys were creeps doing the dirty work. All in all, Jem was what it was, an animated series that appealed to young girls and was being made by Clastor, a company under Hasbro. I don't see anything wrong here. Did anyone complain about Rosario Dawson when she was in Josie and the Pussycats?

 

I think they are frustrated because totally African-looking women aren't predominate as leads among women of color. While I can understand people being frustrated, they better get ready for the future. As more and more intermingling happens, ethnically vague women are going to only increase in number.

 

There was no "Black Twitter" back then

 

Reminds me of what I used to call in my undergrad days "the Soul Patrol", those campus blackness police. Nothing short of total negritude was acceptable. I understand the need to counter prevailing imagery, but it went to the opposite extreme, almost demonizing people who were anything less than "pure African", whatever that was supposed to mean. Interestingly enough, I only saw African-Americans engaging in this, not Africans or other black groups on campus.

 

I think it is mostly colorism. People like to forget that it goes both ways in our community.

 

Like the old song goes,"Am I black enough for ya?"

 

At least she's not British.

Either Hollywood is choosing 'exotic' over Black for African American female roles, or they're going overseas to find Black actors to play leading roles in historical slave narratives, epic crime dramas like The Wire, or the role of MLK.

I agree with Orejon, as the country becomes more blended words like 'exotic' and 'racially ambiguous' are going to become the preferred casting models in movies and TV.


I don't know a thing about this man's daughter, but one of the top young Black female actors on the scene is 22 year old Keke Palmer.




I wonder if she got a casting tryout??

Hollywood did the same thing with Storm of the X-Men, and I just read an article that director Bryan Singer has cast another biracial woman to play the 'African' Storm in his next X-Men movie.


The comic book character Storm was discovered by Prof. Xavier in an African village where she was worshiped as a goddess because of her weather manipulating abilities.

It's not a huge deal, but when Hollywood producers and directors ignore the racial pigment of already known characters from other media, or seem to deliberately cast lighter or White appearing actors to play Black roles, it just creates more controversy.

Denzel was fine playing Malcolm X, but I always thought that role should have gone to Laurence Fishburne.

For what it's worth, if you google a pic of Aurora Perrineau, I'd be kind of shocked she was ever cast in the role of a Black woman.

But maybe she's 21st century Black.:smt102

 

Angela Basset should have been casted for storm

 

I read that she was actually offered the role, but turned it down. Not sure if it's true or not.

 

I think it is true. Angela Bassett also turned down Monster's Ball. But, alas, these two roles were portrayed by Halle Berry.

 

Hell, we see it on this website. An IR celebrity relationship doesn't really exist unless the black male celeb is 100% Zulu while being dark as night with a bald head. If one looks even slightly "mixed" some fools on this board dismiss the notion that he is black.

 

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