Taiwanese director Ang Lee noting Hollywood’s tendency to overlook Asian actors to a Chinese radio station.   Ang Lee was disappointed that Suraj Sharma was not nominated for Best Actor for his performance in The Life of Pi.  Lee added that he felt Irfan Khan should have been nominated for Best Supporting Actor, and that Zhang Ziyi was not nominated either for Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, nor were any actors nominated for Slumdog Millionaire.

What’s a guy gotta do to get an Oscar?  Here’s some trivia about Sharma’s work on the film, from FirstPost.com.

• Sharma beat out 4,000 other applicants (Ang Lee decided from the start the role would not be whitewashed.)
• Sharma had never acted prior to this so Ang Lee assigned him a pile of homework and made him act scenes from Teneesse Williams and other playwrights just for practice.
• Sharma didn’t know how to swim when he was cast for the role.  When he first started out he could only hold his breath for 14 seconds.  In the end he was able to go for one minute and a half.
• Sharma spent most of the movie filming in a pool emoting in front of a blue screen to an invisible tiger.
• Sharma lost 20% of his body weight for the role, eating a diet that mostly consisted of tuna fish, just like his character, so his ribs would show.
• Sharma cut himself up frequently while working on the boat and used those injuries in his acting.  He would allow himself to get flipped along with the boat.
• The production was banned from speaking to Sharma.  Ang Lee and Sharma agreed that he would not to talk to other people for almost two months so he would understand what isolation was like.
  

1.   This kid is badass.

2.  When white actors like Christian Bale and Leonardo DiCaprio do stuff like lose 20% of their body weight or cut themselves and keep acting everyone cheers uproariously.

3. It is weirdly dismissive when films about characters of color get nominated but their actors do not.  Django Unchained, Life of Pi, Slumdog Millionaire, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, The Last Emperor, etc.

4.   As FirstPost points out, a lot of the Oscar snubbed actors that people are talking about like Leonardo DiCaprio have plenty of other opportunities to star in other big movies.   When is the next big project for an actor of South Asian descent coming up?

(via racebending)

(Source: m1905.com, via fascinasians)

Itacawin

To the people who like to appropriate Native American culture. Take very close notes.

(via angrywomenofcolorunited)

If you’re great grand mother was a “Cherokee Princess” why would you mock and dishonor her? - the question no “costume play” racist will ever answer, though hey swear they’re 1/14 *insert random romanized First Native and add a western royalty title*

(via rebelion-silenciosa)

(via noautopilot)

18mr:

Dear David,

Nothing is the same without you. You should be here telling us jokes and planning our next camping trip.  We should be celebrating your 15th birthday but instead we are grieving your death. The only way we can survive your tragic loss is to hold on to our love for you.

Your pride in all things American and compassion for the less fortunate would have helped you fulfill your dream of becoming a National Guardsman. Your polite manners and your kindness illustrated the values your parents instilled in you. You should never been mistreated because of your Vietnamese heritage or because you were gay. You were absolutely perfect the way God made you.

After the investigation, we understand the truth and why you felt you had to leave this Earth. We need to bring you JUSTICE and peace by eliminating the hate that you suffered at school by both kids and adults. We are fighting so that other bullied kids get help at school instead of being victimized by those who have a duty to protect them.  You deserved better and not a minute goes by without us thinking of you. We miss your handsome face and the joy you brought to our lives.    

Love Always,

Don and your family

R.I.P. David Phan

May 19, 1998-November 29, 2012

David Phan would have turned 15 yesterday. He took his life in November after being bullied mercilessly for being Vietnamese American and for being gay. Read the full memorial post at Hyphen Magazine.

(via trungles)

John Cho (x)

yo my heart is racing at the guts it takes to say something like this knowing full well what could happen. damn!!!!

(via strugglingtobeheard)

John Cho- stays dishing how he really feels. It is giving me feels.

(via reallifedocumentarian)

holy shit

but can we get a source on this bc I want this to be true SO badly

Omg my love for John Cho just soared. he better still be in the next Star Trek movie!!

(Source: itreallyisthelittlethings, via godfreygaobipls)

sapphrikah:

whitepeoplecantbreathe:

blackinasia:

Rebloggable response to a white person demanding to know “what they have taken from POC”

Every white person is not responsible for the actions of those in the past who stole Native American’s land. Those people are not the ancestors of every single white person. Those people who stole their land are not alive today. What are you gaining by persecuting an entire demographic today for the actions of a fraction of them years ago? What is that accomplishing?

I DON’T KNOW WHAT THE FUCK IT’S GOING TO TAKE FOR THESE CRACKERS TO FUCKING UNDERSTAND THIS SIMPLE SHIT.

WHITE PEOPLE. WHITE PEOPLE. DO AND HAVE DONE THINGS LIKE TAKE THE LANDS OF OTHERS, ENSLAVED OTHER, MASS MURDERED OTHERS IN A XENOPHOBIC CONTEXT, AND ESTABLISHED A WHITE-WORSHIPING SOCIETY IN WHICH PoC ARE DEEMED ANYTHING FROM UGLY, TO LAZY, TO UNINTELLIGENT. AND WHITE PEOPLE HAVE CONTINUED TO PROFIT FROM THE ECONOMIC INEQUALITY THEY CREATED IN THEIR OWN FAVOR.

It’s not like when the slaves were “freed” they were also given all of the land and all of the fucking money they fucking worked for. That hierarchy was set up and left as is, with white people in the fucking upper echelon.

AND DO YOU KNOW WHO BENEFITS FROM ALL OF THAT, well what do you fucking know? WHITE PEOPLE WHO ARE ALIVE TODAY. WHITE PEOPLE WHO HAVE HAD THAT KIND OF MONEY IN THEIR FAMILY FOR DECADES. SHIT. EVEN THE ONES WHO DIDN’T ARE AFFORDED THE ABILITY TO MOVE ABOUT THE WORLD UNSCATHED BY RACIST FUCKING SOCIETAL NORMS. YOU FUCKING BENEFIT FROM PEOPLE THINKING YOU ARE INNOCENT AND INHERENTLY SMART AND CAPABLE. YOU BENEFIT FROM THE GROUNDWORK OF THOSE PEOPLE WHO CREATED THAT SYSTEM AND THOSE PEOPLE NOW WHO CONTINUE TO UPHOLD IT. You are absolutely fucking responsible the moment you do not own that privilege and work not to forward the dismantling of it. ABSOLUTELY fucking responsible.

This. Is not. Fucking. Hard. To. Grassssssp.

(via blackinasia)

Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan on being detained at the U.S. Airport—twice. (Once, he was detained while promoting a film called “My Name is Khan” which was ironically about a person with the last name Khan suffering from repeated racial profiling.)

Multiple actors and other prominent individuals in the film industry with the last name “Khan” have been detained when entering the country. Irrfan Khan (The Life of Pi, Slumdog Millionaire, Spider-man) described the three times he was stopped—while on the way to receive honors for his roles in films such as The Namesake—as “humiliating.” Actor Aamir Khan was stopped and stripped searched in 2002. Director Kabir Khan, was reportedly detained at least three times in 2008 while filming in the United States. The New York Times ended up remarking on The Dangers of Fying While Khan

This much is clear:

• Despite being an incredibly common surname, in the United States, Khan is a racialized last name and those who carry it suffer from additional, insulting, stigma and scrutiny.
• There is no shortage of talented actors of South Asian descent whether from within the United States, from the UK, or Bollywood—and many of them even have the last name of Khan.
• With Star Trek Into Darkness the name “Khan” is once again stigmatized as antagonistic, but the actors named Khan, the Khans of the world, and those who look like Khans once again have no voice about how they are represented in American media.

If you’re an award winning actor named Khan, you will still get stopped and humiliated at the airport. When that rare character in American media finally shows up sharing your name, he will be played by a white British man. That actor will wear your name for one movie and sneer and strut to great critical acclaim. You will wear your racialized name, your skin color, and hope you don’t get detained another time.

(via racebending)

(Source: rt.com, via racebending)

blackinasia:

Last night I went out with some friends, including one Taiwanese American and one Chinese American friend of mine for a birthday party. During the course of the night, we met a group of white Americans who they all proceeded to chat with. Over the course of the conversation, one of the white guys starts talking to my two Asian American friends and starts the conversation by saying:

White Guy: “So, you guys are Taiwanese?”

AA Friends: “No, we are from America.”

*WG looks at them with a disbelieving smirk*

WG: “I don’t believe you.”

Taiwanese American friend: “Well my parents are from here.”

WG: “But what about you?”

The white guy then proceeded to test them to make them “prove” to him that they were from America. It was absolutely sickening and it went on until I finally cut in:

Me: “Asian Americans exist, you know? They are real and they have agency”

WG: “Not where I’m from in Arizona, they don’t.”

And at that point I just walked away, as the conversation was obviously over.

White people, please stop denying our lived experiences as POC. And please stop trying to make us prove to you:

1. That we’re human
2. That we’re (insert X nationality here) enough for you

It’s absolutely sickening and just goes to show how racist and fucking ignorant you are.

ARGH i hate these kinds of convos so much. Just yesterday, I was at my bf’s little sister’s bday party, and one of the parents there asked me if I was from here, like speaking clear English the whole time wasn’t a good enough indication.

But seriously, if some white guy ever said he didn’t believe that I was American enough, I’d cuss him out so hard right then and there.

girljanitor:

tomithejellyfish:

thesargebag:

Warning, do not read around anything both extremely valuable and breakable.

I write articles about racisms for Cracked sometimes! This is one of those times!

omfg this is literal gold

“And then what? Up will be down, dogs will marry cats, the Hot Pockets will microwave us!”

LOL

(via noautopilot)

one type of people that I truly despise in this world are people who fail to see the long term damages from racist movie casting practices that range from colorface to whitewashing. How the real life treatment towards people of color influence the decisions to cast certain people of certain races in movies, which further influences the real life treatment of people of color. And they dare tell us to “chill out” when the cries of pain can no longer be suppressed.

No matter how blatant or just “a little bit racist” the choice made, a powerful industry is still trodding on the very beings of pocs, and that’s fucked up.

barbeauxbot:

yennasollapoghirai:

tsotchke:

science-officer-spock:

teal-deer:

I have a longer rant about this, but I’m pissed as everloving fuck that Benedict Cumberbatch is, indeed, playing Khan Noonian Singh.

You can argue till you’re blue in the face that well, Ricardo Montalban wasn’t Indian, and he was of European descent and therefore white, but let me tell you, Montalban in the US was not white-passing and would have been parsed as Mexican. While that’s still not Indian, he’s still at least Not A White Guy. Montalban also founded the Nostoros Foundation, an organization to advocate for Latinos in the film industry and help them continue to get roles. 

Furthermore, Khan Noonian Singh, while a villain, is still one of the most prominent desi characters in American cinema. He’s iconic. And he’s not some withering racist stereotype either; he’s cunning, clever, brilliant, and dangerous. Nothing is EVER made of his race, we only know that he’s probably desi because of his name and appearance; the bigger point is that he’s been genetically engineered to be a perfect human. Let me repeat: in the 1960s, Gene Rodenberry decided that the perfect human was an Indian guy. 

Also look at this handsome face:

DAYMN. seriously go watch the TOS episode “Space Seed.” I’ll wait. 

So, while Benedict Cumberbatch is doubtless a fantastic actor, making his character into fucking KHAN NOONIEN SINGH for what to me reads as little more than a publicity stunt (“look! it’s khan in the second movie! just like how in the original movies it was khan in the second movie! :O”) is an insult to the original character, an insult to Gene Roddenberry, and an insult to Ricardo Montalban.

And it’s not as though there aren’t fantastic desi actors who could have portrayed the character. Need I remind you all that India has one of the largest film industries in the WORLD? Why not cast Shahrukh Khan? If you insist on an American, there’s always Sendhil Ramamurthy. But no, we’re going to cast LITERALLY the most British man in existence. 

It is whitewashing at its most vile and heinous, and it’s yet more evidence that fundamentally, J.J. Abrams does not understand the Star Trek universe in the least. I will not be going to see this movie, and in fact I’ll be avoiding Abrams productions and anything Cumberbatch is in from now on (Yes, that means I won’t be going to see the Hobbit, despite having wanted a Hobbit movie since I was a small child). 

i loved your post about Khan, and I absolutely agree with what you said. Not only do I feel anger about the whole casting but also sadness because there’s people out there, who claim to be fans, that are okay with the casting. Now, I don’t want to be thought of as those “elitist star trek fans” who say “oh you’re not a real fan if you like the reboots, or if you’ve only seen one series or movie” No, this isn’t what this is about. I believe that if you love Star Trek then you are a fan, but I also believe that you should know what Star Trek actually means and what it represents. The point of the show, to quote Gene Roddenberry is “Star Trek was an attempt to say that humanity will reach maturity and wisdom on the day that it begins not just to tolerate, but take a special delight in differences in ideas and differences in life forms” That is what Star Trek is about, it isn’t about stupid stereotypes, relentless action or the hotness of actors in any story. This show, the whole franchise, was to show you that there will be hope, friendships, love and acceptance. To a lot of people it isn’t just a show or a movie, it’s something important, something that picked them up when nothing could and something that made them feel like they belonged. The fan base is broad, and for a lot of us, it shows us in some way. The reason people are completely upset about the casting for Khan is because it’s just the same garbage and mistreatment that people have put up for years, not just in show business but in real life. Star Trek fans have come from all over the world and when we see people like us on screen, we feel less alone and like we’re just as important as anyone else because we are but it’s not always often that films or programs highlight this. To understand why it’s a huge deal you’d have to fathom how awful it is to feel like a second class citizen in your life, or to see it happen to someone you know. What Star Trek did was tell you “hey it’s alright to be yourself, you’ll be okay, you have a place with us” 

A lot of people will argue that only the acting matters, that Khan was engineered and he can look like anything, that Ricardo himself  wasn’t Indian, and some people even think he was white; all of that is not the point and you are missing the big picture. Khan and all the other people who were not white or appeared white on the show made a HUGE difference because they weren’t suppose to be there according to the politics in those years, Gene Roddenberry had to fight and take jabs from those that would try to get rid of what he wanted. He wanted to show the world that equality could be achieved, that what was then was not okay, that we’re all one. Granted that even back then there was whitewashing, and believe me, the fans are not okay with it, at the time it was the only way more diversity could be shown sadly enough, and throughout all those years, until now, it’s terrible that these people in charge believe that they can still stop the change that Gene had in mind. Things were not perfect at all but they tried and now at a new era it’s so disheartening to see it still happening and people defending it. It’s incredibly insulting, to those of us who are not white - or even to those who are white but believe in equality! it’s just saying “We have money, we want more money and we don’t give a damn about what Star Trek means to you. We will use a white actor because he’s well known and will bring us more money. We do not care how it makes you feel” 

People who accept this change of Khan don’t know what it’s like to feel inferior, to feel like an outcast, or uncomfortable to be in your own skin - we do and that’s why it’s important to us because it’s basically sending us to the back again, only those with money and white skin can be in power - the exact opposite that Khan was about, the opposite message of what the creator of Star Trek desired. And if you get upset by this, only because you love Benedict Cumberbatch, then you should be smart enough to realise how pitiful that is. No one wants to attack his looks or his acting skills, it is beyond him. I urge those who believe that to see it through a logical point of view instead of a vain one.

I would also like to throw in that Montalban came to the U.S. during a time when restaurants had signs like “No dogs or Mexicans allowed”.

Do you understand this? Montalban was cast in a prominent role for a popular TV show during a time in which non-Whites were (more) overtly discriminated against. So I really don’t have time for the tears when we’ve very clearly regressed and nay-sayers are giving every excuse in the book as to why the nu!casting isn’t horrendous and upsetting.

You love Cumberbatch? Great, I’m happy for you. This was not the role for him and you should be upset that your fave is being used to uphold the status quo

There are so many actors from India to choose from

for crying out loud they have about 10 different movie industries!!!

I am so disappointed about this I am actually physically ill. It’s a punch in the gut. 

(via noautopilot)