Why you gotta fail so HARD?

[megwrites]

Oh, France. I say this as a citizen of a country that really can't deny it's own deeply problematic racial issues: You are failing so hard with yours. And yeah, you do have race issues. How do I know?

Because in your country, they're casting a white actor (Gerard Depardieu) in the role of Alexandre Dumas, who was mixed race and considered black in his time. Because you guys ran out of mixed-race (or black) actors and your excuse is that only white people have blue eyes. Wow, did you miss the invention of the colored contact lens?

Also? Because a magazine in your country is putting white male models in blackface and calling it edgy.

This is wrong, this is bad, and I really don't even think further commentary needs to be made. Because, yeah.

Oh, and to my fellow Americans who might want to get on our high horses about this and start talking about how we're soooooo post-racial? Don't. We have plenty of ultra-skanky race issues of our own that we need to get a handle on, pronto.

Comments

[handyhunter.livejournal.com]

Racism really is different in France! ...Except for how it's not. :/

[takumashii.livejournal.com]

Wow, they had a great opportunity to show a black or mixed-race actor as a great writer and important figure in French culture -- and instead they get Gerard Depardieu in orange makeup? The racial tensions in the Paris suburbs are so bad -- there's a lot of joblessness and poverty among immigrants from Africa -- and I'm not saying that a movie is going to solve that, but it could never hurt to raise public consciousness of black contributions to French culture. It was an opportunity they should have taken.