jezebel.com: Disney's The Lone Ranger is ripe with opportunity to point out the perils of putting a white dude— no, sorry, a part-something Native American dude— dressed as a white guy's interpretation of a stoic Native American nature fairy named Tonto. But you guys, Johnny Depp knows the pathetic state of the underrepresentation of Native Americans in film. He knows everyone has been doing it wrong, so he's going to do red face right.
3 comments:
This article brings up the very real problem that the entertainment industry faces when portraying minorities. Johnny Depp believes he is making an honest attempt at a real problem, but as journalist states, "What's worse is, even if Depp and Disney did the political correctness song and dance, thousands of kids will still be dressing as Tonto for Halloween and in their heads they'll say, "I feel like a warrior, man." Unfortunately, we live in a world where stereotypes are real and we see them every day. The entertainment industry struggles with this problem very often, but we can learn from the past. The producers of the musical "The Lion King" chose to represent Simba as a strong, rising African American king. They didn't acknowledge any stereotypes are did it very subtly. Now I know that I don't have a solution to the problem of stereotypes, but that doesn't mean that the industry should not make honest attempts at portraying everyone equally, as we are in the business of storytelling.
What I find very interesting about this article is that, rather than attacking the story - as most racism provoked attacks of the industry do - they attack the casting choice and I agree. If they wanted to show an authentic representation of Native American culture, why not use an a Native American actor? When roles are written as racially specific, it is for a reason. And I don't think that this is being racist because in the entertainment industry, people write stories in which their characters have certain traits for a reason. Nothing is arbitrary. If someone is a African-American or white or Asian or Native American, it is because the author wanted that culture shown or the story on which the piece is based takes place within that culture. It's another story if race is not specified, but in a story like The Lone Ranger, it is widely known that Tonto was Native American. So why choose a non-Native-American actor or sorry - as the article says - a "part-something Native American dude?"
Yes, Johnny Depp is playing a historically role. No, it probably won't be improved much by a Disney portrayal. It is, after all, coming out of the company that created Pocahontas. And, admittedly, that's not acceptable in a big-important-issues kind of way. But, I think that maybe there are more important issues to be attacking in the media as it relates to stereotypes. The Lone Ranger probably isn't going to be a society changing movie. Nor should we necessarily be expecting a movie that is a new take on an old western to be exactly PC. Yes, it's racist. Yes, that's awful. I'm not trying to negate those facts. But maybe we should pick our battles. Should The Lone Ranger really be one?
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