Phil in the Blank

I'm Tasmanian and proud! Now if you don't mind my second head thinks its feeding time and my cousin is coming over to make the babies with me.

Seriously man, I will kick your ass.

I wouldn't be the only one guilty of that would I now?

No you didn't say that. You said that its the fault of casting directors as to why more minorities are not given roles in Hollywood. Personally speaking I feel that is a rather large percentage of the blame to hand out on this issue and gave an exaggerated reply to show how ridiculous in my eyes is, that your supposition that casting directors are to blame for this situation. You could at least throw some of the blame towards the writers, the directors, and the general public who pay the $$$ to see this stuff if this truly is that big of an issue for you. I never said we live in a color blind society, only that it is desirable that we move towards one. Of course, even in a color-blind society there will be occasions where colour will actually matter when it comes to casting decisions as our past most definitely was not colour blind. Wouldn't want a white guy in blackface playing MLK would we?

Casting Directors - Biggest Racists of All Time, Confirmed.

I don't know DeeCee, we love watching train wrecks Ssssshhhh, that's our little secret.

I'm gonna be the odd one out here. I'm going to chose The Undiscovered Country *Voted as I listen to Wrath of Kahn on Spotify*

So if I misinterpreted your post and you agree with my position that race shouldn't matter then I congratulate you for being on the right side of an argument for a change!

Since you desperately seem to want me to reply to your initial posting. In my eyes we have completely different reasonings even if our conclusions can sometimes align. My point in my post was that race does not matter. There is nothing inherently white about the character Bond and therefore he should be played by the best actor available regardless of his skin color. Very consistent with my views that I have posted in this thread that I do not think skin color should matter. You seem to be of the opinion that race very much matters. You argue for example that, BVS has great casting because it has a white, black, salmon and middle easterner in the same cast. I would argue that its casting is great if, and only if the actors fit the roles in question. I personally don't care if its an all white, or all black, or all asian cast as long as the best people for the roles are selected. That is where I feel we differ and why I don't consider our points to be the same. Enjoy the BvS thread.

These were your own words. You replied to 5 different people in one post. Myself, Jessie, Harpospoke, mattmav45 and Ozymandis, responding to each one of us in turn not debating the quality of our argument, but on the content of our skin. Those are your words, and I post them again so people can decide on their own if I am twisting them or not.

Yes I was being sensationalist. And yes I was wrong to be so flippant in grouping them together. So I apologize to any minority who does not have a teary over every tiny little thing. It was wrong of me to group you together with those who do and it is equally possible that someone in the majority could be having a teary over every little tiny thing as well. It was just a quick throw away line before I headed out of the house and thus did not have the appropriate level of thought placed into it. I am truly sorry for that. So with that I would like to officially change my original statement to. There are three things that are certainties in this world, Death, Taxes, and Social Justice Warriors having a teary over something unimportant.

So you don't vilify white people with similar views to your own but you do call people out for being white who don't agree with your views. Sounds rather Uncle Tom like there. As for not wanting color in films....Here is a quote from me from about 2 years ago in the Bond thread on if he should change ethnicity. "My personal feelings are that there is nothing about Bond that makes him inherently white. He was white when he was created because black people simply wouldn't had been likely to succeed within an organisation like MI6. Of course this is 2012 and colour has no barrier for entry these days and hence Bond could be any colour you could think of as long as he acted British. Doesn't mean the next Bond should be Black, it just depends on who is the best man for the job. " http://forums.boxoffice.com/index.php?/topic/6554-do-you-want-to-see-james-bond-portrayed-with-a-different-ethnicity/page-4 I have no problem with their being more diversity in the cinema. That is not my beef here.

I don't force my view onto anyone. I'm not holding a gun to anyones head. The problem with screaming about the lack of, i dunno, Hispanic lead actors is that you are bitching about the symptom while not looking at the cause. It's like getting told your blood pressure is high, so you get angry at your blood as you chow down on another Big Mac. And while we group people together for convenience don't make the mistake that minorities are just one big group think. There will be people from minority groups who agree with you, there will be people from minority groups who agree with me, and there will be people from minority groups who think we are both full of shit. People are individuals with their own thoughts and beliefs and values. I'm not telling minorities anything, I am communicating my own beliefs and values.

Culture is a tricky word. You could write an essay on what it means but i'm just going to stick with the dictionary defintion because I'm tired. "the ideas, customs, and social behaviour of a particular people or society." There is a distinct lack of race in that definition and I completely agree with you that just because you share the same skin colour does not mean that you share the same culture. As for using the word celebrate. To be honest I rewrote that particular sentence a few times before going 'fuck it' I'll just save arguments and use WB's words. Some films should be a celebration of a particular culture, some films should be a criticism of a particular culture, and most films should have culture as a backdrop or 'part of the story' as you will. I wouldn't mind that cultural backdrop being more diverse myself, but ultimately movies are going to try to appeal to the biggest audience.

So we agree. Excellent. Skin Color should not play any role in how we judge each other Dash.

I'm not saying that skin colour, does not influence how the world reacts to that person now. I am saying we need to move towards a future where skin colour does not influence how the world reacts to them at all.

I wasn't responding to you as I had no real desire to get into yet another argument where you try to insinuate I am racist. And you know what, pointing our your behavior, where you are purposely trying to shut down debate by pointing out we are white is not playing victim. It's stating the truth as I see it. I personally do not feel victimized at all by you, and in fact could not care less what you thought about me. But ultimately you are trying to use my own race against me and I call it as I see it. I just hope that my comments inspire you think along the lines that, 'you know what, spottswoode is correct, i shouldn't call him out on being white, i should call him out on being an asshole.'

I view skin colour in the exact same way that I view hair colour. I notice it obviously, but there is no need to judge someone because their hair is brown or red or blond. Sure it exists, but its completely irrelevant to how I view them as a person. So yes, I look at you and it registers in my mind that you are black, but its your posts that I judge you as a person on and not your skin colour. Believe me, I would view you exactly the same even if you were white. I hope you would do the same if I was black.

Yes, yes they are.

I think its a consumer led thing to be honest. People love to whine about big business, but what big business really reflects are our own desires. We are the ones who want cheaper prices at the cost of outsourcing jobs or more lax environmental controls. And we are the ones who go make <insert Block Buster title here> a big hit while ignoring <insert Indie Title here> a commercial failure.

I didn't say cry-babies whined about anything Dash. Also Dash, It's okay to me that you are black, and I respect your skin pigment.

Yet you refuse to tackle his argument? Okay.

We are simply never going to see eye-to-eye won this matter. For the record though, I really don't want you to shut up. Freedom of speech is a wonderful thing and I wouldn't trade it for anything. However I am going to finish with a quote from Morgan Freeman, who being black, obviously has more weight on the issue than me because me being white and all. So you know, respect his opinion because he is black. "Stop talking about it. I'm going to stop calling you a white man. And I'm going to ask you to stop calling me a black man. I know you as Mike Wallace. You know me as Morgan Freeman. You're not going to say, "I know this white guy named Mike Wallace." Hear what I'm saying?"

And on MLK, as I see it. Both Harspoke and myself seem to be idealists at heart and we identify with MLK's idealism. A day when the content of your character is what counts, not what the color of your skin is. What a fantastic vision. How much pain and suffering would end if we lived in that future.

Do you know what I find super ironic. You see in science there has been nothing found to justify the concept of race. Nothing. It is an artificial social construct designed, it seems from my white male eyes as I cast over history with my white male brain, to justify being assholes to one another. And ironically, the very people who were victimized by this artificial construct are the ones who are so desperate to cling to this construct. I'm sorry, I just find that incredibly ironic.I will not respect someone for being black, white, red or yellow. I will respect someone who is a decent human being. If you want to celebrate your skin color go right ahead, but I refuse to hop aboard that train.