Wait A Minute... Isn't That Racist?

Let's discuss intolerance. Today's target is the movie "In the Heights," which just "inexplicably" bombed. It's strange. It's a minority production about minorities and it was fellated by critics so it shouldn't have failed, right? It's diverse! It was written by Lin-Manuel Miranda who did Hamilton. It's the age of tolerance. Sure, NBA ratings are down, no one is watching black television shows, and even leftists like Yahoo and Amazon have dropped their push of black entertainment because nobody cared, but this is really inexplicable. I mean, who doesn't want to see a movie about a bunch of Puerto Ricans in New York? Weird. That's not why we're here though...

We're here to discuss how racist the movie was. Yup. See, apparently, minority doesn't actually mean minority, it means black. And if you don't have enough blacks, then you are racist no matter how many browns or yellows or reds you hired. Indeed, an NFL assistant coach recently spilled the beans on this when he complained about being told he was the wrong kind of minority, but that's a story for another day. Today we sit back and judge... enjoy the squirming.

Let us turn to an article discussing the issue. It begins:

Not everyone is raving over the new In the Heights movie.

The film, which originally debuted as a Broadway musical in 2008 with lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda, and a book by Quiara Alegría Hudes, has raised eyebrows for its lack of Afro-Latinx representation.

When confronted with this criticism during an interview on Wednesday, June 9, director Jon M. Chu said it was something "I needed to be educated about."

Ah yes, the hypocritical magic negro apology. Yes, Jon, bow down and let the magic negroes educate you about your lack of understanding of the world. We've talked about this before. Not only is this form of "apology" evasive of responsibility, but it's super condescending as it invokes a racist trope. So you see where this is headed.

"In the end, when we were looking at the cast, we tried to get people who were best for those roles," he continued, adding, "But I hear you on trying to fill those cast members with darker skin. I think that's a really good conversation to have, something that we should all be talking about."

Hmm. So you're saying that you weren't racist, it's just that whitish-minorities were the best people for the roles. Somehow, I doubt you would have bought that explanation from a white director who cast all white actors, so why do you think it's ok? The "best actor for the part" line simply no longer washes in these Apartheid days, Jon. And what's this crap about it being a good conversation to have... you were in charge. Don't act like this was out of your hands and someone else should have done something about your racism! You are guilty, no one else. What is your defense?

Jon noted that the background dancers were diverse, to which the journalist replied, "Those are roles that, historically, we've been able to fill. We've been able to be the dancers, we've been able to be in the hair salons...but, like, a lead? That's the breakthrough."

She continued, "We want to see Black people In the Heights. We wanna see Afro-Panamanians, Black Cubans, Black Dominicans. That's what we want to see. That's what we were yearning for and hoping for."

The director responded, "I hope that encourages more people to tell more stories, and get out there and do it right then."

Gee, that's not an evasion. Idiot 1: Why were you racist? We wanted you to be non-racist. Idiot 2: Well, I hope my racist film encourages people to be nonracist... other people, not me of course. Yeah, that's the ticket. I was only trying to show how racism is bad by being racist to encourage others not to be racist, so I wasn't really racist.

Maybe we should hear from some of the actors. The director clearly seems to be entrenched in his racism. I'm sure they will have been horrified at what they did.

Leslie Grace, who is Dominican-American and plays Nina in the musical, also touched on the subject, as well as the importance of inclusion:

"I didn't realize until making this movie that I didn't really get to see myself or people that looked like my siblings, that are darker than me, onscreen," she told Felice. "And I didn't realize how much that affected the limitations that I put on myself—being someone who wanted to be an artist, an actress and even be in the Latin music industry being Afro-Latina."

"I feel so blessed that we get to express the diversity that is within the Latinx community in a way that we haven't been able to see onscreen," she added. "I hope that this is cracking that glass ceiling. Because I do hope to see my brothers and sisters that are darker than me lead these movies."

WTF??? So first, she notes that she hasn't really seen herself on film. That is because she's a singer, not an actress. But she's light skinned anyways (despite calling herself Afro-Latina), so why does she think she matters in this debate? Apparently, darkness is like wealth, everyone lighter/richer than you is bad, but you are where the good people begin. And why does the darker sibling line sound like "I have black friends"?

Anyways, she's so blessed that she got to express the diversity within the PR community in ways that haven't been seen before. Like OMG, giggle giggle. How she did that by only including light-skinned actors, isn't exactly clear, but she hopes that this cracks the glass ceiling... although that's for white women so she should probably come up with some better metaphor. I won't suggest one though lest I too will need to become educated on my racism by a magic negro. Ain't nobody got time for that.

In terms of there being dark-skinned people in film though, she has a great point. You just don't see dark-skinned brothers and sisters in movies. I mean, ask Sideny Poitier, Denzel Washington, Morgan Freeman, Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy, Samuel L. Jackson, Laurence Fishburne, Wesley Snipes, Keith David, Danny Glover, Bill Cosby, Louis Gossett Jr., Yaphet Koto, Whoopie Goldberg, James Earl Jones, Billy Dee Williams, Forrest Whitaker, Sammie Davis Junior, Will Smith, Cuba Gooding Jr., Terrance Howard, Pam Grier, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Jeffrey White, Thandiwe Newton, Alfre Woodward, Ving Rhames, LeVar Burton, S. Epatha Merkeson, Oprah Winfrey, Eartha Kit, Diahann Carroll, Vivica Fox, Taraji Hendson, Angela Bassett, Nichelle Nichols, Raven-Symone, Jada Pinkett Smith, Queen Latifah, Halle Berry, Lena Horne, and Niecy Nash. They'll explain it to you.

Back to the point though, how exactly did you break the dark-skinned ceiling by participating in a movie without any dark-skinned brothers and sister in it, honey? Sounds to me like you just reinforced that tinted ceiling. Your defense doesn't wash.

But you know, maybe Jon's just a racist and she's just stupid, so let's hear from others. Surely someone will stop evading their crimes and just tell us flat out that they took advantage of their light-skinned privilege. I mean, they all prey (sp?) at that altar, it's time to confess their infidelity to dogma:

Melissa Barrera, who is Mexican and plays Vanessa, shared her take on the film's lack of diversity.

"In the audition process, which was a long audition process, there were a lot of Afro-Latinos there. A lot of darker-skinned people. And I think they were looking for just the right people for the roles," she said, referencing the casting decisions that were made. "For the person that embodied each character in the fullest extent...I think we are all very much like our characters, so much so that a lot of times it didn't even feel like we were acting."

She further explained, "And because the cast ended up being us, and Washington Heights is a melting pot of Black and Latinx people, Jon and Lin wanted the dancers and the big numbers to feel very truthful to what the community looks like."

Hmm. So it's back to this best person for the role? I'm sorry, but that just doesn't wash, you racist pig. You admit there were darker-skinned people in the auditions and some racist weeded them out and you're justifying that racism by claiming they were only trying to cast people who look like the characters? YET, you also admit that Washington Heights is a melting pot of BLACKs and Latinics. So where are the blacks? Where are the blacks? How can the musical numbers be true to "what the community looks like" if. there. are. no. blacks? We all know blacks dance because they do it in all the commercials in which liberal whites put them. So don't tell me there shouldn't have been blacks! Do you not understand how racist you are? It's time you went back to Mexico and found a magic whatever-the-hell they have down there and educate yourself!

This is frustrating people. At least Lin-Manuel Miranda will set these people straight, right? Sorry, I forgot that Lin's gay and I shouldn't have used the word "straight" because that might offend. I'm sorry, Lin-Manuel. Now reach down deep in your mighty gay victimhood and set us straight right!

Although Lin-Manuel wasn't interviewed, he did address the musical's representation when speaking to Vox on Thursday, June 10.

"It's unfair to put any kind of undue burden of representation on In the Heights," he told the outlet. "There are so many millions of stories—there's a song in Heights called 'Hundreds of Stories,' but there's millions of stories—from the cultural specificities of the Puerto Rican American experience, the Dominican American experience, the Cuban American experience, and we couldn't get our arms around all of that."

Holy hell! So there are millions of stories there and you just happened to pick only light-skinned ones? How racist are you? You can pretend that the founding fathers were black just to create a black story but you can't tell the story of real black people? That screams white washing or black face or black washing or something... probably white face. Damn you, sir.

I don't even know what to say. These people made a film. The film includes no black actors even though it tells the story of a community that is ethnically diverse and full of black people, and rather than admit their thought crimes, they are talking about shattering glass ceilings by not going through the ceiling, hoping their racism encourages other not to be racist, and evading their crimes using a racist trope.

Something stinks here.

Thoughts?