Original article here.

Articles like this are why I only check in on Salon once or twice a week. What kind of stupid headline is that? I'm sick of whites blaming other whites for not bleeding their hearts enough, seriously.

I most likely won't see the film because I don't particularly care for indie films period. I could care less if it's a predominantly black skinned cast. And I feel like this is the sentiment that most people my age (twentysomething) and my skin color (white) share.

Agree, disagree? (I chose to put this here instead of debate since a lot of this is more personal opinion/experience rather than intellectual facts. But I don't mind if a mod moves it.)

If the film is good people will go see it no matter race, unless they are racist enough not to want to watch black actors which is stupid. The last thing I think of when I'm wanting to watch the movie is "oh is the cast and crew white or not?". What matters to me is if I'm interested in the characters and the story, not who's skin color is what.

Honestly my first thoughts were that the actress in the picture is very pretty.

...beyond that though, yeah. I'm not a fan of indie films normally, but I can't say I'm as concerned with the physical characteristics of an actor as I am with the characters and script. If its well done and a genre I like, I will probably enjoy it.

That said, though it was poorly stated, I suppose I can understand where they're coming from. There is an unconscious bias against people of colour, women, etc, even in fantasy scenarios such as movies and television. Writers have reported being discouraged to use female characters, as well as characters of colour, because of concerns that the story wouldn't 'appeal to the target audience' of white males. I feel that this is more a fault of the industry producing at this point than a fault of the consumers watching, but I'm no longer certain if that is wishful thinking on my part or not.

I know -I- am not so close-minded, but that's not to say others aren't, and mankind does seem to delight in proving me wrong for the worse. :c

I'm kind of surprised I've only gotten two replies, I thought more people would feel strongly about this.

Agreed. I don't even think of it unless there's been a news article talking about racist controversy, like with the Avatar films changing "ethnic" roles into white ones. And in that case, I will probably not see it, since I don't want to support whitewashing of anything. No one can tell me that there weren't suitable actors of the correct race to use.

I can kind of understand their point too, but I feel like given that this is a liberal, progressive news site that they're both preaching to the choir and simultaneously trying to insult them for not being adamant enough in their love of ethnic people. And I completely agree about it being industry standards. One company probably can't be blamed, it's just close-minded people in high positions exercising their power. It's just like certain fashion companies (Ann Klein) not wanting to display their plus size clothes in stores, they think it dilutes their fashionable image to show that they do help clothe these poor, tortured slightly overweight women. I've boycotted Ann Klein, even when something appeals to me because it's just the principal of the thing.

It's such a stupid question they've come up with. Would black people watch a white indie film? No idea, but I'm sure as hell the reason people aren't watching these films isn't because they're 'racist'.

I just tend to shut my ears to all this stuff now, people will never just be happy!

I don't think it's really about the skin color, it's about the culture. As a white person I've never been part of black culture, so I don't really have any invested interest in it. So that would be a reason that, as a white, I probably won't see it.

That's a curious remark to make, would you also refuse to see a film in which the culture was not one you were in where the actors were all white?

The headline is meant to get you to stop and click it. Did anyone actually read the article? The author clarifies what he's referring to in the second paragraph:

Also, earlier in the article:

I don't think the point he was trying to make was that people will flat-out refuse to see a movie where the actors look nothing like them. I read it more as "This was a really good movie, but if other movies like it are anything to go by, it's probably going to be severely overlooked because it's indie and because the subject matter probably isn't going to draw in a large crowd from the demographic it's aimed at, let alone this other demographic that might find it hard to relate to for a number of complicated reasons."

I mean, I guess he could have phrased it differently, but idk, I didn't see anything insulting in his approach. It's an interesting question, and I think oki's on the right track for the reason. I probably wouldn't watch this movie because the synopsis and the cast make it seem like a movie that's not meant for me or something. I can't even explain why I feel that way (it's not a particularly strong feeling, either, hopefully no one is reading it that way) and I think that's the point. If you feel like you couldn't relate, you're supposed to wonder why. Would you suddenly want to see this movie if the cast was more mixed, and the story was something with broader appeal? Can serious movies with a full minority cast become mainstream hits, or even become popular outside of the demographic they're aimed at? If not, and it's not for racist reasons, why is that? Will it ever change?

Weirdly I can't think of any specific examples of other movies I've passed up because of culture. (Except for, like, dance movies and stuff.. but is that culture, or genre? It's hard to tell.) I guess most movies with white or mixed main characters are made to appeal to a very wide audience, though, so they usually aren't tied too deeply to any specific culture. Also, if a movie didn't look interesting, I probably forgot about it.

There are plenty of movies that have an all white cast, most of them in fact do. There's nothing unusual about it, it's far more unusual for there to be a film coming out of Hollywood with a cast that is evenly varied or all a different race than white.

Movies often reflect the culture in which they were made regardless of whether it was the intention. So any movie you see is going to reflect the culture in which it was made in, you just may not notice it because the culture is your own and therefore seems to be nothing special and normal to you. It's only when it's an outside culture or your own culture presented wrongly you actually notice.

I mean like if someone specifically set out to hire all white actors and advertised it as all white.

As long as it's a good movie, I would watch it. I don't care for someone's skin color or whatever else society seems to deem as important without justifiable evidence for doing so. Though I don't normally watch indie movies, but if it's interesting enough, I might just watch it.

Yeah, I get that about headlines, I know how they work, it's why I typically don't patronize news sites that use these lame tricks. Salon never used to do this, this is just another article signaling that they're in a huge decline. I read the article, since I've been reading Salon for years, and I feel like the headline erases any attempt to have a thoughtful discussion, nothing in the body makes up for such an offensive abuse of journalistic power. The title also gets at my main point of posting, that whites love to blame other whites for not being tolerant enough. These people always want to call America the most xenophobic country in the world when it couldn't be further from the truth and I'm tired of getting lumped into that category just because I don't want to see this film and happen to be white.