Every country that borders Israel, on all sides except the ocean, is considered Middle Eastern. Logically, then, Israel itself is part of the Middle East. What’s the counter-argument?
Of course Israelis are Middle Eastern.
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We originated here. Sure, we stepped out for a bit, and picked up some foreign genes along the way, but this is where we come from.
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If that’s not enough, roughly half of the ancestors of modern-day Israelis immigrated from Middle Eastern countries during the 20th Century. Are you saying that they’re not Middle Eastern?
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We speak a Semitic language. We worship a Middle Eastern religion.
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Our culture is unique, but in terms of food, music and social mores, it’s as much Middle Eastern as it is anything else. We’re certainly not European. Either set us in a completely separate category from any other culture in the world, or call us Middle Eastern.
Frankly, AK84, it’s your attitude that poses the biggest obstacle to peace in the Middle East. So long as Muslims like you look at us and think, “You don’t belong here”, the conflict will never be resolved.
Archer:
8 characters total
7 white
1 black…ish/quadroon
I know you have the disclaimer there in the beginning, but I have to question how appropriate it is to use someone like Aubrey Plaza as an example of minority representation. I’ll give you Rashida Jones, but Plaza seems like a stretch.
That said, I think the problem nowadays is less about numerical representation, and more about cultural representation. Even though there are Indians on TV, you will almost never see any of them eating Indian food or celebrating Indian holidays (save the Diwali episode of The Office). You will see very little acknowledgment that they are Indian except when it serves the plot of a specific episode.
Most of the time, these shows are written from an educated, White, elite perspective. The writers generally fit that mold, and they write what they know. The trend has been having these characters with no racial identity, which is nice because it means Will Smith can play the hero. But, it seems like dubious progress since race still informs the perspectives and identities of most minorities, so these culturally vacuous characters ring hollow. Blacks don’t just want Black people on TV so they literally see a Black guy on TV; we want our viewpoints and perspectives articulated and validated. That doesn’t really happen on most shows.
Nothing new about this.
I think the reason that most minorities appear as if they could be interchanged for white characters (not just how they are portrayed but, in most cases, how they sound) is, you have to remember that television is a business, and the profits come from the viewers, most of whom (a) are white, and (b) usually want to associate with the characters - which they can’t really do if the characters have distracting accents. (Quick - how many characters on TV series have had, say, thick New Jersey accents, other than when they are playing specific Jersey characters like on The Sopranos?)
Nothing new about this; I remember the one Asian medical student character on St. Elsewhere saying that she had been called into a meeting with the producers and was expecting to hear that her character was going to have a bigger part next season, only to be told that they were killing the character off because audiences weren’t interacting well with her. I wouldn’t be surprised if the reason the writers of Glee broke off the Artie-Tina relationship and suddenly had Tina get together with Mike (the only two Asian students on the show) was for a similar reason.
As someone from NJ, I can attest most people from NJ don’t have accents, let alone thick unintelligible ones. That said, I understand that it’s a business. My issue was that they try to placate minorities by allowing minority actors to play White characters. That kind of pandering is often worse than the alternative.
I imagine that acting is a relatively bourgeois profession, too (though I’m too lazy to look for some decent demographics). When I was in acting school, most of my classmates were from a Canadian (and other northern European) middle-class background. There were a couple of guys from Mexico; it stuck with me that on grad day, Xavier’s father said something to the effect of, “Acting is generally looked down upon in Mexico, but we support our son and know he’s going to be successful.”. There may simply be a smaller talent pool of Hispanic, Asian-American, etc. actors for Hollywood casting directors to draw from.
Perhaps more important than what audiences want is what investors think audiences want. The old rich men putting up the money to finance a show are probably a lot more conservative than the 18- to 34-year-olds who make up the bulk of its audience. It’s easy to lose a lot of money in the television business; even if there’s only a small (or imagined) chance that more diversity will alienate your audience, I can see how an investor would be afraid to add yet another risk to his venture.
I remember when Rita Moreno won some Hispanic acting award (probably the ALMA award) when she was a regular on Oz. And some commentator said that Moreno was a good actress and deserved the award - but it would have been a lot more meaningful if she wasn’t the only Hispanic actress currently appearing on any television series.
At the time there was at least one other Hispanic actress appearing on Oz.
Presumably you’re talking about Lauren Velez, who played Dr Nathan. She was not always credited as part of the regular cast, for some seasons she was listed as a recurring guest star.
Actually, I’d bet most TV shows are at least as integrated as most people’s real lives. By that I mean, for good or ill, most people live in neighborhoods that are mostly one race or another, attend churches that are mostly one race or another, and tend to socialize with mostly one race or another,
If a TV show is set in a school or workplace – which are relatively integregated – it makes sense to have an integrated cast. But if you’re making a show about a relatively small circle friends, and certainly if you’re making a show about a family, making it overwhelmingly one race is just being realistic.
Of course, the fact that the “one race” is nearly always white is another issue. I suspect that it’s what passes as “neutral” in the eyes of the focus groups.
Without trying to hijack the thread, I’ll just point out that saying that Israelis are not middle eastern is distinct from saying “you don’t belong here” and I have offered no opinion on the latter.
Israel is a colonial enterprise and like successful colonial enterprises before it in Ireland, in the Western Hemisphere and in Oceania while it no doubt has its own unique culture it is not in anyway representative of that region.
And now back to our regularly scheduled rants:D
What country do you feel Israel is a colony of? And if the modern Israelis didn’t originate in the Middle East, where do you feel their origin was?
Perhaps today is not the best day to have this discussion.
Or maybe it’s the best day to have this discussion.
I’m putting 5 dollars on Hoboken.
But how much does race inform a character in movies where it’s a white guy starring? If it’s a generic action movie, for example, it doesn’t seem like the characters are going to be reflecting on race or socioeconomic status at all anyway. Also, how do you differentiate between black (or Hispanic or Asian, etc.) and white viewpoints or perspectives? I’m nonwhite (Asian) and I don’t really see how you can attribute a viewpoint to a whole culture of people – aren’t different individuals within a culture going to have different perspectives?
I think the problem is that in American culture, there is still an automatic assumption on the part of the majority that “no racial identity” = “white.” That accounts for some of the backlash against characters in The Hunger Games being cast with black actors. They assumed (even though the novel described them as being dark-skinned) that the characters were white. It’s a rare mainstream sitcom or drama in which the main character, the one the audience is supposed to identify with, isn’t white.
Game of Thrones and Once Upon a Time are both fanciful shows that are almost exclusively white, which is probably based on their European provenance. Grimm Meanwhile has two MAIN characters one white one black,four other less main characters, two white and one that seems to be middle eastern (the police chief) and one asian.
I concur.
Do actor/actresses ethnicity count? Alexis Bledel is technically Hispanic thus Gilmore Girls could be said to have two.