"Casting of white actor as Martin Luther King prompts outrage"

[Adamas102]

Actually, Othello is the highest ranking person in the play - he's the general. Iago is mad because Othello promoted someone else over him (and he thinks, or at least says he thinks, that Othello slept with his wife). There are tons of racial epithets tossed at Othello, and Iago uses Othello's race to turn others against him (e.g. the idea that Othello, as his people do, practiced magic to charm Desdemona). Race plays a part, for sure, but it is not (imo) central to the main plot.

Othello's "Moorishness" definitely comes into play as some characters to attempt to use it to alienate him (such as the accusation of witchcraft). However, "Moor" isn't a race. Othello's race is ambiguous. As for the insults Iago flings at Othello, they are more an example of his pettiness and his attempts to juxtapose Othello's background/temperament with Desdemona's "purity" rather than an attempt to give Othello a definitive appearance. As you say, the specifics themselves aren't central to the themes that are being conveyed.

[Pann]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gandhi_(film)

You are aware that Sir Ben Kingsley is mixed race and his father was a Gujarati Indian?

[sarahtasher]

You do know that white actors were forced to play blackface on Othello because otherwise, gasp, the audience might have thought that a ''black'' character loving a white woman is normal ?

[Enthusiastic Steward]

Oh hell, that'll just make it worse.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVR3B01NxiM

A good compromise leaves everyone mad.

[GennGreymane]

You are aware that Sir Ben Kingsley is mixed race and his father was a Gujarati Indian?

Should someone who is 1/16th Sioux play Sitting Bull?

[jimlow]

did any black actors try out for the role?

[Polar1]

I am so tired of the entire "race" debate in the US....

Grow up already.

They can't.
They define themselves by race, and try to define others by race.
Hey, I land in the US for a conference or seminar and a tickmark goes in the "hispanic" box even if I am of Italian/Greek ancestry.
In the end, there's too much power to be had by milking the race division.

[sarahtasher]

Just saying here that all Shakespeare plays, while awesome toward plot and characterization, were never really meant to be accurate description

Venice is an exotic place for the audience: that's like another planet in a SF film.

[ItachiZaku]

As someone logically pointed out, there is a big difference between making Captain America black and making MLK white.

1)One of them exist actually
2)I'm a black guy is sort of important for the MLK character. That would be like making a movie with a biatholn runner that is unijambist.

Not really, the white dude can go in black face and everyone should be fairly ok with it.

[ringpriest]

Okay. I'm laughing like an idiot, but this is equality. If idiots can be outraged by black Annie, idiots can be outraged by white MLK. All fair.

How was his actual performance?

Bingo. I'm okay with a white MLK on stage, much like I'm okay with a black Heimdall on film. If people want to get over race, then they need to actually get over race - do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Edited to add: if this was supposed to be an educational biopic film, enshrined in history as something watched by schoolkids and students of history I'd have some sympathy. But as is, I can understand their position, but I think they're wrong.

[Kithelle]

Starting to understand why Jerry Seinfeld said he didn't do shows for colleges. Just a bunch of fucking babies screaming "racism" and being PC.

That joke about how men hunt and women nest when it comes to tv viewing would of probably been called sexist...

[Natrii]

Okay. I'm laughing like an idiot, but this is equality. If idiots can be outraged by black Annie, idiots can be outraged by white MLK. All fair.

How was his actual performance?

Only reason I was upset by Black Annie was I don't think she did the role justice.

[-Nurot]

Are you aware that Martin Luther King was an actual real person and not a fictional comic book or movie character?

It's a Dramatization of events, or "a gripping re-imagination of events".

So we shouldn't be outraged that it's made up content about a prominent Historical figure, but we should be be outraged by the casting choice.

Made up content that a playwright is profiting off of, that's the stuff of history right there? That can't be tainted?

Once again to make it clear, Samuel L. Jackson did this role a service? (Not a bad actor, but MLK?) A role that humanizes MLK by coming up with flaws the female author wanted him to have. A play that EXPLOITS MLK is good?

I would have thought the community would have rather seen a white male cast to further stress the difference between the realm of make believe that is this play and the real MLK.

People went to see a made up story that has received negative criticism from black critics. Good thing not one of them apparently had the education or common sense to realize this is a disservice to Martin Luther's King history, but they sure have been trained to scream racism.

Whoever saw this play and could only scream racism needs to re-evaluate their life choices and education path. It's easy to shut your eyes to everything else when you're a bigot and only focus on skin color, but that doesn't make it right, and it certainly doesn't make this play any good.

[Adamas102]

Not really, the white dude can go in black face and everyone should be fairly ok with it.

What? That just makes things worse. At that point you're pretty much saying "this character HAS be to black but we didn't bother finding someone that actually is black".

Fuck... Did I just respond to a troll post?

[Cosmoz]

They wanted no creed to matter, they got it. Now they hate it. kekity kek no lives matter.

[Revi]

I prefer when things based on historical people try to stay as true to it as possible. I understand the sentiment though.

Somehow I feel like the people being outraged about this are the same people who are outraged when people say they would prefer James Bond to be played by a white Brit though. Like the people who want all-black events and are outraged by the idea of all-white events.

Pick a principle and be consistent :|

[primalmatter]

A man who dedicated his life to wanting people to be equal in death is a cause of outrage for allowing skin color to not matter in who plays him.

God why can't I stop laughing? This isn't funny right? Its sad and pathetic.... why can't I stop laughing?

[derpkitteh]

When were white guys ever (confirmed to be) stormtroopers? As far as I know, there's only been a Maori and now a black guy playing one. Unless you count Han Solo as one just because he was using their armor to sneak around in.

storm troopers don't have a set race, there's no need to be upset over their race being different. the clones had mostly died out by the time of 4, 5, and 6 and they recruited new instead of cloning more.

[ItachiZaku]

Fuck... Did I just respond to a troll post?

lol I don't think I need to jerk off later to make this day complete.

[Adamas102]

I prefer when things based on historical people try to stay as true to it as possible. I understand the sentiment though.

Somehow I feel like the people being outraged about this are the same people who are outraged when people say they would prefer James Bond to be played by a white Brit though. Like the people who want all-black events and are outraged by the idea of all-white events.

Pick a principle and be consistent :|

Well, they probably are those same people because some people just can't help being outraged by relatively unimportant stuff.

As for James Bond, his race is pretty much inconsequential. His "Britishness" is a defining characteristic. As are his suave demeanor and ruthlessness. Even the iconic characters that surround him don't need a fixed gender/race/age in order to tell the story. The only thing truly important to Bond's appearance is a general handsomeness and the ability to pull off the "classic gentleman" look.

The people that would be outraged by a non-white actor playing the role are either too focused on the traditional portrayal (rather than the defining characteristics) or are at least racist enough to think that they can't relate to people of other races. Hell, I even have a friend that has refused to watch any of the Daniel Craig Bond movies simply because of the actor's hair color.