Oded Fahr
Naveen Andrews
Sendhil Ramamurthy
But no, this is the logical choice.
I really wasn’t going to reblog this post because I am tired of talking about this, but I’m sick of the prevalent ‘all brown people are alike’ idea of this casting. The first actor’s name is Oded Fehr, and he is Israeli, not desi or Middle Eastern. You cannot cast him as a race-appropriate Khan when he is not Indian at all, and bonus, you cannot cast a Middle Eastern actor as South Asian because those are two very different cultures, period.
Like, I appreciate the sentiment of this post, but please don’t add even more inaccurate casting to your post about whitewashing.
It’s the Kali from Teen Wolf debacle all over again. Remember that, guys? We shouldn’t forget those lessons so quickly.
We need people of color representing their actual races in media, not brown people representing different brown people because White audiences can’t be bothered to tell the difference.
But, yeah. “Not Cumberbatch” is the ultimate lesson.
I think Cumberbatch worked quite well. Not everything has to be an equality stand. Can’t it just be a suddenly hot dude that looks good in black?
No. No it really can’t. Because not all hot actors that look good in black are white actors. When this character was written, he wasn’t written for a no-chin, exceptionally pale English guy. It was written for a man that was Indian.
Did you literally not read anything that was written above?
When people of color come in and tell you /exactly/ what was wrong with a certain situation, your white ass is not allowed to show up and just tell them that “not everything has to be from an equality stand”.
You don’t get to do that. You let them speak, and you shut the fuck up and listen. You don’t get a say in what’s okay and what’s not okay when it comes to racism.
This is not okay, and you need to sit the fuck down.
And you need to stop telling my white ass what to do. My white ass is allowed to do whatever it wants. You yourself? The only thing you’re doing here is contributing to every rasicm issue in this world with your inability to express your - however strong - opinions on the matter in a non-offensive way. Because of course I’m going to shut up if you tell me to.
I will say it again. I loved Cumberbatch in this part. I see no problem with him playing this character. Because skin colour doesn’t matter to me - actor’s portrayal does. And because nobody is obligated to base their opinions on underlying social issues if they don’t want to. Seriously, some people need to learn the line between truth, awareness and righteousness that borders on stupidity.
Why should I stop telling you what to do when plainly explaining why your opinion is harmful didn’t work when POC spelled it out plainly, and kindly for you? There was no anger in the commentary before yours. None. It was just “here’s why this is wrong and why it needs to be fixed” and you just had to come in and be like “oh but benedict cumberbatch is so hawt~*~*” No one gives a shit how attractive he is. He can be attractive in the MILLION OTHER ROLES CREATED FOR WHITE PEOPLE THAT ALREADY HAVE EXTREME AMOUNTS OF VISIBILITY OVER PEOPLE OF COLOR?!
I’m not saying bennywinkle clusterfuck isn’t a good actor. He’s brilliant. Really. But the fact that you are so blind to see why it’s not okay for a white actor to play a part intended for a person of color? I will repeat, it was spelled out for you and every other white person in the commentary before hand.
And will you PLEASE. Please shut the fuck up about how “skin color doesn’t matter”. Again, as a white person, you don’t get to say that. Why? Because you’re white, and your skin color DOESN’T matter. People can always see people like you. People like you are EVERYWHERE in the media. You know who’s not? Indian actors that were intended to play the part of Khan. They don’t get to be seen, because people like you, people who have far more influence on who gets seen in the media don’t care. You should care. Because you as a white person, have way more influence than just about any other race on who’s allowed to be seen.
Don’t give me that bullshit about truth, awareness, and stupidity when you’re so fucking ignorant it makes my skin crawl. You wanna talk about truth: An Indian actor, a brown man, should have played Khan in Star Trek. Let’s talk about awareness: I’m telling you, POC are telling you exactly why a brown Indian man needs to play this role. And here’s where stupidity comes in: You’re too fucking wrapped up in having your fucking feelings hurt to know when you’re wrong so you get pissed when people call you out on it instead of checking your privilege as a white person like you fucking should.
Good fucking night.
Wow, you need to chill. Because no, I will not PLEASE stup up.
You should learn to read what is actually there and not what’s in your head. I never argued right or wrong. I just said that I like Cumberbatch in this part. Oh, and you’re so totally welcome to keep insulting him, it’s not gonna strike a nerve. Sorry. I’ve only liked the dude for about 6 hours.
I’m white and my skin colour doesn’t matter. Right, because rasicm only exist in media and in hollywood. I’m actually at loss there, that’s a nice little world you’re living in.
Where did my feelings got hurt? Where was I pissed? Whoa, I don’t even know where you getting all this. Projecting?
Maybe if I say it again. I think Cumberbatch was real cool as Khan. I want a lot of porn to happen after everyone watches this movie. And you can say ‘fuck’ as many times as you want. This has stopped being about descrimination against people of colour the moment you decided to attack me personally.
It bothers me a lot when people imply that white people cannot understand racism. Racism is not something that only happened to people of color. There are plenty of nationalities who have been oppressed across history who have been white.
White privilege is a real problem, mostly because everyone doesn’t have the same privilege. White privilege is why, if a bomber or a terrorist is white (especially christian) other white people will not have to fear that they are going to be blamed or victimized as a result of that person’s actions.
The fact that white people get paid more, on average, that people of color is a problem.
The fact that the media does not have an accurate representation of the percent breakdown of our society, and is primarily made up of white people IS a problem.
But lets take a step back (mostly the person who’s screaming at you should take a step back) and recognize that at the time (1967 and 1982) that Khan’s character was conceived, there was a great deal of racism in our culture that played into how his character was designed.
There is a disproportionately high percent of villains who are people of color, and a disproportionately low percent of protagonists. Do people of color really WANT to be represented in the reboots of villains who were only originally cast as POC because of racism? That seems like a step backwards, not forwards.
I’ve seen that argument before, and it does seem like a valid one at first glance… because you’re right in that POC tend to be “cast” as villians rather than heroes, in real life and in entertainment. Just like you talked about, if a terrorist is white, he gets the benefit of the doubt; but if he is a POC, then he is immediately crucifed by the media and the general public.
However, there are a couple issues…
A lot of people have a problem with the casting of Khan, so obviously yes, there are lots of POC who wanted to see a race-appropriate actor playing Khan. Regardless of the fact that he is a villian. I don’t know if you are white or not, but speaking as a white person, it’s easy for me to say “Oh, but we don’t need another POC villian anyway” … but it has clearly upset a lot of POC, so I don’t really have the right to say that in their place.
Secondly, you seem to have implied that Khan was originally cast as a POC specifically because he was a villian. And that is simply not true. Gene Roddenberry made it a point to attempt to break down racial barriers with Star Trek. He cast a WOC as an important member of the crew, an Asian man as the ship’s pilot… even Scotty and Chekov were diverse in that they weren’t Americans. For as long as Star Trek was on TV, the casts were ethnically diverse and made sure the POC cast members were not just stereotypes and actually had important roles to fill.
Hell, the first televised interracial kiss took place on Star Trek!
Finally, Khan was never “just a villian”. He was a complex, interesting, sympathetic character who was both good AND bad. He was just an amazing character. So that is what was taken away from POC by casting Cumberbatch as Khan, not just another villian role.
Both above posts are very interesting, but what I bolded?
WHAT?
So, because he’s a white guy, Khan now isn’t any of those things? Seriously? And that’s not rasist?
What are you talking about? No…? I didn’t say that casting Cumberbatch took away any of those things from Khan, I said that not casting a POC as Khan, took that CHARACTER away from POC.
There are plenty of interesting characters out there, being played by white men, please don’t try to tell me not casting a white guy as Khan would be racist.
Oh, apologies, I read that differently.
You do realize that one; it’s pointless to argue on the internet. And two: they could only use a white guy because overly patriotic Americans would point out, without accuracy, that “of course an Arab/Muslim/Indian would want to take down an American government and try to drive a ship into the heart of it like the terrorist they are!!!” So quit your bitching and consider the thought process of the ignorant American and non trekkie.
