Rant against racist chick flicks (aka: why the hell is Jennifer Lopez white in Back Up Plan?)

[calmenda]

I’m going to use the R word. Yes, that freakin’ R word; a distant cousin of the race card. If there was ever a way to make mainstream America roll their eyes at you it’s by pointing out a very obvious truth: Hollywood seems to hate latinos. There, I said it.

Clearly, I’m being dramatic with my statement but let me elaborate.

Comments

[pamelalabella]

I dunno..I'm latina but if my life were a movie you'd probaby consider it a non-latina role..and I date white men but why? because that's what I seem to be surrounded by. I'm a musician, and I am friends with ag roup of people in the electronic scene..most people I know are white. Though NOW I play in a latin band so I finally know more latinos..but thing is. I'm tall! and well I'd like someone taller than me and they tend to end up being white :P

[calmenda]

Trust me, it has nothing to do with activities. I consider myself very latino and I constantly do things that would be perceived as white. I went to college, do triathlons, marathons, go to see "white music". If we wanted to get into yuppy stereotypes I would definitely be it. I'm definitely all about not limiting oneself to stereotypes and in the case of this rant isn't about limiting what J-Lo does but simply acknowledging that she is latina whether she is a maid or billionaire. As far as dating, I personally don't have an issue with dating white people as I've dated several. My problem is her being labeled as white when she is clearly not in combination with many other things (amongst them only dating white men).

All I'm asking for her is to at the minimum have a latino name and the rest of the movie could have remain unchanged. I just needed something to let me know it's not wrong to be latino.

That's all.

[factfarmer3000]

Hey, at least it's not the opposite like with the movie "The Last Airbender" where the cast is all white for an obviously Asian themed story.

[svenmarf]

Dev Patel is of South Asian decent and he plays a main character. Not East Asian but Asian nonetheless.

[svenmarf]

I understand your concern, but...
How come no one is putting the blame on JLO? Unless she's the puppet I think she is she can read (have someone read for her?) whatever scripts come along and obviously she has no problem playing non-Latino characters and being a white man's woman in dull romantic comedies. Repeatedly.

I don't how being JLO works but I'm sure she looks at the scripts she offered at least once before taking a job and if none of these things concern her and she's will to perpetuate Hollywood's narrow-mindedness, good for her. Personally, she is not the kind of person I like representing Latinahood in Hollywood.

I haven't seen this film but if she's brown and she represented as white, i think it would be a good idea to show somehow that she is mixed or adopted or give her some kind of cultural id just calm sticklers for details.

[calmenda]

If it seemed like I was putting all the blame on Hollywood...I am definitely blaming J-Lo as well. I think she uses the latino card to sell tickets but her roles don't lead me to believe she cares in anything other than money. I recently saw Benjamin Bratt speak about his new movie La Mission and he sold me. The movie is about the barrio and him being a gangbanger dealing with his gay son. I enjoyed him talking about real issues affecting the community and while he is half white and half peruvian he threw in some spanglish and was clearly latino in the film even though he dated a black woman. We can be complicated and still keep our latinoness.

im going in circles!

[mueble]

YES! This is practically the gist of what I was going to say. I'd also like to add that as she seems to use the color card only to broaden the audience she could profit from, that I know of she's always seemed really consumed in her own affairs. This self absorption, though warranted to any celebrity, looks especially bad when her now husband has always seemed so very involved in foundations in Puerto Rico (hospitals and orphanages that i can recall) and in empowering the Latino community here in the USA

Re: im going in circles!

[calmenda]

Makes perfect sense to me.

:-)

[buddhalupe]

Very well said...

A little late to the party, but

[smartorialist]

I agree heartily... your analysis was spot on