I probably ABU but my family is mixed race

[PearlyG8]

These are so beautiful I have to share.

Wow!

Have they only done those two or are there more?

Oh sally, you're silly.

Pearly
I hadn’t really thought about it before but on reflection it does surprise me. I don’t think there is anywhere near that percentage. If dds friend multiracial friend joins, one more non white child will significantly up the figures, thats how few. Dd is white btw just FYI .

Perhaps the classes would be more diverse if the school were less traditional in the dance class offerings and there are other schools offering hip hop etc. A good percentage of the local ethnic population is Muslim so I imagine they wouldn’t necessarily approve. Coupled with the cost of the classes being out of reach of low income families. It doesn’t make me uncomfortable because there are some amazing dancers both white and non white. Most children are driven in from surrounding areas and not city centre dwellers. Therefore the demographic at the school is more reflective of this (although still deffo unrepresentative led), not the minority white of the city iyswim.

As for acting classes. I trained as an adult. The classes where I went were under also represented by ethnic minorities. I think the posters are good. But perhaps not necessarily for the reasons you may think. It also highlights to kids / young ethnic minority people what they can do.

@sallyandherarmy Do you genuinely think this? That somehow white people are going to be eroded from the entire narrative?

Do you think you are less likely to buy a product if your ethnicity is unrepresented in an advert sally?

Americans are significantly more racially and ethnically diverse than Britons, and a greater proportion of them was born in other countries. Nearly one-fourth (24.9 percent) of the U.S. population described themselves as nonwhite in 2000, while only 7.9 percent of the U.K. population described themselves as from an ethnic minority in 2001. Higher proportions of foreign-born residents in the United States reflect

This is from some states on Google

As a lot of films are made in Hollywood, crude estimates would suggest 1 in 4 characters should be non white.
However if you then take into account jobs and ratios of BME in certain depicted jobs/neighbourhoods/situations etc it will skew the race of the characters.

Alternatively you could take maths out of it and just give people jobs if they can act.

And if the role is written as a certain racial character

How many roles are specifically written to be white, as a necessary part of the character? The problem is that white is seen as default when casting, if no race is stated and a black actor pitches up then "oh, but this wasn't written as a black character"

I am now intrigued to know why you think the posters are good Mummyoflittledragon

Noeuf, your comment reminds me of Stephen Covey's idea that we might all agree Fairness is a good thing without agree how to go about being fair. I like the orchestra audition idea where players aren't seen when they play.

I suppose we should ask JK Rowling why were her characters all white
They weren't. I think it's Dean Thomas who she's quite clear isn't, plus the twins Parvati and Padma clearly aren't.

Even of the main three she doesn't mention race at all. Yes, Ron has red hair, which probably restricts him to white, but the main thing mentioned about Hermione is her bushy hair-which could be various ethnicities. And Harry has dark hair and green eyes, which again doesn't link him entirely to being white. The main thing that probably links him to that is his Uncle and family by their "middle class white" style attitude.

I think that perhaps goes back to the question of can we write a character who is truly raceless? So you could happily put any actor into the part without people saying "but surely they're XXX race".

I suspect not, because the name, accent perhaps etc will give people away. Could the famous five be done as immigrants-maybe Jewish from WWII? for example. No mention of race is made, we assume from the era and their behaviour etc.

But at the same time I suspect if JK Rowling had tried to make one of her main characters a clearly different race, then she'd have been heavily criticized for trying to do something she didn't know enough about.
I remember Antony Horowitz having an article on that-and an unknown writer would be far more so. Anthony Horowitz

Historically I've a friend whose dc are on the books of a casting agency. They're non-white. She says that they get far fewer casting calls for acting-and even rarer to get through, but far more modelling calls than the white students. I thought that was quite interesting.

Tbh sounds stupid but I never really realised possibly because i'm white? or maybe because I dont really think about the colour of peoples skin?
The posters are very thought provoking though.

I'm mixed and think this is crap. I agree with Cavoli, this would never be acceptable reversed so in my view isn't acceptable- unless you think of black actors as less than white. They are equal. They shouldn't hire more black leads because they have to they should hire the best actors. And tbh the majority of people are white so why wouldn't the majority of leads be white people?

In my head while reading it Hermione was black. I was quite surprised when she wasn't in the first film.

I suppose you could argue that since 87% of the UK population is white, it stands to reason that 87% of the film roles etc would represent white people?

I think it's great. But I'd like to see one with black women even more as it seems to me they are even more underrepresented.

well people were really surprised that Rue in the Hunger Games was black, despite her being black in the book - in that context, of course the actress had to be black and the rest of the cast not black.

If you insist on people being chosen for being black - or any other ethnicity - as opposed to be the best, you are hurting everybody by putting a black person in a bad position. Nobody wins.

pearlyG8

Hopefully that's a good thing? I haven't heard of him.

I think sometimes we need to level the playing field for other people but I'm anti tokenism, so it's a very fine line for me.

What I took from the posters is a reminder of white privilege really. That we still get more opportunities, more visibility, etc as a general not individual rule. Not that the films or acting specifically needed to be changed on a micro level.

Sorry if I wasn’t clear. I meant the posters to me are also about encouraging young, ethnic people into the arts and acting. Nothing more. For me, I thought you were trying to say the situation is wrong because ethnic people are under represented and don’t get the chance to be employed in these jobs. I’m saying, this may be the case (i have no idea btw), however, ethnic minority groups if my experience is anything to go by, are also under represented because they don’t seem to be training and are consequently not engaged in the industry. If they don’t train, they won’t be there. Acting is a fucking awesome experience but to be believable to your audience, you need some serious training as well as talent. To play a variety of roles, you have to go to explore your whole self, go to dark places to find your inner psychopath, find a true child state and be able to convince yourself and therefore your audience you’re dying.

Very true hesterton

It all seems very tricky to me Noeuf. For example would you prefer to be a token (whatever characteristic) or the only one of (whatever characteristic) but not 'a token'? Would you expect all the people without your characteristic to have a view on whether you were there 'on merit' or not?

I found myself in various places over the years where I was the only something in an other thing environment. Probably not for token reasons but I could be wrong. Looking back I wonder if I would have had a happier or more successful life if I had concentrated on more well trodden traditional paths. As a feminist I encouraged my daughter to pursue mathematics.

I wonder what I will do with my young son who may be likely to encounter racism directly. I do worry for his future.

(By the way Stephen Covey was a business guru a long time ago when I was youngish his thing was being Principle Centred)

Love the posters!

Giving the role to the best actor is fine (and right) but the issue is that without BAME role models in leading roles fewer young BAME people will be inspired to act or to train - so there will be fewer who will be the 'best actor'. And accessing drama school and training is beyond the reach of many on low incomes, which includes a larger percentage of non-white British families.

There are excellent BAME British actors - Idris Elba, Freema Agyeman, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Chiwetel Ejiofor, John Boyega, Nathalie Emmanuel, Parminder Nagra, Dev Patel (and many more) - but rarely in the lead roles.

Idris Elba for the next James Bond!

I wonder if there's more.
Not all arts but acting in particular is white wealthy historically
White acting dynasties (although will smith has maybe started something?)
Closed door
Who you know
Maybe it's circumstance and slowly evolving
We have no connections and as a child I longed to act but had no opportunities
Now we have stage Saturday schools, agents, more chances

Politically and practically you couldn’t have cast Hermione as black in the Harry Potter films because the racial abuse she receives would have been unacceptable if aimed towards a black child in a children’s movie. The brutal discrimination Rowling portrays is acceptable in a mass market children’s book only because of the fantasy context so that would affect the way you cast it in the early 21st century.

Just a side point, not really relevant to the main discussion.

they have a point and it's why people should support films like black panther which is really good btw

So if posters with black actors were replaced with white ones, how would that go down?