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Here we go again….

Here’s another industry project where they hire their one token person of colour, and explain that they don’t have room for another.

That is what the industry has reduced people of colour into. It’s now to the point where people of colour have become the figurehead of some false screen of openness and decency. 

After this news broke, a lot of people are expressed shock that (presumably) the casting director told her this information to her face. Frankly, I’m not shocked at all. 

I think the relaying of this information to potential cast members happens a lot and no one speaks out about it. People of colour in the industry want to get work; not everyone is willing to rock the boat, speak out, and risk not getting any jobs (even those one dimensional roles of what [insert ethnic background] man or woman mean) in a very closed industry. No one wants a the loud mouth tag on their neck. :/ 

Apparently in the 90s T.V shows included more people of colour (filling a lot of roles on shows which would have originally gone to whoever had the lightest skin); maybe it was trendy then, but clearly this is not the case now.  

I’m not naming any T.V shows on the air today employing this token character rule on TV and I don’t need to; take a good long look at the cast members on TV (day time, prime time, and late night). These are shows that producers and writers expect people of colour to enjoy and participate in. Essentially what these producers are saying, is one of two things: 

1. People of colour don’t exist

2. OK you guys exist, but no one cares to hear your story (we all know it, every black, Latin, Asian person looks the same, is the same, who cares?)

Either way it’s sickening. Why should I bother watching shows from producers and writers who keep trying to show me that I don’t exist, that no one cares if I exist, or that I’m just like everyone else with skin the same approximate shade as mine. 

That is what people of colour are being reduced to in the industry. It’s disgusting. 

The racism continues..

EDIT TO ADD: 

thewayofthebunny reblogged this from separationbymitosis and added:

As Natives, we’re not even on the token list.

You’re absolutely right; Native American (and Canadians), are not even on the token list either. This is an industry which ignores, stereotypes, and in some cases seeks to reduce people of colour.