{"id":155,"date":"2025-03-21T13:39:35","date_gmt":"2025-03-21T13:39:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/textbook.mediasmarts.ca\/navigating-teacher\/chapter\/identifying-problematic-cross-cultural-casting\/"},"modified":"2025-04-03T19:46:11","modified_gmt":"2025-04-03T19:46:11","slug":"identifying-problematic-cross-cultural-casting","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/textbook.mediasmarts.ca\/navigating-teacher\/chapter\/identifying-problematic-cross-cultural-casting\/","title":{"raw":"Identifying Problematic Cross-Cultural Casting","rendered":"Identifying Problematic Cross-Cultural Casting"},"content":{"raw":"Explain to students that any example of cross-cultural casting can be analyzed using these four questions:\r\n<div class=\"textbox\">\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Does the portrayal dehumanize the group? For example, makeup that makes White actors look like a caricature of a particular race rather than representing them realistically.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Is the portrayal based on stereotypes about the group?<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Does the portrayal critique or comment on blackface or similar issues? Even if it\u2019s done without using stereotypes, \u201cface\u201d casting always happens in a historical context. Does the portrayal recognize and confront that context?<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Does the portrayal acknowledge the limited opportunities for minority-group actors? Even after blackface became unacceptable, Hispanic, Indigenous and Asian characters were typically played by White actors, leading to a situation where those groups remain underrepresented in film and TV today.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/div>\r\nThis can help students understand why some casting decisions that seem superficially similar \u2013 for example, having White characters played by minority-group actors (as in some productions of Shakespeare, or the casting of Idris Elba as the Norse god Heimdall in Thor) \u2013 are fundamentally different from blackface and similar practices: they do not dehumanize White people, are not based on stereotypes of White people, do not reflect a historical practice of casting other groups as White characters and do not make a significant difference in the number of roles available for White actors.\r\n\r\nIf students still have trouble understanding the difference between the two kinds of cross-casting, take a few minutes to deliver the <a href=\"https:\/\/textbook.mediasmarts.ca\/navigating-teacher\/front-matter\/lesson-unpacking-privilege\/\">Unpacking Privilege<\/a> mini-lesson to demonstrate how taking roles away from groups that are disadvantaged in a media context is different from taking roles from groups that are <em>privileged<\/em>.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;","rendered":"<p>Explain to students that any example of cross-cultural casting can be analyzed using these four questions:<\/p>\n<div class=\"textbox\">\n<ul>\n<li>Does the portrayal dehumanize the group? For example, makeup that makes White actors look like a caricature of a particular race rather than representing them realistically.<\/li>\n<li>Is the portrayal based on stereotypes about the group?<\/li>\n<li>Does the portrayal critique or comment on blackface or similar issues? Even if it\u2019s done without using stereotypes, \u201cface\u201d casting always happens in a historical context. Does the portrayal recognize and confront that context?<\/li>\n<li>Does the portrayal acknowledge the limited opportunities for minority-group actors? Even after blackface became unacceptable, Hispanic, Indigenous and Asian characters were typically played by White actors, leading to a situation where those groups remain underrepresented in film and TV today.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>This can help students understand why some casting decisions that seem superficially similar \u2013 for example, having White characters played by minority-group actors (as in some productions of Shakespeare, or the casting of Idris Elba as the Norse god Heimdall in Thor) \u2013 are fundamentally different from blackface and similar practices: they do not dehumanize White people, are not based on stereotypes of White people, do not reflect a historical practice of casting other groups as White characters and do not make a significant difference in the number of roles available for White actors.<\/p>\n<p>If students still have trouble understanding the difference between the two kinds of cross-casting, take a few minutes to deliver the <a href=\"https:\/\/textbook.mediasmarts.ca\/navigating-teacher\/front-matter\/lesson-unpacking-privilege\/\">Unpacking Privilege<\/a> mini-lesson to demonstrate how taking roles away from groups that are disadvantaged in a media context is different from taking roles from groups that are <em>privileged<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"menu_order":4,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-155","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry"],"part":152,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/textbook.mediasmarts.ca\/navigating-teacher\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/textbook.mediasmarts.ca\/navigating-teacher\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/textbook.mediasmarts.ca\/navigating-teacher\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/textbook.mediasmarts.ca\/navigating-teacher\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/textbook.mediasmarts.ca\/navigating-teacher\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/155\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":450,"href":"https:\/\/textbook.mediasmarts.ca\/navigating-teacher\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/155\/revisions\/450"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/textbook.mediasmarts.ca\/navigating-teacher\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/152"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/textbook.mediasmarts.ca\/navigating-teacher\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/155\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/textbook.mediasmarts.ca\/navigating-teacher\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/textbook.mediasmarts.ca\/navigating-teacher\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=155"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/textbook.mediasmarts.ca\/navigating-teacher\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=155"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/textbook.mediasmarts.ca\/navigating-teacher\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}