Calls for a boycott of Thor over the casting of a black actor

[aneeshm]

I'd've put this in humour and jokes if it weren't for the fact that it's sadly real.

http://boycott-thor.com/



They are upset that a guy, who never existed and thus never had a race or a face, is being played by a black guy. Ignoring for a moment that CCC is considered a hate group, is there any reason to be upset over this?

Don't you see anything wrong about the fact that a god who is described as "the whitest" is being cast as a black?

Your idea that a non-existent character doesn't have a race or face is patently absurd. Fictional characters have races, even if they do not possess existence. And all sense dictates that the god was white. There is a tradition of depicting the Norse gods, and they don't include blacks. Further, it's the mythos of a very white people, the Norsemen, and their description of their gods presumes that they are white. This is obvious enough that it did not have to be stated, for exactly the same reason that it is taken for granted that the mythos of a black tribe will have a racially black god (if humanoid and of a race not explicitly specified).

I don't like screwing with art for the sake of minority-appeasement, and I despise this craven behaviour by the film-makers.

EDIT: It appears that this is based on a comic. Note that unless the comic explicitly makes the god black through some contrived back-story, it's still appalling to make so.

 

[Traitorfish]

I don't think Scandinavians from 1,000 years ago felt a lot of pressure for interracial inclusiveness in their religion.

I don't think they would've cared for Thor teaming up with Iron Man and the Incredible Hulk to battle Dr. Doom. The ship has long sailed on pissing off the Norse.

Don't you see anything wrong about the fact that a god who is described as "the whitest" is being cast as a black?

Well, technically, he was the "fairest", not the whitest- it was a reference to hair colour and complexion, not ethnicity, these myths originating long before there was any such consensus on racial descriptors. Which, of course, wouldn't be all that relevant, except that Thor, a deity described as being a red haired man of ruddy complexion, is depicted as being blonde and evenly tanned, so they're clearly giving only the briefest nod to such details as it is.

Besides, the choice of Heimdall makes me think that this was a certain intentional irony to all this, especially when you remember that, at Ragnarok, specifically dies last.

 

[Karalysia]

Besides, the choice of Heimdall makes me think that this was a certain intentional irony to all this, especially when you remember that, at Ragnarok, specifically dies last.

No! Could it be that Hollywood is breaking it's timeless rule?

 

[woody60707]

THIS. IS. AWESOME.!!! For a year now my friend (who looks just like what you would think a skinny thor would look like) has been saying he wished he know about the movie, he would of buffed up and got the part.

Now I get to tell him " No, your white ass wouldn't have"

 

[Dachs]

That what Jesus look like? i think it's a beautiful face.

No, it's a composite of facial reconstructions based on the mortal remains of Jewish dudes from around the time period during which Jesus is supposed to have hung around in Galilee. It bears the same resemblance to Jesus' face as this face bears to any given modern white woman.

 

[Tacitusitis]

Funny how these people don't complain when a white guy plays Jesus, Moses, and other characters in the bible...

What about when Cate Blanchett played Bob Dylan!

 

[MobBoss]

Funny how these people don't complain when a white guy plays Jesus, Moses, and other characters in the bible...

Oh...some obviously do...just no one usually pays them any attention...

 

[Dachs]

Quite. We should do that here, too.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

I'm pretty sure it wasn't the Americans that nicked the Enigma device.
Commodus was seen in quite a high regard by the Senate at that time, for 13 years.
No mammoth was ever used for building pyramids.
And the Battle of Guilford? Sorry Mel, but you guys actually lost that one.

And finally, 2001, a Space Odyssey. Instead of Dave we got Windows. So yeah, great going guys.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

I watched a stage performance of Romeo & Juliet which cast a black man as Romeo. One reviewer suggested that this hinted at racism being the cause of the families' feud.

Personally, I'd happily see Othello as a white man, but then he would probably have to be amongst a cast of blacks, Asians and Hispanics instead.

Patrick Stewart famously played Othello with an otherwise all black cast.



When I just looked up Hiemdall on wikipedia I saw that the Eddas call him The White God (hvíta ás) and the whitest of the god, which makes this casting more unusual. I don't know that the mythology specifically addresses the skin color of the other deities though. It might have been interesting to see him as the only white guy among otherwise all black Norse gods. I suppose I can just imagine that they are copying Patrick Stewart in this though.

 

[El_Machinae]

This is obvious enough that it did not have to be stated, for exactly the same reason that it is taken for granted that the mythos of a black tribe will have a racially black god (if humanoid and of a race not explicitly specified).

Edit: though, I didn't know Heimdall was the 'white god'. It would be totally cool if they shot him in negative film, and made the image truly white.

 

[Tacitusitis]

There's also this. I know it was a terrible movie but even if it had been a good movie...

Hollywood mixing up the races of adaptations is seriously nothing new, but we're supposed to be offended because they made Thor black?

 

[Winston Hughes]

Well done, racists! Previously, I would never have considered going to see such a film (Hollywood does Marvel superheroes yet again? bleh). But having investigated it a little as a result of your ridiculous campaign, I'd say it actually sounds rather entertaining.

 

[Arakhor]

That's my guide for seeing interesting films. If the "moral authority" starts sounding off about it, it's probably a decent enough film.

 

[Enkidu Warrior]

Maybe they actually tried to cast a Norse god, but having to settle for a human didn't really pay much attention to the skin colour. Do gods have ethnicity? Why does anyone care?

 

[JollyRoger]

I don't like screwing with art for the sake of minority-appeasement,

This film is art and only a minority seem to seek appeasement by replacing the actor.

 

[MobBoss]

This film is art and only a minority seem to seek appeasement by replacing the actor.

Art? Only if you squint really hard. Its entertainment, sure, but I don't know I would really call it art.

 

[JollyRoger]

Art? Only if you squint really hard. Its entertainment, sure, but I don't know I would really call it art.

Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging symbolic elements in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect.

Surely the decision to cast a black actor in this film is influencing what little of the senses, emotions, and intellect that some people have here.

 

[MobBoss]

Surely the decision to cast a black actor in this film is influencing what little of the senses, emotions, and intellect that some people have here.

I think it being deliberate kind of an assumption here....

 

[Communisto]

One time there was a Horse Thor.

Art? Only if you squint really hard. Its entertainment, sure, but I don't know I would really call it art.

"Art" is a matter of opinion. Everything creative is "art" because "art" is an arbitrary term that means nothing.