The Oscar-winning actress and children’s author Octavia Spencer was cast in the Divergent movie series as Johanna Reyes, and fans flocked to Twitter to be awkwardly “not racist” about it.
Despite many people apparently picturing Johanna Reyes as petite and white, she is not actually assigned a race or many strict physical features in the books. She is simply described as being middle aged, having dark hair, and bearing a prominent scar down her face. Her name suggests she is Spanish or Latina, but there is no one skin tone for Latinas. I don’t know Octavia Spencer’s racial background, but black Latinas do exist.
This is not the first time fans have reacted negatively to racially ambiguous book characters being cast as people of color in movie adaptations. (Not to mention reacting negatively upon the stark realization that they were people of color all along, à la The Hunger Games’ Rue.) This is a sad reminder that white is considered the default.
Well this is terribly typical.
- J
And more news: water is wet
(via samanticshift)
sleeping is hard in the summer because blankets are too warm but without blankets im vulnerable to monsters
(via cpt-s-america)
(Source: stellarcorp, via samanticshift)
Hey, this post may contain adult content, so we’ve hidden it from public view.