What if we limited the number of white men in film and TV?

That has not been my experience at all.

But that could be because in a diverse community, “black” could mean someone whose skin is lighter in color than a “white” person’s skin, whereas male versus female in most cases is easier to determine.

If you’re saying that Ethiopian Jews aren’t 100% Jewish, then you’ve been misinformed.

They’re from a line so ancient that they are pre-Talmudic, but they are Jewish, no question. A significant number were murdered by Mengistu (he was attempting genocide) before the survivors were smuggled out of Ethiopia to Israel. They were all given the choice between the U.S. and Israel, and they all chose Israel because of their devout religious belief. They are not fake Jews.

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Any conversation that’s about trying to deal with the 0.01% that doesn’t start with radically redefining how we communicate is futile.

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Welcome to the party! You’re just in time to help clean up all the empties.

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The “It’s like, what the market will bear, amirite?” argument is patently specious. Akin to saying that casting Michael L Jackson in the lead role of a movie won’t attract moviegoers. People won’t stop watching movies because there are two Latino characters instead of one, or because there is gender parity is the next SuperTeamMightyForce. I know that underestimating the Average Person ™ has become a national pastime–especially on the Internet, where there are never any Average People ™-- but most people are simply not that petty, and in fact, as per the fucking article, most people aren’t straight White males. Punch that into your financial calculator and smoke it.

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Agree, Ethiopian Jews are 100% Jewish.
Though there is also a percentage who loosely converted to Christianity in recent centuries with some intermarriage who have decided to convert back en-mass.
What I meant was that African American converts to Judaism sometimes tire of being offered more Ethiopian dates than any of the other flavors in the box of Jewish chocolates.

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Yeah, they seem to start filming about 10 months before the show “starts airing,” so the production team isn’t just already done, they could have been working on the next project (while the episodes were in post-production). It seems they’re releasing no more than two shows a year (which together make up roughly the number of episodes one season of a network drama would have), each show has a different show runner, and one show starts filming as soon as the previous one ended, so there’s no need for any overlap. Unfortunately that also indicates that either they’re not doing a second series of any of these shows, or if they are, it won’t be before 2018.

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So why are you the authority on this, anyway? Why are you lecturing me? And, yes, “pet issue” is a dismissive term.

I wonder what you’ve done, personally, as you sit here and lecture me. I do wonder. I’ve risked arrest for what I believe in – and a year later, DADT was repealed (and I’ve personally pissed off John McCain, and yes, I will continue to brag about that because it was and still is the most glorious moment of my life). I’ve been personally thanked by two former veterans who were both removed from the military for being gay after the military issued a witch hunt on them (and their removal was what motivated me). I wonder how often you actually do rather than lecture.

But sure, a straight, white man has told me something and he’s totally the authority because he says he is and I MUST listen because he says I must because he says he’s right. Obviously.

And why didn’t you answer my two very direct questions? You just ignored half of what I stated. AGAIN. So you could continue to lecture me. Again.

What “countless crusaders” are you talking about? What “uncoordinated ad-hoc skirmishes” are you speaking of? Be specific.

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Earwolf is an excellent podcast! I was trying to remember it last night but couldn’t, so thank you!! They talk about race and class issues A LOT. Highly recommended.

I was in Texas and was hanging out with my bro-in-law because he was taking me to the airport after my visit, and his helper for his plumbing business happened to be around. I was reminded I was in Texas when the helper dude used the “n-word” SUPER CASUALLY. My bro-in-law just looked at me and shook his head.

So yeah. This was last week. I am lucky that in general I surround myself with people who don’t pull that shit, but it even happened in Arizona. I suppose that happening in Texas and AZ shouldn’t be too surprising, but it’s still shocking when you hear such a nasty word in public.

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May I ask why it mattered to you, or why there should even be an “ethnicity section”??

Is there a different kindergarten curriculum, or different nap mats, or different snacks served, to the white kids, the latino kids and the “both” kids??

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Most schools collect that kind of data for statistical tracking purposes rather than individual treatment of students.

For example, if it just so happens that all the kids who identify as African-American end up in the shittiest, most under-funded school in the district then that could be a strong indication that somebody needs to take some kind of corrective action.

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Is that really a hypothetical? Couldn’t we take that as read, anyway?

Genuine question - as a serial refuser to answer those questions, am I doing anyone a disservice and further exhibiting my privilege?

Aaargh! Brain, stop writing questions. Dammit, @OtherMichael.

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Is there a different kindergarten curriculum, or different nap mats, or different snacks served, to the white kids, the latino kids and the “both” kids??

Wow. Identity is important to people. Your questions here completely miss the point and are willfully obtuse, not to mention needlessly confrontational.

Are you non-white? Is that why you believe there shouldn’t be an “ethnicity section” (curiously, in scare quotes)?

It’s always nice to have hard data available to refute those who insist the problems of racism exist in our imaginations. It also helps to understand what progress we’ve made (or haven’t made) in addressing those problems.

No big deal if individuals opt out of providing that data, but it’s still useful to have in aggregate.

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Tell that to every black man killed by a cop who got away with it.

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“I would think not in the current case of Irish, while Italians are sometimes on the edge along with direct European Spanish they share enough culture and religion is much less a factor in American social life now. I think white as meaning White European descended Christian descended is a better definition of white in American life then the old WASP.”

Your sentence structure is sometimes hard to understand, but from what I think you’re saying, I don’t see that non-Orthodox Jews in much of America are living in a culture that’s radically different from what you define as “white” culture. If you admit that religion is not a big factor in American social life, then why are you saying Jews are so different?

I’m not saying there are no cultural differences between my Jewish friends and non-Jewish friends, but they seem minor, and the Jews have never seemed like “outsiders” to me. Maybe it’s different where you live, but I don’t really get it.

I think my biggest issue is a semantical one: I just don’t see that European-descended Jews are not “white.” To use a specific example, Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht seem like members of the same culture to me. If you and Aloisius had said that Jews are not members of mainstream American Christian culture, I would think you had a more provable point.

But that’s not important, because until we solve class inequality, we cannot try to solve any other problems!

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I’d argue that if the role is not tied to a race or gender, specifically (say you need a klansman, or someone to play a specific person), why not attempt to cast colorblind or genderblind?

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They’re usually optional, but help the school prove they’re not discriminating (which in a public school can affect funding).

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