November 30, 2015, - 5:09 pm
Racism: NBC Didn’t Allow White People to Audition for This Show
Why did NBC refuse to allow White people to audition for a show that airs this week? It has to be racism. In fact, it is racism.
We often hear whines from Black race merchants and Black actors, claiming that they are “shut out” of roles dominated by White people–roles for characters that are known as White. There was the recent uproar when the author of the new James Bond book said that Black actor, Idris Elba, was “too street” to play the Bond role. (The race-baiting whiners conveniently ignored the rest of the Bond writer’s quote in which he recommended a different Black actor, instead.) But anyone who’s read Ian Fleming’s Bond thrillers knows that Bond is a WASP–a White guy. Yes, Bond is a dark-haired, swarthy White guy (not blonde like Daniel Craig)–but a White guy nonetheless. Several Black commentators were also outraged that Blacks weren’t nominated for a lot of Oscars in recent years, nor were they on the covers of entertainment magazines. And Black actors and their Al-Sharpton-esque cheerleaders often claim they are shut out of roles that are “written” for White people.
Well, here’s a tip: if that’s racist, why aren’t you calling out NBC for Thursday Night’s upcoming broadcast of “The Wiz Live!”? NBC refused to consider any White people for the case of the musical, and all of the roles went to Black people. Not only that, but NBC’s casting call, this past summer for “The Wiz Live!” posted by NBC’s casting agent, Telsey + Company, explicitly says that any women auditioning for Dorothy must be “African-American.” Why? People often tell me that James Bond is a fictional character, and the casting doesn’t have to be by the book–that a Black man can play the role. Well, what is it about “The Wiz” or “The Wiz’s” Dorothy that is explicitly Black? In fact, as we all know, the musical and the character are taken from a series of books that have no race for the characters in them. And the musical is a version of the classic “The Wizard of Oz” movie, in which all of the main characters were played by White actors.
In 2009, news broke that Black actor Jamie Foxx was being considered to play Frank Sinatra in a biopic. That’s ridiculous. Ol’ Blue Eyes was White. But there is nothing exclusively Black about any characters in “The Wiz.” Why couldn’t Owen Wilson and the talented Neil Patrick Harris have been auditioned for the roles of the scarecrow and the lion? What is Black about those characters? Nothin’. In fact, producers at NBC switched things up by making the Wizard a woman–Queen Latifah (okay, I admit, it isn’t for sure that Queen Latifah is actually a woman–only the gynecologist knows for sure). Yes, yes–I get it that “The Wiz” is “traditionally” a Black musical, but James Bond is “traditionally”–and in the books–a White dude. And the professional race-baiters think we should ignore traditions. So, by all means, that should have been done with “The Wiz Live!”
And, yet, when the shoe is on the other foot, it is never required to fit in the same way. Blacks are allowed to scream “RAAAAAAAYCISM!” when they are not offered roles of characters that are known to be White, such as Bond. But when Whites aren’t even allowed to audition for non-racial roles, such as in “The Wiz Live!,” nobody cares.
I wish I were a lawyer in New York. I’d have encouraged White actors and actresses to audition and offered to represent them in civil rights actions against NBC. What’s good for the “racially aggrieved” goose, is good for the similarly-situated gander. What–a White person can’t sing “Ease on Down the Road”? PUH-LEEZE. You can’t have it both ways.
The credits for “The Wiz Live!” list only two White guys in very minor roles as dancers and acrobats. All of the major roles are filled by Blacks. To keep White people from virtually all roles in a musical, merely because conventional Black culture demands it, is nothing short of racist.
Nobody cares, though, because you don’t have a gaggle of White people rioting in the streets, interrupting Black Friday shopping, and forcing college presidents to resign.
Black Musical Characters’ Lives Matter.
Tags: British welfare queens, NBC, Racism, The Wiz, The Wiz Live
I saw the original Wiz in a downtown theatre in Denver. My gal and I were way in the minority. Film was so-so OK until the scene where a big city is represented by a big apple. I barked out loud a “you;re kidding” kind of laugh. Very large black men turned in their seats and stared at me like I was the devil. A guy behind me said “shut up”. Quickly dawned on me they actually didn’t know what a Big Apple means.
Stunning lack of awareness of the world
jack on November 30, 2015 at 5:21 pm