Death Note : TL;DR: "Homogeneous Society"

TL;DR: "Homogeneous Society"

I'm fascinated by a particular fault in logic nobody seems to acknowledge when making points about inclusion and diversity.

Now I've been on "both" sides of this issue, if the internet has taught me anything it's that I must be the ultimate example of "Schrödinger's Person." Because I'm male/female black/white, gay/homophobic, sexist-racist-bigot/sjw-tumblrite who should go back to 4chan and shoot myself because I voted for Hillary/Trump instead of doing the right thing and voting for Trump/Hillary.

The one argument that never gains any traction, everyone uses, but nobody feels the need to justify is "homogeneous society." I've come to a similar epiphany about this as I did "forced diversity."

If you say "They did a remake of Unforgiven with Japanese actors." somebody says "America is a melting pot, Japan is homogeneous." Okay... those would be observations, not an argument. So, look at it this way: who directed the Japanese Unforgiven remake? 100% purebred Japanese filmmaker right? NOPE.

His name is Lee Sang-il, he is considered a Zainichi Korean. Otherwise known as an ethnically Korean resident of Japan. A group that has been, historically, heavily discriminated against in Japanese society. - Which, as I understand it, can be pretty racist in general. This seriously makes me wonder if the people who use this argument even know what the word "homogeneous" means. No modern industrial society with ties to the world at large could possibly be "homogeneous," and Japan is hardly a racial utopia to its minority-class citizenry. Even knowing how low the percentages are for each "foreign" community, you're still talking about millions of people. Even if it weren't for military bases temporary residents and the like, virtually every statistical chart you've seen on Japan is an estimate, that is likely designed to overinflate the "purity" of the Japanese population. They like the reputation of homogeny, more than they do their reality, and frankly... that's kinda racist...

That's not even the best part. This non-argument is actually wildly hypocritical in its own right. If the argument in favor of inclusive casting is that it is important for an ethnic population within the United States that actually is a relatively small minority not to be marginalized, or forgotten, within our society, in part specifically because they are a smaller portion of it, then Japan's mostly "homogeneous" movies should be even less forgivable, because their minority populations are even smaller, despite containing hundreds of thousands of people, who could have tens of thousands of talented actors among them. 'Why do they not recognize the societal contributions of these people by casting them in B-movies!?'

If it's "the smaller the community the more deserving they are a seat at the table" then Japanese movies should be teeming with foreigners. It's obviously not the position of these complainers that the larger population makes the rules. So I guess there's like a "goldilocks zone" where, when your population is high enough you've earned points toward cashing in your race card, because once you've got enough points, there's bound to be a Daniel Day-Lewis or a Denzel among them. But who gets to decide when and where the quota is filled? Maybe you need to reach 7% population size first - I don't know. I'm being flippant not to be dismissive but because it's actually kind of silly, and impossible. The complaints are fine, the requests are fine, it's the outrage that doesn't make sense to me.

This goes for both "sides" - if you're the kind of person who cancelled your Netflix subscription because "Dear White People" made your mind wander to fears of "inevitable white genocide" grow the hell up! You're an embarrassment. If you nodded all the way up until this point, now you know: no, I am not on your side; and not only am I not on your side, I stand firmly against everything you believe, because you are nothing but a lunatic to me.

Now, back to the topic at hand: 'but it's cultural appropriation' you say or think, perhaps not in so many words. It's made in Japan so the characters are Japanese. That's just it, it's made in Japan so the characters are Japanese.

If Death Note the entertainment product is a sacred element of Japanese culture that should not be appropriated, then isn't Unforgiven (yes: the entertainment product) - a western - inevitably a sacred element of American culture that "should not" be appropriated? Unless America is just supposed to shape and share the whole world, while the world gets to hold onto what is theirs... as if we weren't insulated enough already.

I grew up around black faces, Asian faces, Hispanic faces, white people were the minority at most of my schools. No one is more perturbed by false homogeny in fiction than I am, but that is not the experience of the entire country. Everyone: you have got to stop being so precious. But in this case everyone who says "White Light" is racist. The rights were sold to American based producers, this is not yours to hold onto. Is it racist to turn away Asian-American actors looking to be cast in a Japanese to American adaptation? Yes, in my opinion. But as I noted, in another thread, it's a pretty damn weird example of it, because it appears the most influential producers on this project are Asians. It's not for sure racist to cast Scarlett Johanssen to play an android, but it is very racist to consider making her eyes "chinky" when people complain about it, instead of... you know... promising to consider the complaints more often going forward.

Diversity shouldn't be about holding onto what's yours. If it's yours: you already have it. And it shouldn't be about making sure you get an equal portion of the pie, despite fewer mouths to feed. It should be about self-induced color-blindness. The acknowledgement that in reality you can run into anyone, so you should be open to anything, even if it won't happen necessarily. But far from waiting for the exception to fall into your lap, (which will never happen, because you will always be the "default" to yourself) you make it happen artificially, and practically at random, so the process is imposed but the results are naturalistic. You make a decision to go another way. Starbuck from the Battlestar Galactica remake is a perfect example of neutral casting. Even if the character wasn't written as a male (sidenote: given the original series, she almost certainly was) "she" was also written as grizzled and weary. Much older - like 40's-ish. But they cast 23 year old Katee Sackhoff. They decided her age didn't matter, they had an actress they liked for it. "Boomer" is another example of completely colorblind, gender-neutral casting. Now, I didn't like that show, but it wasn't because of them.

The first thing that needs to happen for true diversity in fiction is for people to not be so damn adamant about the character they first see in their heads, that includes ones we've already seen in other cultures. Let the people with the rights handle it as they see fit, complain after - if and when it actually sucks.

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There's no such thing as the establishment. Everyone knows that!
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