This blogger has often wondered how so many movies and commercials wind up with entirely white extras. This story sheds light on that.
It seems the casting director for Peter Jackson's production of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit was fired for being racist. According to Celebrfic.com, an actor named Briton Naz Humphreys, who is of Pakistani descendent, was rejected because, as the casting director told him, they didn't allow people with dark skin to play in the movie.
To his credit, Jackson, the producer of King Kong and The Lord of The Rings trilogy that swept the Academy Awards a few years back, took fast action, canned the casting director, and issued and apology, saying:
“No such instructions were given, the crew member in question took it upon themselves to do that and it’s not something we instructed or condoned.”
The actor reportedly started a hard-to-find Facebook group called "Hire hobbits of all [colors]! Say no to hobbit racism!."
But according to Black Voices, Briton then makes a statement this blogger finds disturbing, saying "I would love to be an extra. But it just seemed like a shame because obviously hobbits are not brown or black or any other [color]. They all look kind of homogenised beige and all derived from the Caucasian gene pool."
Tolkien described three races of Hobbits, including one with skin darker than the other two. So this is a case of not just a casting director who's own racism was working to "inform" the production, but a person in Briton who seems to see herself as not fitting into it because of her dark skin. That, even though she protested the casting director's actions.
People of color must fight through the negative images in media and realize not just that they don't apply, but to challenge their very presentation.
Meanwhile, bravo to Peter Jackson!
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