CVK
The latest issue (July 1, 2006) of Maclean’s, a Canadian weekly news magazine, includes an article about color-blind casting in TV commercials and movies. The writer, Kevin Chong, was kind enough to contact us while writing the piece, and I’m quoted in the last paragraph:

Within the films, too, race remains a factor. Harold and Kumar deal with racists who joke about the Karate Kid and Apu (the convenience-store clerk from The Simpsons). And in The 40-Year-Old Virgin, the black and South Asian stereo salesmen trade barbs about drive-by shootings and turbans. There’s a good dose of self-conscious cultural jokes — a nod, perhaps, that the portrayal wouldn’t ring true otherwise. Still, this may be better than completely ignoring race. “The one danger in colour-blind casting is that it can make it seem as if all racial problems have already been solved,” says Carmen Van Kerckhove, co-founder of the U.S. blog Mixed Media Watch. A truly colour-blind society wouldn’t require rose-coloured glasses.

Just to give you a behind-the-scenes look, here are some other thoughts I shared with Kevin during the course of his research for this article:

more after the jump…

KC: What exactly does MMW do?

Mixed Media Watch is a blog that monitors and analyzes the ways in which mixed race people, interracial couples and multiracial families are portrayed in popular media. At the end of the day, we are anti-racist activists. The blog is just one of many tools we use to challenge racial stereotypes and encourage people to engage in open, honest dialogue about race.

KC: Do you think there’s been an increase in colourblind casting? If so, why? Does it give advertisers some street cred? Or does it just shake things up? And why do I see less colourblind casting for more high-end products? (Or is this just my perception?)

[I’m going to assume that you’re talking specifically about advertising in this question — not movies or television.]

I don’t think there *is* such a thing as “colourblind casting” when it comes to advertising. Ad agencies and marketing executives don’t leave anything to chance when it comes to their ad creative: every detail, from the lighting, to the costumes, to the models — including their races — is carefully planned out. So if you’re seeing a non-white model in an ad, you can consider that a deliberate decision on behalf of the brand.

Personally, I haven’t noticed the trend you mention in regards to high-end products. If you’re thinking mainly about television commercials, it’s probably that high-end brands tend to spend more on print than broadcast. So there are probably just fewer high-end TV commercials overall.

KC: Do you have any favourite commercials, TV shows, or movies that feature colourblind casting?

We really liked Verizon’s national TV campaign from a couple of years ago. The campaign was called “The Elliotts.” It featured a mixed family: Latina mother, white father, and three mixed kids. The spots didn’t focus on the issue of race at all, but instead, just showed how the family was using the various Verizon services to communicate with each other. The spots had a very warm, intimate tone, and to us they made a powerful statement: mixed race families are just a normal part of the American social fabric.

KC: I found your site after I stumbled onto a blog entry criticizing a Burger King Commercial in which an Asian Man karate chops a cinder block. Are there any other times when you find colourblind casting offensive–or not so colourblind? (What did you think of Asian Media Watch’s protest over the Starbucks commercials in which an “undesireable” Asian man, who like every other person in the commercial, transforms into “desirable” white singer Michael Buble? To be honest, I think that was very overblown on the part of AMW.) Are there any other cases in which colourblind casting or the casting of an interracial couple might cause problems?

In America’s public imagination, interracial relationships are still inextricably intertwined with sex. Unfortunately, many marketers perpetuate the eroticization of interracial couples by depicting them in sexually suggestive ways: lots of close-up images of really dark skin on really white skin, oiling up the models, making them look as if they’re covered in post-coital sweat. That type of stuff. I guess marketers still think that the suggestion of interracial sex is taboo enough to give their brands some kind of an “edge.”

One show that’s been getting a lot of attention for its colorblind casting is the hospital drama “Gray’s Anatomy.” (Oprah even did a whole episode about it.) The show has a very diverse cast and prominently features a black/Asian interracial couple.

On the one hand, it’s refreshing that the show doesn’t make race the central source of tension for the characters. But on the other hand, it almost goes too far in making race a non-issue. And that’s the danger in color-blind casting when it comes to movies and television. It can paint an overly rosy picture of our society and make it seem as if all the country’s racial problems have already been solved.

There always seems to be this dichotomy when it comes to representations of interracial relationships. The stories are either extremely tragic, or the couples seem to have no issues whatsoever and are simply two-dimensional symbols of multiculturalism. Neither extreme bears any resemblance to reality. I’d like to see more movies like “Something New,” where race isn’t the central problem, but it does play a role in the relationships between the characters.

(If you’re interested in hearing Jen and my review of the movie, check out episode 16 of our podcast, Addicted to Race)