1. obokun

July 16th, 2006 at 1:54 pm

thanks for higlighting the towering contradictions and hypocrisy in the controversy.

Really sad when racism rears its head in hypocrisy.

Thanks a lot for this.

2. Naro%

July 16th, 2006 at 2:40 pm

This is exactly why we need or own vehicles produced by us for the world to see. The way to reverse the validation process is to change the images we see. I hit on this in my “I wanna be a Nigerian movie star” post. We know hollywood is about hollywood, so lets just run with our own shit, fuck’em…

3. Everchange

July 16th, 2006 at 2:55 pm

this is disgusting, but not all that suprising, given the universal acceptance of Angelina Jolie as the madonna and spokesperson for suffering people of color all over the world. it is crazy that the media isn’t asking how ethical it is for someone to be picking out and purchasing her children like you would fruit at a grocery store. Apples. I feel like Oranges today. Hoping to start eating more Pineapple.

4. Rosemary

July 17th, 2006 at 12:00 pm

I call Jolie Angelina Grotesque anyway. Those lips, obviously filled out; the little bit of coloured baby; now she can be a coloured woman for a bit. Will she dye her skin, do you think?

I do not understand why there is all this fuss about her. But then my idea of what is good and America’s idea of what is good have nothing in common.

As you say, Mrs Pearl needs to have her head examined. I am sorry for people like her.

5. obi

July 17th, 2006 at 12:00 pm

I found the bit about the skin lightening industry really funny. still have a few aunts with really light skin and very dark knuckles heh.

sad that these kind of movie roles are filled by the types of brangelina (can’t even think of her real name anymore). Hollywood the Great Revisionist at work.

great post madam.

6. soul

July 17th, 2006 at 7:14 pm

Sokari.. ain’t it Ironic that our movie industry is soo busy being filled with slapstick fantasy that our reality is being re-written right underneath our nostrils..

I wonder if Angelina will wear blackface, and if this will then mean that white artists (actors and actresses) will now start coming forward with great scripts they found which u’unfortunately’ were AFrican/ whatever but now can be played by a white women.

Personally, I have no problem with angelina adopting a black child (and the reasons are too long for me to go into here, at least she seems a tad more ‘aware’ than others.
I don’t even have a problem with them going to Namibia to ‘birth’ their child. They could have gone to sedar sinai.. or any other one of those top hollywood places.
I like the fact that they went to an African country, I don’t even care if they flew their own docs in or not, ther fact is for a brief minute, the economy benefitted from their spending power and those of the journos that followed.

Africans are flying out of Africa to have our babies, I thinkshe did a good 2 fingers up at the establishment by flying back in. and I for one ain’t knocking her for that.

With regards to her looks.. I’m completely unconcerned. I don’t find her drop dead gorgeous like many do, but then beauty is in the eye of the beholder and I ain’t gonna hate on her for the way she looks.

I dunno sokari, in my book, Angelina Jolie is alright, I refuse to call her brangelina, cos as far as I’m concerned the press and wider media has been trying to find a way to villify her for turning her back on Hollywood largesse for too long.

7. Sokari

July 17th, 2006 at 8:02 pm

By “our movie industry” are you referring to Nollywood or just the general movie industry - i have to agree with you on that. To be honest I hardly watch mainstream films at all and it is a hard search to find something original and worthwhile.

Re: Jolie - well she might set a trend when it becomes “acceptable” to play roles across race - but if you are playing a real person then I think it is insidious to go down this road.

Agreed that Africans are flying out to have babies - its another way of flaunting your wealth and marking your status like going to Rome to buy bag and shoe for the weekend! J made sure she took all her medical expertise with her to birth in Namibia - frankly I didnt see the point- if it was to avoid the media well it didnt work anyway.

Sorry had to take a back break!
re adoption: This is a very difficult area but there can be consequences to children adopted out of their racial background. Growing up culturally and racially isolated can be very damaging and have lasting consequences. Children become “trophies” and part of a lifestyle that fits in nicely with a constructed role of liberalism and supposedly non-racist. That is why there is an ongoing hard thought debate (at least in Britain) as to whether cross racial adoption should take place and if so under what circumstances. I question a white peson who believes she can take on the role of a woman of colour because that is a lie. Which leads me to questioning her stance as a non-racist person so I have to question her adoption of children of color.

8. Black Looks

August 18th, 2006 at 2:37 am

[…] Rachels’s Tavern reports on yet another Hollywood “whitewash”. Remember the Brangelina story from a few weeks ago on Jolie playing a Black woman (apparently someone got to Hollywood and there are now questions whether she will actually play the part). Well it seems she is not the only one trying to tell BIT FAT LIES. Oliver Stone has a movie on 9/11 duh duh duh - anyway he changed the race of one of the characters to read WHITE instead of BLACK. […]

9. Imagine if there was a white woman’s blog? at African Women

September 27th, 2006 at 1:58 pm

[…] “Do we as African women have to justify organising amongst ourselves?” Apparently yes we do! No one wants to be left out - not Gwyneth Paltrow, not Angelina Joli not Kate Moss and not Pernille. […]

10. MiXed

October 10th, 2006 at 10:23 pm

Honestly, I think this just opened up another can of worms. I really believe that people should be allowed to do as they please. If Pearl has no problem with being played by an all white woman that is her choice and only she has the right to be either offended or satisfied with the WAY and with WHOM is playing HER. This has nothing to do with the rest of us- white or black, other or mixed. I am mixed with black and white, my mother is black and father is white. I consider myself more black than anything, although I never deny that I am truly mixed.

But, my question to all the black people that are upset about Angelina playing the role of Pearl is….

Would you rather an ALL BLACK actress play Pearl?

If you’re answer is YES…let me explain something to you coming from a mixed person’s perspective…that’s just as ONE-SIDED or “wrong” as an all white person playing the role of Pearl. Truly I think Pearl could have gotten just a mixed person to play herself, but then again…I don’t know what she identifies herself as. Mixed people have the option of playing the field on both sides, hate it or love it. I know there’s the saying “one drop of black makes you black”, and in a sense that is true but than again it’s really not. One thing I think we, as black people, need to realize and stop trying to assert our BLACK POWER in the pety issues and use the race card every moment we get. The same black people that are upset about Angelina playing Pearl, seem to have no problem with Halle Berry playing the role of a woman who is ALL WHITE in real life. Using the fact that Halle is “mixed” and “can pass as white”…is ridiculous, Angelina looks more mixed with black than Halle looks mixed with white. Halle looks like a pretty, tan-brown skinned all-black woman. Angelina could pass for something more than just white, whether it be spanish or mixed. I think this discussion is pointless and just another way to argue and hate. PLEASE JUST LEAVE IT ALONE! It’s not like Pearl was ALL BLACK, maybe than we would have more of a rightful argument. At this point, you must just understand obviously Pearl doesn’t consider herself all black, therefore, neither should we.

11. Jalay Saunders

October 10th, 2006 at 10:31 pm

As a person of color, I have this to say:

It seems that racism is indeed alive, especially in the very person who wrote this post AND this very segregationist web page.

Is there any one of us who is willing to take the high road in these issues, or are we all just going to always sit around and grumble about “white man dis & white man dat”?

My circle of friends includes people of many different races, including white, and I am proud to call them each of them true friends.

I try to treat everyone the same, be they white, asian or hispanic. I do this because Dr. King said:

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

Dr. King was a great man and a great patriot he meant these words for *everyone*, not just whites. I try to live by those words to try to be an example to others. I make every effort to judge by the content of a person’s character. Some of my brothers and sisters, unfortuneately, still judge by the color of a person’s skin.

As for Angeline Jolie playing a mixed race person in the latest H’wood vanity project, who cares? Isn’t there something better to talk about?

12. Sokari

October 11th, 2006 at 12:24 am

Mixed -
“The same black people that are upset about Angelina playing Pearl, seem to have no problem with Halle Berry playing the role of a woman who is ALL WHITE in real life. Using the fact that Halle is “mixed” and “can pass as white”…is ridiculous” -

that is pretty much what i am saying about Angelina playing a “woman of colour” (the term I used) I also said her playing the part said as much about Joli as about Ms Pearl herself which speaks to your last sentence.

I also said people have the right to choose their own identities so I am not sure what exactly your criticism is? Is it my talking about race and racism in this context which you think petty? Are you afraid to talk about race? Talking about race does not create hatred. It is by talking about it that we understand how it works and impacts on all our lives. On a last note - this is not an arugment - its discussion.

13. Annie

October 11th, 2006 at 6:15 am

This is an interesting piece. The world is “mixing” in interesting ways such that people aren’t always defined as what they are but sometimes as what they could pass for.I have an actor friend who rails constantly against the theatre department because he’s literally the only black actor here and gets stuck with roles like the manservant etc. So I ask him, “Why won’t they let you play the role of a white person?” And now I’m unsure. Does our condemnation apply both ways?

14. Jandal

October 11th, 2006 at 6:22 am

Hi. I just read about your comments in an online newspaper. I’m interested in our thoughts because last year the movie Memoirs of a Geisha was made. This movie about a very traditional part of Japanese culture, was adapted from a book that was written by a white American male, and the movie used Chinese actors, and was filmed entirely in the USA.

I’m half Japanese, half caucasian so I was bemused more than anything. I still haven’t seen the movie even though I really enjoyed reading the book, and my Japanese mother who was brought up in wealthy Japanese society about the time the story was set was impressed with the books relative authenticity.

I take everything I see and read with a grain of salt. No-one in Hollywood really concerns themselves with being a purist about the facts.

It happens to us all, whatever colour you are. You just have to see them for being the ignoramouses they are.

15. Simon

October 11th, 2006 at 8:48 am

Erm, can someone please help me with something? Why, when someone is mixed race - both male and female - do they seem to *only* identify with the black side of their heritage? I have met only one who doesn’t and his reason is that he was raised by the white side of his family. Sure, I agree that in an ideal world the role would have gone to a mixed race women, but tough! Thats life, folks. There are larger problems in this world. To end my personal rant I would say that its just this sort of thing that gets people moving rather than good news. Does anyone here know, for expample, that Halle Berry has snagged a role whereby the women Ms Berry is playing in the real life adaption of a school teacher running for government is white? Is that wrong too?

16. Nathan

October 11th, 2006 at 9:10 am

The point being made here is entirely mute. Angelina Jolie is also mixed race. She is Caucasian/Native American. She even looks similar to Mrs. Pearl. In fact, it’s getting pretty hard to find someone in America that isn’t mixed race. Open your eyes a little wider.

17. Andrew

October 11th, 2006 at 9:44 am

What a rubbish debate! Haven’t you lot go anything better to argue about!! I saw the article in paper this morning and what a waste of paper that was!! People are far too obsessed by their colour these days. Why can’t people just carry on with their lives and stop worrying about what colour they are?!! Look at the amazing film, “Ghandi”, Ben Kingsley is white and that was a brilliant film!! If a person from one race can act the part of the person of another race, then great!! Shouldn’t we all be equal and mixing with each other??!! Get a grip on life and grow up!!

18. Anthony Hollingsworth

October 11th, 2006 at 9:49 am

WTF? do people really believe angelina should be turned down for a job only because of the colour of her skin? I cant believe people are getting so upset ITS JUST A FILM

19. Debbie

October 11th, 2006 at 11:29 am

The reason why people have made a comment is that they are obviously unhappy at the casting. This is 2006 and you are trying to tell me that it is still ok to cast white people as black people. I can’t ever remember a black person being cast in a white role. Can you imagine Denzil Washington or Samuel L Jackson being cast as George Bush or Tony Blair?? No, neither can I.

20. vakibs

October 11th, 2006 at 11:37 am

What is your problem with a white person playing the role of a mixed person ? It is not as if black people are losing jobs in Hollywood because of this. What you have is a crappy cause ! You should complain if the film contains any racist messages. Or at the worst, you should complain if the acting is bad.

21. Andrew

October 11th, 2006 at 12:23 pm

People who have a problem with a white person playing a black person are narrow-minded and racist themselves. Got one for ya, narrow-minded Debbie: Eddie Murphy played a white bald guy in Coming to America!!

22. Sokari

October 11th, 2006 at 12:26 pm

Annie - when you say “play the role of a white person” i assume you are referring to a non-fictional character? The way I see this is that we have to approach the issue in the context of the power dynamics of race, class and gender whereby only certain members of society are able to choose who plays who. Would Sidney Poitier be chosen to play Winston Churchill? I find a light skinned Haile Berry playing a white woman equally disturbing. We should remember that she is acting through a process of “passing” only because White Hollywood has permitted her to do so - the decision makers, those who call the shots. How would the white establishment respond to a “poor” Haile Berry on welfare? Someone here mentioned Ben Kingsley who played the part of Ghandi. Why with India’s huge film industry could the production team not find one single Indian actor to play the part instead they choose to “blacken up” a white actor.

23. Felix

October 11th, 2006 at 1:08 pm

i think no white person should not play any a role in movies as black, becouse those time are long gone is time we need to stand up and do something about it.

24. Gill

October 11th, 2006 at 2:04 pm

In these times I think it is an outrage for Anglina Jolie to be playing a black character. What has happened to Halle and all the other wonderful black actress. This is disgusting, is there not enough roles for white actors/actress. This should not be allowed!!

25. Kathia

October 11th, 2006 at 2:17 pm

I’m mixed race and see no problem with Angelina Jolie playing a mixed race woman. Surely the part should be based on the best person for the job.

26. oak

October 11th, 2006 at 2:43 pm

Mariane Pearl is not BLACK! Accept it and move on! she is just as much a white person, and for all we know considers herself as such. You have no right to class her as anything, only she has that right!

27. naisy

October 11th, 2006 at 2:59 pm

I am half Welsh half English and i used to dislike the Welsh side of me.
When people hear my very welsh name, I get comments about how they hate the Welsh.
We all got it, in some way, u just got get over it, be proud of yr heritage whatever it is.
I have had plenty of racism from people of a dark skin and been with my best black friend and experience hostility from them.
STOP WSTING SO MUCH ENERGY ON YOUR HATRED.

28. naisy

October 11th, 2006 at 3:01 pm

I MEANT HOSTILITY FROM WHITE AND BLACK PEOPLE.

29. B

October 11th, 2006 at 3:23 pm

But Marianne Pearl isn’t black - she’s mixed race! It really saddens me how mixed race people like me are always classed as one or the other - usually the race that predominates their looks. You never hear about Tiger Woods, the Thai Golfer, or Amerie, the Korean American Singer. You’re being just as racist by saying that Marianne Pearl should be played by a black actress - really if you want to be fair, she should be played by a mixed race actress!

30. Jade

October 11th, 2006 at 3:56 pm

Very interesting I must say!!

well my names Jade and my mother is white (Irish/Canadian) my father is black (British/Jamaican) so I would consider myself mixed race.

The only problem I see here is that people on this site assume that women of colour are ALL black??? I am very proud to be (what I am) half white and half black.

Ask your self would you be so annoyed if jada pinkett-smith played the part Angelina jolie is playing??? and why not? because pinkett-smith is a woman of colour. yes pinkett is black and jolie is white and mariane pearl is mixed race so have both not just as much right to play the part??!! YES. Mariane is half just as I am and she is a woman of colour, be it a diluted colour as she is not full black. So why doesn’t everyone get off there moral high horse and stop looking for reasons to moan.

In my opinion halle berry would of been a good choice also (If she would of accepted the script having been offered) but her boyfriend isn’t producing the film is he.!!

And with her NATURALLY big beautiful lips I think Jolie looks the part of a bi racial woman, after all isn’t it called acting for a reason??? as an actress is someone who takes on other peoples characteristics, personas, life experiences, and now this has opened up barriers for actresses today to take on race of the character they are playing!!

I cant wait for scarlett Johansson to get out the curling irons and fake tan to play me in the movie of my life!!

31. L garrison

October 11th, 2006 at 3:57 pm

Very well said Sokari!!!!!!

Angelina Adopted 2 Children of color and she gets lip injections.

She can fantasize all she wants but she will NEVER be black in this lifetime. I hope she at least has her ethiopian daughters hair looking right when she gets older and gets some help on educating the girl on being black and where she came from.

32. Nubian

October 11th, 2006 at 4:17 pm

I think all of the mixed people that have a black parent cling for dear life to the fact that they have a “WHITE” parent so they are not classified as a Black person which is seen as a negative.

Hello!!!! mixed race people White people made up that 1 drop rule not blacks and they are the ruling class in the past and today..

33. KenyaSpeaks

October 11th, 2006 at 4:22 pm

Hello,
You spoke about the billion dollar skin whitening industry. But have you thought about the money made in the SUNTANNING industry? I can guarantee that the products marketed to white people to darken their skin supercedes the money made in whitening agents.
At Wal-Mart, you will find rub on lotions and sprays. On the front of the bottles are a pair of attractive black legs. The legs look like they belong to a black woman.

34. Cheryl

October 11th, 2006 at 5:30 pm

Halle Berry is going to be playing a white woman in a movie about Terry Cahill running for polical office with the help of her students. I don’t see any of you having a problem with that? Could a double standard be happening here?

35. Jade

October 11th, 2006 at 6:16 pm

Yes Cheryl that is EXACTLY whats happening here!!

36. Sarah

October 11th, 2006 at 6:22 pm

I honestly don’t see what the problem is, I think its maybe..educational, people from many different cultures sometimes argue that people do not understand what its like to be them, and some of they’re challenges, so here they go, they got what they wanted!. I hardly see any wrong, in fact it may be good. If anything in this I see critism for all of Angelina’s choices, including adopting a black child? aren’t we being quite critical, and we all know what I mean about that. You want respect you give respect, no matter who you are and where you are from. Honey, we are all of ‘color’ if anyone’s doing wrong, maybe its you for coming up with such rubbish?

37. Jade

October 11th, 2006 at 6:27 pm

finally some perspective.

Thanks sarah.

38. Deborah

October 11th, 2006 at 6:31 pm

I am a 20 year old mixed race woman. I think it is digusting that you would critisize someone just because they will be playing a different race in a MOVIE!And ontop of that you would critisize Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt for adopting babies of different races. What would you rather? Would you have liked them to to leave the children because they did not look just like them. Isn’t that called racism? Yes racism is not allowing a person to do something because of the colour of their skin. Would the children be better off left to live in poverty in their countries? I don’t think so. As a mixed racial person, i have absolutley NO problem with an actress or actor playing a role of a person that has a different skin colour than their own. It seems that after decades of people like Martin Luther King fighting for equality for ALL, you are suggesting that we take equality away from others. Just Plain Sick!

39. Heather

October 11th, 2006 at 6:39 pm

I really think there is a vast section of black viewers/critics that have seriously lost the plot. See this movie first as Angelina playing the part of a woman whose husband was killed in the most vicious of fashions rather than attempting to hijack a story for one’s personal political outlook. We are slagging off a widow for chrissake. If Ms Pearl is happy with the woman cast to play her then who the hell are we to say otherwise. Get a serious life and start moving on from your own peraonal barriers of insecurty. And no, before you get on your high horse, I am not white, but a black British woman of half-Jamaican/half Syrian extract and continuously despaired at reading commentaries like this from my fellow black brothers and sisters.

40. Arletta

October 11th, 2006 at 6:42 pm

Mariane Pearl wants Angelina Jolie to portray her.

The money for making the film comes from private pockets.

No one has any say about it except those involved in the film.

Everybody else is just wasting their time.

Whoever has a problem with anything about the film, is free to not see it.

I see no complaints about Halle Berry playing a white woman in “Class Act”.

End of subject.

41. Arletta

October 11th, 2006 at 6:47 pm

To # 31

If you don’t know about something you should not slander before checking. If you do know, you should not lie:

Angelina Jolie has had the same lips ALL HER LIFe. There are tons of photos of hers from infancy onwards, with the same lips, which both her father and her mother have, and passed them on to her-just like she passed them on to her baby daughter Shiloh.

42. Vanessa

October 11th, 2006 at 7:01 pm

To 3 19, Debbie

Quote:
” Can you imagine Denzil Washington or Samuel L Jackson being cast as George Bush or Tony Blair?? No, neither can I. ”

Sorry, Denzel played JULIUS CEASAR on Broadway. A very white Roman emperor!!!

43. Vanessa

October 11th, 2006 at 7:06 pm

To #4, Rosemary

Quote:
” As you say, Mrs Pearl needs to have her head examined. I am sorry for people like her. ”

This is a horrible thing to say about a woman whose beloved husband was beheaded.

THAT is the thing you should feel sorry about her, not whom she wants to play her in a movie.

She owes nothing to the black race anyway-she’s not black. She is French, of Dutch-Cuban ancestry.

44. James

October 11th, 2006 at 8:28 pm

The colour of our skin should not make any difference.
If it was a black woman playing a white woman and somebody objected, all hell would brake loose for being racist.
Anyone who has a problem with Jolie playing this character is certainly racist.
You don’t have to be white to be racist, you can be any colour!!!

45. Sokari

October 11th, 2006 at 9:27 pm

Ok fun over - I have had enough - Comments closed!

This blog is not a Black campaign organisation nor is it a Black rights group nor is the spokesblog for the whole black global community.

This whole nonsense just shows what a sloppy bunch of people run the tabloid news here and in the US that they cannot get even the basic facts right.

46. Angelina Jolie plays Mariane Pearl, angering black campaign groups. « Consistently Inconsistent

October 12th, 2006 at 4:06 am

[…] I was surprised by the number of posts commenting on the anger from black activists about Jolie being cast as Daniel Pearl’s wife in ‘A Mighty Heart‘, currently in production. […]

47. TotalDismay.com » Women of Color Question Brad Pitt’s Casting Decision

October 18th, 2006 at 10:40 pm

[…] Some groups are upset that Angelina Jolie, a white woman, is portraying Mariane Pearl who has mixed heritage including Afro-Cuban and Dutch.  Mariane herself had this to say: “I am delighted that Angelina Jolie will be playing my role in the adaptation of my book, I deeply admire her work and what she is committed to.” […]

48. Crossing the Line « Beauty as Power

May 16th, 2007 at 8:18 pm

[…] This MSNBC article quotes a poster on BET.com, saying that Angelina’s portrayal represents a “new generation of Hollywood in blackface.” But over at “Defamer,” we see that Angelina’s transformation into Mariane may involve nothing more than “bronzer and a wig.” I wouldn’t go so far as to say that Angelina is playing Mariane in “blackface,” but certainly there are actresses who would have needed much less appearance manipulation to play the role. Did Angelina’s wealth and connections enable her to obtain a role that could have been played more convincingly, at least in terms of appearance, by someone else? This Blogger at Blacklooks.org thinks so: […]