{"id":12454,"date":"2011-02-14T09:43:45","date_gmt":"2011-02-14T17:43:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/AMPTOONS.COM\/blog\/?p=12454"},"modified":"2011-02-15T23:20:36","modified_gmt":"2011-02-16T07:20:36","slug":"quote-make-it-more-ethnic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=12454","title":{"rendered":"Quote: Make It More Ethnic"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have been on sets before when a director says ‘can you make it more ethnic?’ I always say ‘can you demonstrate to me how you want it done?’ That usually ends it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a>–Yvette Nicole Brown<\/p>\n

Reading this article by Jabari Asim<\/a> made me think about another pernicious aspect of the “sassy fat black women” stereotype, which is that almost any strong or angry character played by a fat black actress is going to come off as the stereotype, even when that’s unfair. Years before she starred in “Community,” Yvette Nicole Brown’s photo from a Dairy Queen commercial illustrated this New York Times article<\/a> about the stereotype. <\/p>\n

But the photo, from a Dairy Queen commercial about a guy who repeatedly drops his carry-on luggage ((It took me a few moments before I got why Youtube’s suggested next video to watch was Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody.”)) on another passenger’s head, is a marginal case at best. <\/p>\n

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Brown’s job in this commercial is to be comically enraged. She uses wide eyes and an angry voice to do this. I don’t think a big white guy, given the same part, would have performed it differently. But when Brown did it, her photograph was published in the Times <\/em>as an example of a troubling racial stereotype. That can’t be fun.<\/p>\n

As Ani remarks in the comments of pre-Racialicious<\/a>:<\/p>\n

I would be pretty sassy and annoyed if a someone’s large carry on bag was repeatedly dropped on my head. I didn\u2019t think her reaction was totally out of line for this type of situation. […]<\/p>\n

I am not saying terrible racial stereotypes don\u2019t happen, but does context (ie carry-on being repeatedly dropped on head) ever trump that?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Obviously, the stereotypical casting of fat black women as “sassy” happens a lot, and should be criticized. But I also don’t want a situation where an actress like Brown automatically gets criticized if she ever plays strong or angry.<\/p>\n

Anyhow, great quote, isn’t it?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have been on sets before when a director says ‘can you make it more ethnic?’ I always say ‘can you demonstrate to me how you want it done?’ That usually ends it. –Yvette Nicole Brown Reading this article by … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[135,54,93],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crossposted-on-tada","category-media-criticism","category-race-racism-and-related-issues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12454"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12454\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12569,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12454\/revisions\/12569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}