Importance of Race in Casting: Zoe Saldana as Nina Simone

Nina Simone, jazz legend and civil
rights activist

A month ago, it was reported that there was a petition to get actress Zoe Saldana fired from a film in which she will play jazz legend Nina Simone. The controversy surrounding the casting is over the belief that Hollywood is trying to “whitewash” the role, as blogger Tiffani Jones put it. Of course I don’t know if that is what the film industry is trying to do but I do think that she should be recast.     

When I came across this story while browsing a gossip blog, which I admittedly often do, I decided to raise a point in the comments and I inadvertently stirred the pot, so to speak.  My point was that Zoe Saldana isn’t black but is in fact Latina and she identifies herself as such. She is half Dominican and half Puerto-Rican.  While I don’t want race or ethnicity to be an issue when applying for a job (or role) I do think it should be considered in this case.  Of course, Saldana has played a black person for many of her roles but there are special circumstances in playing an iconic person.  

Zoe Saldana, actress

The issue is not over Saldana’s acting skills. For me, it is a matter of respecting Nina Simone and the African-American community. There are still cultural differences that divide us and I think it is important to respect those differences by casting someone who is black and truly understands the significance of Simone’s work. I can’t imagine a non-black person playing Rosa Parks or Martin Luther King Jr. If that did happen, would that be okay?

But perhaps I’m looking at this the wrong way. Maybe I’m assuming that as a Latina, Saldana couldn’t understand the role that Simone played in African-American culture and by doing so, I’m just strengthening the wall between us.

What are your thoughts? Do people have a point in disagreeing with Saldana’s casting or are they just making a big deal out of nothing? 

And what of past controversial castings? There was an outcry when Jennifer Lopez, a Puerto-Rican actress was cast to play the late Mexican singer Selena. Personally, I wasn't upset about it but what are the differences, if any, in that situation? What about Memoirs of a Geisha? Ziyi Zhang, a Chinese actress, played a Japanese woman and at the time, people were upset about her casting as well. So do you think race and ethnicity should be a priority or should casting be based solely on an actor's ability?

Violence in Mexico Persists, Media Coverage Does Not

       At about 11 in the morning,while enjoying my daily consumption of my hastily prepared peanut-butter and jelly sandwich, a woman brought up a point that a friend of hers had made. What he (the friend) had supposedly said (and I'm paraphrasing) was, "So a congresswoman got shot in Arizona? Big deal! People get shot everyday just on the other side of the border." While I don't think that the shooting in Arizona last month is an event to be waved off, I do think that the deaths that occur in Mexico are waved off all too quickly.

      I appreciate that the arrests of certain drug lords appear in the paper and that Anderson Cooper likes to take a field trip to every newly discovered tunnel that was used to smuggle drugs from Mexico into the U.S. but there's just so much more going on down there that isn't being discussed.

       Violence by the drug cartels isn't new. It's not something that started up last year or even five years ago. But at least back then you knew that if you were smart and steered clear of the violence and the drugs, there was no need to fear for your life. Unfortunately for the Mexican people, that no longer holds true. Now any owner of even the smallest business runs the risk of being approached by a member of a drug cartel demanding payment. You paid or you were killed. It was that simple. Actually, that's not new either but it appears to be happening more often.

           Eventually, my grandfather had to stop taking his truck to Mexico because a nice truck like that would surely get taken away. While they felt relatively safe taking my grandmother's car, they made sure to take certain precautions. I noticed that on her rear-view window she had a window decal of a local cafe. It was the very same decal that my uncle had on his car. I didn't find it particularly strange but out of curiosity I asked my mother about it. "They were told to stick them on their cars so that when they go into Rio Bravo the narcos know they're going to the cafe," she said. Outsiders are watched very closely from the moment that they enter into their territory.

         With such fear plaguing people who visit Mexico, I can't imagine what the locals must be going through. There are towns in which the people are too scared to even honk their car horns because honking at the wrong person will likely result in your murder. In one case, a woman instinctively honked at a driver in front of her when he refused to move at a green light. She immediately realized her mistake. The man got out of his car and walked towards her window. "I'm in a good mood," he told her, "so I'll let you live."

             These men have already taken over entire towns and villages. Placing these guys in jail isn't likely to stop the violence when there are corrupt prison guards who unleash them at night to murder their enemies. With so much corruption and violence I can't blame the Mexican people for wanting to cross into U.S. soil. But that doesn't help either because now the people smuggling them across (aka the coyotes) are members of the drug cartels and once they get those people across, they'll hold them captive. Who knows what they do to them.

             But that's the problem isn't it? People not knowing and people not wanting to know. People are decapitated or hung from bridges everyday but no one on this side hears of it unless it happens to a U.S. citizen or an ICE agent. Egypt's uprising was a noteworthy event, to say the least, but why can't our southern neighbors receive half the attention they did? Is fear driving our ignorance? Whatever the reason is, we better start paying attention soon because whether you want to believe it or not, that violence has already reached this side of the river.

For coverage of what's going on in Mexico, visit http://www.blogdelnarco.com/

Improvement in McAllen, Appreciated but Insufficient

       I was optimistic about my return home. I thought I would catch up on sleep, read a few books, visit with friends, but I naively chose to downplay the dark pit of boredom in which I would be buried. It was inevitable. Now I'm back from my "winter" break (can 70 degrees be considered winter?) It was during that time that I found my conscious life to be nothing more than interruptions from the time I spent asleep.

     My uncle came down from San Antonio for New Year's and asked me what I had done since returning from New York. He knew the answer, of course, and in fact when asked about the valley the question is basically rhetorical. "Sleep, watch TV, and eat," I answered. There wasn't a lot of socializing going on but then again, breaks are usually the most pathetic times in my life. More than ever I felt disconnected from the rest of the world. There I could go an entire day without going outside and worst of all I could go days without being aware of the latest headlines.

      But maybe my situation was worse than most because I don’t own a car and I was practically left stranded in my own home. My home is an island and the streets make up the sea that had enclosed me. Oh, why can’t I have my own little boat? Still, even with a boat I’d just be floating around wondering where to go and what to do. And of course I wouldn't be allowed to go to certain areas of the valley after dark considering the situation is getting worse (the war in question is no longer underground and the river no longer serves as barrier for the violence). However, more into this topic is better suited for another time.

    My dull time at home only reaffirmed the truth universally acknowledged that there’s something missing here. I do have to give credit to the growing nightlife in downtown McAllen. I’ve yet the pleasure of experiencing the fun for myself but I hear it’s become quite the scene. So at least for those who enjoy partying it up till dawn (and those old enough to do it) life in the valley perhaps isn’t so bleak. It’s heading in the right direction but it’s taking longer than anyone would like.

The Long Way Home

     When anyone asks me to describe my hometown (Mcallen/Edinburg) I like to say that it's a small city. "Not a small town," I stress as if that were some type of insult(We're the People's Front of Judea not the Judean People's Front!).* However sometimes I think of how much better it would be if the McAllen-Edinburg area were a small town. Friendly neighbors who knew who the best babysitters were and sidewalk availability so that kids could safely walk to school, among other places. It's kind of sad that we depend on cars so much to get us, basically, everywhere.
     People have wondered how I was able to adapt to New York City life and NYU's lack of community but the truth is that there wasn't much of a community back home either(at least, that's how I felt).There definitely were your group of friends at school and the people you met at your job but outside of that there really wasn't anything connecting the rest of the Rio Grande Valley. I was lucky enough to have a strong group of friends but even with us it seemed hard to keep in touch after 4:00 on weekdays. Where could we go to hang out? As much as I loved(and still enjoy) hanging out at a friend's house, there was only so much we could do at each other's homes. Even the best traditions, no matter how great, can become routine and boring. This was always our problem and I have a feeling that we weren't the only ones who felt it.
      It makes me wonder why the valley can't be as socially active as NYC. Is it that we can't afford a nice park? Why can't we have sidewalks or good public transportation? And why won't anyone open a nice hang-out spot for teens besides the mall? The closest thing we have is Moonbeans Coffee which is unfortunately not large enough to fit the growing number of teens who really need to get out more. Is our problem really all about money? I'm not entirely convinced about that but it definitely is a factor (I mean, I highly doubt that our poverty levels are just a coincidence). And, of course, the less money you have, the harder it is to get mom and dad to do anything for you (Democrats and Republicans are the parents, you decide which is which).
        I recently learned that McAllen is the square dance capital of the world. Admittedly, after I read this I was cracking up for about five minutes. When I finally got it out of my system I thought, "How did I not know about this?" I took this as yet the latest evidence that there isn't a big sense of connection and therefore not a lot of communication between us.You may think I'm crazy or lying when I say I feel safer in New York than I do back home (is the idea really that outrageous?). The reason being that I know I'm not alone there. People will always be there to fill the sidewalks and keep you company in the middle of the night(not that I've ever been out and about in the middle of the night). So really, as long as I don't do anything stupid like walk down some dark alley or take off with a strange man, I don't think I have that much to fear. The valley, on the other hand, can get pretty creepy and with the devastation affecting our neighbors across the river, it doesn't look like the valley will be getting safer any time soon. Now more than ever it's important that we keep kids out of trouble by providing places where they can have good, clean (using this term pretty loosely) fun. I feel like there's so much that needs to be done to improve the quality of life in the valley.
       I wanted to be in New York because I wanted to do something significant with my life. I then realized that there were so many people who flocked to the city to do the same thing. How could I stand out among six million people? If I wanted to make a difference for people, then why not make it in a place that really needs it? A place that is seen as one of the most impoverished in the country and as one of the least brainy in the country (according to portfolio.com). My friends and I sometimes joke about how bad the valley is but it's a real problem that I would like to address. I don't know how yet but writing about it seems like an OK start. Who knows, maybe someone will read this and decide to take action. If only.


*Reference to Monty Python's "Life of Brian"

Has Rio Grande Valley Growth Come to a Halt?

      This fall was the beginning of my sophomore year at New York University. Apart from the stress and the few nights that I broke down crying from it, things have been going adequately well up to this point. New York City seems as fast-paced as one can get and it is far removed from the redundant boredom one can face while growing up in the valley. I hate speaking ill of the place where I was born and raised but it’s not as if we all don’t know it, can’t feel it.
 

        Weekend after weekend and night after night I would ask friends, “What can we do tonight?” After a while of course, I merely asked out of habit because I knew the answer was always a definite and unequivocal “nothing”. Going to the movie theater was getting too expensive and apparently God liked to display his sense of humor in my bowling abilities so that was out too. Ultimately, I found myself roaming around Barnes & Noble on Saturday nights. That alone was sad but this past summer that I was home, I was unable to do even that because I no longer had a car in which to drive around.

       So how did we get here? Well, better yet, how did we get stuck here? Why is it that teens, especially broke teens like so many of us are, find themselves staring at the TV or the computer screen on a Saturday night. Sure, we could simply go to each other’s houses and hang out there but that isn’t enough to satisfy our hunger for socializing for the entirety of our adolescence. Where’s the connection to the rest of the valley? Why is it that most of us don’t feel comfortable going to a park or simply walking around? Looking around, I’m sure most of us find the answer to be obvious.

     Upon arriving in New York I instantly fell in love with walking. It wasn’t just that it was free as opposed $2.25 each way for the subway, it was that it was accepted. More than accepted, it was the custom. No one honked at me for walking like they did in the valley because here I was only one of millions of pedestrians. It’s wonderful and it’s an activity in itself. One Saturday afternoon I walked from Washington Square Park to Central Park which took me about two hours. It made for an enjoyable afternoon day and it made me feel like a true contributor to this glorious metropolis.

     My point is why is it so hard for the valley to be social? It seems as if we skipped a few steps; we can connect with everyone online yet we can’t seem to connect with the people within our own community on a three-dimensional level. Why has the valley been unable to break down the barriers and why do they seem stronger than ever?

      I want to keep this at a readable length so with that in mind I must end here. Don’t misunderstand me; it is not my intention to simply criticize our home. I do not pretend to hold the secrets of how to improve the valley (don’t expect “The Guide to Making the Rio Grande Valley Funner, and Then Some!” in bookstores near you). I pose these questions with sincerity and curiosity (just think of me as a bright-eyed seven year-old). In my next entry I hope to examine the possible answers to these questions (recession anyone?)and explain why, now that I’m only in the valley three months out of the year, these questions are prodding me and keep me tossing and turning in my sleep. Well, I’m in college now so I don’t sleep, but you get the idea.