Here's the thing about criticisms towards "diversity casting": It's not about you, your race, or even remotely about hating a certain group of minority at all. At least it's not in
my case (I can't speak for the many self-entitled bigots out there).
Instead, it's about how diversity is now "trending." Your minority status is now profitable to bank on, and so many movie studios cast blacks and Chinese not because, or rather, not
just because they want to include those people who deserve the spotlight (because god knows I would want to see more Chinese actors in Hollywood as well, since I'm literally one of them), but also because people pay good money for such diversity... and that kind of filmmaking ticks me off.
I'm someone who grew up on not just American popcorn movies, but also the more "artsy" ones that don't just regurgitate the same familiar family message. I remember some of my earliest films when I discovered the beauty of filmmaking in the 2000s included "American Beauty", "Magnolia", "Citizen Kane", "Casablanca", "Psycho", "Close Encounters of the Third Kind"; basically any renowned works by an auteur over the past century (I'm still trying, and failing, to get used to the older black and white films). And so, it's quite an understatement to say that I have a certain kind of respect for not just filmmaking itself, but innovative, and more importantly,
original filmmaking that tries to say something new about life.
These "diversity castings," however, aren't about that... They're about money, plain and simple. My favorite heroines were Ellen Ripley and Sarah Connor, not because they're women, but because they're great characters. But nowadays, people celebrate movies because there's a woman as the main star. I think that's a bigger insult to feminism and equality than contributing towards those values. And see, it goes further back than our progressive era today. The token black character? That was there just to make the studios feel good about casting a black guy as if they're doing something special for the greater collective community (P.S. Hollywood: you're not). That was there just because
"Oh, there's gonna be black people watching this too, so let's throw in a black guy." It's an insulting line of thinking not just in filmmaking, but also in our fight for equality. Also, it doesn't just affect black people as well. Imagine you're playing pretend with the schoolyard kids, and the other cool kids tell you to come over because they need an obligatory Asian kid... yeah. Not cool.
Now, to be perfectly clear, I'm not against the business of filmmaking. Making movies can be expensive, and even though many have shot great films for a couple of millions, it's a different industry nowadays and the amount of marketing required (thanks to competition from streaming services) means that it's harder than ever to make back your movie budget
and make a profit. I'd also like to think that I've outgrown that phase of my life where I was some pretentious snob who thinks that money doesn't matter in the craft of filmmaking (it really does). So when I do frown upon a film that's made just for the sake of pandering to feminism or a certain minority group, it's not as if I'm raising torches and calling for a riot and it's more of me giving an annoyed groan stating, "You could do better."
Also, for what it's worth, I didn't bother to watch Shang-Chi because it has that same exact problem I'm stating. I'm Chinese, and Shang-Chi looks boring to me. It's the same deal with "Captain Marvel", because yay, we finally have a female-starring Marvel movie... it's just too bad the character's so unlikable. I mean, I enjoyed "Black Widow" a lot more because of the character, not because of gender differences. I liked "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" because of good writing, not because Buffy's biologically different than me. "Captain Marvel" the movie shouldn't be special just because the main character's a different gender - that's never a good reason for telling stories. It's that kind of biasness that got Hollywood executives casting Zorro as a white man instead of a Mexican for so many years because white people were more profitable. This biasness is a slippery slope and a double-edged sword.
So what are we talking about here? Is involving race or gender in a movie inherently bad? Of course not. A movie that tackles issues of race or gender, that's an
entirely different thing because the plot itself is about race/gender. These movies were made to tell stories about these issues. In storytelling, character is king, and the story comes next, so if the movie is specifically focusing on a minority group in the plot, then that's a good thing because the intention here isn't to bank on said minority group, but to have an open discussion about them with the audience. "Captain Marvel" kinda tries to talk about feminism, I guess? Buuut in a
really cringeworthy and backhanded insult kind of way towards men, so I didn't like it because of that... Feminism should be about equality, not superiority. There were far better shows and movies that tackled feminism in either a more subtle way or a more clever and sincere way.
And the same goes towards sexuality as well, "Moonlight" is a great example of discussing black homosexuality in all its joy and sadness. That's a movie worth celebrating about. An actor being cast just because he's gay, it's a good thing that gays are being accepted, but it's just not enough of a reason for me to pay money to watch a movie
only because of that trending headline. There needs to be more than that for me to watch a movie. There needs to be a good story well-told.
tl;dr version: Just watch this video.
Or really, if you're of a suitable age (like 18 years old or something) and if you're a fan of superheroes and just wants diversity for diversity's sake, just go watch Amazon Prime's
The Boys and you'll get a better understanding of how mega corporations like Hollywood studios use said diversity in a very ugly and selfish way that's just not about celebrating diversity at all...
