People of Color
Most of the world doesn't even partake in these things. I think.
There was talk of a black 007 movie. What's bothersome about it, is not that fact that a different race is playing such a role, but how they make a character of race, a different one.
It's like if they made another Blade movie, and they have some white guy playing the lead role.
Star Wars is fine, it's not like they are replacing the race of anyone, so it's not a big deal if a black guy has a lead role.
"There was talk of a black 007 movie."
Huh, first thought was a Blaxploitation variant of those films. With the usually assumed traits of a 007 character, that'd be amazing in it's own right.
"What's bothersome about it, is not that fact that a different race is playing such a role, but how they make a character of race, a different one."
When that sort of thing is changed it forces the audience to notice that race was a thing at all. Prior they just saw the character, later they see it as a version of the character. It's not really too different from what recasting within the same racial range causes people to go through, it makes them stuck measuring differences, making comparisons between the original source material and it's spiritual successor.
The biggest difference beyond that is conversational shorthand ("You know, the black one, not the white one") and the risk of the writers potential racism showing. It's different from how they handle it with gender in that the gender card doesn't have to be quite as equal, showing them almost as sidekicks more often than not.
"It's like if they made another Blade movie, and they have some white guy playing the lead role."
Tumblr uproar would probably be louder.
http://racistsgettingfired.tumblr.com/
Perfect example of perceived racial microaggressions and making a big deal out of them.
Jesus, WW3, I thought you and I made progress.
Stop watching Fox News. Read widely. Read the new Man Booker Prize Winner (A Brief History of Seven Killings) by a black Jamaican man.
Watch black content. Watch Asian content. Watch Desi (Indian, Sri Lankan, Pakistani etc etc) content. Watch Spanish-language content.
See the world through other people's eyes. Watch at least 5 non-white films before you bring this up again. If your position is cemented, fine. That's your prerogative. But, as is, you're seeing the world through a hugely selective lens. That's not your fault. That doesn't mean that you're unintelligent or insensitive, it just means that your lens is ethnocentric.
We are all like that, at some point. When we become adults, with choice, and with the aide of the internet, we can employ a much wider lens, to our betterment as human beings.
"Blaxploitation is for encouraging black pride. Criticizing it is racist."
The aim was encouragement, but instead it painted a caricature upon itself through what it assumed was cool. Blaxploitation is seen as not just racist, but also comical to the point of parody that still spans into the now (Black Dynamite mocks the notion pretty hard). It refers to a movement in cinema/television from around four decades ago, a series of writing tactics designed to pick at a target audience based on what the ones writing it believed they wanted. There are obvious differences between movies featuring black people and the B Movie Gold that Blaxploitation can present itself as. It's how it's written that can be analyzed, and to think it's more than that risks an increase in racist thinking. Not worrying so much about "racism" when it comes to media gives you the ability to see it beyond race, or at least to see what racism that the others were writing in a sense beyond fear or outrage. Racist misunderstandings in the right forms is a work of comedy, especially in the media.
Your obsessive focus on racism in an almost guarded and persecuted sense makes you seem more racist than not caring about it. Race itself is a construct developed from a mixture of history and skin hue, something you can when it comes to your own views progress past as simply as not focusing on it. It's the ones who focus on it the most who express it the most almost akin to the black hole effect of the "He Who Fights Monsters" notion, regardless of if the aim is protagonistic or antagonistic. Seriously, it's all a PR thing, and how you display yourself is 9/10 of it regardless of color (depending where you live anyway).
When you stop focusing on everything being a matter of race, other gems reveal themselves within the works. While others may choose to make everything about race, it's only so often that it really gets in the way of your own life. While poor neighborhoods, jail, and some occupational hazards can present themselves, in areas like the media or social interaction it matters as much as you and the company you keep allow it to.