Observations from Kira Onodera

I think Greg Watanabe brings up an important issue that is the real issue is that La Jolla truly doesn't think they are being racist by leaving out Asian Americans - they think that by throwing a few women of color (I will get to that in a minute) they couldn't possibly be seen as such. Its as if too many Asians on stage would translate to being too foreign and un-relatable to other races. And that is an assumption that keeps us from getting parts - we are not seen as American therefore its assumed that just by our mere Asianess we cannot be cast as representing anything but a foreign place. And part two being that even as an Asian actress (and yes, I half but that doesn't matter because the I'm still seen as a woman of color, not a Caucasian) I may get cast in things to be just that. A nice little, pretty splash of color. But for Asian male actors the struggle is different and in many ways more hurtful. Asian men are like a frickn' endangered species out there. Sure commercially maybe, they can sell us Verizon's high-speed Internet or by the comic relief in a sitcom or film - but the emperor of China? A man of power? Of strength? No, lets cast a white man. I think Frank Chin said it best: "I'm angry. And a lot of people don't like that".

The racist implications of this controversy goes pretty deep that even the participants are having a hard time uncovering what it is exactly that is making us so angry. Which makes it hard to have a real conversation. I am not angry because you cast as color blind, I am angry that using your 'color doesn't matter' theory gave us : "Filipina Nightingale, exoticised and objectified in her fanciful bird costume and elaborate makeup and headdress that rendered her unrecognizable except to be an olive-skinned person of small stature and the sexy princess arranged to be married to the emperor, dressed in a costume that exoticised and objectified her as well since she was the only character whose limbs were revealed in a sexual manner. And the play went on. The darker African American woman was bossy and mean (empress dowager) and the lighter skinned African American women were barefoot peasant fisher folk. Oh yeah and then there were 6 white men, 2 of whom played the emperor." This account is from Jennifer Chang's blog The Changinator.

This is the real problem, isn't it? This is what we get when you don't see color?

The article in the LA Times by Charles McNulty sucked. Full of pontification and zero substance. I didn't learn anything and it didn't make me think about anything in a new light. But, he sure made room to make it just a little bit about him (which lacked any point whatsoever). "if this incident is handled well, as it appears to be.." Who said it was handled well? I don't think many of us are satisfied, in the least bit. Seems like this guy wants us to sit and wait until the 'trickle down' of multi-cultural casting includes us. I'm tired of these people trying to tell me to respect artistic choices as if that hadn't occurred to me before I decided be be offended. As if we were not artists ourselves as if we could not possibly understand the complexity of the issue and only an established director understands the concept of artistic freedom. We are subtly being talked down to like whiny, minorities with PC agendas who just can't understand the higher artistic concepts in creating a show. I take offense to that and believe the 'artistic choice' defense is an excuse to exclude our faces and perpetuate the idea that the world is white and black and everyone else in between can be the colored sprinkles.