Colour – a simple yet complicated concept.
When we were young colour is about the tones of shades
materialised before our eyes and conceptualised in our brain. As we grow up, the
word become more and more complicated just like our lives.
We live in a colourful world with “colourful people”.
Colourful people usually mean people who are interesting and different from
each other, and we mean this in a good way. However, if we slightly changed the
combination to simply “coloured people” the connotations are not as positive
anymore. Depending on how you see it, “coloured people” for me is a less
flattering term to distinguish people of Anglo descent (the “White People”)
from the rest of the world (the “Coloured People”). “Coloured people” come in
all colours – yellow, brown, black etc. etc. But identifying someone simply
through their skin colours is a step towards generalisation as you no longer
identify them as individuals but as collectives.
I have been working on colour-blind casting for a few years
now. During the process, I was reminded by one of my peers that it is better to
take out the whole connation about colour-blind – it is about diversity not
colour. This came as a huge reminder to me as I had never thought about this
from that angle. So I owe a big thank to that individual who reminded me of
this.
Some people think that basically colour-blind casting means
diversity casting. On the surface it seems so. However, if we look deeper, it
is more than so. Colour-blind casting is still basing individuals according to
colour while diversity casting is to promote diversity. The previous carries
the burden of the past but the latter promotes a positive future. Also the term
colour blind can be twisted in certain ways to promote individual’s agenda. One
of the good examples is the Airbender movie, when the Asian mythological
animation was “White-washed” when being adapted as a life action movie. That’s “colour-blind”
for some.
As for diversity, we promote greater choices when the
circumstance is right. We diversify our screen presence according to who is the
best actor and not who belongs to which colour. The colour factor never got
involved because it is about diversity, opportunity and performance.
The Australian screen and stage has long been condemned of being
Anglo-centric. On main screens and
main stages they are predominantly white. Also we can see that sometimes the
power holders are just doing lip services for a little while when they were
condemned. They “jump” to joy to announce things when they had one non-Anglo
character in their productions. They said this is hard because they have to
justify the existence of a non-Anglo character. But for me the funny thing is I
never need to justify my existence among my peer. But only when it comes to the
stage or the screen that I suddenly need to do so.
However, things are changing in the last two or three years.
The changes start in the independent scenes – indie productions are embracing
diversity and so are the younger generation of practitioners who grew up in
more culturally diverse Australian society. These younger generations did not
come with the burden of a white-Australian society and they do not need colour
blind casting because colour is not a main issue for them.
The change is slow and sometimes painful, as you need to
tear down layers and layers of cultural stereotypes before people can see your
true self. But when that happens it is rewarding. I had people asking me why
bother fighting, I personally did not see that it is fighting at all but
something I simply believe in and try to achieve. As with all things, the road
to success is never easy but if we don’t make the journey, we will never see
the destination.
PS: If you are interested, join us at Diversity Casting Australia
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