“Would this be cultural appropriation?”
In a few ways, yes. Time has a way of changing history depending on who is retelling it. There is a history of remaking movies to fit a change of race which also changes the story. And it is done originally for getting face time until enough believe it and accept the outcome. Twenty years ago I found kids who didn’t know what a Mouseketeer was.
The Wiz, Cinderella, 12 Angry Men, Chloe in the Afternoon, The Karate Kid, Death at a Funeral, Steel Magnolias, About Last Night, and Annie are just a few. And in many of the remakes the plot of other parts of the film were changed to fit the appearance. The Second Annie for instance didn’t have red hair which changed the determination of the viewer’s outlook in their seeing of the attitude and demeaner of the character.
And it is going into regular television these days. The commercial with the black Santa Claus in the bath tub loosing his ho, ho, ho is one example of an obvious attempted change. The real Santa Claus is a story based on St. Nicholas of Myra, who, according to Christian tradition, was a bishop in that small Roman town during the 4th century. Nicholas’s reputation for generosity and kindness gave rise to legends of miracles he performed for the poor and unhappy. And the first black Bishop in the catholic church was James Augustine Healy who was born April 6, 1830, near Macon, Georgia, U.S., and died August 5, 1900, Portland, Maine.
There are enough black writers and producers out there to do away with black exploitation and create art instead like The Color Purple, Carmen Jones, Sounder and Precious.
It’s bad enough remakes are popping up anyway because the creators don’t want to put in the work, white, black, brown, or chartreuse. Originality is what the viewers want. The can watch the old ones on television. And with the programming on it nowadays, it wouldn’t even be giving up entertainment.
wy69
They're lazy. They just want to recycle a script and call it a day.
Originality is what the viewers want. The can watch the old ones on television.
Every Christmas, you can watch IAWL, Christmas Vacation, A Christmas Story on TV. No one is watching a lame remake.