Posted on 03/19/2017 8:13:22 AM PDT by Ennis85
Actress Thandie Newton has said she "can't work" in the UK because there are no roles for black and minority ethnic actors in historical dramas. London-born Newton said the number of costume dramas had led to "slim pickings for people of colour". Her criticism comes after British Film Institute research found that 59% of UK films since 2006 had no black actors in any role. Newton's next UK TV role will see her appear in BBC One's Line of Duty. Speaking to the Sunday Times Magazine, the mother-of-three said: "I love being here, but I can't work, because I can't do Downton Abbey, can't be in Victoria, can't be in Call The Midwife - well, I could, but I don't want to play someone who's being racially abused." "I'm not interested in that, don't want to do it... there just seems to be a desire for stuff about the Royal Family, stuff from the past, which is understandable, but it just makes it slim pickings for people of colour." Newton is one of many British actors who have complained about the lack of ethnic diversity in UK TV and film.
Former Spooks star David Oyelowo said there had been an exodus of black British actors to the USA, due to the lack of opportunities available in British drama. In 2015, the star of A United Kingdom said: "We make period dramas in Britain, but there are almost never black people in them, even though we've been on these shores for hundreds of years. "It's frustrating, because it doesn't have to be that way". On the US stage, black actors portrayed white historical figures like George Washington in Broadway musical Hamilton, which retells the story of American founding father Alexander Hamilton.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
Only if the Australians playing Russians are aborigines!
That’s nonsense—not that many free blacks in America.
I have a hard time believing it also.
However, Washington’s army at Yorktown including militia was 11,000. That would mean an upper limit of that German’s claim to be about 3000. Number of free blacks 1790 census in the USA, roughly 56,000. I don’t see it as impossible to have maybe 2000 in Washington’s army. (Note the regulars were 8000.)That might be enough to make a visual impression on that German officer. I am sure he didn’t count them. There were a lot of free blacks who were able seamen in the merchant ships, privateers, etc.
Again I would like to find the source to that claim.
But not regulars. There might be a high number in militias. However, our “Politically Incorrect Guide to the American Revolution,” out this fall, says that the war was disproportionately fought by Scots-Irish.
That I certainly agree with!
I think I remember some British general calling Washington’s army a Presbyterian army.
Highly unlikely in that era
I’m growing fond of your postings
1-2% of SEALS ARE BLACK OR MULATTO
Lowest race or ethnic group in SEALS besides Jews and Aborigines
That is about what I would have guessed.
Non-Hispanic whites account for 85 to 90% of SEALs
Even higher among officers
This is true among all elite branches
Whites are just better at it or want it more
I would love to play Rosa Parks.
.
I can’t wait to see black actors portray Nazis.
I will leave my thought unsaid.
If you know, you know........
I got a callback to play Bill Cosby in the Hallmark channel biopic, “When You Were Kind of Sleeping.” Then they saw I was a white woman and went with a black dude. Damn.
WWII action films provide little opportunity for black actors (even on the American side); they weren’t allowed in combat roles (though some saw action when front lines fell apart and Germans penetrated deep, as in the Battle of the Bulge).
Dr Who is dead to me.
I’ll never watch it again.
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