By Guest Contributor Michael Le from Racebending

Racialicious’ Note: Racebending is a site that was set up in response to the whitewashed casting of The Last Airbender. Racebending has since extended its reach to discuss the poor representation of people of colour in film and tv in general.
In case you missed the headline yesterday, Facebook [...]

by Latoya Peterson
On Friday, I joined Alyssa Rosenberg on Bloggingheads.Tv, to chat about the Oscars, which is my least favorite subject. We covered stereotypes, the expectations of the academy, and how to determine what is “a best picture.” But last night had some interesting upsets.
Kathryn Bigelow took home the award for the Best Picture [...]

By Deputy Editor Thea Lim

How do you know when a story is allying, versus appropriating?
In other words, if someone of privilege writes a story about the political oppression of a group they do not belong to, what is the difference between:
a) a story that brings marginalised voices to a wider platform and advocates for their [...]

By Deputy Editor Thea Lim
I had a great time with this article sent to us by reader mra: Complex Magazine’s run-down of the 50 Most Racist Movies You Didn’t Know Were Racist.  The list spans not just time but also ethnocultural group – I was happy to see that Complex pounced on movies offending all [...]

By Sexual Correspondent Andrea (AJ) Plaid
My gut-honest reaction to finding out singer John Mayer admits that he doesn’t romantically or sexually like Black women is like finding out Tom Cruise saying doesn’t dig us sistahs: I’m not shocked because I didn’t get that vibe from him.  
Mayer’s highlighted history of dating the crowning White women [...]

By Deputy Editor Thea Lim

Reader Sanni sent us a link to this article by Joanna Douglas, “Vanity Fair’s “New Hollywood” issue completely lacks diversity“:

While we’d like to think celeb bible Vanity Fair puts a great deal of thought and planning into its annual “New Hollywood” issue, this year the editors really limited their scope when [...]

by special correspondent Arturo R. García

My friends at Fantastic Fangirls turned me on to the Chromatic Comics meme that went around LiveJournal, Dreamwidth and similar blog sites. Simply put: a number of bloggers re-cast various fandoms with all-POC casts. Below are a few notable examples with links attached.
From Bossymarmalade’s Chromatic Marvel, you saw Vanessa Williams [...]

A lot of people don’t realize that I’m Latina, which is fine. One thing about being Latina is that there isn’t one look that comes with the territory. I don’t expect people to know my cultural background just by glancing at me. I do, however, expect that when I tell people my family is from [...]

by Guest Contributor Geo, originally published at Prometheus Brown

Morgan Freeman: the kind of black dude even an old white racist can’t hate. Which is why he was cast to drive Miss Daisy, free a man from prison, become president (twice), help Batman, and become the literal, physical embodiment of God. Apparently has magic in his [...]

by Guest Contributor Superhussy, originally published at Superhussy Media
Disney’s new film “The Princess and the Frog” has sparked a lot of conversation primarily because Tiana, the princess is black. As adults we have plenty to say about the effects of the film, whether it’ll impact young black girls in a positive manner and if it [...]

By Sexual Correspondent Andrea Plaid

My best friend Timolin tipped me to Lisa Price, founder of Carol’s Daughter, visiting the flagship store in Harlem.  I had to meet the woman who’s designed a special natural body product line for—and the only product tie-in to–Disney’s Princess and the Frog.*  Not McDonald’s (or any other fast-food chain, who [...]

By Special Correspondents Nadra Kareem and Andrea Plaid

More than a year before its debut, “The Princess and the Frog” set tongues wagging. Some were overjoyed that Disney finally dedicated a feature to a black princess. Others criticized the studio’s history of racial gaffes in films such as “Aladdin” and “The Jungle Book” and wondered if [...]

by Latoya Peterson

Nadra and Andrea are still working on their response/conversation about the Princess & the Frog, but we have received requests for a conversation.  Consider this open thread a place holder.
Some things of note:
Jeff Yang and I had a long (think two hours) conversation about the Princess and the Frog, the nature of Princess, [...]

Whether Avatar is racist is a matter for debate. Regardless of where you come down on that question, it’s undeniable that the film – like alien apartheid flick District 9, released earlier this year – is emphatically a fantasy about race. Specifically, it’s a fantasy about race told from the point of view of white [...]

by Guest Contributor J Chang, originally published in Init_MovingPictures
While there is a tension between the actor’s craft and the necessity for verisimilitude in mainstream entertainment film and television, we’ve noted that cinematic verisimilitude is critical for enjoyment of a film. In the case of race, that means casting actors who would believably appear the race [...]