A sampling of anti-Moreno tweets: "'Can’t you just wait a while…' EXCUSE ME?? Rita Moreno really just told dark skin Latinos to sit there and wait. Let the light skin ones go first. IM SICK"/"Rita Moreno opened her mouth and my abuelita spoke through her. Disappointed, but not actually surprised. Because having HER, of all people, dismiss the colorism problem in the latine community basically shows how deep it runs"/"I love Rita Moreno. Yes, Lin-Manuel has done whole lot. It doesn’t mean he couldn’t do better with representation for Afro Latinos. Why does the fair skinned always say wait your turn to darker skinned people?"/"Rita Moreno *this* close to changing her name to Rita Blanquita"/"Rita Moreno inadvertently giving 'West Side Story' (2021) bad PR for its bad casting months before its release."I love Rita Moreno but this is the opposite of it. We have had a century of movie roles being reserved for the lightest skinned Latino, Black & Asian ppl. This is not breaking new ground & there is nothing for dark skinned ppl to be waiting for https://t.co/fAw9w1qn9g
— DEFUND & ABOLISH POLICE, REFUND OUR COMMUNITIES (@BreeNewsome) June 16, 2021
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4 comments:
Owen writes:
"The Revolution always eats its own. I’m not surprised by the instant vicious petulance of the race-obsessed commenters, but I am surprised that an old professional like her would have walked into the kill zone like that."
Temujin writes:
First of all, no one gets to criticize Rita Moreno, one of the all-time greats. I'm betting the vast majority of these people jumping on her via Twitter have zero idea what she had to do in her day to get to where she was. Nor have they actually watched her in her prime. Talent. Drive. Focus. Belief in herself and not in what others have to say is how she 'made it'. Try it sometime. People tend to think they are all entitled to roles, positions, places, properties, multi-flavored slushies (??- I saw a video today) because of their color/sex/gender-or lack of it/race/religion. That is not how life works and just because you want it to be so does not make it so.
This demand for full Blackness reminds me of the mid years of the women's movement, though this current version is much more annoying. In the mid years of the women's movement there were demands to have more women as CEOs, Directors, and places on Boards of Directors. We're talking within a year or two of the first loud cries for it, they were demanding it. And my thought was, sure...that can be done, but what do they want to have happen with the people currently sitting in those positions as CEOs, Directors, sitting on Boards of Directors? Do you want them to just off themselves? Commit Hara Kiri right there to show they are down with the cause? Or just quit, leave, go into retirement, at age 47, because 'Women'?
No...it takes time. Once those people move out, then you can open it up for another look at who you've been missing. So after a few years, we started to see more women in key positions. As they grew up the corporate ladder- like everyone else had to do- they got into those positions. Today, you can find female CEOs, Directors, and others sitting on Boards of Directors all over. It's a transition. You cannot expect those in place to just...leave.
We've got Black Americans and Hispanic Americans in all sorts of positions in all fields, so this is happening as well. I cannot believe that I'm defending Liz-Manuel Miranda who is nauseatingly full of himself and carefully woke, but he's trying to create a great production and probably decided a good place to start is to gather the best people around him- as he knew it to be. That's his prerogative as...this is his show. You don't like it? I'll give you the answer Progressives give Conservatives every time we're canceled: Make your own damned show.
Iain writes:
Just a few short years ago Lin-Manuel Miranda was lauded to the skies for his casting in Hamilton, where Blacks played whites, Asians played whites, and Latinos played whites. Today he is savaged for the casting of In The Heights, where he apparently cast the wrong kinds of Latinos as Latinos.
It's harder and harder to keep up these days with what's brilliant and what's racist.
It may be that they thought they were criticizing Chu (the director) and not Miranda, but clearly, Moreno is defending Miranda.
Michelle writes:
"I was struck by the second commenter's use of "latine," rather than the
execrable "latinx." I really hope that catches on. B/c "latinx"
basically implies that the Spanish language (and practically all
European languages apart from, surprise, English) are hopelessly
gendered. "Latine" is smoother, less jarring; and it also might
reasonably be used with existing articles, as "latinx" can't."
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