greek-mythologies:alatismeni-theitsa:greek-mythologies:alatismeni-theitsa:apeollo:alatismeni-theitsa
greek-mythologies:alatismeni-theitsa:greek-mythologies:alatismeni-theitsa:apeollo:alatismeni-theitsa:apeollo:alatismeni-theitsa:associatedrants:eillam:politelyintheknow:“…we have a 10-word bio in the program because there are so many people in the show. the 10 words i wrote are, ‘this is for all those whose shoulders i stand on.’ when i sing ‘go the distance’ i think about all the black men who have been enslaved, incarcerated, assassinated - i think about them. there is a hero inside all of them. it’s the most empowering moment i’ve ever had on stage.” - jelani alladin on playing hercules.https://youtu.be/NXsDe21ZyPIOkay, the fact that they made a proper musical of Hercules, the most banging but oft neglected Disney musical is enough to make me !!!!! BUT THEN, to cast a black man as Hercules, when the Greek gods are so very very often white-washed. I love it.Greek gods are… white washed? Have you seen how our ancient people depicted them? Have you seen actual Greeks? And have you heard Greeks complain that their gods get whitewashed? (Please be more aware or how the Greek community perceives its heritage while speaking of important Greek figures). Sure, Anglo Saxons, White Americans and Nordic people don’t look exactly like Greeks, and we would prefer a cast of Greeks, but at least the race is the same.@associatedrants Are you Greek? Have you ever been to Greece? Is this black man Greek? There are some incredible black Greek men that could have been amazing to cast. Also, would you give me some evidence where Greek Mythology is whitewashed? You do know who Heracles’ father is, right? And who is mother is right? Zeus and Alcmene, right? Zeus has never been described as anything darker than a tan. Is it white-washing if Greeks are white, I do hope you know that information as well. I think you might be in the wrong mythology, sweetie, Greek Mythology is far from “white-washed.”It’s also important to add that Greece is not multi ethnic like USA. Black men in Greece is like the 0,00001% of the population and the percentage of Black men who also feel Greek is even smaller than that percentage. The percentage of Black actors who feel Greek is EVEN smaller. The commenter doesn’t know anything about Greek demographics and history. did you expect them to? also to add in since people love to forget this tiny bit of information, Ancient Greeks hated outsiders, I mean you should have seen how they viewed Egyptians. So even if other countries did come into Ancient Greece, they were often times ostracized (I mean especially by Athenians), so as much as people like to point out the melting pot story, it wouldn’t make sense to make Heracles anything but Greek, since Ancient Greeks were hesitated towards outsidersEh yes normally I would expect foreigners to be a little informed about Greek society when they claim to speak for our own good. But hey, this is Tumblr They know Hercules was Greek. But they don’t see Greek heritage as Greek. They see it as their own playground and they think they know better how the Greek figures should be portrayed. Since we are white and evil, our white evilness needs to be erased by putting a Black guy as Hercules. Greeks are white and evil but Greek figures Americans love cannot be evil.It’s even more horrible considering that this actor was cast so that the production team would be praised for “diversity points” Exactly! I don’t doubt that the actor is good and capable! But they fall for tokenism so easily. Make those productions accessible to Greek actors first and foremost and then go for diversity of skin color if you want to do it so much. Shitty cultural representation is nothing to be praised about. Unfortunately, I don’t know how many Greek actors there are on Broadway (for the record, this is a Broadway production). I can personally think of Constantine Germanacos and Christy Altomare when I think of Broadway actors of Greek descent but still - I’d gladly watch this production with those two in the lead and Americans for the remaining parts because Broadway is a smaller world than Hollywood and there are fewer Greeks available that can do Broadway. Or they might as well cast singers and Hollywood actors of Greek descent and have Marina Diamandis as the lead Muse or something -- source link