I want to talk about Scott McCall.
*crickets chirp*
No! Don't run away. If I can't run, neither can youuuuuuuu
So we live in a post-racial society right? Right, except for how that is utter bullshit that makes me twitchy.
So you have a character who is coded as white, or 'lower to middle class suburban kid', in what is a fairly diverse environment, given the extras we see.
Ok, it looks like a pasty group of extras but I live in south Florida. I ride public transit. I know people who speak Creole as their mother tongue because that is the language you speak when you are from Haiti. My folks are friends with an engineer from Argentina. My point is, I'm used to seeing various shades of brown in my day to day life. I regularly hear languages other than English. Admittedly, sometimes its German.
I think I'm detracting from my point.
So you have this pretty whitebread character and who do you cast?
You cast the kid who played J.Lo's son in Maid in Manhattan.
I'm very confused at this point, because 1) is this whitewashing? ---> to which I say "Er." b) should T.Pose have to always play according to his background? ---> "No."
However, in a question about Scott's idk, moral compass, he said "I think he's Mexican" which. I saw someone on my flist say if Scott was a potato, then Tyler is a baked potato which is the truest of true things. He could be trollig. He could seriously think his character is Latino.
How cool would it be if a popular teen show had a POC main character?
Was his dad Latino? (Also. Is his dad dead?) Is Melissa a really fair Latina who kept her married name?
See? It could easily be explained.
But I don't think they'll briong up Scott's family background anytime soon. And that's a pity, if Jeff Davis is really trying to create this utopia where -isms don't exist.