I am not an expert on race and ethnicity, why did I get myself into this, aaaack

[bironic]

Fourteen months into this vidding project, a few weeks before the deadline, and I'm revisiting difficult questions in the hope of not doing something accidentally terrible. In this case, agonizing about whether I'm going to end up in hot water if I continue with plans to include certain Latinx characters/actors if the vid is described as being about characters of color.

I've encountered impassioned and sophisticated arguments on both sides -- some say the umbrella term Latinx includes both white people and people of color, some say Latinx by definition is not white, some say it's whatever people self-identify as -- and I'm certainly not in a position to weigh in. And I'm not sure whether phrasing the scope as something like "characters of color, including Latinx" (or "and Latinx") in vidder's notes makes things better or worse.

The person who requested this vid asked right away for a few characters who fall into this category. One I disqualified because even though the character, Maggie Sawyer on Supergirl, is Latinx, the actress who plays her is Italian. Others didn't give me pause because they belong to additional racial or ethnic minority groups, such as Fernando and Joanna on the show 3%. But the rest are trickier.

For reference, we're talking about a dozen characters, or ~5% of the total group I'm trying to cram into four minutes of clips:

Rogue One - Cassian Andor (Diego Luna)
Star Wars: The Force Awakens - Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac)
Star Trek Discovery - Hugh Culber (Wilson Cruz)
Annihilation - Anya (Gina Rodriguez)
Runaways - Molly Hernandez (Allegra Acosta)
Z Nation - Javier (‎Matt Cedeño) and Hector (Emilio Rivera)
Westworld - Hector (Rodrigo Santoro)
The Flash - Cisco Ramon (Carlos Valdez)
Ash vs. the Evil Dead - Pablo Simon Bolivar (Ray Santiago)
Lucifer - Dan Espinoza (Kevin Alejandro)
The Martian - Rick (Mark Anthony Peña)
Powerless - Green Fury (Natalie Morales)

A risk of inclusion in the vid is "othering" white Latinx. A risk of exclusion is, well, exclusion. These characters, like the rest of those in the vid, are kickass, and a lot of these actors have talked about how important it's been for them and their fans to see positive Latinx representation in genre media.

I've been framing the character list as "those who would be considered a racial or ethnic minority in the country that produced the movie/show." Still not sure if that takes care of things. (For a second the other day I thought I had it, in saying "the old-school supposed default in the U.S. is 'non-Hispanic white,' so this vid is 'everyone else,'" but of course Hispanic /= Latinx.)

Missing or misunderstanding something obvious? Overthinking it? Does the fact that Sigrid and other friends suggested most of these characters when I said "characters of color" answer the question in itself?

Help?

ETA: It sounds like reframing from "characters of color" to something like "characters of races and ethnicities underrepresented in the countries that produced the show or film" might resolve the quandary. Thoughts still welcome.

Comments

[laurashapiro]

I'm afraid I don't have nuance here. Reframing as "underrepresented ethnicities" seems like an easy way to go. Another would be to ask friends of color for their opinions, though of course that doesn't guarantee you won't piss someone off.

Actually, there's never a guarantee of that, so why not make the vid you want?

[bironic]

Gonna frame that and put it over the vidding computer.

[laurashapiro]

Glad I could help. :D

[monanotlisa]

"there's never a guarantee of that, so why not make the vid you want?"

Heh! Indeed.

Bironic, as I told you, I think this vid is amazing.

My input on the racial complexities of US-American media is, as you know, limited. You also know that has never stopped me from giving it. One thing I hang on to these days is the fact we're all learning -- it means we change, and we can change. None of our creations are the last word.