#performative diversity

C&H use diverse casting and progressive language as armor against criticism while repeatedly degrading the very characters they claim to represent.

I have said it for ages: HOTD treats nearly everyone with contempt, then hides behind identity politics whenever viewers notice.

Nettles being erased and her story handed to Rhaena does not become respectful simply because both characters are women of color. Laena, Laenor, Baela, Vaemond, Rhaena, and now Corlys have all been diminished, distorted, or treated as interchangeable pieces serving Rhaenyra’s narrative.

I never saw the point in making Snape of all characters black. It would have made more sense to make Hermione black, going along with what JK herself said should have been the case, which is why she’s black in the Cursed Child play.

So i been called this as performative, fake woke bullshit, and it’s weird to me that they wanted to make the black man the villain. Which yes I know in the long run he’s not the villain per se but y’all know what I mean.

But okay, we make Snape black. Sure. At least respect and acknowledge his heritage by giving him some damn hair that makes fucking sense. What black man has ever walked around with his hair looking like this? Stringy, greasy, limp? A black man with this type of hair style it’s gonna have some bump to it. Some volume. Some life. This look like they literally gave him a refresh of Alan Rickman’s wig from the previous movies.

I’m really tired of this because it’s happening too much. The lack of care and concern to represent black people in a realistic way. It’s disrespectful. Even Caleb from Stranger Things has to deal with his hair looking crazy in this last season. Like it’s VERY clear DEI is gone. Obviously nobody black was on set to say that’s not what a high top fade looks like.

And now this Snape shit. If someone on set was black and smart, their first reference for his wig would have been this:

But that’s just for the sake of keeping the character description the same. Because in reality, if Snape was a black professor, I doubt he would wear his hair like this. A black man would barely be able to get hired as a professor with their hair like this or in locs. So he would more realistically have a cut along the lines of

Or he could be straight up bald! But of course, Snape’s stringy hair is a part of his character, so this would not have been the Snape people were used to. But that’s what diversity means. Reimagining. You tailor your character to the ethnicity they are representing.

Heritage and ethnicity is not interchangeable. You can’t just slap a black man in the same costume as a white man and think it’s gonna give the same thing. If you’re going to use a black man, use all of what makes him black. That’s why Ariel had locs and Elphaba had microbraids. Our hair is a part of what makes us black. Otherwise keep the character fucking white. Or Hispanic or Asian. The people whose hair actually would look like that so it’s not so jarring when you see the wig on them.

But to sit here and not change anything about the character but his skin tone is performance and not true diversity. Period. Like I said if they wanted diversity, the very easy route was Hermione. Do you know how easy it would have been to find a black girl with big, frizzy, curly hair?

That easy.