Multiethnic Films and ‘Colorblind’ Society

Re “Multiethnic Movies Ringing True With Youths,” July 2: Most of us who teach about race relations in the United States do not advocate a “colorblind” society, that is, one in which we are blind to each other’s color and ethnicity. Rather, we envision a society that respects and truly appreciates difference.

I certainly don’t want anyone to be blind to my ethnicity, since it is a core part of my public and personal identity.

Robert W. Welkos and Richard Natale are misled when they write that “the studios have only begun to catch up with the colorblind nature of today’s MTV generation.” I propose that the MTV generation is not colorblind and that it is deeply interested in seeing TV and film represent the real world, a multiethnic world.

In writing about the movie “The Fast and the Furious,” the story quotes director Rob Cohen: “This picture is not an ‘ethnic’ movie, it’s an everybody movie.” Those of us who teach about popular culture and the media know that all movies are “ethnic” and that most films remain white ethnic.

According to the MTV generation, an “everybody movie” seems to be a movie in which everybody gets to see themselves, in full color.

Ricardo D. Stanton-Salazar

Associate Director

Center for American

Studies & Ethnicity, USC

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Welkos and Natale’s portrayal of “The Fast and the Furious” as a landmark for Hollywood’s cultural strides is laughable. Many Asian Americans have chosen not to see it because all Cohen did was take an originally Asian American phenomenon and whitewash it.

If I wanted to see an Asian get shot off a motorcycle, I’d go rent a John Woo flick.

Sherwin Chan

Agoura

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Regarding the movie, “The Fast and the Furious”:

As one who did some street racing during the late 1950s, I was transfixed by the racers in their nitro-injected “rice rockets” [imported drag-racing machines] as they screeched down the streets of Los Angeles. The ethnic mix of the racers certainly enhanced but was secondary to the competition itself. Although the film’s producers targeted a youthful audience, this 60-year-old thoroughly enjoyed the film, the background rap music notwithstanding.

Just an aside: As an Italian American, I was not offended by Dom Toretto’s “real job.”

Sam La Sala

Monrovia