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White supremacists urge Thor boycott over casting of black actor as Norse godCouncil of Conservativeangry_smile
xfean 14 Reviews 2965 reads
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White supremacists urge Thor boycott over casting of black actor as Norse godCouncil of Conservative Citizens attacks Marvel for giving role of deity Heimdall to Idris Elba, star of The Wire


A US white supremacist group has called for a boycott of the Kenneth Branagh-directed superhero movie Thor on the grounds that a black actor has been cast in the role of a Norse god.


The Council of Conservative Citizens is upset that London-born Idris Elba, star of The Wire and BBC detective series Luther as well as a number of Hollywood films, is to play deity Heimdall in the Marvel Studios feature. The group, which opposes inter-racial marriage and gay rights, has set up a website, boycott-thor.com to set out its opposition to what it sees as an example of leftwing social engineering.
"It [is] well known that Marvel is a company that advocates for leftwing ideologies and causes," the site reads. "Marvel frontman Stan 'Lee' Lieber boasts of being a major financier of leftwing political candidates. Marvel has viciously attacked the Tea Party movement, conservatives and European heritage.
"Now they have taken it one further, casting a black man as a Norse deity in their new movie Thor. Marvel has now inserted social engineering into European mythology."
The site chooses to ignore its target's thespian talents, referring to "hip-hop DJ Elba" in apparent reference to the actor's career in East End nightclubs more than a decade ago. Elba himself addressed the casting issue earlier this year, pointing out that "Thor has a hammer that flies to him when he clicks his fingers". He continued: "That's OK, but the colour of my skin is wrong?"
Branagh's decision to cast non-white actors as citizens of Asgard stands in apparent opposition to a one-time policy on Peter Jackson's forthcoming Lord of the Rings prequel, The Hobbit. A British woman of Pakistani origin complained last month that she had been turned away from a casting session for being "too brown". The offending crew member, an independent contractor, was later sacked.
Thor, starring the Anglo-Saxon-looking Chris Hemsworth in the title role, and Jewish actor Natalie Portman as his love interest is due to arrive in cinemas next May.


Related Link: White supremacists urge Thor boycott over casting of black actor as Norse godCouncil of Conservative Citizens attacks Marvel for giving role of deity Heimdall to Idris Elba

johngaltnh1168 reads

Should Geena Davis have been cast as the heroine in The Color Purple?

Should a Oprah Winfrey have been cast as Anne in The Diary of Anne Frank?

Should James Earl Jones have been cast as Adolf Hitler in the numerous WWII movies?

Denzel Washington as Leonides in 300?

Movies that deal, albeit to some degree fictionally, with historical or religious themes (and while today we call Thor a myth, at one time he was honored as a deity, just like the Judeo-Islamo-Christian deity is honored today), should, to some degree, be cast in a fashion that makes sense for what is being portrayed.

Thor was venerated long before the Sagas and Eddas were penned, and long before people of Northern Europe even knew that black folks existed. It should be intuitively obvious that anthropomorphic deities are imagined as, to some degree, resembling the people of whose minds they are a creation.

The Jewish deity is Jewish. The Christian deity converted from Judaism to Christianity. The Muslim deity is Muslim.

And a European deity is European.

Have you ever noticed that all those Buddha statues in Asia have Asian rather than African features?

Now, personally, I don't see that as a reason to boycott the movie. But I think an argument can be made that casting a black man as a European deity is, indeed, a bow to political correctness.

I won't hold my breath waiting for the roles of Nazis and Dictators in Holocaust and WWII movies to be filled with black actors; because you and I both know that's not going to happen.

So what I want to know is, when are you going to call for a boycott of Asian-made goods and services because their religious edifices completely exclude deities represented as having an African origin and they stubbornly cling to deities resembling themselves?

This is a tempest in a teapot and a real stretch.

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Magnumload2685 reads

Strangely enough, as a black man I must admit you make a very valid point.

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Priapus53901 reads

I have no problem with a Black Heimdall---maybe he got a visa to work on Bifrost------;)

-- Modified on 12/20/2010 9:09:35 AM

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johngaltnh1617 reads

Most, of course, are aware of his role as the guardian of bifrost -- the bridge to Asgard. (Home of the Aesir, separate from Vanaheim, home of the Vanir -- Frey and Freya).

But what most do not recall is that Heimdal is seen as the direct progenitor of the classes of humanity in ancient Europe.

Whereas Odin, Villi and Ve formed Ask and Embla from the Ash and Elm trees in the forms of humanity; it was Heimdal whose seed made the classes of humanity in ancient Europe -- the Thrall, the Freeman, and the Noble.

Naturally, the Europeans would have expected a deity they saw as their direct progenitor to resemble themselves, rather than differently-appearing humans of whose existence they had not yet heard.

Like I said, I don't think it is a reason to boycott a movie; but it is definitely a play to political correctness.

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