Lack of representation = systemic racism: Footloose is Exhibit A

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I take your point OP. But I don’t think footloose is the best example — a film about an insular backwards conservative town afraid of change and modernity—integrating that group would have been difficult for the narrative.

But talk about any of the John Hughes movies, or Fast Times’s, or Bill and Teds, or clerks (I guess that’s 90s).

This. Footloose is a bad example of what you are trying to say, OP.

And Kansas was ~5.5% Black in 1984. So likely less in rural areas. You can look it up!

+1

I’m sure if you broke up the percentage of black people by county most would have 2% or less with a higher percent concentrated in urban areas.

[Anonymous]

Geez - who cares !!

[Anonymous]

As someone alive in the 1980s people of different races and religions and income levels really only interacted at work.

And even white people the Jews, Italians, Catholics, Wasps, Rich or Poor all lived in different neighborhoods.

My 1,000 person HS had 8-9 black kids. Meanwhile a HS around 7 miles away had only 8-9 white kids.

Bars I went to were often 100 percent white. There were black bars, gay bars, heck Greek bars. Divorcée bars, college bars. We did not interact

[Anonymous]

And if they had included some POC, you would have been screaming about them throwing in a couple of token blacks and oh the hypocrisy.

[Anonymous]

I'm Black and this is a really silly movie to be upset about. It's set in RURAL Kansas. It's about dancing. They already stereotype us as only ever being dancers/athletes or singers. I'm fine with us being left out of this one.

You are making a MOCKERY of the legitimate issue of fair representation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As someone alive in the 1980s people of different races and religions and income levels really only interacted at work.

And even white people the Jews, Italians, Catholics, Wasps, Rich or Poor all lived in different neighborhoods.

My 1,000 person HS had 8-9 black kids. Meanwhile a HS around 7 miles away had only 8-9 white kids.

Bars I went to were often 100 percent white. There were black bars, gay bars, heck Greek bars. Divorcée bars, college bars. We did not interact

Where did you grow up? I was in HS in the 1980/ as a white Irish Catholic kid. My best friends were a jew, two Asians and a Mexican. We mixed! And it wasn’t like this was NYC—this was a small city that is not near either coast. I would say there was more segregation of various types in the 80s—god forbid the athletes mixed with the nerds. (Well, it did happen but it was more like a funny story when it did. Look—he’s on the basketball team but he also takes calculus! Isn’t that hilarious?)
I’m not saying it was some racial shangrila but the idea that people didn’t mix at all is really weird.

[Anonymous]

People, Footloose was set in Beaumont, Texas. Not Kansas.

Carry on.

[Anonymous]

Ugh, I just rewatched back to the future and I’m really bummed that Marty mcfly isn’t Jewish. That’s anti-semitism!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People, Footloose was set in Beaumont, Texas. Not Kansas.

Carry on.

No it wasn’t. The town was BOMONT.

There are no mountains near Beaumont, TX.

Now you can carry on!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There were black people in Kansas in the 80s.

Regardless: go back and watch movies from the 1980s, and you’ll notice a total lack of any diversity. The lack of *any* representation—even a token amount—is glaring.

The greatest thing about the 80’s is nobody would have ever said this.

[Anonymous]

Why was Ellen Page, a lesbian at the time; allowed to play a straight woman when the Umbrella Academy began?! Someone needs to file a complaint!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What percentage of rural Kansas was Black in 1984?

6%

But does it matter?

Movies are made for a national and ultimately global audience.

America was 12% black in 1984.

And they opted to only have white kids in the big dance scene. Probably 100 kids, and all are white. They feature dancers, including a blue eyed blonde hair guy doing MJ-esque breakdancing moves, and it didn’t occur to anyone on the set to add any diversity?

No, the current population of all of Kansas is 6% black, the vast majority of which is in the urban areas. It’s pretty safe to assume that the population of the average rural Kansas town in the 1980s was well well below 1% so the casting was certainly realistic/accurate for the setting, and was kind of the point of the movie.

My rural NJ town in the 80s had one black family, and a couple more black kids who were adopted by one of the local minister's and his wife. Far, far less than 1%. It's entirely believable that rural Kansas farming towns had no black people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What percentage of rural Kansas was Black in 1984?

6%

But does it matter?

Movies are made for a national and ultimately global audience.

America was 12% black in 1984.

And they opted to only have white kids in the big dance scene. Probably 100 kids, and all are white. They feature dancers, including a blue eyed blonde hair guy doing MJ-esque breakdancing moves, and it didn’t occur to anyone on the set to add any diversity?

It does matter! I agree there weren’t enough black actors in film/TV, but you picked a stupid example. Why drop a black actor in as “background” just to check a box? It’s obvious to everyone!! Back then most schools in Midwest/Kansas were all white. I’d rather a movie tell a true story, rather than drop in black actors just to please people like you. Or maybe you’re trolling? Hard to tell

[Anonymous]

Where were the white people in New Jack City, Next Friday, Tyler Perry films.

Why were POC allowed to play white roles in Hamilton.

This is an outrage and must be stopped!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I grew up in a bible thinking Midwest town with ZERO minorities. This could have been my town.

I grew up in the Midwest in a town of about 10,000. There was one Black kid, two Asians and one Latino in our high school.

I felt like I grew up in Footloose, just in northern Ohio, population 3000. We had exactly one black family in town. It would have been weird to have added minorities to that movie.

Grew up in a small town close to Xenia, Ohio from 1977-1985 and the only black kid I recall was adopted and the son of the municipal recreation center operators.