One of the reasons you'll never see racism disappear from America is that it's far too lucrative. Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Maxine Waters, and every other race-baiter would abhor the day that racism truly became a thing of the past because it would mean a great deal of their power and influence would go with it. The tree of "racial tensions" must be refreshed from time to time with the nebulous misfortune of minorities and finger-pointing.
For a long while, a person could just utter the word "racism," and politicians, corporations, media figures, and more would suddenly spring into action to prove that they weren't racists, and they would finger-wag at everyone else for added measure. Social justice became a very useful tool for the left, and DEI was born out of that fear of being seen as bigoted.
And because it worked so well and controlled society for so long, some people still do their best to claim victimhood based on their skin color to get what they want.
Take, for instance, Asian actor Simu Liu. You may know him from Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Crazy Rich Asians, and Everything Everywhere All at Once, all of which were movies that did well.
But it looks like Liu needs more work, because he took to Threads to complain about the lack of Asian representation in Hollywood:
put some asians in literally anything right now. the amount of backslide in our representation onscreen is f**king appalling.
studios think we’re “risky”. minari farewell past lives everything everywhere crazy rich shang chi. every single one a financial success. no asian actor has ever lost a studio even close to 100 million dollars but a white dude will lose 200 million TWICE and roll right into the next tentpole lead.
we’re fighting a deeply prejudiced system. and most days it SUCKS.
Except, this is wildly untrue.
As I write this, Wicked: For Good stars Michelle Yeoh, and it's one of the biggest films in theaters right now. Jackie Chan is currently starring in Karate Kid: Legends and is going to be in Rush Hour 4. Ke Huy Quan is in Zootopia 2.
Liu, himself, is also going to be in one of the biggest upcoming Disney movies, Avengers: Doomsday.
Asians aren’t having any trouble at all getting roles, and that’s pretty evident by their presence in movies, television, and video games. Liu has eyes. He can see it himself, and if I were a betting man, he’d admit he’s wrong if forced to tell the truth.
But getting more Asian representation isn’t actually his goal. His real goal is getting himself more work by attempting to strong-arm studios into hiring him through public pressure. All he has to do is make a general accusation of racism, and studios should fall in line. The goal is to get himself hired to tick off a diversity box to appease him. Or, at least, that’s his hope.
Liu’s issue is one that many celebrities have in that he’s more trouble than he’s worth. For starters, he doesn’t know how to keep his mouth shut. This latest race-baiting complaint is just one of the many squawks from his incessant noise-making.
Arguing and fighting with people online, which turns them off to his movies, is something of a bad habit of his. More than that, Liu’s mouth got his Shang-Chi movie banned from China for calling it a third-world country where people are starving. He’s not necessarily wrong, but if you’re a major corporation trying to get your film into other markets, that’s not something that endears you to the studio’s brass.
If Liu truly wanted to get more roles, he would do well to stop being such a toxic person off-screen. It’s not unheard of for actors and actresses to become too risky to cast because studios don’t want their volatility ruining a film’s box office bank. You can be a stellar actor and still be incredibly bad for business, and I wouldn’t exactly say Liu is an incredible talent anyway.
I think maybe even he knows that, and that’s why he’s trying to fall back on nebulous accusations of racism to apply socio-political pressure to get work instead of letting his work speak for itself.
