[Ads-l] Diverse = black

Wed Feb 28 16:48:32 UTC 2018

I have to wonder if those same broadcasters would also call "diverse" a 
movie with all-blond/blonde cast but they come from England, France, 
Germany, and Spain?
Dave Hause

-----Original Message----- 
From: David Wilton
Sent: Wednesday, February 28, 2018 7:36 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Diverse = black

While the conversation was indeed about women and POC in Hollywood overall, 
the phrases "huge critical success, totally diverse cast" refer solely to 
Black Panther. And in the context of Black Panther, "non-white/POC" and 
"black" are pretty much synonymous. There aren't any LatinX or Asians (aside 
from extras in the Korea scenes) in the movie.

I guess "diverse" could refer to the inclusion of women in the cast. Of the 
fifteen actors IMDB classifies as "top-billed," six are women--and some of 
these are really compelling and memorable roles--but given that the overall 
conversation is about the movie's overwhelmingly black cast, it doesn't seem 
likely that most people would hear it that way. I certainly didn't.

I've heard others use "diverse" and "diversity" to specifically refer to 
POC, but always with a racist taint to it (Ex. "we don't want any diversity 
coming around here"). That's why it surprised me to hear it from an NPR 
correspondent. It made me wonder if this particular usage was becoming more 
normalized, making its way into non-racist contexts.

-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of 
Chris Waigl
Sent: Wednesday, February 28, 2018 4:07 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: [ADS-L] Diverse = black

Sortof. I went back and listened to the piece, and think context is helpful 
here. The segment is the second part of a larger piece under the headline 
"Can Hollywood fix its diversity problem". The diversity problem in question 
is reformulated multiple times, more or less as "the under-representation of 
women and people of color in front of and behind the camera in [US] film and 
TV. In the first part the lead host is Steve Inskeep. Then Rachel Martin 
interviews the NPR art correspondent Mandalit del Barco about a report that 
looks at the 2015/16 output.
After del Barco summarizes the findings both for the "racial component"
and for representation of women (which both show continuing 
under-representation and little progress), Martin takes over and says the 
following (some dysfluencies filtered out):

> Right, because, you know I can hear someone listening to our
> conversation and citing me too thinking things have changed. Or even
> Black Panther, which is out now -- huge critical success, totally
> diverse cast -- Wonderwoman even, which was directed by a woman, Patti
> Jenkins. But I guess what you're saying [is] these are just
> high-profile examples, but on the whole it's still a big problem.
So the topic is the whole body of output over a period of time (a season, 
say, or a year), and the way  "diverse cast" is used is that when it comes 
to that body of work's cast diversity, Black Panther is way over on the side 
of adding diversity. I would not conclude from this that she would have 
spoken of a totally diverse cast (in this sense) when, say, reviewing Black 
Panther standing on its own, or speaking one film at a time. (In which case 
it would also be true that Black Panther has a diverse cast, as Jim Parish 
pointed out here, and many have
elsewhere.)

I see no indication that she meant black as opposed to non-white/POC:
the whole exchange was structured in racial diversity on the one hand and 
gender diversity on the other.

Chris Waigl

PS: It's  https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510318/up-first Tue Feb 27 - starting 
at about 8:40 for the larger topic.

On 2/27/18 4:39 AM, David Wilton wrote:
> It was in the context of a story on the overwhelming domination of white 
> men in Hollywood, both behind and in front of the camera. She clearly used 
> it to mean "black" or at least "non-white."
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On
> Behalf Of Jim Parish
> Sent: Tuesday, February 27, 2018 7:01 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: [ADS-L] Diverse = black
>
> David Wilton wrote:
>> Heard Rachel Martin say on NPR's Up First podcast this morning that the 
>> movie Black Panther had a "totally diverse cast."
> The cast came from several different black communities on four different 
> continents. Some were African-American; one was of Kenyan ancestry, others 
> from Zimbabwe, Uganda, Guyana, and South Africa. I'd call that pretty 
> diverse.
>
> Jim Parish
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
>
> ---
> This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
> https://www.avast.com/antivirus
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org 

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org