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Is racism really the issue here (Wang)

BTW, the fact that "Wang" does evoke floppy dicks in the minds of US audiences and that might be why she got more callbacks after the name change, doesn't mean that IS the reason she got more callbacks. IOW, it doesn't rule out racism, but just provides a very plausible alternative.

That said, another factor that makes racism a less plausible explanation is the fact that casting agents don't use lists of names to pick who to callback. They can't recall all those people by name. They use head shots that have the name on them. What she actually looks like is going to carry more weight than whether her name implies of Chinese heritage.

Speaking of her head shot, she is hot mixed-race 25 year old of the sort who get a highly disproportionate number of roles. She should be happy that Hollywood's biggest bias is for casting hot young women, because that's likely the only reason she got her role of Agents of Shield. She's the worst actor on that generally poorly acted and written show.

Also, she is delusional, if she thinks she ever struggled in the least to get parts. Her Wiki and IMBD pages reveal the following.
A child of an investment banker father and a Surgeon mother, she moved to LA at 17 and immediately (in months) got a role in a show on TeenNick where she played herself using (on screen) the name "Wang". Less than 2 years later, she got a role in a TV movie, again still using the name "Wang". She changed her name that same year, while the movie she shot as "Wang" was still being produced.

IOW, she's a spoiled rich pretty girl, who doesn't complain about the pretty girl bias that likely landed her all her roles despite horrible acting, but does attack most of Hollywood's casting agents as racist merely because she had to live off her parents wealth for 2 whole years rather than becoming a national star in 1 day.
 
I know how much you'd like to isolate this one person and say that it is all her issue, but that ignores the many others who have changed their names for the same reason over the years.
 
OK there a lot of privileged discriminated against who change names to avoid such, Jews (name changes etc), Asians (same as Jews), African blacks (same as Jews), Hispanics (same as Jews), Slavs (same as Jews), Irish (same as Jews), etc. For every tribe out of power there are tribes in power who contort to discriminate against competition.

So we agree then, in spite of no races in human race tribes act as if there to gain advantage.
 
I'm not sure if I agree with that final statement or not.
 
Racism seems to be the go-to, trendy explanation these days for your own personal shortcomings. Its to the point where calling out some one or some group as racist elicits a big yawn and a "here we go again" among the rest of us. And people that do suffer real racism are struggling to be taken seriously.

That said, in my experience, Wang was much more popular 30 years as a euphemism for penis. We had a big pool of women in my company who would type up the company memos from the engineers (mostly male) using a Wang word processor. There was a constant parade of sexual innuendos back and forth between the engineers and the typists. Wang was a big computer company back in those days. I'm not sure they are even around anymore.
 
thebeave said:
Racism seems to be the go-to, trendy explanation these days for your own personal shortcomings. Its to the point where calling out some one or some group as racist elicits a big yawn and a "here we go again" among the rest of us. And people that do suffer real racism are struggling to be taken seriously.
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Definitely agreed. It's hard to see the real issue behind all the false allegations, and all the false allegations hide the real issues that are holding people back.
 
Maybe the real racism is expecting everybody to share your cultural pruderies and taboos.

Eldarion Lathria
 
Sarpedon said:
I know how much you'd like to isolate this one person and say that it is all her issue, but that ignores the many others who have changed their names for the same reason over the years.
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Note that the OP and the thread are NOT about whether any racism exists in Hollywood, but where it was the issue "here" in this specific instance. At most, the current discussion merely extends to other instances where there are obvious reasons why a name can impact perceptions and reactions for reasons having nothing to do with racism, and the fact that it isn't uncommon for people to misrepresent the facts of their own personal experiences for political purposes or to gain attention.

Also, the fact that actual racism exists is all the more reason to expose the dishonesty and nonsense of false accusations like this one. Her accusation and those who accept it as "evidence" are what undermine efforts to expose actual racism and they make reasonable people skeptical and rightly not take people's word for it when they claim racism.
 
Sarpedon said:
I know how much you'd like to isolate this one person and say that it is all her issue, but that ignores the many others who have changed their names for the same reason over the years.
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It's not an ethnic thing. It's a power name thing. Sweden is still very ethnically uniform. Up and coming, ethnically Swedish, artists and actors change their names here to. What do they change it to? Whatever associates them with the established elites in power. And what are the people in power? They're today the decedents of people who moved to Stockholm at the end of the 19'th century and changed their names to sound like an aristocratic name. It's still the names of the elite today. But of course, almost none of them are aristocrats. They're almost all decedents of farm boys and gals with fake/taken names.

In Sweden that usually means adding unnecessary "i"s and "h"s to otherwise regular Swedish names. Or any unnecessary feature. Or if they have Finish ancestry they might pick some random nature features, cobble them together, and then add the unnecessary "i"s and "h"s. Stellan Skarsgård is one of these.

Max Von Sydow is another example. While he is an actual aristocrat, from his mother's side. His father, and therefore his name, is not.

But we can't blame racism. These guys are as white as the elites.

It's not a race thing. It's a class thing. Actors want to be admired. We want to admire actors. They want to be associated with those in power. We want them to be associated with those in power. Ancestry matters. Even an obviously fake ancestry.

If you want to be admired by a mostly white American population you might want to have a name they're more likely to find impressive.
 
Note that the OP and the thread are NOT about whether any racism exists in Hollywood, but where it was the issue "here" in this specific instance. At most, the current discussion merely extends to other instances where there are obvious reasons why a name can impact perceptions and reactions for reasons having nothing to do with racism, and the fact that it isn't uncommon for people to misrepresent the facts of their own personal experiences for political purposes or to gain attention.
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So when inquiring about a specific case of alleged racism, it is not valid to look to see if it may be part of a broader pattern of racism? That is idiotic.
 
It's not uncommon for actors/performers to change their names, particularly if it's a mouth full. Martin Sheen changed his name from Estevez because he felt he wasn't getting a chance to audition due to his Hispanic last name. Typically actors that do use a stage name do so because their own name sounds bland and want a catchy last name that stands out and can be remembered. Even Marion Mitchell Morrison didn't use his real name. If this girl is not getting gigs, it's not down to her last name or looks.
 
I would argue that saying someone's name is a 'mouthful' is the same as saying it is 'unfamiliar,' thus very likely having something to do with a racial tone. How difficult is it to say "Estevez?" Or "Wang?" To call these names difficult to pronounce is just a nice way of saying they are 'ethnic.'

If I can learn to say "Chandrasekhar," you can learn to say "Wang."
 
Why yes, so am I. I believe that the industry does pander to the lowest denominator with such tactics, with plenty of evidence. There are literally centuries worth of people's taking away other people's names as a method of control, long before our current entertainment industry. I'm sorry that you think 'that's just the way it is' to be a sufficient explanation. I'm also sorry that I am the only one arguing at a higher level here. I'd rather continue to talk to myself than sink to your level, where someone's legitimate concerns, backed by plenty of evidence, draws only mockery, insults and the knee-jerk defense of the status quo.
 
Sarpedon said:
I would argue that saying someone's name is a 'mouthful' is the same as saying it is 'unfamiliar,' thus very likely having something to do with a racial tone. How difficult is it to say "Estevez?" Or "Wang?" To call these names difficult to pronounce is just a nice way of saying they are 'ethnic.'

If I can learn to say "Chandrasekhar," you can learn to say "Wang."
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How the flying fuck do you know you are pronouncing Chandra-something something correctly?
 
Keith&Co. said:
Do studios really think people read the credits?
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I've only seen it happen here in Los Angeles but quite a lot of people do stick around to read the credits. I expect it's friends of friends that have maybe been involved in the movie and get a chuckle seeing the name up there. I've been guilty of that myself a few times when I know someone is involved. And for a while, some movies were running the credits over the outtakes which was getting people to stick around. "There's Something About Mary" springs to mind.

Chloe Wang does sound like a porn actress name. Could be a problem there.
 
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