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    komododaveHamilton Nolan
    7/17/14 10:39am

    Could it be that the letter denotation has nothing to do with a ranking structure? That they're just broken down into groups labeled A, B, C, and D for easy management of many different types of extras? That makes more sense to me than BLARGH RACISM!

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      BigPlopskomododave
      7/17/14 10:47am

      Yes they just happen to clearly coincide with a ranking in this case but still everyone shutup.

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      EasttoMidwestBigPlops
      7/17/14 10:51am

      A ranking that describes what they consider levels of beauty.

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    LouisWinthorpeIIIHamilton Nolan
    7/17/14 10:29am

    I'm not usually one to cry racism or exploitation, but that's exceptionally racist. You can't even excuse this as tone-deaf ignorance; it was written with a calculated intent.

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      runnahLouisWinthorpeIII
      7/17/14 10:34am

      You should see the casting call for other movies. Just as frank and descriptive.

      Not everything is racist. Did you expect a movie about Compton in the 80's to be filled with soccer moms?

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      BowesFriendrunnah
      7/17/14 10:37am

      No that's the point, they didn't want dark skinned women.

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    TravonHamilton Nolan
    7/17/14 11:20am

    This is not racist at all. And I'm a Black man who was born and raised in Compton who works in Hollywood. You're making a movie about a very specific point in time where people looked a very specific way, how is that racist? That's the spectrum of what people look like who live in Compton, an inner city predominately Black and hispanic environment. Are all the casting calls for the tons of period pieces Hollywood loves to churn out featuring the palest of white men and women that cast zero Black people and want the whitest blue eyed people they can find racist? No, because that's what the period looked like. So getting casting "right" on what can be deemed a more current "period piece" about the pioneers of gangster rap in 1980s Compton is far from racist.

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      Hamilton NolanTravon
      7/17/14 11:34am

      You write for the Daily Show. I know that your reading comprehension must be sharper than this comment would indicate.

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      LysogenicLumpHamilton Nolan
      7/17/14 11:57am

      Ooh! Bitch-slap some sense into that man and tell him what his feelings should be! Classy!

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    batemanHamilton Nolan
    7/17/14 10:32am

    There's nothing racist about this. It's a normal SAG AFTRA casting breakdown. The letters for the girl groups could mean anything.

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      komododavebateman
      7/17/14 10:35am

      Exactly my thought. They're just groups, not rankings.

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      HumboldtGenesisbateman
      7/17/14 10:37am
      GIF
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    EasttoMidwestHamilton Nolan
    7/17/14 10:56am

    Dark skin, short (natural) hair, D Girl:

    (Side note: they clearly lightened her skin tone for this shoot.)

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      smokeybaileyEasttoMidwest
      7/17/14 11:12am

      I actually think she qualifies for the model role. They didn't say you needed long hair. Just no extensions/weaves. She actually fits the request to a T.

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      EasttoMidwestsmokeybailey
      7/17/14 11:14am

      "Real hair, no extensions" implies long hair, and skin tone is implied by the gradation from light to dark down the list.

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    ChiminyCherooHamilton Nolan
    7/17/14 10:42am

    "... fine girls, long natural hair, really nice bodies. Small waists, nice hips. You should be light-skinned." "Poor, not in good shape. Medium to dark skin tone."

    Nope. Nothing at all racist about that.
    -A bunch of commenters here

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      AspenRSChiminyCheroo
      7/17/14 10:53am

      Did you miss the part where Cube and Dre are helping with this? Those are literally probably their words and the casting agency took it and ran. You know as well as I do the the kinds of girls that are in rap videos.

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      RelatableRexChiminyCheroo
      7/17/14 10:53am

      Exactly! It's ridiculous and depressing how ignorant people are about the historical connotations of the skin tone hierarchy in the African-American community. Sheesh.

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    DeeLiteHamilton Nolan
    7/17/14 10:41am

    Racist? no. Is there colorism? Yes.

    A Black girl with a big booty, slim waist, and cute face would still be let into the club in NWA's world, I'm sure. But here, she's not even considered.

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      Hamilton NolanDeeLite
      7/17/14 10:44am

      Haha I'm interested to hear how something like this in the United States of America can be guilty of "colorism" against dark-skinned black women but not be racist. Please enlighten me.

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      KingreaperDeeLite
      7/17/14 10:50am

      A GIRLS: These are the hottest of the hottest. "You can be black, white, asian, hispanic, mid eastern, or mixed race too."

      It's racist, but you're wrong about the not being considered. The top level (the As) can be black.

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    SuffersfoolsgladlyHamilton Nolan
    7/17/14 10:51am

    Also, hello, SEXIST AS FUCK.( And racist as fuck, first and foremost.)

    I've been a working actress for thirty years or more and I have always wondered..who on earth would respond to a call that said " D-girls...not in good shape"? Is someone who's sitting at home, reading Variety, going to see that and shriek ; "Ohmygod..I'M a poor, out of shape loser with unpopular dark skin tone..this role is MINE!!!"

    Then they have to show up at the call and look at the other people who are also "poor, out of shape" and hope they make the cut.

    Acting is a brutal, humiliating profession, at best.

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      TheRealRozSuffersfoolsgladly
      7/17/14 12:00pm

      It's sexist and racists because that is the truth about NWA. Deep internalized racism and sexism. It's in the music. Why are we surprised about the casting?

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      ksim4TheRealRoz
      7/17/14 6:37pm

      Because it's lazy and uncreative.

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    Khia213Hamilton Nolan
    7/17/14 11:07am

    Let me take a run at this: Is it racist? Absolutely. It is the very affirmation of white supremacy. It defines beauty in a Eurocentric way. "Hottest of the hot" Women with long natural hair. That description has been used to exclude black women from being considered beautiful for years. It doesn't get truly noticeable until you read the B section. "You should be light skinned." That affirms that somehow dark women can't be attractive. Then, to explicitly identify African American girls as "C" list. Medium to light skin. They don't mention dark skin until it gets to D. The implication being that dark skinned women couldn't possibly be A through C list.

    The ranking is sexist, classist and racist. It is casting by that old saying " If you're white you're alright, if you're yellow it's mellow and if you're black, get back." And it matters not a bit that the person who put this out might be black. Self hate runs strong in the black community due to the adherence to white norms.

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      TheRealRozKhia213
      7/17/14 12:31pm

      All of what you said is true. After listening to some lyrics and watching some videos, can you also say that they are just trying to be accurate. NWA were some ghetto boys from Compton, selling tapes out of the trunk of their car at the local Mobil station. This is how they would have ranked the women. They were sexist and racist (colorist). That was the objection that people threw at them all the time, along with the drugs and violence.

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      AdamdoesthingsKhia213
      7/17/14 1:56pm

      The A-D is not a grade. They're not saying that one group is "better", they're categorizing them because they need a certain number of each. All of casting is inhumanizing and inherently stereotyping. The different letters correspond to the groups the casting agency is being asked for.

      Should I be mad that, in the second Alvin and the Chipmunks movie, I was in group C - "general high school football fans (subcategory: nerdy kids)", vs group A - "High school football team" or group B "Cheerleading girls"? I'm 140lb and really skinny with shaggy hair - I simply wouldn't fit the parts.

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    MizJenkinsHamilton Nolan
    7/17/14 11:13am

    I'm less offended by the casting call than I am by all the racist apologists bending over backwards to rationalize it.

    "Oh gee maybe letters don't really mean anything and it just happened because OOPS!!! But no, it's definitely NOT racism."

    For fuck's sake, people, pull your heads out of your asses and join the 21st fucking century. This kind of cowardly, deluded bullshit is the reason racism isn't going anywhere. Because there are still too many weak-ass, self-centered White people standing around making excuses for each other rather than taking the risk of standing up and saying "Hey, that shit's not cool".

    May the ghosts of Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner haunt your sorry asses the rest of your days.

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      Ginger Is A ConstructMizJenkins
      7/17/14 12:52pm

      Yes. I never understand why people are so quick to defend racism. And people who cry "devil's advocate" make me crazy. Instead of sitting on a fence setting up straw men and hypotheticals, how about forming an opinion based on facts, context and history?

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      Hollis ParkerMizJenkins
      7/17/14 1:10pm

      "May the ghosts of Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner haunt your sorry asses the rest of your days." May they, indeed. Unfortunately, many people will not have the slightest idea who they were.

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