Let’s set aside whether Cameron Crowe’s new movie, “Aloha,” is a good or bad movie. Whatever the flick’s merits or demerits, it has inadvertently helped expose the arbitrary, capricious and ridiculous demands of militant identity politics.
After getting hammered by ethnic mau-mauers, director Crowe issued an apology this week for casting actress Emma Stone as the character “Allison Ng” in his Hawaii-centered rom-com.
Stone is the alabaster-skinned, green-eyed, red-haired beauty who played Spider-Man’s sweetheart, Gwen Stacy.
“Ng” is a fictional Air Force fighter pilot of Chinese, Hawaiian and Swedish descent.
Native Hawaiians wanted a Native Hawaiian cast in the role. Mixed-race advocates wanted a mixed-race actress such as Olivia Munn (who is of Chinese, English, Irish and German descent) cast in the role. Asian-Americans wanted an Asian-American cast in the role.
Entertainment Weekly’s Chris Lee, who identifies himself as “Chinese-American/French-Canadian,” declared: “I’m not buying Emma Stone as an Asian-American.”
Guy Aoki, president of the Media Action Network for Asian Americans, which bills itself as “the only organization solely dedicated to monitoring the media and advocating balanced, sensitive and positive depiction and coverage of Asian-Americans,” huffed: “It’s so typical for Asian or Pacific Islanders to be rendered invisible in stories that we’re supposed to be in, in places that we live. … We’re 60 percent of the population (in Hawaii). We’d like them to reflect reality.”
Feeling the heat, Crowe issued a “heart-felt apology to all who felt this was an odd or misguided casting choice.”
