Chris Rock is the COOList
The debate on Latinos in Hollywood and the lack of opportunities is a never ending heated discussion that gets Latinos going back and forth on social media. A divided controversial topic. On one end you have the Latinos that are “Mad as hell and are not going to take it anymore” camp. On the other end you have the, “I am the good Latino and I am not going to make waves”. These Latinos of the latter camp believe that if Latino talent and content creators just do their work and do excellent work, and “Don’t do any of that Latino stuff” they will advance in Hollywood. Suggesting that the reason we don’t have more opportunities its because we are just not “good enough.”
I am a member of the first camp. I say if we don’t take a cue from the African American community and not only begin to produce our own stories and fund our own projects, AS WELL AS SPEAK up and point out the inequities in Hollywood, we will be in the same situation for decades to come.
So I want to be one of the first to thank Chris Rock for saying what many people of color know to be true. Thank you for using your celebrity to bring attention to this inequity.
I am sure that this is also helping with the marketing of your film Top Five, and that is just fine with me. It is something that had to be said, and thank you for saying it Chris. Yes, I will be there on December 11th to watch your film and I will bring as many people with me as I can.
Rock specifically cited Mexicans in his rant agains racism in Hollywood, because Mexican make up, according to The Pew Center,”One group—Mexicans—dominates the nation’s Latino population,” they are 64.6% of the U.S. Latino population and the majority of Latinos in L.A.
Here is what Chris Rock had to say about Mexicans in Hollywood in the Hollywood Reporter.
Rosario Dawson and Chris Rock in “Top Five” which opens December 11th
“But forget whether Hollywood is black enough. A better question is: Is Hollywood Mexican enough? You’re in L.A, you’ve got to try not to hire Mexicans. It’s the most liberal town in the world, and there’s a part of it that’s kind of racist—not racist like ‘F— you, n—-r’ racist, but just an acceptance that there’s a slave state in L.A. There’s this acceptance that Mexicans are going to take care of white people in L.A. that doesn’t exist anywhere else. I remember I was renting a house in Beverly Park while doing some movie, and you just see all of the Mexican people at 8 o’clock in the morning in a line driving into Beverly Park like it’s General Motors. It’s this weird town.
You’re telling me no Mexicans are qualified to do anything at a studio? Really? Nothing but mop up? What are the odds that that’s true? The odds are, because people are people, that there’s probably a Mexican David Geffen mopping up for somebody’s company right now. The odds are that there’s probably a Mexican who’s that smart who’s never going to be given a shot. And it’s not about being given a shot to green light a movie because nobody is going to give you that—you’ve got to take that.The shot is that a Mexican guy or a black guy is qualified to go and give his opinion about how loud the boings are in Dodgeball or whether it’s the right shit sound you hear when Jeff Daniels is on the toilet in Dumb and Dumber. It’s like, ‘We only let white people do that.’ This is a system where only white people can chime in on that. There would be a little naiveté to sitting around and going, ‘Oh, no black person has ever green lighted a movie,’ but those other jobs? You’re kidding me, right? They don’t even require education. When you’re on the lower levels, they’re just about taste, nothing else. And you don’t have to go to Harvard to have taste.”
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