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A casting call for "Straight Outa Compton", a biopic about the controversial West Coast rap group NWA, has been pulled after accusations of racism, classism, and sexism.
The call, aimed at female applicants, asks women to divide themselves into four groups, ranking from A to D.
"A Girls" were described as "the hottest of the hottest". Apart from model looks, their features included real hair (no extensions), and being "classy looking". You can be black, white, asian, hispanic, mid eastern, or mixed race - this is the only group that seemed to include women of different races.
"B Girls" is for light-skinned women with natural hair. They explain that Beyonce is the prototype. (Beyonce, of all people, doesn’t meet the "A Girl" standards.)
"C Girls" is for African American women, medium to light skinned, with a weave.
"D Girls" is also for African Americans, but for medium to dark skinned women, not in good shape, and "poor".
The scale is clear: At the top are the women considered most beautiful and worth the most. They are mostly light-skinned, (even white), can grow long hair naturally, are upper-class, and are thin.
At the bottom are the women considered the least beautiful. They are African American, dark skinned and low-class.
It's basically just a list that tells women that, in order to be valuable and "A Class", they must match the Western ideal of light-skinned and skinny, and that being dark-skinned or "too African" is considered ugly.
Hollywood is known for reinforcing harmful stereotypes, particularly about race and gender. It's pretty bleak to see it listed out so blatantly, and from a movie that by all accounts would be about installing pride in African Americans rather than making them feel ashamed for who they are, though.
The casting call has since been deleted off Facebook, but you can read the full transcription on Gawker.
Follow Women24 on Twitter and like us on Facebook.
The call, aimed at female applicants, asks women to divide themselves into four groups, ranking from A to D.
"A Girls" were described as "the hottest of the hottest". Apart from model looks, their features included real hair (no extensions), and being "classy looking". You can be black, white, asian, hispanic, mid eastern, or mixed race - this is the only group that seemed to include women of different races.
"B Girls" is for light-skinned women with natural hair. They explain that Beyonce is the prototype. (Beyonce, of all people, doesn’t meet the "A Girl" standards.)
"C Girls" is for African American women, medium to light skinned, with a weave.
"D Girls" is also for African Americans, but for medium to dark skinned women, not in good shape, and "poor".
The scale is clear: At the top are the women considered most beautiful and worth the most. They are mostly light-skinned, (even white), can grow long hair naturally, are upper-class, and are thin.
At the bottom are the women considered the least beautiful. They are African American, dark skinned and low-class.
It's basically just a list that tells women that, in order to be valuable and "A Class", they must match the Western ideal of light-skinned and skinny, and that being dark-skinned or "too African" is considered ugly.
Hollywood is known for reinforcing harmful stereotypes, particularly about race and gender. It's pretty bleak to see it listed out so blatantly, and from a movie that by all accounts would be about installing pride in African Americans rather than making them feel ashamed for who they are, though.
The casting call has since been deleted off Facebook, but you can read the full transcription on Gawker.
Follow Women24 on Twitter and like us on Facebook.
