First of all, again, I feel like I need to make clear that I'm not saying I agree with the practice of over-diversifying everything, or that it should be done on this project, especially. I know jack sh*t about this series. My ONLY point was to say that Hollywood doesn't sit around in shareholder, executive, or creative meetings trying to come up with ways to champion "social justice" and then shove it down viewer's throats. Are there writers, directors, producers, and showrunners who believe strongly in certain social justice causes? Absolutely. Are there some in power who prioritize those causes more than others? No Doubt. But by and large, that desire-to-include is like 90th on the priority list in most cases, and it's certainly not discussed behind-the-scenes in the way many of you seem to think Hollywood operates. If it is, again, it's usually in pursuit of DOLLARS, as misguided as that pursuit might be.
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Is there statistical data that proves that a diverse supporting class improves ratings higher than a cast that is faithful to source material?
I don't study this topic in any way, nor have ever sought out or seen statistical data proving one way or the other. All I know is that Hollywood, in certain instances, absolutely believes that it can attract a wider, broader audience with a wider, broader spectrum of races represented in certain projects. That said, I'll ask again, since no one answered: re: the Netflix article I linked to on the previous page. Does anyone REALLY believe that sounds like a company who gives a rat's ass about "social justice"? Whatever Netflix is doing, they almost assuredly have statistical data to back up their decisions, and I'd say this situation is no different.
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In fact I would think the opposite is even more true that if social justice is force-fed over plot then conservatives will turn it off and you'd be cutting a potential audience in half.
I would argue that, considering the worldwide reach of this show, you're probably overestimating the conservatives-who-turn-off-force-fed-social-justice audience. I'm not saying that it's not a large audience - it is - but first of all, not *all* American conservatives automatically turn something like this off, and secondly, again, since this show is meant to have worldwide appeal, I would venture to say that foreign conservatives probably aren't as intolerant of or sensitive to stuff like this as many American conservatives, though I could be wrong. Either way, "half" of Netflix's audience is a bit of a stretch.
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Quite frankly the business notion that a diverse cast is needed for viewers to relate to that race sounds quite racist to me. Am I not allowed to relate to a black character that is true to their source material? Are we assuming then that a black viewer won't watch unless if they can relate to a black character?
I feel like you're being purposely reductive here. Of course any audience of any race can relate to any character of any race. Literally no one is saying that a white audience member can't relate to a black character or that a black audience member can't relate to a white character. The argument is that, in certain instances, for instance, a black person is simply
more likely to relate to a black person on screen.
For all of the "youtube videos of fans of all colors reacting strongly to the red wedding" and the like, you can find just as many videos, articles, tweets, etc. of, say, Asians expressing how moving and in some instances even life changing it is to finally see someone like themselves featured so prominently and in such a headlined fashion as in
Crazy Rich Asians, or with someone like Rose in
The Last Jedi (never mind how terrible many think her character was, you can find myriad reactions online of Asians moved to tears of joy by her prominent inclusion in such a massive movie). This year especially, I don't know how many times I've seen members from the black and Asian audiences moved beyond description by
finally seeing their respective races featured and celebrated in such big ways, in huge hit movies. It's a very real thing that I would never dismiss, if only because I'm a white male who's been used to seeing white males prominently featured in the vast majority of most movies and TV shows in my lifetime and long before.
