Nelson George Explains Why

What Nelson George explains, with specific detail and example, is how so often fiction about the Civil Rights and Voting Act era written by non-POC people fails. This applies equally to film and television fictions.


He does this in his NY Times review of the new fiction film, The Help, made by a non-POC director from a novel written by a non-POC author.
In these days of concern about doing it right and cultural appropriation in sf/f and other entertainments -- which might be more accurately labeled culturally inappropriate entertainments -- this is an enlightening piece to absorb.

“That most Hollywood-created features have failed to reach this standard is no surprise. The film industry was as much a pillar of institutional racism as any business in this country. To indict American racism is, by definition, to attack the machine that created decades of stereotypes."

You can hardly issue a more true statement than this.