Huh. The white guys in The Man Who Would Be King don't kill each other, but they do fuck everything up, partly by one of them trying to pass himself off as the Great White Savior. It's been a few years since I saw it, but I seem to recall some pretty interesting reversals of tropes along the way, including one featuring the sexy native woman to whom the would-be Great White Savior takes a liking. Of course, if I'm remembering correctly, there might have been other twists that weren't as cool. I don't know, should I worry about spoilers for a movie that old?
I haven't read the Empire books, but I remember rilina's comment on The Blue Sword, and my gut reaction of, "But! But! Harry kicks ass! Nooo!" Yet, she's right, that book is very problematic with regards to race.
There actually are stories that feature a POC protagonist as a Fish Out of Water in white culture. Unfortunately, they're usually of the Noble Tragic Savage variety. Not encouraging.
I do have to wonder if the way The Matrix movies ended up puts them in the White Savior category. Yes, Will Smith was the first choice for Neo, but he's not who ended up on the screen. Yes, Keanu Reeves is mixed-race, but the character was significantly lighter than most of the denizens of Zion, and the casting of his friends/co-workers within the frame of the Matrix was predominantly white (as was his love interest, which could have been very interesting if Neo had been played as a POC, but only seemed to reinforce his whiteness in the final result). I could be way off, but it's something I wondered about when we first got a glimpse of Zion, as I wondered why the Wachowski Brothers didn't approach, say, Keith Hamilton Cobb or Malcolm Jamal Warner or Cuba Gooding Jr. to play Neo when Will Smith turned them down. These are familiar names to sf fans, not to mention handsome, physically fit actors who would have done admirably as humanity's saviors. Or heck, cast Dustin Nguyen, though he certainly blows the idea of the non-sexual Asian male out of the water. Granted, all four actors I've mentioned don't have the clout of Will Smith or Keanu Reeves, and I did like the Bill & Ted jokes that made it into the movies because of the casting of Keanu Reeves. Still, I could cope with the lack of jokes for any of those four on the big screen, and for the movies that could have resulted from such "daring" casting (both because the actors are relative unknowns in Hollywood at large and because they're POC).
But possibly all of that's an aside.
I so wanted to attend Wiscon this year. Maybe next year.
Oh! Thunderheart might count in the way Bury My Heart does. Val Kilmer plays a mixed-race federal agent in that one, investigating a murder on a reservation. I'm trying to remember if the final showdown was his idea or not.
Re: Please clarify
I haven't read the Empire books, but I remember
There actually are stories that feature a POC protagonist as a Fish Out of Water in white culture. Unfortunately, they're usually of the Noble Tragic Savage variety. Not encouraging.
I do have to wonder if the way The Matrix movies ended up puts them in the White Savior category. Yes, Will Smith was the first choice for Neo, but he's not who ended up on the screen. Yes, Keanu Reeves is mixed-race, but the character was significantly lighter than most of the denizens of Zion, and the casting of his friends/co-workers within the frame of the Matrix was predominantly white (as was his love interest, which could have been very interesting if Neo had been played as a POC, but only seemed to reinforce his whiteness in the final result). I could be way off, but it's something I wondered about when we first got a glimpse of Zion, as I wondered why the Wachowski Brothers didn't approach, say, Keith Hamilton Cobb or Malcolm Jamal Warner or Cuba Gooding Jr. to play Neo when Will Smith turned them down. These are familiar names to sf fans, not to mention handsome, physically fit actors who would have done admirably as humanity's saviors. Or heck, cast Dustin Nguyen, though he certainly blows the idea of the non-sexual Asian male out of the water. Granted, all four actors I've mentioned don't have the clout of Will Smith or Keanu Reeves, and I did like the Bill & Ted jokes that made it into the movies because of the casting of Keanu Reeves. Still, I could cope with the lack of jokes for any of those four on the big screen, and for the movies that could have resulted from such "daring" casting (both because the actors are relative unknowns in Hollywood at large and because they're POC).
But possibly all of that's an aside.
I so wanted to attend Wiscon this year. Maybe next year.
Oh! Thunderheart might count in the way Bury My Heart does. Val Kilmer plays a mixed-race federal agent in that one, investigating a murder on a reservation. I'm trying to remember if the final showdown was his idea or not.