A meditation on racism in Hollywood

Told through the stories of Anna May Wong and Josephine Baker, by the superbly gifted Margaret Cho, appears in Cho's blog today.

The whole idea of not using Asians to play Asian roles or Mexicans to play Mexican roles may seem outrageous to us, but that was the way it worked in the Hollywood of the 30's and 40's.

It would be nice to say that the racism and ethnicism faced by Wong, Baker, Anthony Quinn, and other actors is a thing of the past, but it isn't. That reality was poignantly brought home by Salma Hayek, in her recent appearance on Bravo's Inside the Actors Studio. Hayek spoke frankly about her problems getting roles, and revealed that for a while, one of her problems was her appearance--Hollywood didn't think of Mexican women as being beautiful.