I'm politically correct and I can't get up!

The Christian Science Monitor is a lot more analytical than most newspapers. In this article they've outdone themselves.

Casting blacks as angelic characters has become an increasingly common trend in mainstream movies... [many films] feature black characters whose main function is to help a white hero through magical or supernatural means. These are Hollywood's "black angels," whose popularity has surged in recent years - so much so that in an episode last year of "The Simpsons," Homer mistook a black man in a white suit for an angelic visitor, all because (according to his embarrassed wife) he'd been seeing too many movies lately.

The article goes on to hyper-analyze the trend (which I've noticed as well) to cast blacks in supernatural roles. In fact, I knew before seeing a single ad for Bruce Almighty that if it portrayed God with an actor, it would have to be a black male.

While the CSMonitor can't admit this, we at InstantReplay know the real reason blacks get all the angel roles: it's politically correct. Christianity in the U.S. developed the unhelpful habit of portraying God, angels, Christ, and Biblical characters as white. We do, as Nietzche suggested, tend to remake God in our own image. To compensate for the traditional 'whiteness' of God, Hollywood has been as loyally politically correct as ever, and filled all its supernatural roles with blacks.

Blacks, however, aren't cheering. While nobody's suggesting that heaven should go back to being a whites-only club, the African-American community (including my friend Karen, who pointed this out to me) isn't unduly impressed by the casting wave.

InstantReplay has two rather obvious suggestions for fixing this problem. First, view supernatural beings as supernatural; God doesn't have the attributes or character of one race, or even of a human; nor do angels. If you really want to be diverse or challenge folks' image of the Almighty, try casting an Arab or Indian-American. More importantly, find an actor who (like Morgan Freeman) can portray the role well, regardless of race. Political correctness has replaced racial exclusionism with a racial quota system. If I recall, that wasn't anybody's goal.

Second, race should be viewed realistically. While "Bruce Almighty" is a light comedy, more serious films should be brave enough to use their art to address the issue of race, where appropriate. Not every movie, not every character; plenty of Americans live in mixed-race settings without ever worrying about it, and that's something to aspire to! On the other hand, plenty are still affected by ungodly attitudes towards race, and their plight should not be glossed over. I, for one, was offended to see James Earl Jones in "The Sandlot" talking about playing ball with the Bambino; revisionist history does a disservice to the memory of Jackie Robinson, Branch Rickey, Lary Doby and the other brave men who desegregated baseball.

Speaking of which, has anyone ever made a good film about them?