Ethnic Visibility Quotes

Greater diversity can produce real conflicts of values and interests, but it also generates unjustified fears…. The visibility of ethnic difference means that it often overshadows other forms of diversity.

We do see Gong Li, Zhang Ziyi and Chow Yun Fat, but it's very rare to see the Chinese male actor in Hollywood movies, which is something I take great umbrage with. You know, my son is Asian. He may want to direct one day; he may want to be an actor like his father - and I want that to be open to him.

I want to represent Asian women.

A couple of years after I arrived in Hollywood, everything that was Latino was fashionable, and years after, my thought is that we're not fashionable anymore. We're here to stay.

Growing up in Malaysia, there wasn't really a problem with representation. We saw faces like ours on screen because Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, China and Hong Kong all have their own film markets. It was only until I went back to the U.K. when I realized, 'Where did all these faces go?'

As a biracial girl growing up in England, I'd never really seen any historical characters who looked like me depicted on film before that weren't being brutalized or playing slaves.

You just never see people of different ethnicities in period dramas.

In the Royal Ballet Company, there was a Japanese principal dancer, and onstage and in ballet, they have colorblind castings - so I did see Asian dancers, and they were always my favorite. When you have someone who looks like you, it's something you can kind of grab onto, and it makes you feel better about your place in the world.

So many people complain that there aren't enough Latinos on television, and yet when they are, they need support.

I remember that my mother used to take me to see ballets, especially if there were black people in them.

One of the great joys of my life post-'Friends' has been being approached by Asian women who have told me how much it meant to see an Asian face on their TV screen when they were growing up.

Today we find many actors, they are Latin, they are Hispanic, they are living in the Unites States, they are American, but very rarely you find them in a lead role.

Please don't erase my race because I'm white-passing. There is literally nothing I can do about my complexion.

I grew up watching foreign programs - American, English, Mexican, and very little Kenyan. 'The Color Purple' was the first time I saw people who looked like me.

Even if you look at 'American Idol,' or 'X-Factor,' or 'The Voice' or anything, it was always difficult to see an Asian or an Asian-American make it to a certain point.

I want to see more Asians on TV. I want to see more faces like mine on TV.

You don't see Indians in Hollywood films around which a story can revolve. As soon as we have a social presence in your society, I am sure there will be many actors from our part of the world that will be acting in Hollywood films.

I've always been conscious of the fact that there aren't enough Irish voices on British television compared to the amount of Irish people who live there.

I was shocked when I moved to Sydney how very few indigenous people I came across. And so when I go to places like Maroubra or Redfern or Waterloo or Erskineville, I feel more at home because of the people I'm around - anywhere I can see a face that reflects someone that looks like my family, I feel much more at home.