I don’t think people truly take into account how incredibly exclusionary Hollywood was in its efforts to maintain white supremacy in the industry! If you weren’t white and male you were pretty much relegated to using your looks to get ahead and simply weren’t allowed to do much beyond acting.

PoC had no choice in the industry but to portray stereotypes and I really don’t think many people understand the depths of those stereotypes and how much of America’s cultural makeup and racism is a product of Hollywood storytelling.

For me, the most egregious example of yellowface was John Wayne as Genghis Khan (I hated that actor with a passion) and there was the almost complete exclusion of Asian men from the entire industry. As someone who grew up crushing on Bruce Lee, it’s very gratifying to see Asian men in Hollywood now doing other things and I am here for all of it!