This isn't "some sort of United Nations session" ... it's just the American public. at Schema : more than ethnic

This isn't "some sort of United Nations session" ... it's just the American public.

With the number of recent "Asian-inspired" movie projects like the Dragon Ball Z the Movie, where originally Asian characters were replaced by more well-known white actors, it's hard to believe that any progress has been made in mainstream media. But according to Edward Wyatt of nytimes.com, progress is being made, and being lead by programs for youth. In Wyatt's recent article Generation Mix: Youth TV Takes the Lead in Diversity Casting, Marjorie Cohn, executive vice president for development and original programming at Nickelodeon, states that this growing trend is all about reflecting audience:

Kids want to see themselves on TV. That is why diversity has always been a focus of ours and one of the exciting parts of how we develop shows. We want to reflect our audience.

This is visible in the casting for the the new Cheetah Girls movie. Wyatt describes of the premiere of the film as "some sort of United Nations session":

Adrienne Bailon, who plays Chanel in the trio of Cheetah Girls, drew on her Ecuadorean and Puerto Rican roots and chatted in Spanish with a television interviewer. Meanwhile Kiely Williams, an African-American actress who plays Aqua, and Sabrina Bryan, who plays Dorinda and whose real name is Reba Sabrina Hinojos, answered questions and waved to fans. Deepti Daryanani, an actress from Calcutta, and Rupak Ginn, an American actor whose parents emigrated from India, wore outfits inspired by their roles in the television movie ... in which the group travels to India to star in a film after one of its members misunderstands an invitation to Bollywood as one to Hollywood.

Wyatt is absolutely wrong! This isn't some snapshot of the U.N. There's no cultural conflict over water rights being worked out. In fact, almost all the (non-white) actors are American, and clearly able to navigate between their "roots" and Hollywood. This ensemble cast is really is just a reflection of the evolving reality of a multi-ethnic and multilingual American public. Wyatt goes on to give his analysis of the industry, and points out the noticeable rise of visibly diverse female roles in prime time television:

“When you look at our programs, the most popular ones — ‘Grey’s Anatomy,’ ‘Lost,’ ‘Desperate Housewives’ — one of the things they have in common is diversity in lead characters and stories,” said Robert Mendez, senior vice president for diversity at the Disney-ABC Television Group. “We believe that diversity makes those shows much more interesting.”

Read the entire article on nytimes.com.