Speech by Jeff Ma, 21 The Movie, MIT Blackjack Team

Hey everyone, if you read any plot summaries for the movie "21", they say "Inspired by the true story of ..." The key word there is "inspired". It was not *based* on the book. If the movie had been based on the book, then the casting would likely have been different.

if Most of the MIT team were asians, why in the movie they are mostly white?

Please take the time to read something, anything, written by the MIT professor who put this together before you speak. There was not one team and it did not all happen at one time. There were several different teams and there was a down period between some of the teams. So read and learn before you call me stupid and other names that only confirm your ignorance.

I read the book (and reviewed it). The vast majority of the team was Asian or part-Asian. So your "read something" argument is unfortunately invalid here.

As for white person playing the asian role, it's Hollywood - what do you expect? The majority of the audience is white so of course they will give a white person the main role, Hollywood isn't ready for an asian lead (besides karate flicks). It's sad fact when the most famous asian singer in America is William Hung, when there's a lot of talented asian singers out there. But at the same token, if you look at asian movies - the white person is usually casted as the white devil.

It's really sad indeed; Hollywood choosing white leads is what sociologists call "the path of least resistance". Until Asians have bigger economic/social clout or casting decisions, this kind of discriminatory casting will always exist.

Are you stupid? The whole team was Asian and Jeffrey Ma was the leader of the group (author of Bringing Down The House revealed that info as well).

Sorry, this response was not you nepaliman. Your point is great. I was responding to a fellow from 6 months back. I didn't realize this would appear at this point in the commentary.
Anyway, Jeff Ma is a great clever fellow. The movie was entertaining. I also read the book about the Russian guy. A remarkable story. It is just unfortunate that people insist on bringing ethnicity into these things. We need to realize that we are all the same species.

Your point is not acceptable

The Russian Seymon was part of ANOTHER M.I.T. blackjack team. He wasn't on Jeff Ma's team. Read the book Busting Vegas for the Russian's story.