The actor Dwayne Johnson is of mixed heritage.
Unfortunately for him, his strategic decision to portray racially ambiguous or non-black characters on screen have seen his plans to portray the iconic African-American character John Henry met with a wave of confusion.
Henry is said to have been a real African-American man who became a folklore legend after his passing around 1900.
Why? His unparalleled wisdom and superhuman strength.
Keen to honour him? Dwayne Johnson. However, his sudden eagerness to portray a black man on screen has puzzled the general public.
Their thoughts and feelings below…
The Rock is black when it’s profitable and racially ambiguous when it isn’t. We need a proud, strong, all-day black man to play John Henry.
— Rising Pupil (@risingpupil) October 9, 2018
So @TheRock , who has never come out and spoken on behalf of issues affecting black men, decides to cast himself as dark skinned folk hero John Henry after playing a slue of ethnically ambiguous characters. What a joke.
— Shady McGrady (@downtheline18) October 10, 2018
The Rock has been racially ambiguous, often complete with non-Black children, in every film I’ve seen him in.
This John Henry casting is perplexing.
— 35 Savage (@PricklyPundit) October 10, 2018
My thoughts The Rock/John Henry:
I’ve never questioned The Rock’s blackness (and certainly not because of his biraciality). HOWEVER, The Rock has taken great pains to not play Black characters on screen. His roles always read racially ambiguous (more off-white)…
— K.Elizabeth AKA Cleopatra Jones Jr. (@theKelizabeth82) October 10, 2018
It’s sad when mixed ppl are the public faces of ethnic or racial identity. John Henry was a Very black man, a descendant of slaves during a unique time, the era of sharecroppers. The choice to cast a racially ambiguous lightskinned woman as Storm was wrong and so is this!!? https://t.co/cr5ptnuCw9
— Best Hot Mess (@rlly_james_smh) October 10, 2018
I have only one issue with Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson playing John Henry. He never seems to embrace his African American heritage. He is quick to tell people that he is Samoan and a lot of his more recent movies follow suit.
— Jarvis (@JarvisUnchained) October 11, 2018
![Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson Makes Rap Debut In New Tech N9ne Song [Listen]](https://thatgrapejuice.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/dwayne-johnson-rap-debut-thatgrapejuice-464x260.png "Dwayne \"The Rock\" Johnson Makes Rap Debut In New Tech N9ne Song [Listen].")
Y’all know all these #TeamLightskin folkls will always claim black when it suits them so why act surprised now? Everyone is black when they want to. Has The Rock even claim being black before, coz all I ever saw him claim is shis Samoan side. f*** THIS LIGHT SKINNED FOOL.
Sounds like a bunch of dumb “woke” black folks on twitter. Everyone doesn’t HAVE to speak up on issues and be an advocate to “the people”, it’s idiotic to think it’s his job. His job is to act. And that’s what he does.
The problem is that he’s always made a point to play racially ambiguous characters. There was nothing amibigous about slavery or the blackness that was used to justify it which is why people are confused.
Well the rock is racially ambiguous, so what is your point? He plays super hero/meathead action thriller roles 95% of the time so I’m not sure where he’s supposed to stand up in the middle of the film and address his racial makeup. That’s what’s wrong with black folks of a certain mindset. He’s participated in many BET functions/award shows(my favorites when he honored Janet Jackson in 2001), Ebony magazines, been in a Tyler Perry all black casted movie and stated many times that he’s Black and Samoan. He doesn’t owe anyone anything and if, as a black man, he’s now challenging himself to play a more serious role then so he it. He’s black so ??♂️??♂️??♂️??♂️??♂️ Kudos to him. People on Twitter are always so bothered by dumb stuff.
I don’t like The Rock with his ugly wife and daughters. They could have let Dennis Haysbert, Ving Rhames, Terry Crews or Michael Duncan to play that role. The Rock hate blacks and he hate himself
Michael Clark Duncan has been dead since 2012… troll alert, another dumb black person tryna be “woke” when they don’t pay attention to the real world around them
Henry Simmons would have been suitable.
I see why they would pick the rock (profitable and same body type), but Terry crews or Idris Alba could be cast in this role too.
Definitely would’ve eyed Idris Alba, perfect voice casted in my opinion of the character.
If this is something that the Rock has looked into and got the ball rolling let him play the character because clearly no one else has done that. If others had such big interest they would have worked on getting this sort of film made. I may be wrong and we may have not heard of it but I doubt it.