They're lucky they didn't cast Smith, honestly. The anti-whiteness of the casting decisions would've been made blindingly obvious. Reeves gives it that sliver of deniability it needed.
It's not just about who is 'black'. It's also about who is an unambiguously white male, and who isn't.
Non white: Neo, Morpheus, Tank, Dozer, The Oracle
White: Trinity, Mouse, Cypher, Agent Smith, Agent Brown, Agent Jones
Trinity is a woman.
Mouse is small, weak ineffective, undesirable little perv. He is also the first to die.
Cypher is a traitor, and another undesirable perv.
The Agents are all the bad guys.
Trinity is the only white person who is a hero. The rest are either weak and useless, traitors, or the enemy.
Keanu being a white-passing hapa visually muddies it, but imagine him as Will Smith and you'd have to be blind not to see that the movie ends with only black men and a white woman alive, ready to take on the fake world run by the white agents.
They're lucky they didn't cast Smith, honestly. The anti-whiteness of the casting decisions would've been made blindingly obvious. Reeves gives it that sliver of deniability it needed.
Enlighten me. Aside from Morpheus (who was a great choice) and some of the captains, who was black?
It's not just about who is 'black'. It's also about who is an unambiguously white male, and who isn't.
Non white: Neo, Morpheus, Tank, Dozer, The Oracle
White: Trinity, Mouse, Cypher, Agent Smith, Agent Brown, Agent Jones
Trinity is a woman.
Mouse is small, weak ineffective, undesirable little perv. He is also the first to die.
Cypher is a traitor, and another undesirable perv.
The Agents are all the bad guys.
Trinity is the only white person who is a hero. The rest are either weak and useless, traitors, or the enemy.
Keanu being a white-passing hapa visually muddies it, but imagine him as Will Smith and you'd have to be blind not to see that the movie ends with only black men and a white woman alive, ready to take on the fake world run by the white agents.