Romero's introduction to Night of the Living Dead at Flashback Weekend...

[krakenslayer]

I took it not that they didnt want a black lead because they were racist, but because past experience showed they would make less money on the movie, especially internationally. I am sure if black leads meant more at the box office, then studios would want all the male leads to be black. So I think Universal was interested in the only thing movie studios are ever worried about, and thats the bottom line. I see what you're saying, but if the studio refuses to cast a black man in a role written for a black man, just because he is a black man, then the end result is still more or less racist. It's a black guy being denied a job because of his race. It's on the same lines as a landlord refusing to rent his apartment to black people, not because he hates black people, but because he thinks having minorities live there might force property prices down. It's racism driven by a profit motive, as opposed to hatred, but racism nonetheless.