The dynamic range limitations that slide film has and early color negative film had during the last century is a technology limitation. The progression of film

The dynamic range limitations that slide film has and early color negative film had during the last century is a technology limitation. The progression of film development is toward more dynamic range, finer grain, greater speed (sensitivity to light), and to truer color and color fastness. If Kodak, or any other film maker were able to make a color film which could capture the wide dynamic range of skin tones, it's likely they would have. The benefits of a wider dynamic range have implications that even if the thesis of this article were true, would have driven the marketplace to adopt this better film. Greater dynamic range is a generally desirable feature. Film, as a technology, is limited. What I would consider to be a more interesting discussion, would be to address the decisions made by photographers that resulted in the underexposure of non-white skin tones. I'm fully willing to believe that a photographer took a photo of a group of people of mixed races, exposed the image such that the white people were properly exposed and called it a day, simply because in their estimation the proper exposure of the black faces was unimportant. I can also believe that this happened quite a lot. This can seem rather passive, on the part of the photographer, who can claim that film just can't capture the dynamic range, rather than taking the time and effort to light the people properly, or other measures necessary. One could also argue that 18% gray, as the default for exposure metering, prioritized the white face over the black one. The substance of the argument that film is racist, could be rooted in these sociological issues, in the choices that were made by individuals everywhere, their assumptions and their decisions about who mattered.