Ghost in the Shell is scheduled to makes its live screen debut in 2017. There is only one problem-Hollywood is doing it. Only Hollywood can possibly find a reason to cast Scarlett Johansson, a white woman, as a Japanese police officer. In the real world, reasonable people would look for East Asian actresses such as Rinko Kikuchi, Karen Fukuhara, Kiki Sukezane, or Kimiko Glenn, but this is not the real world. This is Hollywood and for some reason Hollywood enjoys making the same mistake over and over again.

Rinko Kikuchi

Karen Fukuhara

Kiki Sukezane

Kimiko Glenn

Hollywood has a nasty habit of whitewashing clearly non-white characters such as Emma Stone as a Native Hawaiian in Aloha, Johnny Depp as a Native American in The Lone Ranger, Ben Affleck as Hispanic in Argo or Justin Chatin as Goku in Dragonball!

Needless to say, people are upset. There has been a twitter storm of criticism from outraged fans. Some notable critics include Ming-Na Wen, Melinda May in SHIELD, and Jon Tsuei, comic book writer. There is also petition targeted toward DreamWorks Studios to stop the madness! (Petition is here. )

There is a false underlying assumption that assigning non-white roles to non-white actresses or actors may compromise the integrity of the film or acting. It is as if Hollywood is afraid that the only good actors or actresses available that will do the film justice, just “happen” to be white. They have convinced themselves that this is mentality is not racism, but rather the hand they are dealt.

The biggest problem with this is that more and more people are unable to realize that whitewashing is inherently insulting and a product of a superiority mindset. The system is set up in a way that has convinced key decision makers to spend millions of dollars on an idea that is clearly wrong. There is an assumption that an actual Hispanic man is incapable of portraying the role of a Hispanic man better than Ben Affleck or an actual Native American could not possibly be as good of a Native American as Johnny Depp. Again, this assumption is inherently insulting.

Plenty of people will fight back claiming the ills of “reverse racism” (which is a myth) and argue that Emma Stone, Ben Affleck, Johnny Depp and many more are excellent actors and actresses. This is also true. This issue has nothing to do with the capability of these actors and actresses. We are not saying that these actors and actresses are bad, but we are yelling that non-white actors and actresses are just as good!