Whitewashing is the dominant casting method in Hollywood. Throughout time, white actors have been cast with roles meant for minorities. Recently, Scarlett Johansson has been cast for the role of Major Motoko Kusanagi in "Ghost in the Shell," a popular manga. This is not the first time Hollywood has mis-distributed roles in order to make a particular film more popular.
In a recent interview, manga creator Kodansha said that using ScarJo was "a chance for a Japanese property to be seen around the world." The idea that a film being heard around the world requires whitewashing speaks volumes about the culture that we live in. White privilege is the sense of supremacy an actor may have over another because their race makes them more popular, whereas to be a colored actor has the reverse effects.
A few years back, another anime, "Avatar: The Last Airbender," was made into a live action film. Here again, whitewashing takes places over the predominantly Asian cast. To portray the main hero characters, actors like Noah Ringer and Zach Rathbone were used. When directors outsource and choose white actors to fill the role of an ethnic minority, this not only insinuates that there are no good minority actors, but that they cannot portray their own culture better than white actors.
This movie also hits another point by giving the role of the villainous character, Zuko, to Indian actor Dev Patel. The use of minority actors as the bad character can be seen across films. This instills a negative connotation to people of color. This movie was directed toward children who observe this and often times will bring this idea into their daily lives.
It’s not just a problem of the last decade. This has been practiced since the beginning of Hollywood itself. It can be seen with Elizabeth Taylor in "Cleopatra" (1963) or the war drama film "Dragon Seed" (1944), in which white actor Katharine Hepburn plays the Chinese protagonist Jade. Hollywood has a tendency to cosmetically or digitally alter these actors in order to make it look like they belong to that particular race. This type of “blackfacing” supports the proliferation of racist images, attitudes and perceptions worldwide and deems them to be OK. Rather than casting the right ethnicity, Hollywood continues to send this negative stigma about minority actors into the world. Even animated movies like "The Lion King" conform to the agenda that the darker-haired and darker-skinned characters would be the antagonist.
Continuing this all-white narrative hinders the progression of our society’s values. Speaking out against this is important because when something is so ingrained in the system it becomes the norm. Supporting a system of unconscious oppression is the last thing we need as a community.
