This is not an attack on white people. This is a criticism of our society, our culture, that defaults to whiteness.

If you've been to a movie theater anytime in the last couple of months, you may or may not have noticed a trailer for a certain movie called Gods of Egypt. Although it won't be released for another month and a half, it's been neck-deep in backlash and controversy ever since its casting announcements and trailer release. Why? Well, because it's too white.

Described as a fantasy action film set in ancient Egypt, all the main actors are very obviously not Egyptian and even speak with British accents. Director Alex Proyas and Lionsgate have issued an apology regarding the casting choices since then, but unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident in Hollywood. There's been the disaster that was all of Exodus: Gods and Kings, plus the film adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender, the portrayal of Khan Noonien Singh in Star Trek: Into Darkness, Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games, Ra's al Ghul in Batman Begins, and the list goes on and on. All these roles were originally meant for POC (People of Color). Instead, they went to white actors for different reasons.

But what's the big deal? They're just movies, and people have the liberty to create what they want with who they want, right? True, but that's not the point. The point is that as long as Hollywood's been around, it's been guilty of whitewashing, because as sociologist Lester Andrist put it, the industry is "dominated by white characters, played by white actors, navigating their way through a story that will likely resonate most deeply with white audiences, based on their experiences and world views." The media that we consume should be a reflection of ourselves; what we hope to see and what we want to achieve. However, it's always been an uphill battle to see more racial diversity and representation beyond secondary characters, or being reduced to comedic stereotypes.

The fault doesn't only lie with Hollywood though, since it's merely a byproduct of a heavily biased culture that expects white people to be everywhere. A recent example would be back when the trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens was released and it was revealed that one of the main characters is a black stormtrooper. Not everyone was happy about it. Fortunately, a small amount of outrage didn't hinder the movie's success since it recently surpassed Titanic as America's second highest-grossing movie of all time.

So things are looking up and we're ever so slowly inching our way towards progress. However, mistakes will still be made and as a society, we still have a lot to both learn and unlearn. The world is comprised of seven billion people that have a beautiful spectrum of shades and tones. It's time we start seeing a lot more of it on the big screen too.