Whitewashing: Hollywood Ain't Tom Sawyer's Fence

Cross-racial casting, or hiring an actor of one racial or ethnic group to play a character of a different racial or ethnic group, is a controversial subject within the film industry. Throughout history, white actors have been cast to play Asian, Arab, and even Black characters. There are also cases of actors belonging to a nonwhite racial or ethnic group being cast as a character of a different racial or ethnic group, such as Latinas playing Asians. There are people who believe this is alright, and even should be encouraged, while others argue that it’s problematic and we should work to end it.

Those who support the practice of cross-racial acting have a variety of reasons for doing so. Within the business of filmmaking, they understand that white people are more likely to go to a movie with white actors casted, even if they’re playing the role of a nonwhite person. Because the film industry is profit-driven, this practice makes sense to ensure a larger audience. In addition, giving an actor the chance to play a character of a different race or ethnicity allows them to express themselves in a way that they usually wouldn’t be able to and lets them improve their acting ability. Finally, supporters argue that it discourages racial discrimination within the film industry. It ensures that the best actor gets the role, regardless of race or ethnicity, referred to as “colorblind casting”.

The people who oppose the practice of “racebending” believe that it causes misrepresentation of nonwhite racial and ethnic groups. By having white actors play characters belonging to other racial or ethnic groups, the majority is controlling how minority groups are represented in films, and it is very rarely accurate. Another argument against this practice is that it limits the opportunities available for actors belonging to minority groups. Hollywood writes very few nonwhite roles, so giving those roles to white actors makes it even harder for minority actors to be successful in the film industry.

I agree with those opposing cross-racial casting in the film industry. The problem of misrepresentation of minority racial and ethnic groups is rampant throughout all forms of mass media. This primarily comes from the use and perpetuation of stereotypes. To play minority characters, white actors often resort to stereotypical behaviors. Most commonly recognized, this leads to society having a skewed perception of minority groups. However, it also causes audience members belonging to a minority group to feel invisible and like they don’t have anyone representing them. As stated in the essay, “People Painted Over: Whitewashing of Minority Actors in Recent Film”, “Whitewashing deprives minority children of the feeling of normalcy that seeing a depiction of a person of their same race in a positive role would engender” (Lowrey, 7). If people belonging to the same minority group as a character can’t relate to that character, there is clearly something wrong with the actor’s representation.

The casting of white actors in minority roles also makes it harder for actors belonging to minority groups to be successful in the film business. Hollywood doesn’t provide many lead roles belonging to minority racial or ethnic groups. While most would assume that minority actors have a natural advantage to receiving those roles, the practice of cross-racial casting ensures that society’s notion of white supremacy is upheld. “There appears to be no hard and fast data on how often white actors are cast as characters of color, but some industry observers say it happens enough to raise the ire of some fans” (France). Like Professor Shah discussed in lecture on November 7, 2013, there are very few minority actors who are household names in comparison to the number of white actors we’re all familiar with. By giving the role that would naturally go to a minority actor to a white actor instead, the film industry establishes a system that doesn’t allow people of color to build their experience enough to succeed in the business, therefore perpetuating the practice of cross-racial casting.

Whether you call it cross-racial casting, whitewashing, racebending, or nontraditional casting, the practice of white actors being hired to play a character belonging to a minority group is perpetuating the institutionalized racism in the film industry. It reinforces stereotypes when the actors have to resort to stereotypical behaviors to feel like they’re accurately representing a racial or ethnic group. It also prevents minority actors from being successful in the business by giving the roles for which they’d have a natural advantage to white actors. For a country that claims to be “post-racism”, a lot of work needs to be done within Hollywood to not only give minority actors a fair shot, but to actually help them succeed.

(Okay, honesty time. I've been super busy this week and didn't have time to write a blog post for today so here's a paper I wrote this week on whitewashing and cross-racial casting in Hollywood. Sorry if some class concepts/references don't make sense, but I feel like the paper can be generalized pretty well. Next week will hopefully be a post on pro-life vs. anti-choice and the importance of words so get excited! Stay rad, pals.)