Dear film industry,
To the white people in Hollywood—actors, directors, producers, academy members, and executives: this letter is directed at you. You are erasing and ignoring the voices of people of color. Let’s talk about this erasure. You may have heard the term “whitewashing.” If not, it is the phenomenon that occurs when a white actor is given the role of a character that should have been played by a person of color. This happens in Hollywood more than you may realize, and it is often less obvious than a white person dressing up in black face, though that occurs from time to time as well.
There are countless examples of whitewashing, so much so that the ones I discuss here hardly even scratch the surface. Take, for instance, Emma Stone’s casting in Aloha. Stone, a white woman, was cast as a mixed-race character. Specifically, her character was explained to be part Hawaiian. The film maker has since apologized for this mistake, but the fact remains that he did cast her, and she did play the part, which in turn meant taking away the chance for an actual mixed race actress to play the part. Even more recently, Tilda Swinton—a white woman—was cast as the role of The Ancient One in Doctor Strange. In the original comics, the character was an Asian man.
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This whitewashing has been a part of Hollywood since its inception, with white actors constantly being cast in roles of people of color. In some instances, these portrayals go so far as to be offensive caricatures of people of color, such as when Mickey Rooney played Mr Yunioshi in Breakfast at Tiffany’s or when Laurence Olivier donned blackface to portray Othello. In these cases—of which there are many—not only are the parts of people of color given to white actors, thus ignoring actors of color who could play the roles, they are actively harmful and racist. For more on racist stereotypes in Hollywood,
click here. For more examples of whitewashing in Hollywood, click here. |
Whitewashing is only one form of erasure that happens in Hollywood films. In many instances, films portray very few actors of color at all. When they do, these parts are often small background roles with very few lines. In some instances, there are as few as one or even no actors of color in Hollywood films, and popular Hollywood films at that. Let me turn your attention at this point to a YouTube series by Dylan Marron called “Every Single Word Spoken by a Person of color.” This series demonstrates visually how large this lack of representation is. I encourage you to watch the YouTube playlist from start to finish. It doesn’t take long, given how few lines are spoken by people of color.
To watch the entire playlist, click here.
For those who do not watch the videos themselves, allow me to summarize a few in words:
Film: Minutes long: Minutes spoken by a POC:
Into the Woods 125 0:00
Her 126 0:44
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone 159 1:38
The Fellowship of the Ring 228 0:08
I understand why you don’t think this is a problem; in fact, I’m willing to bet you don’t even realize how pervasive this issue is. The reason you can’t see that this is a problem is because whiteness in film is the default. White bodies are the norm, the fallback, the standard. When film makers talk about wanting to make a character or a film that “everyone can relate to,” what they mean is, they want to make a movie about white people. But white people are not the only people with stories worth telling. It is time to acknowledge the flaws that plague your industry. Once you can accept that this is unacceptable, you will be able to break out of the mold and make some positive change.
To all white film actors, directors, producers, academy members, and executives: the responsibility largely falls to you. It is your responsibility to make space for actors or color, for characters of color. There are so many stories that need telling, and you must learn to take a backseat while they are told. Step back, open up space, and learn to listen.
For those who do not watch the videos themselves, allow me to summarize a few in words:
Film: Minutes long: Minutes spoken by a POC:
Into the Woods 125 0:00
Her 126 0:44
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone 159 1:38
The Fellowship of the Ring 228 0:08
I understand why you don’t think this is a problem; in fact, I’m willing to bet you don’t even realize how pervasive this issue is. The reason you can’t see that this is a problem is because whiteness in film is the default. White bodies are the norm, the fallback, the standard. When film makers talk about wanting to make a character or a film that “everyone can relate to,” what they mean is, they want to make a movie about white people. But white people are not the only people with stories worth telling. It is time to acknowledge the flaws that plague your industry. Once you can accept that this is unacceptable, you will be able to break out of the mold and make some positive change.
To all white film actors, directors, producers, academy members, and executives: the responsibility largely falls to you. It is your responsibility to make space for actors or color, for characters of color. There are so many stories that need telling, and you must learn to take a backseat while they are told. Step back, open up space, and learn to listen.