Throughout my life, I rarely saw any brown people in the media, much less Iranian girls. When I did see brown people on T.V., they were either minor characters, stereotypes, or both.

Recently, I discovered a film called Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. All I saw was the word Persia and immediately got excited. I did some research on the movie, and lo and behold, Jake fucking Gyllenhaal is playing the lead role. A white man portraying a Persian prince. Disappointment replaced my joy.

Thanks, Hollywood.

Whitewashing: You Should Really Stop

Whitewashing is when the film industry casts a white actor in a non-white role.

A classic example of whitewashing is Hollywood’s adaptation of Ghost In The Shell, as they have Scarlett Johansson play the role of Motoko Kusanagi, a Japanese character. Another movie guilty of this practice is Breakfast At Tiffany’s, with Mickey Rooney doing a racist portrayal of another Japanese character, Mr. Yunioyushi. There’s Aloha, where we have Emma Stone playing the half-Chinese, half-native Hawaiian Allison Ng. The Last Airbender’s cast is mainly white, despite the show it’s based on having no white characters whatsoever. Netflix even adapted a Death Note film based on the manga, Americanised it and had Nat Wolff play Light Turner (whose actual name is Light Yagami, but they changed that, too). These are only some examples.

The issues are that not only are non-white actors not given the same opportunities as white actors, but non-white people watching these films don’t get to see themselves represented. The latter is already a problem, so to have white people play roles made for minorities makes things worse. It’s a subtle way of telling us we don’t matter.

Reverse Racism isn’t Real, Karen

On the rare occasions that we get to see a non-white actor play a white character, those actors have to deal with immense hate (cough racism cough).

Let’s take the live-action remake of The Little Mermaid, for example. In the animated 1989 film, Ariel is a mermaid with white skin and red hair. In the live-action remake, however, we have our protagonist played by Halle Bailey, a black woman. While there were fans who were supportive of the casting choice, there were others who were anything but that. From crying out about Ariel being white to telling Bailey she should’ve played Tiana instead, the young actress received a lot of negativity.

Let’s discuss why this specific change isn’t a problem:

1. Ariel’s skin colour has nothing to do with the plot. Having her be black won’t change anything in the story. Besides, you do know that mermaids aren’t exclusively white, yeah?

2. The people telling Bailey to play Tiana instead are only further admitting that black people have little-to-no representation. White people have more than just Ariel; they have Aurora, Cinderella, Belle, Snow White, Rapunzel, Merida, Elsa, Anna, etc. People of colour only have a few princesses that look like them. Black people only have Tiana. A black actress playing Ariel won’t change the fact that white people always have representation and will never need to fight for it.

3. “If the roles were reversed, and a white actress played Tiana, you would say it’s racist!” That’s because it is racist, Karen. Tiana being black is significant to her story. The Princess and the Frog is about her having to work hard to reach her goals given her circumstances (which is her being a black woman in the late 1920s in New Orleans). Besides, the roles are reversed; THAT’S THE PROBLEM.

Simply put, whitewashing is erasure; the other way around is minorities’ way of giving themselves the representation they don’t have.

Parting Words From an Angry Brown Woman

If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times: It’s not forced diversity; people just exist. I can assure you; it’s not hard to find a good non-white actor. There are plenty of them waiting for opportunities you don’t give them because diversity makes you uncomfortable. Give us proper representation so that no more children of colour have to look for it themselves.

Shireen Agharazi-Dormani

An artist with strong opinions, a fear of social interactions, and one hell of a sweet tooth. Needs at least 10 hours of sleep and lots of hugs. Handle with care: very sensitive.