I'm not white, but i agree with you. For a while i've been trying to mention to people that history needs to be accurate, rather than "politically correct".
To be honest, it's hard for me to differentiate between morality and "political correctness". As someone who dislikes taking political sides (in absolutes, at least. I do what I must), it seems to me that many people like to accuse others as "PC" when views don't align or happen to somewhat parallel with what is accused as "PC". Another thing that I find perplexing is that what is deemed as "politically correct" varies between times and cultures. In the past, it was perfectly acceptable to own slaves and those who spoke against it would be considered both "Un PC" and someone to be disregarded, if not disposed of.
@@Acesahn it's easy to differentiate. Political correctness is fascism disguised as politeness. Political correctness is concerned with shrinking the Overton window and pushing it in a particular direction. Being moral is about adhering to a proper hierarchy of values.
I'm a black African dude and I don't understand these people who say they get attached to a random character based on their skin color. This race obsession in the west is weird. Like why not just create new stories
That’s what I do I used to get scared because of my OC’s not “looking black” (They have black skin) I had these OCs for years and I’m not letting anyone ruin them They represent what I am inside And I created way to much OCs- And stories in my head
I honestly despise the assumption that we need characters to look like us in order to identify with them. It's something people do to a stupid degree, and not just regarding race but on something as simple as hair color. I'm white and a redhead, so, when I was a little girl, everyone I knew assumed my favorite Disney heroine was Ariel. My mother even assumed this and got me an Ariel Barbie doll and a Little Mermaid sleeping bag and stuff like that...…..My favorite Disney heroine was and still is Mulan.
I believe it is because people for two generations now have been foreceably "collective-ized." That is to say, "who you are as an individual is completely unimportant because you can change nothing on your own, but WHAT you are is everything. Be better for your WHAT community or else" This type of thinking is a psychological sickness and ultimately devalues all human life. I am an independent consciousness, as are you. None of us are mere cogs in a community.
I am old enough to remember online discussions where some posters would ridicule Asians, blacks and gays for wanting a protagonist like themselves AND to have seen other posters crying foul at the missing white guy heroes in e.g. Star Trek: Discovery 😂
As a white girl who was a little kid when the Princess and the Frog came out, I absolutely adored Tiana and she was my favorite Disney Princess along with Belle when I was little. Skin color doesn't define who you will attach to in a fictional piece of media. A white person can adore a black character just as much as a black person can adore a white character. I don't get why people make such big deals out of this when it all it does is divide society more and more
@@quewalabear8575 BLM protests, the mayor of Chicago saying she'll only hire poc employees, and the whole debate on blackwashing. There are plenty of real life examples to choose from unfortunately. Twitter isn't my only frame of reference but it's the most loud and outspoken one
@@MiracleClover Ok...great! Now pick any OR all of the examples you have cited and explain how they are examples of people "obsessing" over skin color.
I was in a Lord of the Rings group, and I said that I didn’t like the races of the characters being changed, because Tolkien was attempting to create a new overarching Anglo-Saxon mythology. I was called racist. I said that I was extremely against the White washing of the book Earthsea, which very specifically was created to have less white people, because the author wanted to have black main characters. When Sci-Fi channel did an adaptation, they intentionally cast white actors, thinking they needed to represent the nerd audience, and I was vehemently against it. He said that that didn’t matter, I was still a racist, because he had never heard of Earthsea.
On the other hand, in the books, most of the population of Earthsea was brown in colour, and there probably not enough actors of that hue to populate the scene.
@@malcolmtas5601 that is likely not true, there are likely thousands of black actors waiting for Earthsea to get made. I don’t have an issue with Earthsea being mostly non-white because that’s what the author intended, and I think rather than making black hobbits, black (as in racially) Numenoreans, black elves, which is not what the author intended, I’d much rather see a properly done adaptation of Earthsea.
The first mistake you did was to try and say you agree with any point they have. To those people it only show that you are weak. What I find really interesting is that every people should have their own culture, creeds and land apart from white Europeans. Africans should have their culture. Arabs should have theirs. But the English, German or Swedish should not have their culture and land respected. They need to step aside to let other people take over the culture in their country of origin. I have stopped cared about being called a racist a long time ago. If being racist, sexist, homophobic and whatever give you a normal understanding of reality and common sense I guess I am that then. Clearly not being that makes you insane in this day and age.
You can not reason with such people; they view things in a binary of "i am right, you are wrong". You should answer them with a question, and question their view....force them to have to think as it's the only way of undoing such indoctrination. "What about wanting a white character white is racist? like wise, what is racist about wanting a black character black?" You'll hear the gears turning in their head, as they slowly move into NPC rage mode.
I've found it kind sad that we can't have a historical European fantasy setting anymore. You can either have a "modern diverse America" fantasy setting or an entirely non European concept.
And this is labelled as "diversity" by people who, despite what they are claiming, are so used to seeing themselves (Americans) in fiction that they can't stand a setting where they're simply not present (European). They're currently giving Asian fiction a chance, but even so there are already people who complain that the majority of manga and anime characters are Japanese instead of black. And as anime is becoming more popular, so is the above mentioned type of Americans becoming more common. This is called hobby gentrification, plain and simple.
@@georged.5595 Lmao this is from a huge portion of the minority group in America you can’t say all Americans, a lot of Americans still keep their traditions like European descent Americans, I’m 4th Gen Polish-American on my mothers side and my dad is a 4th Gen Italian-American and we still celebrate things like the polish constitution day and the Carnevale of lent.
@@kevinprzy4539 Good to hear that. At least the descendant of Europeans who still did not forget their culture and traditions to become something like "white people"
I very much agree... As someone who is currently trying to come up with their own fantasy setting (for a game i'm working on), i sure wont add *ANYTHING* just to be "inclusive" or "diverse"... To *hell* with that... All white, all beautiful, even if only to piss them (regressives) off... Let white people have their own mythology and fiction, dammit... But of course, only blacks are allowed to make that demand, apparently... Ugh... Like, i get it, white people are awesome and make a lot of cool shit, but that doesn't mean you deserve a slice of the pie... Copy the recipe, sure no problem, but stop trying to infest every good thing white people have... *Just create your own stuff,* holy hell... It's disgusting... And so telling that they just want to destroy everything we have, and an admittance of their own complete lack of competence... Creating new and interesting characters of other races, or flesh out already existing characters of other races? No! Take white characters and turn them black! Usurping and corrupting an existing character for your own racist goals is totally the same thing as creating a new character! /S My god...
@@schnek8927 what demands are we making exactly?? I don't want to be forced into your stories screw that if we don't exist in the universes you create that's fine want to know why? Because we have our own which we would rather see than another tokenism and shoe horning European story production. Plus mind you it's your own people behind what you're seeing not black people!
The skin color, age, gender or the ethnicity of a fictional character has never stopped me from relating to them on a deep level and absolutely loving them and seeing my self in them. whether id be what they go through, their story, personality or their upbringing.
Yes, that's how I feel about LOTR. The stories, developments, friendships, determination... So many admirable characters. I care about someone's heart and will, not physical attributes. But nowadays...rings of power made Galadriel into a genocidal feminist narcissist, and magic the gathering randomly made Aragorn black. It's frustrating because these characters mean so much more than modern politics
@@sansakitty9650 You contradicted yourself. You first say you don't care about "physical attributes", but then you whine about Aragorn's physical attributes.
Honestly u are right, as an hispanic guy i find weird seeing that someone is completely changed just for the sake of inclusivity and it feels so forced… it feels like something that we most do as part of some sort of checklist… I totally agree that we need new stories bc if we change what’s already there we are not doing any better than ppl in the 30s
it is offensive towards poc and i do not understand how people of color keep falling for it. hollywood is like: "i wouldnt touch your history and heritage with a 10 foot pole but here is a black guy in a drama about the european middle ages." i dont know, i am just a white guy but if it was me i would be offended.
I can't help feeling that those people who put PoCs in a historical incorrect context just for the sake of inclusivity are doibf great injustice to just these persons whom they try to please. Imo this implies that PoC are so naive as not to realize the historical falsification and just be content or grateful to be "representend". I think it's a kind of intellectual discrimination of PoCs to believe they would be simply glad to be shown on screen no matter what context. Imo it would be intellectually honest for both sides to present the past as it was. I am sure that any intelligent PoC will agree that "rewriting" the past is dishonest and brings no advantage or improvement for whatever side of the discussion. Btw being awhite female the hero if my childhood day was Winnetou. Simply because he was a character of integrity, honesty and great humanity. (And yes, I know that Karl May's novels are VERY problematic as regards racism and white supremacy. Neverthless he created some fascinating "non-white" characters...)
In my eyes I don’t really see it as inclusivity, because these people that change the characters race or sexuality aren’t actually affecting the real character, they’re just making heacannons, thus meaning we’re still not really getting any real representation. That being said, it’s also important to note that if a director decides to change a characters race or something, it’s not them forcing anything, its happened for a long time now, where directors add their own little quirks to the character. A good example would be joker, joker was always presumed straight by the directors that featured him in their film, but quite a few directors also made joker bisexual or pansexual. It’s not about forcing inclusivity because jokers sexuality remains up to the director, the next director can make the joker straight just as they can make him bisexual.
If I see a historical drama done locally and there is no one of close ethnicity available its fine, but a large "Hollywood" production has access to people from almost every conceivable ethnicity out there. Still if you are portraying someone not of your ethnicity in a play, be respectful. Doing casting and race changes just for inclusivity is just as demeaning as straight racism, and I consider it racism of a different brand, even in fiction. Now if we talk about an alternate world where things took a different turn and Germans were displaced by Middle Easterners and then the Holy Roman Empire is created by them... well that is just an alternate fictional world and its totally fine!
Very true. I also feel that Metatron should perhaps speak on how people have essentially been brainwashed into thinking this way. I don't think they are necessarily doing it, because they are racist or hateful, rather because they have been programmed into thinking this way. To refer to white people as bland flour shit, or whatever it was that lady said, clearly is racist and hateful, yet I feel the reason that lady would say something like that, is because she has been brainwashed into thinking that black people can't be racist. Which is the same reason some black people think blackwashing is okay, but white washing isn't. Clearly anyone with a brain, who hasn't been brainwashed can see that they are both wrong. If you watch TH-cam channels in countries such as Nigeria, you will often see comments from Nigerians specifically stating, that their people are being brainwashed by western media, to be racist towards white people, they can recognise exactly what is going on.
@@EPUEPUEPUEPU More than likely vs they are everywhere and front and center. We don't know but who are we offended if we didn't put them in there? HBO's Rome series didn't have black main characters and everyone spoke with British accents and yet it was my favorite HBO series because of how authentic they made the time period look
Whenever I talk about this with people, I always argue with this point: "If you get to have black King Arthur (or Black King Henry, Caesar, whoever), then I get to have Asian Shaka Zulu." Because if you're willing to racewash one way, you have to be willing to accept racewashing any way.
They don't really have any interest in telling stories about non-white characters, and they don't see the culture of other races outside of skin color. Because it's only skin deep to them, swapping out an Irish guy for a black guy makes sense in their heads. They don't even realise diversity can be different groups of white people, black people, Asians, Latinos (who are literally made up of all of the rest), etc.
You're arguing from the standpoint of reciprocity. Many people who want these things have zero interest in reciprocity or 'fairness'. So, unfortunately, this argument likely doesn't work with those people.
You're kinda ignoring the historical precedent under which whitewashing vs "blackwashing" exists. I don't think most people would have an issue with specifically asian reimaginings of things, but race exists in context of historical atrocities and lingering social issues
King Arthur was supposed to be ethnic Sarmatian in other words Iranian. One more problem, Arthur is the Anglicanized version of the Roman name Artorius. Why would an ethnic Sarmatian have a name that would be invented by the people who would be invading his kingdom before they ever even had contact with one another?
"The solution to the problem is to stop looking at color and take people as human beings" THANK YOU SO MUCH! (again) this whole forced diversity stuff is just dividing people by color again instead of uniting them as human beings
Forced fantastical diversity is not diversity. If your story is about Puerto Ricans, then cast Puerto Ricans. If your story is about Jedi, then cast anybody because most Jedi are of fantastical extraterrestrial species. If your story is about Norwegians, then cast Norwegians. If those things do not matter in your story, then cast as a diverse cast as possible and let those actors bring their own culture into the role as that will provide automatically increase the richness of the story.
@@0ptikGhost "fantastical diversity is not diversity. " 🙄 I have seen some stupid thing written here, but that is the "stupidest". Any diversity is diversity. In fact, fantastical diversity is the MOST diverse of all diversity. Do you actually think about what you are writing before you type it?
Unfortunately rewriting historical events and characters to fit a specific narrative has and will always happen since not everybody seems to digest historical accuracy. But fortunately we have people like you debunking and reporting the facts to spread some light on foggy stuff. So, many thanks for your work, Metatron!
@@CaptainDisappointing honestly they erased the definition of fascist and just claim it is anything right wing, even libertarianism. Also, CRT is literally communist based
Wait, are you telling me that Wakanda didn't defeat mustache man when Mickey Mouse called for aid after getting all the chaos emeralds stolen from him?
Nordic washing of the mediterranean world is significantly worse than anything else. It's only acceptable because of the Germanic expansion into southern Europe/ eastern Europe/ north Africa following the fall of the western Roman Empire. It's prolonged because of the immense progress made by Germanic countries over the past 1500 years. It's also been prolonged in part due to a global fe-tish for their appearance.
Speaking as an African American, it’s always so strange to me that depictions of slavery in works about American history are always attempted to be made as accurate as can be, but these other works about other cultures can be plagued with the things you describe. It’s important the the cultural identity at the time the work is presenting be maintained, and is the reason why tragic events don’t really see this kind of thing happen IMO. Just because it wouldn’t be disrespectful towards a survivor of a tragedy or crime, doesn’t mean it’s not disrespectful to the culture you’re trying to represent.
Even on American Slavery like maybe it's just that I haven't watched every single thing that covers the topic but they very VERY rarely go into the fact that Americans were not the Slavers, they sold and owned slaves which is disgusting yes but the Slaves themselves were ENSLAVED by other Africans, Hell Africa in some parts still has problems with Slavery today but everyone seems to willfully ignore that bit. So okay because they're not on American soil it's not the same?
Do you feel that being categorized as "African American" instead of just "American" is a problem? In Britain you dont call black people African British, they are just British.
@Tim Healy so part of that is everyone is labeled by demographic. We have Irish Americans, Asian Americans, Black Americans(I don’t say African because African American applied better to recent immigrants) etc….. it used to be a dividing tactic but now, at least in my experience, it’s just a descriptor.
I agree with all of this, it's good to see people actually speaking sense. I'm a Native American, so I get less representation than most, but I just want to say that it feels honestly insulting. Like, Blackwashing genuinely feels to me like the ones doing it are just trying to hit a checkmark, they aren't giving the "represented" people actually good characters. Like, why should these characters be changed instead of giving us our own characters? If I'm playing Mortal Kombat I don't want Johnny Cage to be changed into a Native American, just give me Nightwolf. Give me characters that just ARE, instead of changing ones that already exist. Why should we basically get "sloppy seconds" of already established characters? I also agree with you that you don't HAVE to like the characters that are like you. I look at King of the Hill for example. I honestly HATED John Redcorn, and he's Native American. I like Dale Gribble more. In Mortal Kombat, I don't really like Nightwolf, I like Scorpion better. I appreciate being represented, but if we are going to have representation, let make it genuine, instead of pallette swapping a character and saying "here, this is yours now."
I think that's a really good point, "sloppy seconds" is really how insulting it is when you take a pre established character and just change the color to fit some sort of agenda or demand, a quota for inclusivity. The situation where people blackwash things are the absolute best times to actually unleash their creativity and find a way to introduce a new character that can resonate with people, and earn their spot. Forcing a character to change for the sake of change doesn't solve the issue.
as a words i quote and saw from someone else that i think works well is "if you absolutely need a character to have thee same skin tone as you to relate to them, it's superficial because that's not what makes you as a person" there's way more to a person than just their skin
Yeah well said. It's funny how this is done to try to "fix" something, but it just ends up insulting *everyone* (everyone sensible, at least) - white people cos they keep stripping us away as if there's something wrong with us being there, and you because you're like, "give us our *own* characters!" Which is kinda funny because honestly, making new characters or highlighting less well-known characters would be the most natural and most interesting way to do it....
Try tekken. Lore and character design are overall meh when compared to MK (with some huge exceptions of course), but oh boi the gameplay … Best fighting game ever. period
I think it's mostly laziness from the part of producers, along with an unwillingness to take risks with original stories starring ethnically diverse characters. It's easier for them to market safe stories that don't challenge the status quo in any meaningful way and only swap some characters' genders or race every once in a while.
I miss the days when people loved movie characters based off their skills and story arc. Blade was my favorite to the point where I was saying "That's literally me!" meme unironicly
Bro. I was coming down here to say the same. Blade was easily in my top 5 favorite film characters growing up. Admittedly, I never read the comics for Blade. Jackie Chan was probably my top favorite though.
For me its Afro Samurai. I love that character (in the films not the games obviously) Then its Vampire Hunter D. Im a boring white English woman on the wrong side of 40
I have never paid so much attention to race and skin color in entertainment as I have throughout the past 7 years. Never used to care outside of historical accuracy. But it's incredible how the fight against racism has gone totally backwards by the people claiming to combat it.
maybe you should just not care like most people. who cares if a black actor get cast for a historically white role? they have literally put up with it in reverse since tv and movies became a thing. just dont care its easy af. you and the metatron are just weird racists who care too much about whiteness.
That's the problem, when you try to do it this forceful way in the end creates more tension and can turn people who weren't racist, sexist etc. more extreme and have the exact opposite result. That's why there are more tension in the past few years. Nobody denies that racism exists, but trying to convey in every media that all white men are bad, let's portray them as such and let's get political in every movie/TV show is not going to help the problem, if anything it will create more problems. Doing this they are not going to change the views of people who are already very racist, but it can change the mindset of some people who previously weren't. Sadly changes in society like this takes time, if we compare how many people were racist in the 1950s-60s compared to 2000s-2010s there was a huge difference, but from early 2010s to now 2020s, we're going in the complete opposite and backwards direction
"You need a black skinned character in order to feel identified with them" throw the personality, story and everything to the trashcan, just the color of their skin "you can't identify with someone with a different skin color" Mmmmsssss that sounds like racial segregation to me 💀💀
@@Le_Phantom yup, well thats what many programs are thinking, like the producers of vikings valhalla and the infamous BBC. They all believe about representation by melanine color. Thats why in viking valhalla, the black viking females are all badass and very respected. In the serie vikings, floki decides to spare the muslims but wage a full war on Christians. Why? PC reasons
Africa has a such a big amount of cultures, stunning landscapes, legends and heroes it's honestly puzzling for me to see so little of those things put on screen.
Like, do we always have to watch Northmen and Romans and medieval knights? Forcing black people in those settings almost implies that there aren't any cool stories that can be set in the African continent, and that's just not true.
West Africa has a rich history in itself, but the Western Black diaspora have a weird obsession with North African and East African history instead. Basically they'll talk about everything besides their own ancestral history. Recently because of all the redundant TH-cam videos about it, they know about Mansa Musa but that's all they know. If these people would pressure mainstream media and foundations to fund documentaries including of West and Central Africa-instead of distorting history through movies and pop culture-that would be far more productive. Even archeology in these regions is low, and there are books there from centuries ago that are becoming lost in the absence of preservation.
And whose fault is that? No-one is gonna represent Africa better than Africans. It's on Africans and those of its origin job to do so. Is like a great product that fails to be marketed properly. It it won't sell!
I would die for some more content about Africa itself. As a wantnabe history, I find it frustrating how little history, stories, and culture from the continent I get. There will be dozen upon dozens of books on slavery, but virtually zero on africa itself.
"Black kids need black heroes in order to feel represented". No. They don't. They need role models that will teach them valuable life lessons, regardless of their skin color. Period.
Anyone else feel like blackwashing an established character for representation goes along the lines of "Here have the crumbs we, the enlightened, see fit to give to you."? It is even worse in historical adaptations. "Have a participation trophy, cause we can't be bothered to adapt black history."
You my friend are smarter then most people I see today. If you take an iconic character and then change them in such a superficial way then you're a moron. if we have to we can make a new character who is say "Black" and boost them up if we can already find an established character that same ethnicity to boost.
I don’t normally comment on videos but as a African American teenager, i agree with you wholeheartedly, I wish I was able to see a video like this when i was too young to think about race and skin color, me and my friends were actually talking about slavery yesterday, and at times like those where at that moment I don’t really feel proud of my skin color. i don’t know why I think that it’s always light vs dark (honestly it’s most likely because of social media, recently been trying to get that mindset out of my head) I wish we could all get along no matter what color we are, but that seems more like me being optimistic and not wanting to look at the reality of the situation…
There are always going to. D people who hate you no matter what, but there are also plenty of people who don’t think this way, so instead of losing hope just be realistic. I live in a very racist área, but some people are nice, so I’ve learned when to be more open and when to keep my peace.
Most of us have been raised to believe in judging a person by the content of their character than their skin color, but as always, there are groups of people who try to inflame and spread hate for their own purposes. You shouldn’t feel ashamed for things you never did and especially not for things you never had a choice over. At the end of the day, just be the best person you can be and forget the rest.
I don’t usually comment on anything I watch on TH-cam. However, I really appreciate your view in this video. I am an African American that grew up in a mainly white community just outside of Seattle, Washington, USA. I have seen and experienced racism within the community and also within my own family. I’d describe the nature of that experience as being too black for some in the former and not black enough for others in the later. However, I always found that I never could really understand why my “blackness” was more important than my humanity as a defining characteristic. I love my appearance. I love my heritage and the culture I have the privilege to be a part of. However, I do not enjoy any of those things being boiled down to the superficial when what makes me an individual is connected to so much more than my skin color. Thank you for taking the time to make this logical video and saying things that are truthful .
This reminded me of the lyrics of Black or White by MJ. He didn't want to spend his life being a color. And, although I do think race is important to consider as we are not treated differently because of it, it starts being a problem when actual people are erased in defense of their race
@@HulittyJing Are you sure you want to use MJ as an example of clear thinking on this issue? ...or any issue? I mean, I think you should REALLY separate an artists lyrics (which are frequently NOT written by them themselves) and who they actually are. This is particularly important when talking about figure in the entertainment community.
I think that blackwashing existing characters is actually more damaging to POC than it helps, because it is basically the admission of the creative people behind it that there are no historical POC worth making movies about (which is simply wrong) and they can't come up with good original stories and the only way they can make POC represented is to leech off the legacies of already existing characters.
@@thomasmann4536 Why? I am not interested in you adopting another "reason". It is far more important that you to stop lying and saying that you KNOW the answer. I could live with idiots like metatron and commenters here saying they SUSPECT what the reason was for a specific incidence of non-traditional casting was. ...or, for another example, it would be excellent if ever they had and showed that they had statements from the writers or producers that explains why a character's race/sex/orientation was changed. Be an atheist..or agnostic. It's okay to say "I don't know". At the very least have the decency to say, "I suspect...and here are my reasons for my suspicions". If after all this you still want possible "reasons" listed....I can give them to you.
@@quewalabear8575 to any reasonable person it should be clear that it is implicit that anything one says is only their personal opinion and not objective fact. Even when they state a scientific consensus, it is under the caveat that this is only the current consensus, not the ultimate truth. But I guess you spent too much time in dogmatic echo chambers and you forgot that. Yes, this is a suspicion. Obviously, it didn't fall from the sky, and is reinforced by words and actions (and in some cases non-actions) of producers, actors, and other public figures. If you ever went to twitter, you would know this. But no, you already made up your mind before even entering this discussion, as evidenced by your choice of words. You will just dismiss any evidence pointed out and just push your own narrative. But please, humor me, and state those "reasons".
@@thomasmann4536 "You will just dismiss any evidence pointed out..." I would LOVE to do just that. Just one problem: ZERO evidence...in this channel's videos or in the comments sections thereof... EVER gets presented! Seriously, just once, I won't even dispute it, just once present evidence...a video, a tweet, a quote, anything! "to any reasonable person it should be clear that it is implicit that anything one says is only their personal opinion and not objective fact. " Well, that is in fact a lie. I don't know why you would even try that tack, unless you are trying to present the Donald Chump defense of, 'you can't hold me accountable for any lie you catch me in as I was expressing my opinion.' Incidentally, most of this is a distraction from the fact that it is still a lie to claim you have knowledge, based on experience, of something you did not actually experience. To say you have evidential knowledge as to why a specific change in a story occurred, when in fact you do not possess any knowledge through evidence, is to lie. I think that is almost axiomatic at this point.
Metatron, I applaud you for this. As a Black gay guy who absolutely loves history and media viewing (my identity has nothing to with this but is important for the counter narrative) I am so tired of really fake "inclusivity" tactics by media and pseudo-historical narratives instead of just LITERALLY telling the actual history. What about Mansa Musa, we STILL haven't got a movie about him? Or African Orixa's? Or more about Leonardo's Male Apprentice? Why not create authentic media about diversity in their respective cultures? Encanto despite being fiction is still an amazing representation of Colombian Latino culture in an autentic way. It's just....just make a movie about Kanem Bornu and leave my man Charlemagne and Zeus alone. Thank you as always for stating the truth in a respectful, nuanced, and not intrusive way.
I am the exact same brother I love being a black man but I watch our race get treated like babies so often, i also don't like this media a promotion of making it algood to judge white people any circumstance and then even questioning black people makes the white person "racist" so often..it helps absolutely nothing and actually serves to ruin the thought patterns of our young black folk.
I want more european stories. Historically accurate normanic and Germanic stories. I was saying to my brother in law the other day who is black. It seems like in America both of our true heritages and true cultures are irrelevant. We've been simplified to white and black instead of german or Nigerian descent.
I think you're missing the point @@CouchAlien. It's not about getting more european stories but about stories that are about people from a culture and not people who simply share a skin color. European, Asian American or African feel kind of reductive to the wide variety of cultures they contain.
I love the fact that a lot of people who claim to be progressive are ok with painting historically "white" characters black. While simultaneously ignoring all "non-white" historical background from other cultures around the world. This specific agenda just furthermore pushes (very subtly) the colonialist idea that black people (and all "people of colour" for that matter) have no culture of their own. I wholeheartedly agree with you my friend. Cheers from Brazil 🇧🇷.
@@avgvstvs7 This is not a debate man, i'm just writing a comment on TH-cam. I'm not debating anyone specifically, just criticising an idea. And yes, someone saying that people of non-european descent have no culture is not something you hear everyday, but this was a very widespread idea propagated by the countries of Europe during the colonial period. They wanted to extract resources from the colonies but they didn't want to look bad, so justified their actions by saying they were in a mission to help the uncivilised tribes and bring progress and culture, very high culture, to them, along with metropolitan domination. The cultures of native peoples were relentlessly diminished, to the point that some cultural Darwinists didn't consider them to be culture at all. Entire peoples where extinguished with this shitty justification. And since things and ideas don't just disappear out of nowhere, this idea still influences public contiousness to this day.
I agree. It's patronizing. Put bluntly, it's poor POC instead of praising your diverse cultures/history I'll change the skin color of an historical character...
You make great points. I'm of Scottish, Welsh, and Irish desent and ABSOLUTELY identified with Bruce Lee, Mohammed Ali and many others who weren't my skin color. The idea that their race or ethnicity were somehow critical to my looking up to or emulating that individual or character literally never occurred to me. By the same token, I often played Chewbacca when playing as a kid, pretty sure he's a Wookie and therefore not even my species.
Yeah I really don't get this whole identity thing: I grew up identifying with Jackie Chan, Beast & Jubilee from X-men, and Ripley. Am I a Chinese female teenager covered in blue hair? Was I ever? Nope and it never mattered to me.
Great video. It made me look back at my own childhood. I always loved Ariel’s red hair (mine was brown) and I wanted to be Princess Jasmine or Pocahontas. I also played Michelangelo and Donatello as a ninja turtle. As an author and artist I am baffled by society today. Someone told me once that I should not be drawing Indian characters because I’m not Indian - that project was about my followers on Instagram choosing which mythological character I would draw them as - for that particular drawing I drew a young Indian girl as a blue, female god Krishna. Though I researched each mythological creature or figure, essentially that art project was cosplay. Thank you for creating this video.
Umm as indian Krishna actually male not female obviously some parent give Krishna to son and daughter as name but in mythologically Krishna is male if you want female hindu goddess you should pick durga a hindu warriors goddess
@@runajain5773 I am aware. 😊 However, my follower made the choice and I saw no reason to tell her no. There were a female Polyphemus from Greek Mythology as well.
as a dark skinned mixed race kid, i would have loved to have a character like mace windu or miles moralis but not if it meant erasi g an existing character. i identified with luke skywalker, steve austin, Jonathan chase (manimal) and mr. spock it actually says a lot about your psychology if you can't identify with someone of another race
Remember, the people now engaged in black washing are generally the same people that support discrimination in education and hiring. They think it's good in fact, because "it's for the right reasons"
Wait, you did identify with the shitty friend who betrayed the heroes, just took Han Solo's ship and started wearing his clothes, just because the Lando was black? Get outta here!
For me as a white kid, Captain Sisko was (still is) the best Captain in all of Star Trek. To me, Kirk represented curiosity, cunning, and heroism, Picard represented intelligence, discipline, and diplomacy, but Sisko represented strength, determination, and leadership. They all had their positives, but between the character writing of DS9 and Avery Brooks aggressive portrayal on-screen, Sisko spoke to me the most and he was someone that I looked up to and wanted to follow above all others. Louis Gossett Jr.'s characters in Iron Eagle and Toy Soldiers inspire similar feelings of respect and admiration. He brings a certain stage presence to his characters that make him fun and likeable but at the same time demand attention and discipline. That's not even mentioning all the other amazing characters that happened to be black and the actors that brought them to life. Michael Dorn, Morgan Freeman, Carl Weathers, Denzel Washington, James Earl Jones, Eddie Murphy, Wesley Snipes, Danny Glover, and plenty more. These actors and their characters have been on the screen for decades. The entire premise that successful and respected white characters have to be converted into black characters in order for black people to have icons to aspire to is asinine and completely disrespects all the work that these people have done.
As a white man, I’d love to see either a TV series or movie on Mansa Musa and the Malian kingdom. I’d argue it’s one of the most interesting nations in history and I firmly believe it could be successful if it was created. I’d also love to see stories from Aztec, Mesopotamian, and Egyptian brought to greater light. The human experience transcends things like ethnicity. We don’t need people to be exactly like us to learn, respect, and be inspired by their stories.
Ethicity plays a big role in how esthethically aithentic will the movie be. Because obly watching the stpryline doesnt make the movie,setting getting to know and feel the characters do as well. And pulling people everywhere so it becomes diverse isnt progressive
If you want a good Aztec movie watch apocalypto (I think it’s Aztec, might be Inca or something of the sort) that movie is seriously one of the best movies I’ve ever seen. There’s a reason its reviews and score as soo good.
Though not historically accurate, "The Last Samurai" was an awesome film in that ALL the Japanese people in the film, extras included, were played by Japanese. No Koreans, no Chinese, no other Asian nationality. True Japanese. No whitewashing, no blackwashing, etc.
...and this helped the film....how exactly? I mean, if Japanese actors/extras have a hard time finding work, I applaud and congratulate the film on giving them needed screen-time. But in what other way does an all Japanese cast make for an "awesome" film?
@@quewalabear8575 Cause its in a historical Japanese setting. Imagine having a movie about the numerous slave revolts in the US and having a cast of 80% Mexicans. It would feel off putting wouldn't it?
@@almalone3282 I actually love that question, Al, but it is one Super Awful analogy compared to the original poster's statement. I mean, Christ!...how did you manage to mess that up? 😄 Talk about comparing apples to oranges. What you should have asked, to make it analogous, is one of two 'apples to apples' questions: Either: 1. Imagine having a movie about the numerous slave revolts in the US and having a cast that was NOT 100% African-American. It would feel off putting wouldn't it? ...or you could have asked... 2. Though not historically accurate, "The Birth of a Nation" (2016), a movie about a slave rebellion in Virginia, USA, is an awesome film in that ALL the African-American people in the film, extras included, were played by African-Americans. No African-Canadians, no African-Carribean, no Black actors from UK...no other African nationality. True African-Americans. Is that not just simply awesome? Fundamentally dishonest of you to make the ratio in your scenario so radically different from what the OP expressed about the Last Samurai. But I will be be a fair and honest and answer all three scenarios. Pay attention and see if you can understand what I am saying but more importantly WHY. 1. It MIGHT feel weird, But that would really depend on the reasons for it and how noticeable it is. 2. Although, I have never seen TBOAN, I don't imagine it that makes it a particularly "awesome" film, in and of itself...unless the context is giving several out-of-work African-Americans some employment and/or acting experiences (a group that is statistically underemployed in general and in film industry jobs). Now, THAT would be an awesome aspect about the film's production, but it would not by itself elevate the film to "awesome" status. Which is why I asked my question. I wanted to know what EXACTLY about all-Japanese cast made it awesome. Just THAT aspect, in and of itself, or did the OP notice some difference in the performances or in the "feel" of the film? 3. I would only find it a note-worthy level of "off-putting" if there was some inexcusable or nefarious reason for THAT casting decision. I mean, FIRST we would have to get to the point where we had a film of such scope. To be direct about it...has the world EVER had a film depicting many slave rebellions in the US? Now, how many films about samurai wars have there been? Two of my faves are Kagemush and Ran. And of course you have Tommy Cruisey in the Last Samurai (which I've never seen)...and BUNCHES of others...right? Have YOU ever seen a film about many slave rebellions in the US? Me neither. To get to the point: If watching said film where an empathetic depiction of events, though fictionalized, and well acted, and well written, and well produced...but to keep costs down and get it done 80% of the actors were immigrant latinos, or if the film were filmed in Mexico under Mexican funding and THEY employed Mexican actors... ...well, then my answer would be, it might not be my preferred casting choices, but I certainly wouldn't whine about it on the internet, nor refer to it as Mexican-washing. PLEASE get me to the point where I have so many slave rebellion films. Anyhow, THAT is why I LOVE your question...because it points out how there is a disparate impact to so-called "white washing" in comparison to so-called "black washing". If you took the total library of films and shows and had them at your disposal to watch, but you only watched works that had only white faces... you could watch into the hundreds of thousands, possibly 7 figures, of different works. If you did the same with an eye toward only black faces...what would you get? A thousand? What would the ratio be? I mean, on any given day of programming what is the ratio to white persons depicted to black (or just non-white). 10 to 1? 20 to 1? 15 to 1? And then apply that to actual LEADING roles. ....or lines spoken. ....or variety of roles. ...or favorable/non-favorable character types. And then to say that replacing a non-white actor with a white actor, or vice-versa, is just as bad or has the exact same impact/harm? 🙄
@@quewalabear8575 I said 80% because the slave revolts weren't 100% blacks, white people joined in too, hell they where the one who taught the slaves how to operate a gun
The problem with the idea of "blackwash" or "whitewashing" is that race is a very complex subject and the lines between different ethnicities can blur heavily. The people that complain about racial inaccuracy also tend to be hypocrites. Why don't people that complain about "blackwashing" boycott Marvel Movies for not having the Scarlet Witch cast by a Jew, why don't those people tell us to throw away nearly all documentaries and movies about the hundred years war and 3rd crusade because Richard the lionheart is described as English indeed of French, and why don't those people demand the Movie 300 be recast by Greek and Persian actors only. I am okay with anyone playing any role racially as long as that person's race change doesn't destroy the narrative. I am okay with a white actor playing Saladin, or an Arab playing Richard the Lionheart because the crusades were a religious, not Ethnic conflict. I am against a black playing Lincon or a white playing MLK, as both people's life stories revolved around race.
@@arpandey698 So you're okay with films set in Central Africa containing no black Africans? There's a key distinction between "whitewashing" and "blackwashing". The former is seldom done due to racism, the latter usually is. When white people are given roles in the west (which is white dominated) which "shouldn't" be filled by white people, it's usually done because that white person is bankable/popular. It isn't done due to some racist ideology or motivation. Whereas when a black person in the west is given a role that "shouldn't" be filled by a black person, it's usually done because of a racist ideology or motivation-- how do we know this? Because the companies literally come out and say this. They advertise their "diversity" policies and agendas. Hiring someone for a job BECAUSE OF THEIR RACE is racism. It's illegal. It's really simple. This is what most people object to with the "diversity" stuff. And man, watch an advert. Blacks are everywhere. Here in the UK blacks are about 2% of the population. But you rarely see an advert without a black person in. And I'm not exaggerating.
I feel like rewriting to a new race, regardless of the direction, feels like a sort of cheap way of making people included. Second hand representation versus a new, unique character who represents the culture in a meaningful way and which shows kids they deserve to be unique and are respected for that uniqueness.
@Yung Murk do they? Not come across anyone saying that and I'm very into the fandom. Edit: actually on reflection, there's definitely going to be some butthurt racist saying that, I've not come across it yet but I have no doubt some moron has said something like that. Hopefully it's just a very small minority though
Youre not respecting uniqueness though when it's all based on skin color. We are far more unique for literally everything else about us than we are for our race. Shit, a tall and short man are genetically more different than a black and white man. Where's my short kings representation at?
That's like Finn was by far the best character in the sequels, and would have preferred a movie focused around him. And many, many fans agree. Yet people like Kathleen tried to convince him that the fans despised him.
@@jonathanward3633 I haven't seen it either myself, but if we take the context into account; woke people ruin literally everything and all they think about is race, then starting to hate any new black character is an unavoidable outcome... I wont blame anyone for noticing an obvious pattern, being that they toss token black characters into literally everything and it always sucks... But what do i care, i sure wont watch it. Anything new is trash, because the regressives rule the anti-entertainment industry.
You know... I am black, and never saw the *_"need"_* to be *_"represented"_* by a *_"character that looks like me",_* considering I base how I treat others, by their personality rather than race. And oddly, I say that without changing Marvel, or delving into the mytiad of "universes", there is already a character, who's personality represents me already, and that character is none other than Wolverine. Even as a kid, I recognized with Wolverine. And I understand his motivations even more as an adult.
The fact that his healthy and reasonable position needs to be explained and defended shows without a doubt how sick our Western societies have become. It is like a virus. And it is spreading.
I think education plays a part in it - some of the subjects I was taught are not even in the curriculum now, and many kids are leaving school not knowing how to read or write! It seems that modern society is only happy if you're woke, green, inclusive and preferably gender neutral!
Imagine if Martin Luther King was alive today. MLK: Don't judge a person by their skin colour, but by the content of their character. Black people today: I can only identify with characters who are black because I can't identify with the colonising yt people. MLK: Wait, what?
That's an incredibly racist remark. You first made an unbelievably offensive presumption of what MLK would say, then you generalized all Black people, and completely ignored the fact that southern white Americans have routinely supported a political party solely due to their adherence of white identity politics. The people who consistently are incapable of identifying with non-white characters are racist whites.
I'm Asian and I watch a lot of classic movies and many of these have white actors playing Asian characters and it never bothered me nor was it ever an outrage with my grandparents and their generation when I used to watch it with them. Yul Brynner was great as the King of Siam, and his Pharaoh in the Ten Commandments' performance is unmatched. 55 Days of Peking was a great adventure war movie and it had white people playing Mandarins. Anthony Quinn also played as a Filipino guerrilla in Back to Bataan but they were all great movies to me. I guess the problem with John Wayne playing Genghis Khan was because John Wayne was such a famous actor when that movie was made but we never saw it as deliberate or was made with ill will. I read Wayne was fascinated by the Mongols so he made that movie. John Wayne also brought a lot of minorities to play in his movies but nobody gives him any credit for that. Its different with modern Hollywood because we know it is deliberate to fulfill quotas from special interest groups and the people who make these new movies say so and then they attack their critics by accusing them of the common accusations.
if you are from middle east or south asia of course it won't bother you but if you are from south east asia and east asia it will bother you it feels like the american love to do historical revisionism and making excuse using hollywood. if a country can't make a proper movie does that mean you canibalized and disrespect here history why not let them do more colonialism history moviee so people can wake the fuck up instead of historical revisionism.
The prejudices of the day wouldn't allow Asian actors to play certain roles. A romance between an Asian character and a European/North American character? The Asian's played by a white actor (the occasional exception was 'white man with non-white woman'). An admirable Asian character? Another European/American in makeup. The actual Asians weren't leads. _The King and I_ isn't allowed in Thailand. It's a cultural thing about depicting the monarch. I used to watch some of those movies without questioning the casting. Now that I know something of the history, I wish it could have been different.
I love what you wrote and agree. I don’t think you have even implied racism isn’t real but times and changed and they way we view things have changed but it doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy the King and I still. And we got to this change by actual people making changes. It was never going to just flip. History is a bunch of gradual changes of different peoples decisions to do different things.
One of the reasons for this was the extreme scarcity of Asian actors in Hollywood. You only have to see how, in the 1960s, any time the narrative called for a Chinese woman, they had to summon the half-Chinese actress, Nancy Kwan.
I was subjected to a 'historical' viking thing last week. I was gleefully told it was historical. which is why there was a black woman chieftain.. as an historian, I had my intelligence insulted by it. "but it's historical!" no. no it isn't, it's propaganda.
For the sake of “feeling seen” and “being represented”, blackwashing the prevalence of Roman legionaries would give them an inaccurate version of the Roman conquest of Northern African. They definitely provided Auxiliaries and famed for their light Calvary, celebrate the true history. I would love to see a Mansa Musa tv series.
That depends on when you're talking about. Later in the Empire there absolutely were legionaries recruited in North Africa. Granted, most of them probably wouldn't have looked much like African-Americans, whose ancestors came from a different part of the continent.
I love this vid chap. So much truth with so much passion. In my opinion those pushing 'anti-racism' these days seem to actually BE the racist ones, while every one else just wants to get along and be who they are. My heritage is mixed and these modern anti racists want every one to be treated differently based on race (to fix inequity and historic inequality) - but that leaves ME and MY FAMILY with no where to belong, we fall outside of the neat little boxes, the categories they want everyone to exist in.
When can we finally stop using "ethnic" to mean "nonwhite" (whatever that, itself, means) and start using it to mean "human," which is what it's supposed to mean? Every group that has a culture is "ethnic" - even the English. And we need to stop using "ethnicity" as an exact synonym for "race." The two are not the same. Ethnicity has more to do with language, religion, and culture than physical appearance.
Ethnicity is about where your ancestors came from, not where you live, for example being English is an ethnicity, and ethnic English people are white, you can not become ethnically English just because you move to England and form a connection to the culture and speak the language, you may be of British nationality, but you are not English, but it also is different to race as it is based off of where your ancestors or you actually came/come from, down to your village if it is secluded enough, race covers people who’s ancestors came from certain continents, but those people may not be living in those continents any more, but they will still be of that race, and they will be a large range of cultures within those races, but yes I completely agree, white pepper are ethnic Europeans, and literally anyone and everyone on earth is ethic to somewhere so I agree that people should stop saying ethnic as if it is not white
Well said. I especially appreciate this because I'm white, but not of "Anglo-Celtic" ethnicity (to use the term floating around lately where I live). People always assume they're synonymous but they definitely are not, lol.
These last weeks Ive seen two examples of forced Inclusivity in a pseudo historical show. In Vikings Valhalla, we can see a black woman portraying an historical white male jarl. In the last kingdom, a black priest appears in a IX century village in England, and nobody is surprised. That selection of cast really spoiled the feeling of the storyline.
I don't mind the switch in Vikings: Valhalla and they did explain it pretty well (just like why Robin Hood's merry men include a "Moorish" character), but the race swap doesn't make any sense in The Last Kingdom to me. However, if one goes into these shows expecting historical accuracy, they'll be sorely disappointed. For me, I like to see these shows as a gateway to get people interested in history to start doing their own research
@@horizonzeromom well, I can't imagine how a woman will be elected as jarl in a Viking settlement. Even if she is the widow of the previous jarl. But a woman of color? It's just stupid writing and woke agenda for the sake of it.
@@horizonzeromom Did they explain it well? The Vikings wiki says her grandfather went trading to the middle east or something and fell in love with a woman there, and that's why she's black(?). Not only does it sound pretty far-fetched that someone would fall in love with someone who they can't even communicate with, but why the fuck would a Jarl go trading? Why would he leave his land for so long? How would a woman be Jarl? That doesn't make any sense. They also had to change Haakon's name (and violate Scandinavian naming convention), since Haakon is a male name. Thus the character is Estrid Haakon, instead of Haakon Sigurdsson.
@@maurovaz6081 I never said her name should be Haakon Sigurdsson. That's the name of the historical figure, but since Haakon is a male name, and the character is female, they had to make Haakon her last name (presumably they thought not having even that small nod to the historical figure would piss people off even more). That's what I'm saying, that they changed the name (to Estrid Haakon) and violated Scandinavian naming convention.
I think it is save to say that those activists who fight against racism have become racist themselves, when they say that black-washing is okay or that your favourite character has to be the same skin scolour than yourself. As a tabletop RPG player I have noticed that that players who belong to a minority often want to play characters who are like themselves even if it does not fit into the campaign.
Okay but anime and RPG tabletop games are fictional fantasy worlds, not factual history. As long as people aren’t being all “I fixed it” people can draw/play whatever they want. Plus anyone and everyone would gravitate towards things/people that are familiar to them… especially if in the past, they rarely had the option compared to certain (white) counterparts. Fiction is made for fun, not for realism. History is history, it happened and whatever race someone was, that’s non negotiable.
@@zachanikwano I agree, mostly. I believe if a fantasy world has racial lore and whatnot, however, then it should still be followed. Good example is my own D&D campaign with custom races and lore. Lorewise, Genasi don't exist in the land the campaign focuses on, but one player asked to use their never used before Genasi. I told them, that if they do, being that no other Genasi exist in the land the campaign occurs in, they would probably not be looked on fondly. After all, imagine someone who looks vastly different than anything you've seen before walks up to a shop. Some people will gawk, some will ask questions, some will be extremely rude and racist.
@@zachanikwano No, even an RPG campaign has to follow some rules. If the source material says that all elves are fair skinned than you cannot play a black or just dark skinned elf. If you play a campaign at the court of Louis XIV than you simply cannot play a ninja. BTW it is interesting that Japanese roleplaying gamers do not seem to have are problem with playing non-japanese characters. Remember Record of Lodoss War? This is based on a D&D campaign the creators played and there is not a single japanese (looking) character in it.
@@CommanderRedEXE That's correct. And your solution would also be my solution, but only if it is possible. I could allow a ninja at the court of Louis XIV (and he would have problems with being exotic) but not a PoC elf in Middle-Earth, because they do not exit in the background material.
I don't have a problem with people of any race cosplaying characters of other races (provided you don't whip out the shoe polish of course) but I'm definitely against changing the race of fictional characters that already existed. The rings of power is a good example because these people have no respect for the source material. Dwarves aren't black because they live mostly underground, so there is very little need for melanin in their skin. That's why black people evolved to have melanin in their skin. Melanin is to protect your skin from sunlight. And female dwarves are all supposed to have beards and be almost indistinguishable from the men. The people creating the show are flagrantly disregarding the lore of Tolkien's universe purely for themselves. If the show was it's own thing, I would be fine with it. If they wanted to create a fantasy world with black dwarves, I'm cool with that. Hell, I might watch it. But they tacked it onto Middle Earth, which just doesn't make sense.
You’re kind of fucking up the phenotypical reason for more melanated skin, because for a species like sapiens that was going around for 400,000 years it has explored the majority of the planet yt skin as we know it, showed up 8000 years ago. 😊
If they were to be actually accurate. They wouldn’t even have that much hair and they would like an old yt man’s ball sack before looking like a regular Northern Europe
I literally turned off Troy soon as I saw Achilles was black it angered me so much lol… if you want to give a black man a show utilize the real great black civilizations I’d kill to see a show including the Nubian bow men. My stance on it is our favorite subject is the only thing people can change and still be recognized as intellectually competent. DONT CHANGE HISTORY
History and mythology is a still untapped source: I would love to see and historical series set, for instance, in the empire of Mali or in ancient Abissinia with only african actors. Just like I would love to see fantasy series about Gilgamesh with only middle eastern actors or Maui with only polinesian actors.
There has never been 'Nubian bow men' - that is Euro-American take on Ancient Nile Valley population as sharply White and Black to steal the Egyptian civilisation for Europe. The Bow men were Kushite (Kingdom of Kush). Nubia is an historical region of the Kingdom of Egypt and of Kush. There was never a Kingdom or tribe or people called Nubian. The term Nubian came to use by the British in the 1920s on Black people of Egypt (Egypt and Sudan were then one country until 1954).
A black Achilles is only possible in the “woke” times. They don’t know history well and therefore, is easy to distort and play with it ! For some reason black people think that they are special, and as a result, feel that they can interfere everywhere, do or say anything ,right or wrong because they learned, that they can get away with it if, they can blame everything on racism ! But does it also show how muck black people want to be part of the whites culture ? In fact that could be the whole problem with the racism issues… the fact that black people want to force themselves in someone else’s culture and world (blackwashing ?) but instead of blending, they want to be noticed and therein, lies their troubles ! Other ethnicities, have cultures to identify with and that is why racism, is part of everybody’s life… and not a focal point ! In truth, does black people have a culture to identify with… ? Just asking ! Young children don’t mind about the color of their heroes skin ! That only becomes important, as they grow up !
@@ohlangeni guess the accounts of them serving as auxiliary in Rome, Carthage and The Byzantine’s were all incorrect lmao. Or their battles against the Mughal empire orrrrrrr the written journals from when Persia invaded the knack of Khush stay off of Wikipedia my friend 😂
One of the biggest problems with people fixating solely on skin color and ethnicity is the accidental racism. I once read threads on twitter from people who's heads were so far up their own asses that they thought bringing back (in essence) segregation would be a good and safe way to cater to everybody, completely missing the point that one of the best ways to cater to everyone and be *inclusive* is by uh... Not separating them by asinine categories (which is what segregation was and *still is*) I feel like this weird narrative of focusing on race and ethnicity first is a kind of backwards approach to the idea and goal of ending things like racism, cultural stigma, bigotry, the list goes on. Now you could take that last point and say, "well nobody is *SAYING* to focus on that!" which for the most part is true (though there's definitely some radicals out there on both ends who at the least insinuate that fixating on race is okay), but the fact that people still are, regardless of intention, should be an issue that we *should be* talking about (and not just focusing on one specific side or part and saying "look! See how bad THEY are!? WE are never like this!" That is a destructive and very, very dogmatic approach to something that shouldn't be.)
Content and Character means nothing to people these days. It's who you align with ideologically and the colour of your skin that matters to people. In other words, racism and tribalism. Two things I absolutely despise.
in a couple of generations, we switched from idolizing the coolest dude to the most ethnic dude. aren't we supposed to admire a person's character and not the color of their skin?
Something even funnier is that it's Hollywood people who try to teach that, while they're paid millions and other starve to death, they're doing this to show how concern they're about other people, while supporting brands that uses child labor. But yeah people still praise them.
@@schlurpie Not only in the US, but the US really has a big problem with that. I blame the two-party system, everything is exaggerated and polarized because both parties try to present themselves as the radical opposite of the other one, so it's always too much or too little. With more parties that's not possible anymore, they have to agree in some things sometimes.
Thank you so much for explaining this. I had a problem with explaining why I don’t like the new Ariel in the remake of the Little Mermaid because I think changing almost anything about a character is wrong, not just skin color. When I think of Ariel, I think of the colors red, green, and purple (the remake didn’t keep her iconic fiery red hair) and I just can’t see her with any other color scheme. It’s the same with, say, Leonardo from TMNT. When someone talks about that character I think of the colors green and blue. If someone changed his mask to yellow or even purple like his brother Donnie, I would still say: That’s not Leonardo. I just don’t like it when characters are changed much, especially drastically
Most of the time when someone on youtube is going to speak of "whitewashing" they proceed to be extremely racist towards white people. This was probably one of the rare videos that fairly addresses the issue. Thankyou for having common sense!
@@quewalabear8575 Well, on a case by case basis prove to me that there is racist intent. Almost every single mention of whitewashing when addressing to white characters wrongly pressuposes discrimination or racism on the caucasian party and ignores the reasons why most actors were white in the west. That is prejudiced against white people. The only way something is actual whitewashing is when it has the intent of superimposing race in order to remove the original one on an already established entity and replace it with it's own, racist acts require intent, otherwise it can never be racism. It also more closely resembles the actual definition of whitewashing outside of the context of race, which is essentially to deliberately attempt to conceal unpleasant or incriminating facts about (someone or something), whitewash is something that is used to paint a brick wall to "hide" the uglyness. With this in mind whitewashing becomes alot more messedup than most people who wrongly use the word believe. A person whitewashes to hide the fact that the entity is a different ethnicity and they do not like how that character looks in that ethnicity, so they change it, it is not the changing of the ethnicity that matters but the intent for the most part, this is why it's not a problem for say, people to cosplay black characters as white or white characters while being black, but speficially if done to make a statement and intent is added, that then makes that kinda racist. I think an actual example of whitewashing would be how we know that when westeners depicted a black leader once as white, it was whitewashing, they specifically wanted him to look "whiter" and more significant as propaganda, remember these people were racist, but I can't remember for the life of me who did this to begin with or when, I could google it later if you'd like. What is also NOT whitewashing is white depictions of Jesus(who has been depicted as every single race by other races) or why are old Japanese Samurai movies all had Japanese actors, which is the same reason why most actors in the U.S. were caucasian.
@@zereimu Normally I would pick your theses apart in detail, but their so many contradictions I will just delineate them, flat out and leave you to elaborate ( make excuses ) "Almost every mention of white washing..." I'd be willing to bet that is a lie. You haven't seen almost every mentioning and if you had you would have some handy quotes...but you don't. "The only way something is actual whitewashing..." An obvious lie. I mean, for effs sake. You even go on to give a different definition ( the standard one that is most often given first in a dictionary). There is no "only" way. You are killing your arguments and credibility by trying too hard to win. You could have had a good point by just saying "one way for it to be whitewashing". But then, of course you would have to address what people are actually talking about, not a straw man argument covered by semantics. "racist acts require intent, otherwise it can never be racism. " Another obvious lie. A very convenient one...right? I can never be guilty of a crime if you can't prove I had "criminal intent"? Absurd b.s. and you should know it by now. In fact I suspect you do know it...whether you acknowledge it or not. Intent is NOT a necessary element for any act...general crime or racism as it has been adjudicated in courts. And then this definitive statement... "What is also NOT whitewashing is white depictions of Jesus" coupled with your previous definition... "The only way something is actual whitewashing is when it has the intent of superimposing race in order to remove the original one on an already established entity and replace it with it's own..." Is just an example how crud your thinking is. You can't make both those statements with any level of honest knowledge. ...I am not sure what your point is about Samurai movies. Who complained about Samurai movies? Anyone? Got any quotes? Of course you don't. Same with the caucasian actors thing. What point are you making? What straw an argument are you trying to punch away with on that one? Again...include actual quotes...if you can! 😄 I'll wait... Peace! 🕊
@@quewalabear8575 I am not arguing with you, I am educating you. Your argument is all over the place, I recommend you read my comment atleast twice. Yes, racism requires intent, this is not only painfully obvious, but by definition this is the case, racism is not a crime, you are confusing it with hate crime or other acts that may be done out of racism. For something to be a hate crime, for example, it requires racist intent, otherwise, it's just a crime that happens to not be a hate-crime. A hate crime needs to be prejudice motivated based on the individual being a member of a certain race. I recommend you look up these definitions.
In recent weeks, I've seen a lotta examples of forced inclusion on a mock history show. In Vikings Valhalla, we get to see a black woman play a historical white male jarl. In The Hollow Crown, a black Lord shows up in the English Court , and to no one's surprise. This choice of actors really ruined the feel of the script.
I mean, if that's your biggest historical complaint about Vikings or Vikings Valhalla, I've got some bad news for you... Those shows are more or less fantasy series very loosely based on history and the sagas. As to the African jarl, they explained that she had that position because she was the widow of the jarl and that her mother was someone her father brought back from Alexandria, which is definitely somewhere Norsemen (Viking was an activity, not an ethnic identifier) visited and also something where having people from further south in Africa wandering around wouldn't have been unusual.
@@brucetucker4847 If you think that Vikings in those ages would have accepted an African Jarl I would ask you what are you smoking and where can I get some. This is almost as insulting as black Julius Cesar. I understand inclusion but this is just so plain ridiculous it's almost sad. Also the series takes place in Europe not Tamriel, or Westeros so it's not exactly pure fantasy.
@@sebpaul3548 It takes place in an alternate universe in which people in Norway had never heard of England until Ragnar Lothbrok went there. There probably would have been more resistance to a woman acting as jarl than a black person. Norsemen didn't really care all that much what you looked like if you fit into their culture, and once they started traveling all over the western hemisphere they were more ethnically diverse than you might think.
Don't forget femmewashing! When it comes down to it, I agree with you. Your video is well put together it valid points and good info to back them up. As far as Hollywood goes, I think the biggest thing we need to ALWAYS keep in mind is that the entertainment industry is just that. They are, by no means whatsoever, a facts-driven organization. They are money driven, pure and simple. If your "insert focus group here" is being represented, it's not because they care. It's because your focus group, or their version of it, is going to make them filthy rich. Keep up the good work.
femmewashing is stupid making a male character a female in European history movie is like making a anime and putting a CGI character it doesn't fit and is trash
@@Xbalanque84 Very true, though I'd say both. Depending on the individual/ group. Some have so much money they care more about the ideology; some still want the money more.
As a little girl in the 1980's, my favorite cartoon was well ahead of its time in inclusiveness: Jem and the Holograms. In the main line up of protagonists there were originally two white characters, one black character, and an Asian character. In later seasons they added a Hispanic character as well. I always loved seeing ALL the different characters, because I came from a mixed race family that included white, black, Asian, and Hispanic! It absolutely represented the world as I grew up knowing it. With that said, I am melanated. When people see me they are often unable to identify me racially, but they can clearly see that I am not white. But do you know who my favorite character was on Jem, with its full spectrum of diverse characters?? One of the white characters and why?? Because she was the little sister of the main character and THAT was what I identified with, because I too am the baby sister of a big sister with "lead character vibes." I was given a whole range of characters in that show and I LOVED that show. It was so ahead of its time in so many ways... But I think it says a lot that as a child of color, who could have identified with any of the three characters of color, it wasn't race that mattered to me. It was THE CHARACTERS. Growing up in a multi-racial (as well as multi-religious) family, I have never in my life understood people's hang-ups on race. It literally confounds me. I am a historian now, with a PhD, which makes me a minority in my field in almost every imaginable way... And it never made a difference to me. The history department I graduated from was primarily white. We only had one non-white faculty member. And I never once felt discriminated against or had any problems connecting with my faculty and finding mentorship. The black studies department at my alma mater tried for years to recruit me, but I have never been interested in "black history" or "white history" or any other racial qualifier history...! I study HUMAN history. It's not that historical facts "don't see color" because they certainly do...! They see and appreciate ALL the colors and interweave them. THAT is history. Thank you for this channel. I have only just found it, but I am definitely now a fan.
The reason why I am particularly against any kind of colourwashing is because nowadays, it's a very subversive movement that actually fosters racism and division. It (un)consciously tells people, youth especially, that you can't enjoy a character unless that character is of the same ethnicity as you.
I never even once in my life have thought "oh that dude looks like me! He is my favourite character now!" when watching a movie or tv-series. Now when I think about it I realize there are a lot of black people who are my favourite. Is this really even a thing?
Same here. The whole "pEoPLe wHo lOoK LiKE mE" thing keeps getting brought up by those who demand more and more 'representation', and I can't for the life of me understand why that's important to them. If a white person insisted on only watching media that included white characters, wouldn't we consider that racist? If it's racist for the goose, then it's racist for the gander. (As much as current politics keeps trying to move the goalpost of racial dynamics to make it so that no matter what, _only_ white people can be racist. I don't buy into any of that neo-Marxist horse crap for a second.) I'm Hispanic and I couldn't even _begin_ to recount to you all of the great shows, movies and video games I've enjoyed whose main casts didn't contain any particularly impressive Hispanic representation. Hell, a lot of toons I enjoyed as a kid involved a markedly NON-HUMAN cast (some involving talking ponies, anthropomorphic ducks, mutant turtles, just to name a few) who definitely contained some characters I could relate to, despite being...well, human. Relatability has far more to do with how a character's emotions and experiences are conveyed than it has to do with how similar they are to you, the viewer, on any superficial level. That's not to say it isn't at least appreciated when a piece of media tries to pay due respect to a certain culture-movies like Coco and Encanto get my own stamp of approval, even if they contain tropes here and there that I personally find a bit eye-rolling-it's just not all-important. And those who treat it as all-important, well, I personally think they have some very deep seeded issues they need to work out.
People like Mirabel from Encanto because she has glasses... People like turning red because the main character is an Asian girl. It is an actual thing - an Asian girl with glasses who doesn't like Mirabel or turning red
@@thethrashyone Good comment, Thank you. I love the goose/gander thing! Definitely going to use it 😎 I'm honestly starting to feel that we are growing ethnic kids racist these days, LOL. Like for example black kids are told that they need black heroes. No kid would care about that if someone never did plant that idea in his head.
My favorite character in He-Man, for example, was Skeletor. I'm pretty sure there isn't a person ALIVE I could compare him to. Not only was he neither black or white, I'm pretty sure he never washed.
I really appreciate what you're doing, adding to your content discussions like this educating the ignorant and explaining the harm that misinformation can do. If we are taught lies about history, then we can't learn from history properly. If we can't learn from history, we're going to keep repeating the mistakes or species has time and time again. Misinformation can be harmful and I'm so glad somebody is stepping up with the knowledge and the ability to debunk it from a neutral stance.
I've always though that if you need to change a character to represent me, then I'm not worth original characters. The creative decision to change the race of Ariel didn't piss me off, but the logic that it was "for my sake" is belittling.
Notable race change in a Marvel Character was Nick Fury. He was white and in 1998 he was played by David Hasselhoff in Nick Fury: Agent of SHIELD. He was changed in the comics in 2002 by Mark Millar basing him on General Colin Powell and was played by Samuel L. Jackson in Iron Man, just 10 years after Hasselhoff. Going from the former 80's and 90's cool guy Hasselhoff to the current cool guy Jackson. I don't think anyone cared because Jackson fits the role and OWNS it. For fictional characters there is some leeway. For historical people, there isn't. Imagine Crispus Attucks being played by an Asian. Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. being played by Tom Cruise. Emperor Hirohito played by a Latino.
@@Houndguardian Ultimate Fury was based on Samuel Jackson, then the MCU came around and they took stuff from 616 and Ultimate as basis, so they went with Jackson as Fury... And then Ultimate Fury was backported into 616 (as an adopted son of the original Fury, iirc) and basically took the thunder of the original.
To be honest Samuel L. Jackson was a great Nick Fury. Thing is he could have been a new character. It would have been better if they replaced Nick Fury altogether on the comic and the movies with a new character.
When I saw Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, I did not realize that there was a black version of Nick Fury in the comics. I was just familiar with the white version of Nick Fury. Because Samuel L. Jackson was so brilliant as Nick Fury, I could not imagine anyone else playing Nick Fury. There are many movies and TV series where the color or gender of the main character does not matter. A good example is The Equalizer. Edward Woodward played Robert McCall in The Equalizer in the 80's. Denzel Washington played Robert McCall in The Equalizer in 2014 and 2018. Queen Latifah played a female Robyn McCall in The Equalizer in 2021-2022. Personally, I thought Denzel Washington's version of Robert McCall was the best. There are very few if any who have reacted to the change of color or gender in The Equalizer.
The original Nick Fury was from WW2-era Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos. The MCU Samuel L. Jackson version was based on the Ultimate Marvel version. It made more sense to have the contemporary Nick Fury be more modern than the WW2 era one.
Your speaking to people who won’t watch your videos. They see the title and start crying. Thank you for all you do for history. It is my passion and I will watch anyone who puts in the effort and does the research and puts the truth.
My biggest issue was always that the meaning of whitewashing changed away from depicting events without it's negative and controversial events parts and now only concerns race. Even more so considering the etymology behind whitewashing.
@@1685Violin the people who call out double standards like this end up actually also doing the same thing. For example calling someone out for accusing you of whitewashing or racism while doing something similar themselves, but then either in the process or eventually you end up actually doing something racist anyways. Even unintentionally. (This is way more common then you might think, emphasis on non intentionally, especially by the ones who think that they are the rational enlighteners spitting cold facts, but the facts were actually not that simple and there was more context missing.) You tell me how many layers of hypocrisy there is there now.
White washing historical persons was much more prevalent in movie/television productions in the early to mid-20th century (John Wayne as Attila the Hun for instance). Not so much in recent times which is why it's not as much of an issue (although it still occurs). More recently, movie/television productions have gone in the opposite direction in order to overcompensate for the past digressions while trying to be more culturally inclusive. This is why you see more instances of Black/Asian actors portraying historically white characters.
Always on point. I think that the best way of making good representation in fiction is creating new and better fiction with a good variety of characters. Check The Expanse. Great fiction. Great Characters. Great casting. My favourite character is probably Camina Drummer. A woman, Ojbwe canadian, and a Belter (haha). And other shows that change characters and casting making it different to the source material, but in a good way could be The Boys and Invincible. In The Boys, all the arc of A Train is great, and not only makes sense with the overall story, but improves it and gives that character more dept and meaning. But in historical stories, leave the characters as they were. If it doesnt make sense to cast POC in that historical setting, maybe that`s not the place to do it... I`d love to see some great african epic like Shaka Zulu was... and Probably I would have a lot of favourite POC characters there...
This video is a great field study on psychological bias. Those people heard when he criticized blackwashing, but were unable to noticed when he criticized whitewash
This is from a perspective of an artist. Imo changing the ethnicity, skin tone and/or race in art just because you want to see what a character would look like/for an AU is completely fine! Having live action movies or theatrical plays (especially those as theatre is more about imagining and movies about showing) where EVERYONE is race blind cast is okay as well imo but only if there's nothing about race in that story and only if it's not about ACTUAL REAL HISTORICAL FIGURES (how would people react to a BLACK!Hitler or WHITE!Martin Luther King???). It's just about showing your creativity and interpretation of a character. On another note I also find it weird when fairy tales/legends/folk tales taken from specific groups with very strong and well-known cultural representations with cultural heritage have their characters' races changed so much that it doesn't fit the original at all (Eg. Snow White, a German girl, who is named like that, because he has "skin as white as snow) is being cast as a brown Latina - I would also dislike it if they made her blonde as she's described to have raven dark hair, but that would be less of a problem as at least her hair colour is not in her name...). You have so many tales from all-around the world! Use them! Show stories no one has heard before, instead of interpreting the same ones over and over again and changing everything about the well-established characters we love (unless everything is changed to make it make sense as Disney's Princess and the Frog did with the time and place changing to fit Tiana being black and it was so great tbh) But! Whitewashing and blackwashing are both bad. For me the actual "-washing" part happens when someone insists that this character is _____ instead of _____, attacks others for not using their design, spits racist remarks about the race/ethnicity they dislike etc. And of course the situations I mentioned already (historical figures etc.). Also... People will say that you're "whitewashing" a character if their skin tone is not exactly as it is in the original. Sometimes it can be hard translating a 3D/live action character to 2D drawing, because they don't have as much... well... dimension, and the light/shadow balance will be simplified. An artist might pick the base skin color of a character with an eyedropper from a photo and people will still get mad. And it gets even worse when you add light's intensity, weather, time of day, multiple light sources and an art style that naturally manipulates the skin tone (so many pastel artists get shit for "whitewashing" characters, when all they do is just make their skin color fit the overall art style). Cosplay is okay. You're just having fun.
Totally agree. Hell, we have thousands of years of the Black African history that is not covered in movies, TV shows or video games. Same with native South and North American civilizations. Even Asia is very sparsely covered in our pop culture. So many historical, mythological and folklore sources are just overlooked. You want to push your anti-racist agenda? Well, make a movie about British colonialism from the natives perspective. Or a biopic of some great character like Tomas Sankara (although they will never do that, he was a revolutionary socialist). Why we never see that? It is because Dysney, HBO or whoever would have to take additional financial risks putting money into something new instead of yet another sequel or "franchise reload". All the previous whitewashing was about making blacks earn no money, all current blackwashing is for keeping all the money in the hands of corpos.
Thank you. Right at the end where you said it doesn't matter what colour skin the character has in order to like them, but who they are and what sort of a person. This is exactly what was spoken of by one of the most amazing people in history; Martin Luther King in his 'I have a dream...' speech. And those who think blackwashing is ok/ doesn't exist are straying so far from his message
You’ve explained this whole situation and how I’ve always personally thought about it way better than I could. For that alone, I’m subbing :) very well articulated video
I think that what they mean about feeling represented on screen is the validation of one self. My daughter wears glasses since one year old and loves to see a character that wears glasses on screen, but that doesn't make her favourite character immediately.
I've been wanting to watch the Vikings sequel, but every time I'm about to start, I remember there is a black woman who plays Jarl Håkon, and I'm reminded about the wild inaccuracy in it. I heard they have viking surfboards in it as well, it's too ridiculous to get into
Black person from Germany. What you explain in the last segment of your video is absolutely correct. I have the feeling that especially (African- to an extent ALL) Americans focus a lot on "race" and skin colour. Thats one reason why I started to become very critical about the whole black empowerment movement. I get the point that racism sits deep within our societies, I also experience that but the solution can never be becoming race fetishists. I am with you, I can feel represented by anyone whatsoever. Most of my friends are white and I do not care about one man's skin colour unless he gives me a reason. I like your stance on this and nothing you said here was problematic. PS.: I do not aim to hurt anyone especially not African Americans. I am just summarising my perception of matters here.
@@dv96_dk and you just demonstrated that you are a half-wit. I said black person from Germany as in the territory. Although, your crude and misguided theories could argue I am not German (even though that would be against OUR constitution that you might not even know at all) your half baked logic can't deny that I am living in a place called Germany. Do not try to explain that GERMANY is an ethnicity as well, Patrick. Now back to the sewers you fool.
@@dv96_dk I think you're confusing nationality and ethnicity here. Their ethnicity can be black but their nationality can simultaneously be German. German can be both an ethnicity or a nationality.
@@michaelcho3564 I’m not confused. You seem to be. German is an ethnicity before everything else. Everybody can get a german passport. Doesn’t mean you’re german
Here are my thoughts about the whitewashing/blackwashing problem with historical movies/series. If there is no way to know how a character would have looked like or where they came from, I can understand casting actors of different ethnicities but the moment we know how they looked and where they came from, at least go the extra mile to find an actor that comes from a similar ethnicity. For example: If a character is known to be from a Middle-Eastern country (such as Jesus or Moses), cast an actor who actually comes from the Middle-East. If the character is known to be from India, cast someone who is actually from India or a neighboring country like Pakistan or Sri Lanka, etc.
@Samurai Pizza Cats no theyre not the same and you know nothing about history if you think that, they are now heavily mixed with other ethnic groups, just like the italians from today are not really similar at all to the ancient romans
Name 3 arab actors... you still wanna sell a movie and draw audiences. you want big names as the stars of the movie. whitewashing was mostly convience. John Wayne played Ghenghis Khan not because anyone wanted to whitewash history, but because there simply were no A list mongolian actors in Hollywood. He was a big name, so they picked him. Even today. Is anyone going to make a 200 million dollar budget blockbuster Ghenghis Khan movie with a bunch of unknown mongolian actors...
Eh, personally I don't actually care if the actor is the "right" race. Plus that can backfire, ironically, if the actor doesn't look "ethnic" enough (like with Disney's live action Aladdin remake). All I care about is that the actor looks like the person they're trying to portray. Most of the time, you'll want an actor of the same race as the character, but I can be flexible as long as the individual looks close enough. Like, a good example would be The Last Airbender. They complained a lot about whitewashing there, for good reason too. Katara and Sokka look Native. The actress they got to play Katara not only didn't look Native, but didn't look anything like Katara. The actor playing Sokka though, give him a tan and he could've passed pretty well for Sokka (looks-wise, at least). Some would say that's racist of me to say that, but I don't care. I'm happy to apply the same standard to white characters too. I care that they're a good actor, and they look like the character. That's all.
I love the cosplay aspect being brought up in this. I am big into cosplay and actually see a lot of discussion about cosplaying as different races often. Often, what I will see is that people are perfectly fine with black individuals cosplaying as characters that tend to have lighter skin, but white individuals can only cosplay as lighter skinned characters since "black people have less choices so let them have their characters". This is all without anyone ever changing the color of their skin. I actually had seen an anime that had all or nearly all black characters, Cannon Busters, and absolutely loved the main character. I decided that I wanted to cosplay as him. For reference, I am a white male. However, knowing the general thought on a white person cosplaying as a black person (again, without any intent to change my skin color), I felt like I had to go to one of my good friends at the time (who is a cosplayer of color) to ask if they thought it would be okay and "allowed" for me to do this.
Uhhh...the main character in Cannon Busters is not a "black person". In fact MOST of the characters are not "black characters" even if many of them are.
@@quewalabear8575 They are, though. Philly the Kid is described as "light skin black". And I misspoke and misremembered, but even still, there are many black characters in the series.
"black people have less choices so let them have their characters" Like if a redhead decides to cosplay as Nessa, she prevents a black girl to do the same.
You know what I would LOVE to see? I would love to see a show on the Iwa, the nature spirits in Vodou (or Voodoo as its more commonly known). Those characters are so interesting and there is so much that could be done with them by showing their Western African representations or their Haitian interpretations and all the stories those two traditions hold!
they should use a native American to play Pocahontas, an Asian to play Mulan, a black African to play Black Panther, an Arabian to play Aladdin, a white European to play Ariel etc. instead of race swapping characters.
Honestly all this "related to the ethnic character i see" really speaks to how little imagination and activities these people have in their lives. I am a short chubby chinese man and i have felt like i related to PLENTY of non chinese characters and real historical figures. So damn shallow these people are, but the noisiest.
I just want to say, I'm a bit more lenient on older movies where they dressed up Caucasians to look like other ethnicities, because they had a smaller, more homogeneous field to choose from. But also, I suspect the movie with John Wayne as Gengis Khan was billed more as a John Wayne movie than a move about Gengis Khan. Sometimes they're just like, we have this actor, what can we put him in. Ah, an historical drama. Even if we now consider it ridiculous. Look at it this way, if you're in a relatively monocultural area, and you want to do things about other times and places, everyone you cast is going to be from the local area.
it's the same in old westerns. a lot of the native people were white actors because they didn't have a lot of native people working as actors, however when more natives started becoming actors they were cast in such roles.
From what I understand John Wayne wanted this role and because of his star power he was able to overcome the producers/ director who did not agree with his casting. The movie bombed at the box office...
Yes, Gjengiz Khan was a pure "John Wayne movie". Wayne bought that role, a dream of his life since childhood. B.t.w. it's the world's most deadly film as it was shot in a nuclear polluted area. Most participants didn't have a long life after this production.
I would also be rather exited for an african history TV series.Achilles and stuff are old socks I already know quite a lot of european/american history,but not as much of asian and even less of african history,and that would be a good twist.
I do not and have NEVER agreed with the idea that black kids need black heroes... We just need heroes! ( Yes I am black btw ) and growing up my heroes were Batman, Vegeta and Dante from Devil may cry... Their skin colour had nothing to do with it.. it was their morals and behaviour that I loved.. The problem with TOO MANY black people is that we see ourselves as a colour first and a human second.. THAT NEEDS TO STOP!!! We all need to stop looking at ourselves and others as colours first.... We need to start looking at eachother as humans! That being said yes.. blackwashing is just as bad as whitewashing.. and everyone I know who is black hates it when they raceswap just to pander to us.. like they tried with black superman... We want original black characters like Blade or Black Panther.. We don't want well established characters to be turned black..
In general, this discussion about whitewashing and blackwashing is, after all, quite similar to the endless discussion about the existence of misandry or "why only misogyny is a problem and the accusation of misandry is only a clumsy attempt by men to downplay the existence of misogyny". So yes, it's a tangled mess full of problems. Personally, I see that both misogyny and misandry exist, both are a problem that should be fixed, and that the existence of misandry doesn't rule out the existence of misogyny. And same with the whitewashing and blackwashing.
It's not that complicated. The racists & sexists are upset their hypocrisy is on full display for all to see and are lashing out with accusations of racism/sexism to shift the focus away from their amoral values.
@@mgntstr Trying to teach most people about the absolute truth that has virtually no ties with agendas, is the hardest thing possible than you can even comprehend. Let's say if you had made a mistake in the past and you hated that mistake with great hatred. What would you do to fix that mistake?
One thing that is always overlooked in these discussions is the option to transpose or adapt the source material wholesale to a different cultural landscape. That way you can't claim it to be historical anymore but you are honest about that and you can still tell a great story. That is how we got works of art like Kurosawa's "Ran" or the Coen brothers "O brother, where art thou".
Other than complete adaptations, also representations of the original material get a sort of free pass. It's obvious that Shakespeare's Julius Caesar played in a theatre of Kinshasa will likely have a black cast, that the Turandot represented in Europe will probably have an European princess Turandot, or that the Madame Butterfly played in Japan will have a Japanese Captain Pinkerton.
I'm white, slavic and lesbian. Nothing ever stopped me to have fav characters who are not white, slavic or lesbian. My favs can be straight, male, black or even not a human being at all. Or... I'm pacifist and vegetarian, but some of my favorite fictional characters aren't good people. And it's ok. They shouldn't be my copies... Representation is a really great thing and it is awesome to have a big variety of different types of characters in media, but 1. history is history and it's inappropriate to change it, especially if it's documentary 2. People can have favorite characters that do not have similar identities
I’ve been ridiculed my entire life for having an obsession with Rome since I was a child. Even learned how to speak and wrote Latin I just love what Rome was and what all they did.
And most importantly I acknowledge there wouldn’t be a “west” today not like we know it without Roman sphere of influence for gods sake the world well into a darn age once they were gone.
Amazing video! I really think if they want inclusivity, they need to build new characters, or bring amazing characters/stories from the past. I also hated Gods of Egypt, I couldn't help but feeling that I was watching Nordic gods with egyptian background. It distracted me the whole movie :S
_Whitewashing_ issue was very famous in the production of _"Ghosts in the Shell"_ live action movie, but no one care about _Blackwashing_ issue in _"Little Mermaid"_ live action movie and _Shaggy_ in animation series
I am brown and when I grew up and saw a movie and books I had no problem with associating myself with the main male character and see the story through their eyes.Race never mattered
I just had this convo w/ someone who called me an "ist" the other day but as i told them. I may look white but I'm only half Britton. The truth is i would be just as bothered by a white guy playing Shaka Zulu for example. Furthermore these arent just "characters" in a play. They are peoples ancestors. Real people from real history w/ real families who's descendents still walk among us. It doesnt matter what culture it is. In short Hollywood please stop jacking w/ history!
I admire your attitude on this, but since you're new to the US you don't know how things are here. Race Hustling is a multi billion dollar industry here. No matter how calmly you speak, no matter how much reasearch you show, no matter what facts you present, or logic you use, the people your trying to convince will _never, EVER_ listen to anything you have to say on this issue.
I was looking at some random stuff in an old news paper archive site and actually saw an article use the phrase race hustle from like ..idk now but I had the search filter set up to 1930. My point is I was surprised people had been complaining about that in the same words for so long.
Straight to the point. The whole representation based on skin is in itself a racist concept, and i could never understand why the fixation on the character being the same skin color as you... Like, my fav hero of all is a white, blue eyes, super buff, godlike alien, and the second fav is a blonde, space ranger, bounty hunter, woman who's raised by bird ppl... Those things didn't stop me from looking at them with admiration and a desire to be like them.
You made so many awesome points in this video 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼 The people that do nothing but focus on skin color and complain are the EXACT SAME as the racists they claim to be against. Its annoying, SICKENING, and hypocritical
I'm not white, but i agree with you.
For a while i've been trying to mention to people that history needs to be accurate, rather than "politically correct".
To be honest, it's hard for me to differentiate between morality and "political correctness". As someone who dislikes taking political sides (in absolutes, at least. I do what I must), it seems to me that many people like to accuse others as "PC" when views don't align or happen to somewhat parallel with what is accused as "PC".
Another thing that I find perplexing is that what is deemed as "politically correct" varies between times and cultures. In the past, it was perfectly acceptable to own slaves and those who spoke against it would be considered both "Un PC" and someone to be disregarded, if not disposed of.
Yea, cuz otherwise its not history it's become something else.
@@Acesahn it's easy to differentiate. Political correctness is fascism disguised as politeness.
Political correctness is concerned with shrinking the Overton window and pushing it in a particular direction. Being moral is about adhering to a proper hierarchy of values.
Depending on your location an Arab can be white
@@bocchithean-cap3404 or be ACCEPTED as white
I'm a black African dude and I don't understand these people who say they get attached to a random character based on their skin color. This race obsession in the west is weird. Like why not just create new stories
Based on what type of stories
You are the ones that are obsessed with race. We have to change everything because of black fragility.
Rarely chad youtube comment moment
Then I recommend the channel From Nothing. It’s a Sub Saharan African history focused channel.
That’s what I do
I used to get scared because of my OC’s not “looking black”
(They have black skin)
I had these OCs for years and I’m not letting anyone ruin them
They represent what I am inside
And I created way to much OCs-
And stories in my head
I honestly despise the assumption that we need characters to look like us in order to identify with them. It's something people do to a stupid degree, and not just regarding race but on something as simple as hair color.
I'm white and a redhead, so, when I was a little girl, everyone I knew assumed my favorite Disney heroine was Ariel. My mother even assumed this and got me an Ariel Barbie doll and a Little Mermaid sleeping bag and stuff like that...…..My favorite Disney heroine was and still is Mulan.
Lllllllet's getdown to business...
Best Disney princess evar. Arguably also one of the best set of songs in a single Disney movie.
I believe it is because people for two generations now have been foreceably "collective-ized." That is to say, "who you are as an individual is completely unimportant because you can change nothing on your own, but WHAT you are is everything. Be better for your WHAT community or else" This type of thinking is a psychological sickness and ultimately devalues all human life. I am an independent consciousness, as are you. None of us are mere cogs in a community.
I agree, I always identified with the blue teletuby even though I'm not a man in a suit.
@@meyes1098 i am, and Teletubbies is racist against me.
I am old enough to remember online discussions where some posters would ridicule Asians, blacks and gays for wanting a protagonist like themselves AND to have seen other posters crying foul at the missing white guy heroes in e.g. Star Trek: Discovery 😂
As a white girl who was a little kid when the Princess and the Frog came out, I absolutely adored Tiana and she was my favorite Disney Princess along with Belle when I was little. Skin color doesn't define who you will attach to in a fictional piece of media. A white person can adore a black character just as much as a black person can adore a white character. I don't get why people make such big deals out of this when it all it does is divide society more and more
True
who is making "such big deals" out of this?
@@MiracleClover So...twitter is your point of reference in regards to what you think the obssessions of the general public are?
@@quewalabear8575 BLM protests, the mayor of Chicago saying she'll only hire poc employees, and the whole debate on blackwashing. There are plenty of real life examples to choose from unfortunately. Twitter isn't my only frame of reference but it's the most loud and outspoken one
@@MiracleClover Ok...great! Now pick any OR all of the examples you have cited and explain how they are examples of people "obsessing" over skin color.
Fighting racism with racism is so stupid.
I liked your comment, well said.
It's like fighting fire with a flamethrower, damn i wonder what will happen...
"Only friendship can destroy racism. Not racism against racism"
- FURRY_HUNTER_420
It’s not fighting racism is about offing wyites
you don't want to know how often i encountered "racism and sexism is bad, unless it's agaibst white men", coming from white women.
I was in a Lord of the Rings group, and I said that I didn’t like the races of the characters being changed, because Tolkien was attempting to create a new overarching Anglo-Saxon mythology. I was called racist. I said that I was extremely against the White washing of the book Earthsea, which very specifically was created to have less white people, because the author wanted to have black main characters. When Sci-Fi channel did an adaptation, they intentionally cast white actors, thinking they needed to represent the nerd audience, and I was vehemently against it. He said that that didn’t matter, I was still a racist, because he had never heard of Earthsea.
On the other hand, in the books, most of the population of Earthsea was brown in colour, and there probably not enough actors of that hue to populate the scene.
As someone complaining about whitewashing on Anime characters, Biblical characters and Egyptian characters I can relate to this.
@@malcolmtas5601 that is likely not true, there are likely thousands of black actors waiting for Earthsea to get made. I don’t have an issue with Earthsea being mostly non-white because that’s what the author intended, and I think rather than making black hobbits, black (as in racially) Numenoreans, black elves, which is not what the author intended, I’d much rather see a properly done adaptation of Earthsea.
The first mistake you did was to try and say you agree with any point they have. To those people it only show that you are weak.
What I find really interesting is that every people should have their own culture, creeds and land apart from white Europeans. Africans should have their culture. Arabs should have theirs. But the English, German or Swedish should not have their culture and land respected. They need to step aside to let other people take over the culture in their country of origin.
I have stopped cared about being called a racist a long time ago. If being racist, sexist, homophobic and whatever give you a normal understanding of reality and common sense I guess I am that then. Clearly not being that makes you insane in this day and age.
You can not reason with such people; they view things in a binary of "i am right, you are wrong". You should answer them with a question, and question their view....force them to have to think as it's the only way of undoing such indoctrination.
"What about wanting a white character white is racist? like wise, what is racist about wanting a black character black?" You'll hear the gears turning in their head, as they slowly move into NPC rage mode.
I've found it kind sad that we can't have a historical European fantasy setting anymore. You can either have a "modern diverse America" fantasy setting or an entirely non European concept.
And this is labelled as "diversity" by people who, despite what they are claiming, are so used to seeing themselves (Americans) in fiction that they can't stand a setting where they're simply not present (European). They're currently giving Asian fiction a chance, but even so there are already people who complain that the majority of manga and anime characters are Japanese instead of black. And as anime is becoming more popular, so is the above mentioned type of Americans becoming more common.
This is called hobby gentrification, plain and simple.
@@georged.5595 Lmao this is from a huge portion of the minority group in America you can’t say all Americans, a lot of Americans still keep their traditions like European descent Americans, I’m 4th Gen Polish-American on my mothers side and my dad is a 4th Gen Italian-American and we still celebrate things like the polish constitution day and the Carnevale of lent.
@@kevinprzy4539 Good to hear that. At least the descendant of Europeans who still did not forget their culture and traditions to become something like "white people"
I very much agree...
As someone who is currently trying to come up with their own fantasy setting (for a game i'm working on), i sure wont add *ANYTHING* just to be "inclusive" or "diverse"... To *hell* with that... All white, all beautiful, even if only to piss them (regressives) off...
Let white people have their own mythology and fiction, dammit...
But of course, only blacks are allowed to make that demand, apparently... Ugh...
Like, i get it, white people are awesome and make a lot of cool shit, but that doesn't mean you deserve a slice of the pie... Copy the recipe, sure no problem, but stop trying to infest every good thing white people have... *Just create your own stuff,* holy hell...
It's disgusting... And so telling that they just want to destroy everything we have, and an admittance of their own complete lack of competence...
Creating new and interesting characters of other races, or flesh out already existing characters of other races? No! Take white characters and turn them black! Usurping and corrupting an existing character for your own racist goals is totally the same thing as creating a new character! /S
My god...
@@schnek8927 what demands are we making exactly?? I don't want to be forced into your stories screw that if we don't exist in the universes you create that's fine want to know why? Because we have our own which we would rather see than another tokenism and shoe horning European story production. Plus mind you it's your own people behind what you're seeing not black people!
The skin color, age, gender or the ethnicity of a fictional character has never stopped me from relating to them on a deep level and absolutely loving them and seeing my self in them. whether id be what they go through, their story, personality or their upbringing.
Yes, that's how I feel about LOTR. The stories, developments, friendships, determination... So many admirable characters. I care about someone's heart and will, not physical attributes.
But nowadays...rings of power made Galadriel into a genocidal feminist narcissist, and magic the gathering randomly made Aragorn black. It's frustrating because these characters mean so much more than modern politics
And then there are movies where there are no humans at all, such as Zootopia and Cars.
@@sansakitty9650 You contradicted yourself. You first say you don't care about "physical attributes", but then you whine about Aragorn's physical attributes.
Fr, heck, fluttershy was a PONY of all things lmao and I related to her a lot
thats what im saying man, nunna dat stuff matters, its all about the actual fucking character
Honestly u are right, as an hispanic guy i find weird seeing that someone is completely changed just for the sake of inclusivity and it feels so forced… it feels like something that we most do as part of some sort of checklist… I totally agree that we need new stories bc if we change what’s already there we are not doing any better than ppl in the 30s
it is offensive towards poc and i do not understand how people of color keep falling for it. hollywood is like: "i wouldnt touch your history and heritage with a 10 foot pole but here is a black guy in a drama about the european middle ages." i dont know, i am just a white guy but if it was me i would be offended.
I can't help feeling that those people who put PoCs in a historical incorrect context just for the sake of inclusivity are doibf great injustice to just these persons whom they try to please. Imo this implies that PoC are so naive as not to realize the historical falsification and just be content or grateful to be "representend". I think it's a kind of intellectual discrimination of PoCs to believe they would be simply glad to be shown on screen no matter what context. Imo it would be intellectually honest for both sides to present the past as it was. I am sure that any intelligent PoC will agree that "rewriting" the past is dishonest and brings no advantage or improvement for whatever side of the discussion.
Btw being awhite female the hero if my childhood day was Winnetou. Simply because he was a character of integrity, honesty and great humanity.
(And yes, I know that Karl May's novels are VERY problematic as regards racism and white supremacy. Neverthless he created some fascinating "non-white" characters...)
@in desperate need of a scotch pretty much like the music industry forcing artists to follow whatever hip trend or tune is out there XD
In my eyes I don’t really see it as inclusivity, because these people that change the characters race or sexuality aren’t actually affecting the real character, they’re just making heacannons, thus meaning we’re still not really getting any real representation.
That being said, it’s also important to note that if a director decides to change a characters race or something, it’s not them forcing anything, its happened for a long time now, where directors add their own little quirks to the character.
A good example would be joker, joker was always presumed straight by the directors that featured him in their film, but quite a few directors also made joker bisexual or pansexual. It’s not about forcing inclusivity because jokers sexuality remains up to the director, the next director can make the joker straight just as they can make him bisexual.
If I see a historical drama done locally and there is no one of close ethnicity available its fine, but a large "Hollywood" production has access to people from almost every conceivable ethnicity out there. Still if you are portraying someone not of your ethnicity in a play, be respectful. Doing casting and race changes just for inclusivity is just as demeaning as straight racism, and I consider it racism of a different brand, even in fiction. Now if we talk about an alternate world where things took a different turn and Germans were displaced by Middle Easterners and then the Holy Roman Empire is created by them... well that is just an alternate fictional world and its totally fine!
I'd rather have unbiased honesty than manipulating information
Very true. I also feel that Metatron should perhaps speak on how people have essentially been brainwashed into thinking this way. I don't think they are necessarily doing it, because they are racist or hateful, rather because they have been programmed into thinking this way. To refer to white people as bland flour shit, or whatever it was that lady said, clearly is racist and hateful, yet I feel the reason that lady would say something like that, is because she has been brainwashed into thinking that black people can't be racist. Which is the same reason some black people think blackwashing is okay, but white washing isn't. Clearly anyone with a brain, who hasn't been brainwashed can see that they are both wrong.
If you watch TH-cam channels in countries such as Nigeria, you will often see comments from Nigerians specifically stating, that their people are being brainwashed by western media, to be racist towards white people, they can recognise exactly what is going on.
But he is biased
th-cam.com/video/DxW_JkTKYRM/w-d-xo.html
The truth hurts. That's why people don't want it
@@Excalibur01
Like saying there was more likely black Roman soldiers but still we shouldn't make cartoons about it?
@@EPUEPUEPUEPU More than likely vs they are everywhere and front and center. We don't know but who are we offended if we didn't put them in there? HBO's Rome series didn't have black main characters and everyone spoke with British accents and yet it was my favorite HBO series because of how authentic they made the time period look
Whenever I talk about this with people, I always argue with this point:
"If you get to have black King Arthur (or Black King Henry, Caesar, whoever), then I get to have Asian Shaka Zulu."
Because if you're willing to racewash one way, you have to be willing to accept racewashing any way.
They don't really have any interest in telling stories about non-white characters, and they don't see the culture of other races outside of skin color. Because it's only skin deep to them, swapping out an Irish guy for a black guy makes sense in their heads. They don't even realise diversity can be different groups of white people, black people, Asians, Latinos (who are literally made up of all of the rest), etc.
You're arguing from the standpoint of reciprocity. Many people who want these things have zero interest in reciprocity or 'fairness'. So, unfortunately, this argument likely doesn't work with those people.
*Reciprocist💀*
You're kinda ignoring the historical precedent under which whitewashing vs "blackwashing" exists. I don't think most people would have an issue with specifically asian reimaginings of things, but race exists in context of historical atrocities and lingering social issues
King Arthur was supposed to be ethnic Sarmatian in other words Iranian. One more problem, Arthur is the Anglicanized version of the Roman name Artorius. Why would an ethnic Sarmatian have a name that would be invented by the people who would be invading his kingdom before they ever even had contact with one another?
"The solution to the problem is to stop looking at color and take people as human beings"
THANK YOU SO MUCH! (again) this whole forced diversity stuff is just dividing people by color again instead of uniting them as human beings
I don't feel forced. Why do you? Stop resisting diversity and we WILL be united.
Forced fantastical diversity is not diversity. If your story is about Puerto Ricans, then cast Puerto Ricans. If your story is about Jedi, then cast anybody because most Jedi are of fantastical extraterrestrial species. If your story is about Norwegians, then cast Norwegians. If those things do not matter in your story, then cast as a diverse cast as possible and let those actors bring their own culture into the role as that will provide automatically increase the richness of the story.
@@0ptikGhost "fantastical diversity is not diversity. "
🙄 I have seen some stupid thing written here, but that is the "stupidest". Any diversity is diversity. In fact, fantastical diversity is the MOST diverse of all diversity. Do you actually think about what you are writing before you type it?
@@quewalabear8575 I'm with Edwin Castro and besides, you're not touching that Cheezit!
@@jeffreygao3956 🙄 ah...so you are taking the intellectual approach to this?
😄
Peace! 🕊
Unfortunately rewriting historical events and characters to fit a specific narrative has and will always happen since not everybody seems to digest historical accuracy. But fortunately we have people like you debunking and reporting the facts to spread some light on foggy stuff. So, many thanks for your work, Metatron!
Comminists
@@liammiskell3522 fascists
@@CaptainDisappointing honestly they erased the definition of fascist and just claim it is anything right wing, even libertarianism. Also, CRT is literally communist based
Wait, are you telling me that Wakanda didn't defeat mustache man when Mickey Mouse called for aid after getting all the chaos emeralds stolen from him?
Nordic washing of the mediterranean world is significantly worse than anything else. It's only acceptable because of the Germanic expansion into southern Europe/ eastern Europe/ north Africa following the fall of the western Roman Empire. It's prolonged because of the immense progress made by Germanic countries over the past 1500 years. It's also been prolonged in part due to a global fe-tish for their appearance.
Speaking as an African American, it’s always so strange to me that depictions of slavery in works about American history are always attempted to be made as accurate as can be, but these other works about other cultures can be plagued with the things you describe. It’s important the the cultural identity at the time the work is presenting be maintained, and is the reason why tragic events don’t really see this kind of thing happen IMO. Just because it wouldn’t be disrespectful towards a survivor of a tragedy or crime, doesn’t mean it’s not disrespectful to the culture you’re trying to represent.
Even on American Slavery like maybe it's just that I haven't watched every single thing that covers the topic but they very VERY rarely go into the fact that Americans were not the Slavers, they sold and owned slaves which is disgusting yes but the Slaves themselves were ENSLAVED by other Africans, Hell Africa in some parts still has problems with Slavery today but everyone seems to willfully ignore that bit. So okay because they're not on American soil it's not the same?
Do you feel that being categorized as "African American" instead of just "American" is a problem?
In Britain you dont call black people African British, they are just British.
@Tim Healy so part of that is everyone is labeled by demographic. We have Irish Americans, Asian Americans, Black Americans(I don’t say African because African American applied better to recent immigrants) etc….. it used to be a dividing tactic but now, at least in my experience, it’s just a descriptor.
@@shadowofhawk55 This is why I don't use Asian American because Asia is fucking HUGE. Be specific.
@@dracotias if you're not going to include European slavery by the Ottomans and white privateers, you're obfuscating the context.
I agree with all of this, it's good to see people actually speaking sense. I'm a Native American, so I get less representation than most, but I just want to say that it feels honestly insulting. Like, Blackwashing genuinely feels to me like the ones doing it are just trying to hit a checkmark, they aren't giving the "represented" people actually good characters.
Like, why should these characters be changed instead of giving us our own characters? If I'm playing Mortal Kombat I don't want Johnny Cage to be changed into a Native American, just give me Nightwolf. Give me characters that just ARE, instead of changing ones that already exist. Why should we basically get "sloppy seconds" of already established characters?
I also agree with you that you don't HAVE to like the characters that are like you. I look at King of the Hill for example. I honestly HATED John Redcorn, and he's Native American. I like Dale Gribble more. In Mortal Kombat, I don't really like Nightwolf, I like Scorpion better. I appreciate being represented, but if we are going to have representation, let make it genuine, instead of pallette swapping a character and saying "here, this is yours now."
I think that's a really good point, "sloppy seconds" is really how insulting it is when you take a pre established character and just change the color to fit some sort of agenda or demand, a quota for inclusivity. The situation where people blackwash things are the absolute best times to actually unleash their creativity and find a way to introduce a new character that can resonate with people, and earn their spot. Forcing a character to change for the sake of change doesn't solve the issue.
as a words i quote and saw from someone else that i think works well is "if you absolutely need a character to have thee same skin tone as you to relate to them, it's superficial because that's not what makes you as a person" there's way more to a person than just their skin
Yeah well said. It's funny how this is done to try to "fix" something, but it just ends up insulting *everyone* (everyone sensible, at least) - white people cos they keep stripping us away as if there's something wrong with us being there, and you because you're like, "give us our *own* characters!" Which is kinda funny because honestly, making new characters or highlighting less well-known characters would be the most natural and most interesting way to do it....
Try tekken. Lore and character design are overall meh
when compared to MK (with some huge exceptions of course), but oh boi the gameplay …
Best fighting game ever. period
I think it's mostly laziness from the part of producers, along with an unwillingness to take risks with original stories starring ethnically diverse characters. It's easier for them to market safe stories that don't challenge the status quo in any meaningful way and only swap some characters' genders or race every once in a while.
I miss the days when people loved movie characters based off their skills and story arc. Blade was my favorite to the point where I was saying "That's literally me!" meme unironicly
I still care about all that!
Bro. I was coming down here to say the same. Blade was easily in my top 5 favorite film characters growing up. Admittedly, I never read the comics for Blade. Jackie Chan was probably my top favorite though.
For me its Afro Samurai. I love that character (in the films not the games obviously) Then its Vampire Hunter D. Im a boring white English woman on the wrong side of 40
Sane and normal people are like that
I have never paid so much attention to race and skin color in entertainment as I have throughout the past 7 years. Never used to care outside of historical accuracy. But it's incredible how the fight against racism has gone totally backwards by the people claiming to combat it.
maybe you should just not care like most people. who cares if a black actor get cast for a historically white role? they have literally put up with it in reverse since tv and movies became a thing. just dont care its easy af. you and the metatron are just weird racists who care too much about whiteness.
They brought it back in through the back door.
That's the problem, when you try to do it this forceful way in the end creates more tension and can turn people who weren't racist, sexist etc. more extreme and have the exact opposite result. That's why there are more tension in the past few years. Nobody denies that racism exists, but trying to convey in every media that all white men are bad, let's portray them as such and let's get political in every movie/TV show is not going to help the problem, if anything it will create more problems. Doing this they are not going to change the views of people who are already very racist, but it can change the mindset of some people who previously weren't. Sadly changes in society like this takes time, if we compare how many people were racist in the 1950s-60s compared to 2000s-2010s there was a huge difference, but from early 2010s to now 2020s, we're going in the complete opposite and backwards direction
@@toreadoress that should make one think on what they (those who fund and control the movement) really want ro achieve.
Those who call themselves fighting against racism are the MOST racist.
"You need a black skinned character in order to feel identified with them" throw the personality, story and everything to the trashcan, just the color of their skin "you can't identify with someone with a different skin color"
Mmmmsssss that sounds like racial segregation to me 💀💀
it is haha
@@saguntum-iberian-greekkons7014
Fighting racism with racism, am I right fellas?
@@Le_Phantom yup, well thats what many programs are thinking, like the producers of vikings valhalla and the infamous BBC. They all believe about representation by melanine color.
Thats why in viking valhalla, the black viking females are all badass and very respected.
In the serie vikings, floki decides to spare the muslims but wage a full war on Christians. Why? PC reasons
What about cosplayers?
@@facundomontivero2299
What do you mean?🤔
Africa has a such a big amount of cultures, stunning landscapes, legends and heroes it's honestly puzzling for me to see so little of those things put on screen.
Like, do we always have to watch Northmen and Romans and medieval knights? Forcing black people in those settings almost implies that there aren't any cool stories that can be set in the African continent, and that's just not true.
West Africa has a rich history in itself, but the Western Black diaspora have a weird obsession with North African and East African history instead. Basically they'll talk about everything besides their own ancestral history.
Recently because of all the redundant TH-cam videos about it, they know about Mansa Musa but that's all they know. If these people would pressure mainstream media and foundations to fund documentaries including of West and Central Africa-instead of distorting history through movies and pop culture-that would be far more productive. Even archeology in these regions is low, and there are books there from centuries ago that are becoming lost in the absence of preservation.
And whose fault is that? No-one is gonna represent Africa better than Africans. It's on Africans and those of its origin job to do so. Is like a great product that fails to be marketed properly. It it won't sell!
I would die for some more content about Africa itself. As a wantnabe history, I find it frustrating how little history, stories, and culture from the continent I get. There will be dozen upon dozens of books on slavery, but virtually zero on africa itself.
Who Killed Captain Alex was the greatest African film to me.
The idea that you can't identify with someone because they aren't your color is incredibly dangerous.
Nobody thinks like that girl. But some people do identify MORE with characters who share the same culture, background and appearance as them
@@shani5395 I'm a dude. 💀💀💀
This is truly an underrated comment. It is a very dangerous ideal. It happens all the time.
"Black kids need black heroes in order to feel represented". No. They don't. They need role models that will teach them valuable life lessons, regardless of their skin color. Period.
Yep. The role models excuse was always so bad to me. Anime doesn't have enough Dominicans, guess I can't like it.
Nope. They need fathers.
Remind me of part of Martin Luther kings speech not judged by the color of their skin but the content of their character. You megistus nailed it.
And they also need to feel represented
@@brothershogo8222 Yeah but in the absence of a father a good role model can go a long way you know.
Anyone else feel like blackwashing an established character for representation goes along the lines of "Here have the crumbs we, the enlightened, see fit to give to you."?
It is even worse in historical adaptations. "Have a participation trophy, cause we can't be bothered to adapt black history."
Literally this
Exactly this!!! Yet so many many eat up that tokenization and call it muh representation.
@@m_d1905 they just dont realise what couldve been, but its bound to change one day
Blackwashing is racist. Whitewashing is racist. There. End of discussion.
You my friend are smarter then most people I see today. If you take an iconic character and then change them in such a superficial way then you're a moron. if we have to we can make a new character who is say "Black" and boost them up if we can already find an established character that same ethnicity to boost.
How you going to be so ignorant and not care to hear from someone who literally explain everything??
THANK YOU. It’s hard for me to respect people who say one exists and the other doesn’t.
All racist means is you acknowledge there is a difference..any everyone was an is this by the original definition
Nope
I don’t normally comment on videos but as a African American teenager, i agree with you wholeheartedly, I wish I was able to see a video like this when i was too young to think about race and skin color, me and my friends were actually talking about slavery yesterday, and at times like those where at that moment I don’t really feel proud of my skin color. i don’t know why I think that it’s always light vs dark (honestly it’s most likely because of social media, recently been trying to get that mindset out of my head) I wish we could all get along no matter what color we are, but that seems more like me being optimistic and not wanting to look at the reality of the situation…
There are always going to. D people who hate you no matter what, but there are also plenty of people who don’t think this way, so instead of losing hope just be realistic. I live in a very racist área, but some people are nice, so I’ve learned when to be more open and when to keep my peace.
There is hope. You will find people who look for the person & character first, that inner humanity that unites us all. Sending love.
You didn't capitalize three of your " i "s.
lol.
/j
Most of us have been raised to believe in judging a person by the content of their character than their skin color, but as always, there are groups of people who try to inflame and spread hate for their own purposes. You shouldn’t feel ashamed for things you never did and especially not for things you never had a choice over. At the end of the day, just be the best person you can be and forget the rest.
Don't give up. People care, and you're not alone in your priorities on this matter.
I don’t usually comment on anything I watch on TH-cam. However, I really appreciate your view in this video.
I am an African American that grew up in a mainly white community just outside of Seattle, Washington, USA. I have seen and experienced racism within the community and also within my own family. I’d describe the nature of that experience as being too black for some in the former and not black enough for others in the later. However, I always found that I never could really understand why my “blackness” was more important than my humanity as a defining characteristic. I love my appearance. I love my heritage and the culture I have the privilege to be a part of. However, I do not enjoy any of those things being boiled down to the superficial when what makes me an individual is connected to so much more than my skin color.
Thank you for taking the time to make this logical video and saying things that are truthful .
My pleasure and thank you for sharing your story
One of the most deeply human and intelligent comments I have read on youtube. Greetings from an Italian guy.💪🏻
You sound like a guy with a good head on your shoulders. Don’t change for anyone.
This reminded me of the lyrics of Black or White by MJ. He didn't want to spend his life being a color. And, although I do think race is important to consider as we are not treated differently because of it, it starts being a problem when actual people are erased in defense of their race
@@HulittyJing Are you sure you want to use MJ as an example of clear thinking on this issue? ...or any issue? I mean, I think you should REALLY separate an artists lyrics (which are frequently NOT written by them themselves) and who they actually are. This is particularly important when talking about figure in the entertainment community.
I think that blackwashing existing characters is actually more damaging to POC than it helps, because it is basically the admission of the creative people behind it that there are no historical POC worth making movies about (which is simply wrong) and they can't come up with good original stories and the only way they can make POC represented is to leech off the legacies of already existing characters.
There are dozens of possible reasons other than that. What you have committed is called an "argument from ignorance" fallacy.
@@quewalabear8575 Ok, list some.
@@thomasmann4536 Why?
I am not interested in you adopting another "reason".
It is far more important that you to stop lying and saying that you KNOW the answer.
I could live with idiots like metatron and commenters here saying they SUSPECT what the reason was for a specific incidence of non-traditional casting was. ...or, for another example, it would be excellent if ever they had and showed that they had statements from the writers or producers that explains why a character's race/sex/orientation was changed.
Be an atheist..or agnostic. It's okay to say "I don't know". At the very least have the decency to say, "I suspect...and here are my reasons for my suspicions".
If after all this you still want possible "reasons" listed....I can give them to you.
@@quewalabear8575 to any reasonable person it should be clear that it is implicit that anything one says is only their personal opinion and not objective fact. Even when they state a scientific consensus, it is under the caveat that this is only the current consensus, not the ultimate truth. But I guess you spent too much time in dogmatic echo chambers and you forgot that.
Yes, this is a suspicion. Obviously, it didn't fall from the sky, and is reinforced by words and actions (and in some cases non-actions) of producers, actors, and other public figures. If you ever went to twitter, you would know this. But no, you already made up your mind before even entering this discussion, as evidenced by your choice of words. You will just dismiss any evidence pointed out and just push your own narrative. But please, humor me, and state those "reasons".
@@thomasmann4536 "You will just dismiss any evidence pointed out..."
I would LOVE to do just that. Just one problem: ZERO evidence...in this channel's videos or in the comments sections thereof... EVER gets presented!
Seriously, just once, I won't even dispute it, just once present evidence...a video, a tweet, a quote, anything!
"to any reasonable person it should be clear that it is implicit that anything one says is only their personal opinion and not objective fact. "
Well, that is in fact a lie. I don't know why you would even try that tack, unless you are trying to present the Donald Chump defense of, 'you can't hold me accountable for any lie you catch me in as I was expressing my opinion.'
Incidentally, most of this is a distraction from the fact that it is still a lie to claim you have knowledge, based on experience, of something you did not actually experience. To say you have evidential knowledge as to why a specific change in a story occurred, when in fact you do not possess any knowledge through evidence, is to lie. I think that is almost axiomatic at this point.
Metatron, I applaud you for this. As a Black gay guy who absolutely loves history and media viewing (my identity has nothing to with this but is important for the counter narrative) I am so tired of really fake "inclusivity" tactics by media and pseudo-historical narratives instead of just LITERALLY telling the actual history. What about Mansa Musa, we STILL haven't got a movie about him? Or African Orixa's? Or more about Leonardo's Male Apprentice? Why not create authentic media about diversity in their respective cultures? Encanto despite being fiction is still an amazing representation of Colombian Latino culture in an autentic way. It's just....just make a movie about Kanem Bornu and leave my man Charlemagne and Zeus alone. Thank you as always for stating the truth in a respectful, nuanced, and not intrusive way.
Oh, my spelling is so off. I'm sorry 🤣
I totally agree with you
100% agree!
I am the exact same brother I love being a black man but I watch our race get treated like babies so often, i also don't like this media a promotion of making it algood to judge white people any circumstance and then even questioning black people makes the white person "racist" so often..it helps absolutely nothing and actually serves to ruin the thought patterns of our young black folk.
There's also a lot of african mythology with stories never transposed on video!
I want more european stories. Historically accurate normanic and Germanic stories. I was saying to my brother in law the other day who is black. It seems like in America both of our true heritages and true cultures are irrelevant. We've been simplified to white and black instead of german or Nigerian descent.
What about mesoamerican, African, and native stories ?? There is enough European stories already my dude
Can’t we make both ?
I think you're missing the point @@CouchAlien. It's not about getting more european stories but about stories that are about people from a culture and not people who simply share a skin color. European, Asian American or African feel kind of reductive to the wide variety of cultures they contain.
I love the fact that a lot of people who claim to be progressive are ok with painting historically "white" characters black. While simultaneously ignoring all "non-white" historical background from other cultures around the world. This specific agenda just furthermore pushes (very subtly) the colonialist idea that black people (and all "people of colour" for that matter) have no culture of their own. I wholeheartedly agree with you my friend. Cheers from Brazil 🇧🇷.
Of course people of color have culture where did you get that idea lmao
You creating a strawman out of your ass and debating with it
@@avgvstvs7 This is not a debate man, i'm just writing a comment on TH-cam. I'm not debating anyone specifically, just criticising an idea. And yes, someone saying that people of non-european descent have no culture is not something you hear everyday, but this was a very widespread idea propagated by the countries of Europe during the colonial period. They wanted to extract resources from the colonies but they didn't want to look bad, so justified their actions by saying they were in a mission to help the uncivilised tribes and bring progress and culture, very high culture, to them, along with metropolitan domination. The cultures of native peoples were relentlessly diminished, to the point that some cultural Darwinists didn't consider them to be culture at all. Entire peoples where extinguished with this shitty justification. And since things and ideas don't just disappear out of nowhere, this idea still influences public contiousness to this day.
I agree. It's patronizing. Put bluntly, it's poor POC instead of praising your diverse cultures/history I'll change the skin color of an historical character...
@@urubutingaz5898 Too long didnt read.
You make great points. I'm of Scottish, Welsh, and Irish desent and ABSOLUTELY identified with Bruce Lee, Mohammed Ali and many others who weren't my skin color. The idea that their race or ethnicity were somehow critical to my looking up to or emulating that individual or character literally never occurred to me. By the same token, I often played Chewbacca when playing as a kid, pretty sure he's a Wookie and therefore not even my species.
"bro are you comparing Bruce lees and Alis people to Chewbacca? So ignorant"
-popmedia writer, probably
im brown and goku was my guy :D
not even real or human
@@Saberwolf71 Cornelius wasn't making fun of you, rather "popmedia writers" who would take your statements out of context for easy outrage.
Yeah I really don't get this whole identity thing: I grew up identifying with Jackie Chan, Beast & Jubilee from X-men, and Ripley. Am I a Chinese female teenager covered in blue hair? Was I ever? Nope and it never mattered to me.
@@i-never-look-at-replies-lol - A Chinese female teenager covered in blue hair sounds like a hell of a franchise in 2022.
Never be afraid to speak the truth nice video!
Thank you very much!
Twitter “yesss black superman finally so progressive”
Chad “White black panther”
Twitter “racist shut up I HATE YOU shut up shut up shut up”
Great video. It made me look back at my own childhood. I always loved Ariel’s red hair (mine was brown) and I wanted to be Princess Jasmine or Pocahontas. I also played Michelangelo and Donatello as a ninja turtle. As an author and artist I am baffled by society today. Someone told me once that I should not be drawing Indian characters because I’m not Indian - that project was about my followers on Instagram choosing which mythological character I would draw them as - for that particular drawing I drew a young Indian girl as a blue, female god Krishna. Though I researched each mythological creature or figure, essentially that art project was cosplay. Thank you for creating this video.
Umm as indian Krishna actually male not female obviously some parent give Krishna to son and daughter as name but in mythologically Krishna is male if you want female hindu goddess you should pick durga a hindu warriors goddess
@@runajain5773 I am aware. 😊 However, my follower made the choice and I saw no reason to tell her no. There were a female Polyphemus from Greek Mythology as well.
as a dark skinned mixed race kid, i would have loved to have a character like mace windu or miles moralis
but not if it meant erasi g an existing character.
i identified with luke skywalker, steve austin, Jonathan chase (manimal) and mr. spock
it actually says a lot about your psychology if you can't identify with someone of another race
Remember, the people now engaged in black washing are generally the same people that support discrimination in education and hiring. They think it's good in fact, because "it's for the right reasons"
"t actually says a lot about your psychology if you can't identify with someone of another race" True words!
As a light skinned mixed race kid I'm so offended how all other mixed raced kids get the dark skin
Wait, you did identify with the shitty friend who betrayed the heroes, just took Han Solo's ship and started wearing his clothes, just because the Lando was black? Get outta here!
For me as a white kid, Captain Sisko was (still is) the best Captain in all of Star Trek. To me, Kirk represented curiosity, cunning, and heroism, Picard represented intelligence, discipline, and diplomacy, but Sisko represented strength, determination, and leadership. They all had their positives, but between the character writing of DS9 and Avery Brooks aggressive portrayal on-screen, Sisko spoke to me the most and he was someone that I looked up to and wanted to follow above all others. Louis Gossett Jr.'s characters in Iron Eagle and Toy Soldiers inspire similar feelings of respect and admiration. He brings a certain stage presence to his characters that make him fun and likeable but at the same time demand attention and discipline.
That's not even mentioning all the other amazing characters that happened to be black and the actors that brought them to life. Michael Dorn, Morgan Freeman, Carl Weathers, Denzel Washington, James Earl Jones, Eddie Murphy, Wesley Snipes, Danny Glover, and plenty more. These actors and their characters have been on the screen for decades. The entire premise that successful and respected white characters have to be converted into black characters in order for black people to have icons to aspire to is asinine and completely disrespects all the work that these people have done.
As a white man, I’d love to see either a TV series or movie on Mansa Musa and the Malian kingdom. I’d argue it’s one of the most interesting nations in history and I firmly believe it could be successful if it was created.
I’d also love to see stories from Aztec, Mesopotamian, and Egyptian brought to greater light. The human experience transcends things like ethnicity. We don’t need people to be exactly like us to learn, respect, and be inspired by their stories.
Stay in your lane baizou
@@haterade3.029 🤓🤓🤓
@@haterade3.029 isn't China failing?
Ethicity plays a big role in how esthethically aithentic will the movie be. Because obly watching the stpryline doesnt make the movie,setting getting to know and feel the characters do as well. And pulling people everywhere so it becomes diverse isnt progressive
If you want a good Aztec movie watch apocalypto (I think it’s Aztec, might be Inca or something of the sort) that movie is seriously one of the best movies I’ve ever seen. There’s a reason its reviews and score as soo good.
Though not historically accurate, "The Last Samurai" was an awesome film in that ALL the Japanese people in the film, extras included, were played by Japanese. No Koreans, no Chinese, no other Asian nationality. True Japanese. No whitewashing, no blackwashing, etc.
...and this helped the film....how exactly? I mean, if Japanese actors/extras have a hard time finding work, I applaud and congratulate the film on giving them needed screen-time. But in what other way does an all Japanese cast make for an "awesome" film?
@@quewalabear8575 Agreed. For me, it is the story writing that matters most.
@@quewalabear8575 Cause its in a historical Japanese setting.
Imagine having a movie about the numerous slave revolts in the US and having a cast of 80% Mexicans. It would feel off putting wouldn't it?
@@almalone3282 I actually love that question, Al, but it is one Super Awful analogy compared to the original poster's statement. I mean, Christ!...how did you manage to mess that up? 😄 Talk about comparing apples to oranges. What you should have asked, to make it analogous, is one of two 'apples to apples' questions:
Either:
1. Imagine having a movie about the numerous slave revolts in the US and having a cast that was NOT 100% African-American. It would feel off putting wouldn't it?
...or you could have asked...
2. Though not historically accurate, "The Birth of a Nation" (2016), a movie about a slave rebellion in Virginia, USA, is an awesome film in that ALL the African-American people in the film, extras included, were played by African-Americans. No African-Canadians, no African-Carribean, no Black actors from UK...no other African nationality. True African-Americans. Is that not just simply awesome?
Fundamentally dishonest of you to make the ratio in your scenario so radically different from what the OP expressed about the Last Samurai.
But I will be be a fair and honest and answer all three scenarios. Pay attention and see if you can understand what I am saying but more importantly WHY.
1. It MIGHT feel weird, But that would really depend on the reasons for it and how noticeable it is.
2. Although, I have never seen TBOAN, I don't imagine it that makes it a particularly "awesome" film, in and of itself...unless the context is giving several out-of-work African-Americans some employment and/or acting experiences (a group that is statistically underemployed in general and in film industry jobs). Now, THAT would be an awesome aspect about the film's production, but it would not by itself elevate the film to "awesome" status. Which is why I asked my question. I wanted to know what EXACTLY about all-Japanese cast made it awesome. Just THAT aspect, in and of itself, or did the OP notice some difference in the performances or in the "feel" of the film?
3. I would only find it a note-worthy level of "off-putting" if there was some inexcusable or nefarious reason for THAT casting decision. I mean, FIRST we would have to get to the point where we had a film of such scope. To be direct about it...has the world EVER had a film depicting many slave rebellions in the US? Now, how many films about samurai wars have there been? Two of my faves are Kagemush and Ran. And of course you have Tommy Cruisey in the Last Samurai (which I've never seen)...and BUNCHES of others...right? Have YOU ever seen a film about many slave rebellions in the US? Me neither.
To get to the point: If watching said film where an empathetic depiction of events, though fictionalized, and well acted, and well written, and well produced...but to keep costs down and get it done 80% of the actors were immigrant latinos, or if the film were filmed in Mexico under Mexican funding and THEY employed Mexican actors... ...well, then my answer would be, it might not be my preferred casting choices, but I certainly wouldn't whine about it on the internet, nor refer to it as Mexican-washing. PLEASE get me to the point where I have so many slave rebellion films.
Anyhow, THAT is why I LOVE your question...because it points out how there is a disparate impact to so-called "white washing" in comparison to so-called "black washing". If you took the total library of films and shows and had them at your disposal to watch, but you only watched works that had only white faces... you could watch into the hundreds of thousands, possibly 7 figures, of different works. If you did the same with an eye toward only black faces...what would you get? A thousand? What would the ratio be? I mean, on any given day of programming what is the ratio to white persons depicted to black (or just non-white). 10 to 1? 20 to 1? 15 to 1? And then apply that to actual LEADING roles. ....or lines spoken. ....or variety of roles. ...or favorable/non-favorable character types.
And then to say that replacing a non-white actor with a white actor, or vice-versa, is just as bad or has the exact same impact/harm? 🙄
@@quewalabear8575 I said 80% because the slave revolts weren't 100% blacks, white people joined in too, hell they where the one who taught the slaves how to operate a gun
I just can't. I see so much blackwashing around me that it makes me dizzy. And yet they refuse to acknowledge the very thing they do. I just can't.
awww...poor baby!
The problem with the idea of "blackwash" or "whitewashing" is that race is a very complex subject and the lines between different ethnicities can blur heavily. The people that complain about racial inaccuracy also tend to be hypocrites. Why don't people that complain about "blackwashing" boycott Marvel Movies for not having the Scarlet Witch cast by a Jew, why don't those people tell us to throw away nearly all documentaries and movies about the hundred years war and 3rd crusade because Richard the lionheart is described as English indeed of French, and why don't those people demand the Movie 300 be recast by Greek and Persian actors only.
I am okay with anyone playing any role racially as long as that person's race change doesn't destroy the narrative. I am okay with a white actor playing Saladin, or an Arab playing Richard the Lionheart because the crusades were a religious, not Ethnic conflict. I am against a black playing Lincon or a white playing MLK, as both people's life stories revolved around race.
@@arpandey698 So you're okay with films set in Central Africa containing no black Africans?
There's a key distinction between "whitewashing" and "blackwashing". The former is seldom done due to racism, the latter usually is. When white people are given roles in the west (which is white dominated) which "shouldn't" be filled by white people, it's usually done because that white person is bankable/popular. It isn't done due to some racist ideology or motivation. Whereas when a black person in the west is given a role that "shouldn't" be filled by a black person, it's usually done because of a racist ideology or motivation-- how do we know this? Because the companies literally come out and say this. They advertise their "diversity" policies and agendas.
Hiring someone for a job BECAUSE OF THEIR RACE is racism. It's illegal. It's really simple. This is what most people object to with the "diversity" stuff.
And man, watch an advert. Blacks are everywhere. Here in the UK blacks are about 2% of the population. But you rarely see an advert without a black person in. And I'm not exaggerating.
Textbook gaslighting.
@@quewalabear8575 ah a gormless monger
I feel like rewriting to a new race, regardless of the direction, feels like a sort of cheap way of making people included. Second hand representation versus a new, unique character who represents the culture in a meaningful way and which shows kids they deserve to be unique and are respected for that uniqueness.
@Yung Murk do they? Not come across anyone saying that and I'm very into the fandom.
Edit: actually on reflection, there's definitely going to be some butthurt racist saying that, I've not come across it yet but I have no doubt some moron has said something like that. Hopefully it's just a very small minority though
Youre not respecting uniqueness though when it's all based on skin color. We are far more unique for literally everything else about us than we are for our race. Shit, a tall and short man are genetically more different than a black and white man. Where's my short kings representation at?
That's like Finn was by far the best character in the sequels, and would have preferred a movie focused around him. And many, many fans agree. Yet people like Kathleen tried to convince him that the fans despised him.
@@jonathanward3633 I haven't seen it either myself, but if we take the context into account; woke people ruin literally everything and all they think about is race, then starting to hate any new black character is an unavoidable outcome...
I wont blame anyone for noticing an obvious pattern, being that they toss token black characters into literally everything and it always sucks...
But what do i care, i sure wont watch it. Anything new is trash, because the regressives rule the anti-entertainment industry.
@@lilahdog568 Krillin
You know... I am black, and never saw the *_"need"_* to be *_"represented"_* by a *_"character that looks like me",_* considering I base how I treat others, by their personality rather than race.
And oddly, I say that without changing Marvel, or delving into the mytiad of "universes", there is already a character, who's personality represents me already, and that character is none other than Wolverine. Even as a kid, I recognized with Wolverine. And I understand his motivations even more as an adult.
I agree with your first paragraph. As long as the story is good and the acting, who cares ?
The fact that his healthy and reasonable position needs to be explained and defended shows without a doubt how sick our Western societies have become.
It is like a virus. And it is spreading.
@Anthony Jay - Thank you for demonstrating the general premise.
I think education plays a part in it - some of the subjects I was taught are not even in the curriculum now, and many kids are leaving school not knowing how to read or write! It seems that modern society is only happy if you're woke, green, inclusive and preferably gender neutral!
Wow, you're insane
@@Mavuika_Gyaru how so?
I'd say society in general, not just Western societies.
Imagine if Martin Luther King was alive today.
MLK: Don't judge a person by their skin colour, but by the content of their character.
Black people today: I can only identify with characters who are black because I can't identify with the colonising yt people.
MLK: Wait, what?
That's an incredibly racist remark. You first made an unbelievably offensive presumption of what MLK would say, then you generalized all Black people, and completely ignored the fact that southern white Americans have routinely supported a political party solely due to their adherence of white identity politics. The people who consistently are incapable of identifying with non-white characters are racist whites.
who thought it was smart to shorten “white” to “yt” bc I keep thinking of “youtube people” when someone says “yt people”
Don't make presumptions on what MLK would or wouldn't say, that's disrespectful and racist.
@@thuggeegaming659 How is that disrespectful and racist?
@@SaraRoseVaughan Because he never said those things, to put words in his mouth to push your racist agenda is disrespectful and racist.
I'm Asian and I watch a lot of classic movies and many of these have white actors playing Asian characters and it never bothered me nor was it ever an outrage with my grandparents and their generation when I used to watch it with them. Yul Brynner was great as the King of Siam, and his Pharaoh in the Ten Commandments' performance is unmatched. 55 Days of Peking was a great adventure war movie and it had white people playing Mandarins. Anthony Quinn also played as a Filipino guerrilla in Back to Bataan but they were all great movies to me.
I guess the problem with John Wayne playing Genghis Khan was because John Wayne was such a famous actor when that movie was made but we never saw it as deliberate or was made with ill will. I read Wayne was fascinated by the Mongols so he made that movie. John Wayne also brought a lot of minorities to play in his movies but nobody gives him any credit for that. Its different with modern Hollywood because we know it is deliberate to fulfill quotas from special interest groups and the people who make these new movies say so and then they attack their critics by accusing them of the common accusations.
if you are from middle east or south asia of course it won't bother you but if you are from south east asia and east asia it will bother you it feels like the american love to do historical revisionism and making excuse using hollywood. if a country can't make a proper movie does that mean you canibalized and disrespect here history why not let them do more colonialism history moviee so people can wake the fuck up instead of historical revisionism.
The prejudices of the day wouldn't allow Asian actors to play certain roles. A romance between an Asian character and a European/North American character? The Asian's played by a white actor (the occasional exception was 'white man with non-white woman'). An admirable Asian character? Another European/American in makeup. The actual Asians weren't leads.
_The King and I_ isn't allowed in Thailand. It's a cultural thing about depicting the monarch.
I used to watch some of those movies without questioning the casting. Now that I know something of the history, I wish it could have been different.
I love what you wrote and agree. I don’t think you have even implied racism isn’t real but times and changed and they way we view things have changed but it doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy the King and I still. And we got to this change by actual people making changes. It was never going to just flip. History is a bunch of gradual changes of different peoples decisions to do different things.
One of the reasons for this was the extreme scarcity of Asian actors in Hollywood. You only have to see how, in the 1960s, any time the narrative called for a Chinese woman, they had to summon the half-Chinese actress, Nancy Kwan.
Yup Brynner was a Buryat which is a Mongol descended Asian ethnic group , so it makes sense he was cast as the King of Siam.
I was subjected to a 'historical' viking thing last week.
I was gleefully told it was historical.
which is why there was a black woman chieftain..
as an historian, I had my intelligence insulted by it.
"but it's historical!" no. no it isn't, it's propaganda.
For the sake of “feeling seen” and “being represented”, blackwashing the prevalence of Roman legionaries would give them an inaccurate version of the Roman conquest of Northern African.
They definitely provided Auxiliaries and famed for their light Calvary, celebrate the true history.
I would love to see a Mansa Musa tv series.
😆😂😆😂 he will b lightskinned
@@kamitecnative3286 😅Nooooooo LOL
That depends on when you're talking about. Later in the Empire there absolutely were legionaries recruited in North Africa. Granted, most of them probably wouldn't have looked much like African-Americans, whose ancestors came from a different part of the continent.
I love this vid chap. So much truth with so much passion. In my opinion those pushing 'anti-racism' these days seem to actually BE the racist ones, while every one else just wants to get along and be who they are. My heritage is mixed and these modern anti racists want every one to be treated differently based on race (to fix inequity and historic inequality) - but that leaves ME and MY FAMILY with no where to belong, we fall outside of the neat little boxes, the categories they want everyone to exist in.
love you for not being afraid making this, most would just go with the flow in order to make revenue, rather than to enlighten
Truths hurt, sadly woke community can't handle it
When can we finally stop using "ethnic" to mean "nonwhite" (whatever that, itself, means) and start using it to mean "human," which is what it's supposed to mean? Every group that has a culture is "ethnic" - even the English.
And we need to stop using "ethnicity" as an exact synonym for "race." The two are not the same. Ethnicity has more to do with language, religion, and culture than physical appearance.
Wait, the English have a culture?
Ce commentaire a été créé par le groupe français
(This comment has been made by the French gang)
How is ethnicity different from culture then?
Usually culture is used to describe a country's religion, language, regular practices, humor, treatment of different subgroups of people, etc.
Ethnicity is about where your ancestors came from, not where you live, for example being English is an ethnicity, and ethnic English people are white, you can not become ethnically English just because you move to England and form a connection to the culture and speak the language, you may be of British nationality, but you are not English, but it also is different to race as it is based off of where your ancestors or you actually came/come from, down to your village if it is secluded enough, race covers people who’s ancestors came from certain continents, but those people may not be living in those continents any more, but they will still be of that race, and they will be a large range of cultures within those races, but yes I completely agree, white pepper are ethnic Europeans, and literally anyone and everyone on earth is ethic to somewhere so I agree that people should stop saying ethnic as if it is not white
Well said. I especially appreciate this because I'm white, but not of "Anglo-Celtic" ethnicity (to use the term floating around lately where I live). People always assume they're synonymous but they definitely are not, lol.
These last weeks Ive seen two examples of forced Inclusivity in a pseudo historical show. In Vikings Valhalla, we can see a black woman portraying an historical white male jarl. In the last kingdom, a black priest appears in a IX century village in England, and nobody is surprised. That selection of cast really spoiled the feeling of the storyline.
I don't mind the switch in Vikings: Valhalla and they did explain it pretty well (just like why Robin Hood's merry men include a "Moorish" character), but the race swap doesn't make any sense in The Last Kingdom to me. However, if one goes into these shows expecting historical accuracy, they'll be sorely disappointed. For me, I like to see these shows as a gateway to get people interested in history to start doing their own research
@@horizonzeromom well, I can't imagine how a woman will be elected as jarl in a Viking settlement. Even if she is the widow of the previous jarl. But a woman of color? It's just stupid writing and woke agenda for the sake of it.
@@horizonzeromom Did they explain it well?
The Vikings wiki says her grandfather went trading to the middle east or something and fell in love with a woman there, and that's why she's black(?).
Not only does it sound pretty far-fetched that someone would fall in love with someone who they can't even communicate with, but why the fuck would a Jarl go trading? Why would he leave his land for so long? How would a woman be Jarl? That doesn't make any sense.
They also had to change Haakon's name (and violate Scandinavian naming convention), since Haakon is a male name. Thus the character is Estrid Haakon, instead of Haakon Sigurdsson.
@@TheRedHaze3 haakon sigurdsson makes 0 sense for a woman since that is a male name, her name should be haakon siguardóttir
@@maurovaz6081 I never said her name should be Haakon Sigurdsson.
That's the name of the historical figure, but since Haakon is a male name, and the character is female, they had to make Haakon her last name (presumably they thought not having even that small nod to the historical figure would piss people off even more).
That's what I'm saying, that they changed the name (to Estrid Haakon) and violated Scandinavian naming convention.
There’s now a black Shaggy, an Asian Velma, and an Asian Daphne.
And a nonexistent Scoob.
@@BeachioSandschannelSnoop Dogg is Scooby in this
Cope
I think it is save to say that those activists who fight against racism have become racist themselves, when they say that black-washing is okay or that your favourite character has to be the same skin scolour than yourself.
As a tabletop RPG player I have noticed that that players who belong to a minority often want to play characters who are like themselves even if it does not fit into the campaign.
Okay but anime and RPG tabletop games are fictional fantasy worlds, not factual history. As long as people aren’t being all “I fixed it” people can draw/play whatever they want.
Plus anyone and everyone would gravitate towards things/people that are familiar to them… especially if in the past, they rarely had the option compared to certain (white) counterparts.
Fiction is made for fun, not for realism.
History is history, it happened and whatever race someone was, that’s non negotiable.
@@zachanikwano I agree, mostly. I believe if a fantasy world has racial lore and whatnot, however, then it should still be followed.
Good example is my own D&D campaign with custom races and lore. Lorewise, Genasi don't exist in the land the campaign focuses on, but one player asked to use their never used before Genasi.
I told them, that if they do, being that no other Genasi exist in the land the campaign occurs in, they would probably not be looked on fondly. After all, imagine someone who looks vastly different than anything you've seen before walks up to a shop. Some people will gawk, some will ask questions, some will be extremely rude and racist.
@@zachanikwano No, even an RPG campaign has to follow some rules. If the source material says that all elves are fair skinned than you cannot play a black or just dark skinned elf. If you play a campaign at the court of Louis XIV than you simply cannot play a ninja.
BTW it is interesting that Japanese roleplaying gamers do not seem to have are problem with playing non-japanese characters. Remember Record of Lodoss War? This is based on a D&D campaign the creators played and there is not a single japanese (looking) character in it.
@@CommanderRedEXE That's correct. And your solution would also be my solution, but only if it is possible. I could allow a ninja at the court of Louis XIV (and he would have problems with being exotic) but not a PoC elf in Middle-Earth, because they do not exit in the background material.
@@CommanderRedEXE so, what happened?
As a Berber from Morocco i applaud you for your intellectual honesty. We need more people like you in this space.
The double standard is utterly disgusting ... I feel you ... Support from a Pilipino...
Whats a "pilipino" lmao
@@ctlegoboy5578 people from Philippines
@@ctlegoboy5578
Demeaning people for their English spelling (likely their second language) when your own grammar is severely lacking? Classy.
Are you pilipino as well
Wait, Filipinos exists? I thought we are a projection of someone's tan skin fantasy.
I don't have a problem with people of any race cosplaying characters of other races (provided you don't whip out the shoe polish of course) but I'm definitely against changing the race of fictional characters that already existed.
The rings of power is a good example because these people have no respect for the source material. Dwarves aren't black because they live mostly underground, so there is very little need for melanin in their skin. That's why black people evolved to have melanin in their skin. Melanin is to protect your skin from sunlight. And female dwarves are all supposed to have beards and be almost indistinguishable from the men. The people creating the show are flagrantly disregarding the lore of Tolkien's universe purely for themselves.
If the show was it's own thing, I would be fine with it. If they wanted to create a fantasy world with black dwarves, I'm cool with that. Hell, I might watch it. But they tacked it onto Middle Earth, which just doesn't make sense.
Yeah, going against canon bothers me, too. & that applies to any blatant dismissal of canon. To each their own.
Don't speak biology and evolution pls. You are upsetting lgbt community.
@@СашаЛагаевtf does dat supposed to mean? And how is it relevant to what they are saying?
You’re kind of fucking up the phenotypical reason for more melanated skin, because for a species like sapiens that was going around for 400,000 years it has explored the majority of the planet yt skin as we know it, showed up 8000 years ago. 😊
If they were to be actually accurate. They wouldn’t even have that much hair and they would like an old yt man’s ball sack before looking like a regular Northern Europe
I literally turned off Troy soon as I saw Achilles was black it angered me so much lol… if you want to give a black man a show utilize the real great black civilizations I’d kill to see a show including the Nubian bow men. My stance on it is our favorite subject is the only thing people can change and still be recognized as intellectually competent. DONT CHANGE HISTORY
History and mythology is a still untapped source: I would love to see and historical series set, for instance, in the empire of Mali or in ancient Abissinia with only african actors. Just like I would love to see fantasy series about Gilgamesh with only middle eastern actors or Maui with only polinesian actors.
There has never been 'Nubian bow men' - that is Euro-American take on Ancient Nile Valley population as sharply White and Black to steal the Egyptian civilisation for Europe.
The Bow men were Kushite (Kingdom of Kush).
Nubia is an historical region of the Kingdom of Egypt and of Kush.
There was never a Kingdom or tribe or people called Nubian.
The term Nubian came to use by the British in the 1920s on Black people of Egypt (Egypt and Sudan were then one country until 1954).
A black Achilles is only possible in the “woke” times. They don’t know history well and therefore, is easy to distort and play with it !
For some reason black people think that they are special, and as a result, feel that they can interfere everywhere, do or say anything ,right or wrong because they learned, that they can get away with it if, they can blame everything on racism !
But does it also show how muck black people want to be part of the whites culture ? In fact that could be the whole problem with the racism issues… the fact that black people want to force themselves in someone else’s culture and world (blackwashing ?) but instead of blending, they want to be noticed and therein, lies their troubles !
Other ethnicities, have cultures to identify with and that is why racism, is part of everybody’s life… and not a focal point !
In truth, does black people have a culture to identify with… ? Just asking !
Young children don’t mind about the color of their heroes skin ! That only becomes important, as they grow up !
@@ohlangeni the Nubian bowmen are from the kingdom of Kush 😂. I guess all of this historical documents representing them is false Lmao. Yeah ok 😂😂😂
@@ohlangeni guess the accounts of them serving as auxiliary in Rome, Carthage and The Byzantine’s were all incorrect lmao. Or their battles against the Mughal empire orrrrrrr the written journals from when Persia invaded the knack of Khush stay off of Wikipedia my friend 😂
One of the biggest problems with people fixating solely on skin color and ethnicity is the accidental racism. I once read threads on twitter from people who's heads were so far up their own asses that they thought bringing back (in essence) segregation would be a good and safe way to cater to everybody, completely missing the point that one of the best ways to cater to everyone and be *inclusive* is by uh... Not separating them by asinine categories (which is what segregation was and *still is*)
I feel like this weird narrative of focusing on race and ethnicity first is a kind of backwards approach to the idea and goal of ending things like racism, cultural stigma, bigotry, the list goes on.
Now you could take that last point and say, "well nobody is *SAYING* to focus on that!" which for the most part is true (though there's definitely some radicals out there on both ends who at the least insinuate that fixating on race is okay), but the fact that people still are, regardless of intention, should be an issue that we *should be* talking about (and not just focusing on one specific side or part and saying "look! See how bad THEY are!? WE are never like this!" That is a destructive and very, very dogmatic approach to something that shouldn't be.)
Yeaaaa Martin luther king jr would be rolling in his grave rn
Exactly
Content and Character means nothing to people these days. It's who you align with ideologically and the colour of your skin that matters to people. In other words, racism and tribalism. Two things I absolutely despise.
It wasn't just on twitter either. There was a university that had a whites only area and thought they were fighting racism with it.
@@viperstriker4728 the irony is palpable lmfao
in a couple of generations, we switched from idolizing the coolest dude to the most ethnic dude. aren't we supposed to admire a person's character and not the color of their skin?
Something even funnier is that it's Hollywood people who try to teach that, while they're paid millions and other starve to death, they're doing this to show how concern they're about other people, while supporting brands that uses child labor. But yeah people still praise them.
@Gabor Augstein i thought this skin color obsession is only in the US
I bet you're white
@@schlurpie Not only in the US, but the US really has a big problem with that. I blame the two-party system, everything is exaggerated and polarized because both parties try to present themselves as the radical opposite of the other one, so it's always too much or too little. With more parties that's not possible anymore, they have to agree in some things sometimes.
@@Mavuika_Gyaru you are a disgrace to all of us Muslims, you dare have Islam in your name and say such racist things.
Thank you so much for explaining this. I had a problem with explaining why I don’t like the new Ariel in the remake of the Little Mermaid because I think changing almost anything about a character is wrong, not just skin color. When I think of Ariel, I think of the colors red, green, and purple (the remake didn’t keep her iconic fiery red hair) and I just can’t see her with any other color scheme. It’s the same with, say, Leonardo from TMNT. When someone talks about that character I think of the colors green and blue. If someone changed his mask to yellow or even purple like his brother Donnie, I would still say: That’s not Leonardo. I just don’t like it when characters are changed much, especially drastically
Most of the time when someone on youtube is going to speak of "whitewashing" they proceed to be extremely racist towards white people. This was probably one of the rare videos that fairly addresses the issue. Thankyou for having common sense!
Most of the time? Give us an example. Sounds like you are lying.
@@quewalabear8575 Well, on a case by case basis prove to me that there is racist intent. Almost every single mention of whitewashing when addressing to white characters wrongly pressuposes discrimination or racism on the caucasian party and ignores the reasons why most actors were white in the west. That is prejudiced against white people.
The only way something is actual whitewashing is when it has the intent of superimposing race in order to remove the original one on an already established entity and replace it with it's own, racist acts require intent, otherwise it can never be racism. It also more closely resembles the actual definition of whitewashing outside of the context of race, which is essentially to deliberately attempt to conceal unpleasant or incriminating facts about (someone or something), whitewash is something that is used to paint a brick wall to "hide" the uglyness. With this in mind whitewashing becomes alot more messedup than most people who wrongly use the word believe. A person whitewashes to hide the fact that the entity is a different ethnicity and they do not like how that character looks in that ethnicity, so they change it, it is not the changing of the ethnicity that matters but the intent for the most part, this is why it's not a problem for say, people to cosplay black characters as white or white characters while being black, but speficially if done to make a statement and intent is added, that then makes that kinda racist.
I think an actual example of whitewashing would be how we know that when westeners depicted a black leader once as white, it was whitewashing, they specifically wanted him to look "whiter" and more significant as propaganda, remember these people were racist, but I can't remember for the life of me who did this to begin with or when, I could google it later if you'd like.
What is also NOT whitewashing is white depictions of Jesus(who has been depicted as every single race by other races) or why are old Japanese Samurai movies all had Japanese actors, which is the same reason why most actors in the U.S. were caucasian.
@@zereimu Normally I would pick your theses apart in detail, but their so many contradictions I will just delineate them, flat out and leave you to elaborate ( make excuses )
"Almost every mention of white washing..."
I'd be willing to bet that is a lie. You haven't seen almost every mentioning and if you had you would have some handy quotes...but you don't.
"The only way something is actual whitewashing..."
An obvious lie. I mean, for effs sake. You even go on to give a different definition ( the standard one that is most often given first in a dictionary). There is no "only" way. You are killing your arguments and credibility by trying too hard to win. You could have had a good point by just saying "one way for it to be whitewashing". But then, of course you would have to address what people are actually talking about, not a straw man argument covered by semantics.
"racist acts require intent, otherwise it can never be racism. "
Another obvious lie. A very convenient one...right? I can never be guilty of a crime if you can't prove I had "criminal intent"? Absurd b.s. and you should know it by now. In fact I suspect you do know it...whether you acknowledge it or not. Intent is NOT a necessary element for any act...general crime or racism as it has been adjudicated in courts.
And then this definitive statement...
"What is also NOT whitewashing is white depictions of Jesus"
coupled with your previous definition...
"The only way something is actual whitewashing is when it has the intent of superimposing race in order to remove the original one on an already established entity and replace it with it's own..."
Is just an example how crud your thinking is. You can't make both those statements with any level of honest knowledge.
...I am not sure what your point is about Samurai movies. Who complained about Samurai movies? Anyone? Got any quotes? Of course you don't.
Same with the caucasian actors thing. What point are you making? What straw an argument are you trying to punch away with on that one? Again...include actual quotes...if you can! 😄 I'll wait...
Peace! 🕊
@@quewalabear8575 I am not arguing with you, I am educating you. Your argument is all over the place, I recommend you read my comment atleast twice.
Yes, racism requires intent, this is not only painfully obvious, but by definition this is the case, racism is not a crime, you are confusing it with hate crime or other acts that may be done out of racism. For something to be a hate crime, for example, it requires racist intent, otherwise, it's just a crime that happens to not be a hate-crime. A hate crime needs to be prejudice motivated based on the individual being a member of a certain race. I recommend you look up these definitions.
@@zereimu " racism requires intent"
No, it doesn't. Who says it does? You?
In recent weeks, I've seen a lotta examples of forced inclusion on a mock history show. In Vikings Valhalla, we get to see a black woman play a historical white male jarl. In The Hollow Crown, a black Lord shows up in the English Court , and to no one's surprise. This choice of actors really ruined the feel of the script.
I mean, if that's your biggest historical complaint about Vikings or Vikings Valhalla, I've got some bad news for you... Those shows are more or less fantasy series very loosely based on history and the sagas. As to the African jarl, they explained that she had that position because she was the widow of the jarl and that her mother was someone her father brought back from Alexandria, which is definitely somewhere Norsemen (Viking was an activity, not an ethnic identifier) visited and also something where having people from further south in Africa wandering around wouldn't have been unusual.
@@brucetucker4847 If you think that Vikings in those ages would have accepted an African Jarl I would ask you what are you smoking and where can I get some. This is almost as insulting as black Julius Cesar. I understand inclusion but this is just so plain ridiculous it's almost sad. Also the series takes place in Europe not Tamriel, or Westeros so it's not exactly pure fantasy.
@@sebpaul3548 It takes place in an alternate universe in which people in Norway had never heard of England until Ragnar Lothbrok went there.
There probably would have been more resistance to a woman acting as jarl than a black person. Norsemen didn't really care all that much what you looked like if you fit into their culture, and once they started traveling all over the western hemisphere they were more ethnically diverse than you might think.
Don't forget femmewashing! When it comes down to it, I agree with you. Your video is well put together it valid points and good info to back them up. As far as Hollywood goes, I think the biggest thing we need to ALWAYS keep in mind is that the entertainment industry is just that. They are, by no means whatsoever, a facts-driven organization. They are money driven, pure and simple. If your "insert focus group here" is being represented, it's not because they care. It's because your focus group, or their version of it, is going to make them filthy rich. Keep up the good work.
femmewashing is stupid making a male character a female in European history movie is like making a anime and putting a CGI character it doesn't fit and is trash
Not money, ideology. This stopped being about monetary profit a long time ago.
@@Xbalanque84 Very true, though I'd say both. Depending on the individual/ group. Some have so much money they care more about the ideology; some still want the money more.
As a little girl in the 1980's, my favorite cartoon was well ahead of its time in inclusiveness: Jem and the Holograms. In the main line up of protagonists there were originally two white characters, one black character, and an Asian character. In later seasons they added a Hispanic character as well. I always loved seeing ALL the different characters, because I came from a mixed race family that included white, black, Asian, and Hispanic! It absolutely represented the world as I grew up knowing it. With that said, I am melanated. When people see me they are often unable to identify me racially, but they can clearly see that I am not white. But do you know who my favorite character was on Jem, with its full spectrum of diverse characters?? One of the white characters and why?? Because she was the little sister of the main character and THAT was what I identified with, because I too am the baby sister of a big sister with "lead character vibes." I was given a whole range of characters in that show and I LOVED that show. It was so ahead of its time in so many ways... But I think it says a lot that as a child of color, who could have identified with any of the three characters of color, it wasn't race that mattered to me. It was THE CHARACTERS. Growing up in a multi-racial (as well as multi-religious) family, I have never in my life understood people's hang-ups on race. It literally confounds me. I am a historian now, with a PhD, which makes me a minority in my field in almost every imaginable way... And it never made a difference to me. The history department I graduated from was primarily white. We only had one non-white faculty member. And I never once felt discriminated against or had any problems connecting with my faculty and finding mentorship. The black studies department at my alma mater tried for years to recruit me, but I have never been interested in "black history" or "white history" or any other racial qualifier history...! I study HUMAN history. It's not that historical facts "don't see color" because they certainly do...! They see and appreciate ALL the colors and interweave them. THAT is history. Thank you for this channel. I have only just found it, but I am definitely now a fan.
The reason why I am particularly against any kind of colourwashing is because nowadays, it's a very subversive movement that actually fosters racism and division.
It (un)consciously tells people, youth especially, that you can't enjoy a character unless that character is of the same ethnicity as you.
I never even once in my life have thought "oh that dude looks like me! He is my favourite character now!" when watching a movie or tv-series. Now when I think about it I realize there are a lot of black people who are my favourite. Is this really even a thing?
Same here. The whole "pEoPLe wHo lOoK LiKE mE" thing keeps getting brought up by those who demand more and more 'representation', and I can't for the life of me understand why that's important to them. If a white person insisted on only watching media that included white characters, wouldn't we consider that racist? If it's racist for the goose, then it's racist for the gander. (As much as current politics keeps trying to move the goalpost of racial dynamics to make it so that no matter what, _only_ white people can be racist. I don't buy into any of that neo-Marxist horse crap for a second.)
I'm Hispanic and I couldn't even _begin_ to recount to you all of the great shows, movies and video games I've enjoyed whose main casts didn't contain any particularly impressive Hispanic representation. Hell, a lot of toons I enjoyed as a kid involved a markedly NON-HUMAN cast (some involving talking ponies, anthropomorphic ducks, mutant turtles, just to name a few) who definitely contained some characters I could relate to, despite being...well, human. Relatability has far more to do with how a character's emotions and experiences are conveyed than it has to do with how similar they are to you, the viewer, on any superficial level.
That's not to say it isn't at least appreciated when a piece of media tries to pay due respect to a certain culture-movies like Coco and Encanto get my own stamp of approval, even if they contain tropes here and there that I personally find a bit eye-rolling-it's just not all-important. And those who treat it as all-important, well, I personally think they have some very deep seeded issues they need to work out.
People like Mirabel from Encanto because she has glasses... People like turning red because the main character is an Asian girl. It is an actual thing - an Asian girl with glasses who doesn't like Mirabel or turning red
It is for superficial people
@@thethrashyone Good comment, Thank you. I love the goose/gander thing! Definitely going to use it 😎 I'm honestly starting to feel that we are growing ethnic kids racist these days, LOL. Like for example black kids are told that they need black heroes. No kid would care about that if someone never did plant that idea in his head.
My favorite character in He-Man, for example, was Skeletor. I'm pretty sure there isn't a person ALIVE I could compare him to. Not only was he neither black or white, I'm pretty sure he never washed.
I really appreciate what you're doing, adding to your content discussions like this educating the ignorant and explaining the harm that misinformation can do. If we are taught lies about history, then we can't learn from history properly. If we can't learn from history, we're going to keep repeating the mistakes or species has time and time again. Misinformation can be harmful and I'm so glad somebody is stepping up with the knowledge and the ability to debunk it from a neutral stance.
I've always though that if you need to change a character to represent me, then I'm not worth original characters. The creative decision to change the race of Ariel didn't piss me off, but the logic that it was "for my sake" is belittling.
Agreed
This is my first time watching this guy, and this is probably the best way I've seen someone take on these issues
Notable race change in a Marvel Character was Nick Fury. He was white and in 1998 he was played by David Hasselhoff in Nick Fury: Agent of SHIELD. He was changed in the comics in 2002 by Mark Millar basing him on General Colin Powell and was played by Samuel L. Jackson in Iron Man, just 10 years after Hasselhoff. Going from the former 80's and 90's cool guy Hasselhoff to the current cool guy Jackson.
I don't think anyone cared because Jackson fits the role and OWNS it.
For fictional characters there is some leeway. For historical people, there isn't.
Imagine Crispus Attucks being played by an Asian. Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. being played by Tom Cruise. Emperor Hirohito played by a Latino.
He wasn't changed, it as an alternate universe version that they then used for the movies
@@Houndguardian Ultimate Fury was based on Samuel Jackson, then the MCU came around and they took stuff from 616 and Ultimate as basis, so they went with Jackson as Fury...
And then Ultimate Fury was backported into 616 (as an adopted son of the original Fury, iirc) and basically took the thunder of the original.
To be honest Samuel L. Jackson was a great Nick Fury. Thing is he could have been a new character. It would have been better if they replaced Nick Fury altogether on the comic and the movies with a new character.
When I saw Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, I did not realize that there was a black version of Nick Fury in the comics.
I was just familiar with the white version of Nick Fury. Because Samuel L. Jackson was so brilliant as Nick Fury, I could not imagine anyone else playing Nick Fury.
There are many movies and TV series where the color or gender of the main character does not matter.
A good example is The Equalizer.
Edward Woodward played Robert McCall in The Equalizer in the 80's.
Denzel Washington played Robert McCall in The Equalizer in 2014 and 2018.
Queen Latifah played a female Robyn McCall in The Equalizer in 2021-2022.
Personally, I thought Denzel Washington's version of Robert McCall was the best.
There are very few if any who have reacted to the change of color or gender in The Equalizer.
The original Nick Fury was from WW2-era Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos. The MCU Samuel L. Jackson version was based on the Ultimate Marvel version. It made more sense to have the contemporary Nick Fury be more modern than the WW2 era one.
Excellent video. Just remember Hollywood hates historical accuracy.
Even Lincoln?
Your speaking to people who won’t watch your videos. They see the title and start crying. Thank you for all you do for history. It is my passion and I will watch anyone who puts in the effort and does the research and puts the truth.
Please stop your stupidity. 🙄 I watch his videos. I disagree with him. Deal with me. If you can/dare to.
*You're
=P
@@BinaryBolias your mom
*Yore
*Yer
My biggest issue was always that the meaning of whitewashing changed away from depicting events without it's negative and controversial events parts and now only concerns race.
Even more so considering the etymology behind whitewashing.
You can't reason with people who support this double standard. It always leads to them more mental gymnastics and sophistry.
Barely exists though
@@1685Violin you would be surprised when u find out about the triple standard tho
@@1685Violin the people who call out double standards like this end up actually also doing the same thing. For example calling someone out for accusing you of whitewashing or racism while doing something similar themselves, but then either in the process or eventually you end up actually doing something racist anyways. Even unintentionally. (This is way more common then you might think, emphasis on non intentionally, especially by the ones who think that they are the rational enlighteners spitting cold facts, but the facts were actually not that simple and there was more context missing.) You tell me how many layers of hypocrisy there is there now.
White washing historical persons was much more prevalent in movie/television productions in the early to mid-20th century (John Wayne as Attila the Hun for instance). Not so much in recent times which is why it's not as much of an issue (although it still occurs). More recently, movie/television productions have gone in the opposite direction in order to overcompensate for the past digressions while trying to be more culturally inclusive. This is why you see more instances of Black/Asian actors portraying historically white characters.
Always on point. I think that the best way of making good representation in fiction is creating new and better fiction with a good variety of characters. Check The Expanse. Great fiction. Great Characters. Great casting. My favourite character is probably Camina Drummer. A woman, Ojbwe canadian, and a Belter (haha). And other shows that change characters and casting making it different to the source material, but in a good way could be The Boys and Invincible. In The Boys, all the arc of A Train is great, and not only makes sense with the overall story, but improves it and gives that character more dept and meaning. But in historical stories, leave the characters as they were. If it doesnt make sense to cast POC in that historical setting, maybe that`s not the place to do it... I`d love to see some great african epic like Shaka Zulu was... and Probably I would have a lot of favourite POC characters there...
I don't
This video is a great field study on psychological bias. Those people heard when he criticized blackwashing, but were unable to noticed when he criticized whitewash
This is from a perspective of an artist.
Imo changing the ethnicity, skin tone and/or race in art just because you want to see what a character would look like/for an AU is completely fine! Having live action movies or theatrical plays (especially those as theatre is more about imagining and movies about showing) where EVERYONE is race blind cast is okay as well imo but only if there's nothing about race in that story and only if it's not about ACTUAL REAL HISTORICAL FIGURES (how would people react to a BLACK!Hitler or WHITE!Martin Luther King???). It's just about showing your creativity and interpretation of a character. On another note I also find it weird when fairy tales/legends/folk tales taken from specific groups with very strong and well-known cultural representations with cultural heritage have their characters' races changed so much that it doesn't fit the original at all (Eg. Snow White, a German girl, who is named like that, because he has "skin as white as snow) is being cast as a brown Latina - I would also dislike it if they made her blonde as she's described to have raven dark hair, but that would be less of a problem as at least her hair colour is not in her name...). You have so many tales from all-around the world! Use them! Show stories no one has heard before, instead of interpreting the same ones over and over again and changing everything about the well-established characters we love (unless everything is changed to make it make sense as Disney's Princess and the Frog did with the time and place changing to fit Tiana being black and it was so great tbh)
But!
Whitewashing and blackwashing are both bad. For me the actual "-washing" part happens when someone insists that this character is _____ instead of _____, attacks others for not using their design, spits racist remarks about the race/ethnicity they dislike etc. And of course the situations I mentioned already (historical figures etc.).
Also...
People will say that you're "whitewashing" a character if their skin tone is not exactly as it is in the original. Sometimes it can be hard translating a 3D/live action character to 2D drawing, because they don't have as much... well... dimension, and the light/shadow balance will be simplified. An artist might pick the base skin color of a character with an eyedropper from a photo and people will still get mad. And it gets even worse when you add light's intensity, weather, time of day, multiple light sources and an art style that naturally manipulates the skin tone (so many pastel artists get shit for "whitewashing" characters, when all they do is just make their skin color fit the overall art style).
Cosplay is okay. You're just having fun.
Totally agree. Hell, we have thousands of years of the Black African history that is not covered in movies, TV shows or video games. Same with native South and North American civilizations. Even Asia is very sparsely covered in our pop culture. So many historical, mythological and folklore sources are just overlooked.
You want to push your anti-racist agenda? Well, make a movie about British colonialism from the natives perspective. Or a biopic of some great character like Tomas Sankara (although they will never do that, he was a revolutionary socialist).
Why we never see that? It is because Dysney, HBO or whoever would have to take additional financial risks putting money into something new instead of yet another sequel or "franchise reload".
All the previous whitewashing was about making blacks earn no money, all current blackwashing is for keeping all the money in the hands of corpos.
Thank you. Right at the end where you said it doesn't matter what colour skin the character has in order to like them, but who they are and what sort of a person. This is exactly what was spoken of by one of the most amazing people in history; Martin Luther King in his 'I have a dream...' speech. And those who think blackwashing is ok/ doesn't exist are straying so far from his message
You’ve explained this whole situation and how I’ve always personally thought about it way better than I could. For that alone, I’m subbing :)
very well articulated video
I think that what they mean about feeling represented on screen is the validation of one self. My daughter wears glasses since one year old and loves to see a character that wears glasses on screen, but that doesn't make her favourite character immediately.
Good comment!
Thank you for making it! 👍🏽
Peace! 🕊
You are correct, but it’s gotten to the point where characters aren’t seen as good unless they have a certain phenotype.
I've been wanting to watch the Vikings sequel, but every time I'm about to start, I remember there is a black woman who plays Jarl Håkon, and I'm reminded about the wild inaccuracy in it. I heard they have viking surfboards in it as well, it's too ridiculous to get into
Same...
Black person from Germany. What you explain in the last segment of your video is absolutely correct. I have the feeling that especially (African- to an extent ALL) Americans focus a lot on "race" and skin colour. Thats one reason why I started to become very critical about the whole black empowerment movement.
I get the point that racism sits deep within our societies, I also experience that but the solution can never be becoming race fetishists.
I am with you, I can feel represented by anyone whatsoever. Most of my friends are white and I do not care about one man's skin colour unless he gives me a reason.
I like your stance on this and nothing you said here was problematic.
PS.: I do not aim to hurt anyone especially not African Americans. I am just summarising my perception of matters here.
German is an ethnicity. You can’t be black and german …
@@dv96_dk and you just demonstrated that you are a half-wit. I said black person from Germany as in the territory. Although, your crude and misguided theories could argue I am not German (even though that would be against OUR constitution that you might not even know at all) your half baked logic can't deny that I am living in a place called Germany. Do not try to explain that GERMANY is an ethnicity as well, Patrick. Now back to the sewers you fool.
@@dv96_dk Being a German citizen makes you German.
@@dv96_dk I think you're confusing nationality and ethnicity here. Their ethnicity can be black but their nationality can simultaneously be German. German can be both an ethnicity or a nationality.
@@michaelcho3564 I’m not confused. You seem to be. German is an ethnicity before everything else. Everybody can get a german passport. Doesn’t mean you’re german
Here are my thoughts about the whitewashing/blackwashing problem with historical movies/series. If there is no way to know how a character would have looked like or where they came from, I can understand casting actors of different ethnicities but the moment we know how they looked and where they came from, at least go the extra mile to find an actor that comes from a similar ethnicity. For example: If a character is known to be from a Middle-Eastern country (such as Jesus or Moses), cast an actor who actually comes from the Middle-East. If the character is known to be from India, cast someone who is actually from India or a neighboring country like Pakistan or Sri Lanka, etc.
middle easterners and indians historically are not exactly the same people they are today though
@Samurai Pizza Cats no theyre not the same and you know nothing about history if you think that, they are now heavily mixed with other ethnic groups, just like the italians from today are not really similar at all to the ancient romans
Name 3 arab actors... you still wanna sell a movie and draw audiences. you want big names as the stars of the movie. whitewashing was mostly convience. John Wayne played Ghenghis Khan not because anyone wanted to whitewash history, but because there simply were no A list mongolian actors in Hollywood. He was a big name, so they picked him. Even today. Is anyone going to make a 200 million dollar budget blockbuster Ghenghis Khan movie with a bunch of unknown mongolian actors...
@@BamBamGT1 you just made me remember the movie "Mongol". So cool... I think it's russian.
Eh, personally I don't actually care if the actor is the "right" race. Plus that can backfire, ironically, if the actor doesn't look "ethnic" enough (like with Disney's live action Aladdin remake). All I care about is that the actor looks like the person they're trying to portray. Most of the time, you'll want an actor of the same race as the character, but I can be flexible as long as the individual looks close enough.
Like, a good example would be The Last Airbender. They complained a lot about whitewashing there, for good reason too. Katara and Sokka look Native. The actress they got to play Katara not only didn't look Native, but didn't look anything like Katara. The actor playing Sokka though, give him a tan and he could've passed pretty well for Sokka (looks-wise, at least). Some would say that's racist of me to say that, but I don't care. I'm happy to apply the same standard to white characters too. I care that they're a good actor, and they look like the character. That's all.
I love the cosplay aspect being brought up in this. I am big into cosplay and actually see a lot of discussion about cosplaying as different races often. Often, what I will see is that people are perfectly fine with black individuals cosplaying as characters that tend to have lighter skin, but white individuals can only cosplay as lighter skinned characters since "black people have less choices so let them have their characters". This is all without anyone ever changing the color of their skin.
I actually had seen an anime that had all or nearly all black characters, Cannon Busters, and absolutely loved the main character. I decided that I wanted to cosplay as him. For reference, I am a white male. However, knowing the general thought on a white person cosplaying as a black person (again, without any intent to change my skin color), I felt like I had to go to one of my good friends at the time (who is a cosplayer of color) to ask if they thought it would be okay and "allowed" for me to do this.
Uhhh...the main character in Cannon Busters is not a "black person". In fact MOST of the characters are not "black characters" even if many of them are.
@@quewalabear8575 They are, though. Philly the Kid is described as "light skin black". And I misspoke and misremembered, but even still, there are many black characters in the series.
@@ElectricHuskyGames who described him as such? Maybe you are "misremembering" again.
"black people have less choices so let them have their characters"
Like if a redhead decides to cosplay as Nessa, she prevents a black girl to do the same.
You know what I would LOVE to see? I would love to see a show on the Iwa, the nature spirits in Vodou (or Voodoo as its more commonly known). Those characters are so interesting and there is so much that could be done with them by showing their Western African representations or their Haitian interpretations and all the stories those two traditions hold!
As a norwegian, the depiction of Jarl Håkon in vikings:valhalla pisses me off
I love how you speak the truth even in a time and a country that doing so gets you called a Nazi just for saying Achilles wasn’t black
they should use a native American to play Pocahontas, an Asian to play Mulan, a black African to play Black Panther, an Arabian to play Aladdin, a white European to play Ariel etc. instead of race swapping characters.
Honestly all this "related to the ethnic character i see" really speaks to how little imagination and activities these people have in their lives.
I am a short chubby chinese man and i have felt like i related to PLENTY of non chinese characters and real historical figures.
So damn shallow these people are, but the noisiest.
I just want to say, I'm a bit more lenient on older movies where they dressed up Caucasians to look like other ethnicities, because they had a smaller, more homogeneous field to choose from. But also, I suspect the movie with John Wayne as Gengis Khan was billed more as a John Wayne movie than a move about Gengis Khan. Sometimes they're just like, we have this actor, what can we put him in. Ah, an historical drama. Even if we now consider it ridiculous.
Look at it this way, if you're in a relatively monocultural area, and you want to do things about other times and places, everyone you cast is going to be from the local area.
it's the same in old westerns. a lot of the native people were white actors because they didn't have a lot of native people working as actors, however when more natives started becoming actors they were cast in such roles.
From what I understand John Wayne wanted this role and because of his star power he was able to overcome the producers/ director who did not agree with his casting.
The movie bombed at the box office...
Yes, Gjengiz Khan was a pure "John Wayne movie". Wayne bought that role, a dream of his life since childhood. B.t.w. it's the world's most deadly film as it was shot in a nuclear polluted area. Most participants didn't have a long life after this production.
Yep. Look at all the European films about Native Americans that were hugely popular in 1980s, there was simply nowhere to get Native American actors.
@@irena4545 then don’t make a story about native americans if all you can cast is white people. it’s that simple.
I would also be rather exited for an african history TV series.Achilles and stuff are old socks I already know quite a lot of european/american history,but not as much of asian and even less of african history,and that would be a good twist.
I do not and have NEVER agreed with the idea that black kids need black heroes... We just need heroes! ( Yes I am black btw )
and growing up my heroes were Batman, Vegeta and Dante from Devil may cry... Their skin colour had nothing to do with it.. it was their morals and behaviour that I loved.. The problem with TOO MANY black people is that we see ourselves as a colour first and a human second.. THAT NEEDS TO STOP!!! We all need to stop looking at ourselves and others as colours first.... We need to start looking at eachother as humans!
That being said yes.. blackwashing is just as bad as whitewashing.. and everyone I know who is black hates it when they raceswap just to pander to us.. like they tried with black superman... We want original black characters like Blade or Black Panther.. We don't want well established characters to be turned black..
In general, this discussion about whitewashing and blackwashing is, after all, quite similar to the endless discussion about the existence of misandry or "why only misogyny is a problem and the accusation of misandry is only a clumsy attempt by men to downplay the existence of misogyny". So yes, it's a tangled mess full of problems.
Personally, I see that both misogyny and misandry exist, both are a problem that should be fixed, and that the existence of misandry doesn't rule out the existence of misogyny. And same with the whitewashing and blackwashing.
It's not that complicated. The racists & sexists are upset their hypocrisy is on full display for all to see and are lashing out with accusations of racism/sexism to shift the focus away from their amoral values.
@@mgntstr Trying to teach most people about the absolute truth that has virtually no ties with agendas, is the hardest thing possible than you can even comprehend.
Let's say if you had made a mistake in the past and you hated that mistake with great hatred. What would you do to fix that mistake?
@@killertruth186 no you have a comprehension issue! jk
The first mistake is to hate your mistake, mistakes are the steps towards enlightenment.
Agreed.
One thing that is always overlooked in these discussions is the option to transpose or adapt the source material wholesale to a different cultural landscape. That way you can't claim it to be historical anymore but you are honest about that and you can still tell a great story. That is how we got works of art like Kurosawa's "Ran" or the Coen brothers "O brother, where art thou".
Other than complete adaptations, also representations of the original material get a sort of free pass. It's obvious that Shakespeare's Julius Caesar played in a theatre of Kinshasa will likely have a black cast, that the Turandot represented in Europe will probably have an European princess Turandot, or that the Madame Butterfly played in Japan will have a Japanese Captain Pinkerton.
Black washing is real too. Proper research is necessary. Proper dialog is Paramount. History is an uncomfortable subject. We always learn more.
I'm white, slavic and lesbian. Nothing ever stopped me to have fav characters who are not white, slavic or lesbian. My favs can be straight, male, black or even not a human being at all. Or... I'm pacifist and vegetarian, but some of my favorite fictional characters aren't good people. And it's ok. They shouldn't be my copies...
Representation is a really great thing and it is awesome to have a big variety of different types of characters in media, but 1. history is history and it's inappropriate to change it, especially if it's documentary 2. People can have favorite characters that do not have similar identities
I’ve been ridiculed my entire life for having an obsession with Rome since I was a child. Even learned how to speak and wrote Latin I just love what Rome was and what all they did.
Why would you be ridiculed for that :( It's an extremely interesting topic
Maybe you lived there in your past life? I believe I lived other lives before this one.
And most importantly I acknowledge there wouldn’t be a “west” today not like we know it without Roman sphere of influence for gods sake the world well into a darn age once they were gone.
Amazing video! I really think if they want inclusivity, they need to build new characters, or bring amazing characters/stories from the past. I also hated Gods of Egypt, I couldn't help but feeling that I was watching Nordic gods with egyptian background. It distracted me the whole movie :S
_Whitewashing_ issue was very famous in the production of _"Ghosts in the Shell"_ live action movie, but no one care about _Blackwashing_ issue in _"Little Mermaid"_ live action movie and _Shaggy_ in animation series
Shaggy wasn’t really shaggy tho. It was a whole new character 😂
I am brown and when I grew up and saw a movie and books I had no problem with associating myself with the main male character and see the story through their eyes.Race never mattered
I just had this convo w/ someone who called me an "ist" the other day but as i told them. I may look white but I'm only half Britton. The truth is i would be just as bothered by a white guy playing Shaka Zulu for example. Furthermore these arent just "characters" in a play. They are peoples ancestors. Real people from real history w/ real families who's descendents still walk among us. It doesnt matter what culture it is. In short Hollywood please stop jacking w/ history!
I admire your attitude on this, but since you're new to the US you don't know how things are here.
Race Hustling is a multi billion dollar industry here.
No matter how calmly you speak, no matter how much reasearch you show, no matter what facts you present, or logic you use, the people your trying to convince will _never, EVER_ listen to anything you have to say on this issue.
I was looking at some random stuff in an old news paper archive site and actually saw an article use the phrase race hustle from like ..idk now but I had the search filter set up to 1930. My point is I was surprised people had been complaining about that in the same words for so long.
There are other words for it. "Race Baiting", "Race Grifting", etc.
I just went with hustling.
No, you're just wrong
Thats not just US, lterally across the globe issue.
@@pz_faust6866 But it's at its worst here in the US. It originates here, and we've exported its toxicity to other, mostly western, nations.
Straight to the point. The whole representation based on skin is in itself a racist concept, and i could never understand why the fixation on the character being the same skin color as you... Like, my fav hero of all is a white, blue eyes, super buff, godlike alien, and the second fav is a blonde, space ranger, bounty hunter, woman who's raised by bird ppl... Those things didn't stop me from looking at them with admiration and a desire to be like them.
You made so many awesome points in this video 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼
The people that do nothing but focus on skin color and complain are the EXACT SAME as the racists they claim to be against. Its annoying, SICKENING, and hypocritical