Cleopatra, The Last Air Bender, Bonanza, Kung Fu, and so on. These are examples of movies and TV shows who instead of casting an ethnic actor to play an ethnic character they enlisted a White actor in their place. Sadly, The Prince Of Persia and the new version of the movie Cleopatra will join them in the manipulative studio tactic called race bending. Race bending is defined as when a movie studio/publisher, etc. changes the ethnicity of a character with a resultant discriminatory impact on an underrepresented cultural community and actors from that community. In other words, instead of casting a person of color to play a person of color, they enlist a White actor for the role instead.
There are several reasons why studios take this direction. One being that they feel that the audience will not connect with the lead character unless they are white washed, even if the actual character is a person of color. Another is that they think that the audiences are so unaccustomed to seeing a person of color as lead in a big budget film that the movie could not possibly be a success if they cast an actual person of color in the role. Finally, if the character they are depicting in some way is a hero of sorts, or a historical legend, Hollywood prefers to portray those historical legendary types as being White. Not all legends but certain ones that they feel White audiences feel a connection to and want to fulfill that connection by portraying them as being ethic but not really THAT ethnic. Maintaining the thinking that the White audience members place this certain historical figure on a pedestal of some kind and can only accept seeing them as being White even if historical evidence says the opposite. Similar to how they often portray Jesus Christ. I digress.
One would assume from this long standing tradition of White washing characters that the movie studios assume that audience’s are intolerant, narrow minded, simpletons. Although we do have some members of our population who do represent that description, it does not count for the masses. Give audience’s credit. It should be clear to an audience that if the movie is about a Prince in Persia then chances are a Persian man would be playing the role. Surprise! It should be clear to an audience that if the character’s history traces back to them being born and living in a Middle Eastern country that chances are they were not White. Surprise again! Therefore why feel the need to throw Gyllenhaal in a bad weave and slap a tan and ton of make up on him just for us? What are the studios so scared of? Have we not yet passed the time where seeing a White face on the big screen is the only way we can be enticed to go see a big budget movie? Is the long standing phrase “if it ain’t White it ain’t right” still applicable?
I would love to have seen a Prince of Persia movie that reflected a more accurate representation. There are plenty of Persian actors who would have loved to make a big crossover movie in America. Audiences should not settle for being brainwashed into believing that lily white Elizabeth Taylor is an accurate representation of Cleopatra or settle for Angelina Jolie in the role just because she has ethic features.
Hollywood studios, give us the real deal. If you are going to do a big budget film about an ethnic historical legend then give us just that. A movie starring an ethnic actor. We can handle it.
Race Bending definition taken from racebending.com.
“No.” “Stop.” “Not interested.” “No thank you.” These and other variations should be part of your vocabulary… 
Change. President Barack Obama chanted that we needed “a change we can believe in” and Sam Cooke sang… 
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mrbluesays
2 months ago
They figure why get a fake white black woman when they may as well get a real black woman, Black women are fake with fake white styled hair and contacts Black women hate herself so she copys other races to be pretty WTF ! Where are the black natural queens of color ??? Real reconize real, White people know your hair is not jet straight they know you hate yourself and wanna be white, I don’t care what white people do to themself to copy some people of color I hate my queens going around with fake white styled hair then calls herself pretty… Yea right ! you not pretty just fake white. I bet if I told you cat was in style you would wear your cat on your head to the club thinking you is pretty LOL stupid fake azz blackwhite women. Its 2010 real is in !!!
Chi
2 months ago
eerrrm – not exactly. the resistance is young, but it is strong
case in point – idris elba’s new role in Thor (http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2010/apr/27/idris-elba-thor-race-debate)- although the response from the audience may be a case for hollywood whitewashing, the fact that he had the courage to take the role and studios had the wherewithall to stick to their choices shows that things can change. there are more and more opportunities for actors of colour to get involved, I just hope that we get enough traction to make sure that whitewashing is another thing of the past…
Frankie Kate
2 months ago
I feel you LJ, its sickening, annoying and disrespectful. Cast a white person for any positive role.. cast a coloured person to be the prostitute, pimp, drug addict, corrupt police officer and then AWARD them for it…
in these modern times you’d think that this “white in the front – black in the back” way of thinking will stop.
marcus davis
2 months ago
When will black folks learn,this is hollywood who runs hollywood ? not black folks.Black folks need to have their own movie industry like the chinese or the east indians.Black movies made by black folks for black folks and the black communities need to go out and support these movies,i can’t remember the amount of times i’v seen a movie depicting black folks
in a movie theatre and i’m the only black face in the place even if there was an abundance of quality black movies out there black folks would still not go out and support them they would rather go and support the white movie industry that would feature some blacks in derogatory or stereo typical roles instead and complain about why the white establishment does’nt have enough black faces in their white industry.
White Actors Portraying Ethnic Characters | Hello Beautiful
2 months ago
[...] One would assume from this long standing tradition of White washing characters that the movie studios assume that audience’s are intolerant, narrow minded, simpletons. Although we do have some members of our population who do represent that description, it does not count for the masses. Give audience’s credit. It should be clear to… To Read The Rest Go To YeahSheSaidIt [...]
gryph
2 months ago
simple solution. stop watching hollywood movies. but that would never happen becasue black ppl love whites so dearly and want to be down with them (and are in fact angry that despite 500 years of intimate relations that hasn’t happened). bitd the explanations was that we don’t have the means to produce and control our own images. but, what’s the excuse now? there is none really. many alternatives are available but we want a part of the white pie so those alternatives don’t appeal to us.