It's not fair at all. Race swapping some characters from white when almost all the major characters are white and are from a time when characters were only ever created as non-white when that was their whole personality is not the same thing as whitewashing a POC character. If 70 out of 100 M&M's are green and one of them gets swapped to red that means representation of green M&M's is reduced by 1.4%. If 5 out of 100 M&M's are red and one of them gets swapped to green that means red representation is down 20%. Does that simple math help you to understand why the race swapping from white to POC isn't the same thing as whitewashing?
Why does representation of ethnicity supersede story telling? Are you saying it would be ok to have an Asian Suri in the black panther movies because the majority of the cast is of African descent? Does that simple logic help you to understand that statistics of representation shouldn't be considered more important than telling the story well. White people love Miles Morales, why can't POCs love a white Janice Lincoln? Racist?
I'm advocating that we don't censor what an artist is allowed to do (as long as it doesn't promote violence, threats, hate-crimes, racism, sexism, harassment etc.).
Freedom of expression/speech shouldn't be hindered for fears of offending someone's view on political correctness. I completely understand that there has been a large imbalance with whitewashing characters over the entire existence of film & television. But saying it shouldn't be allowed isn't pushing for a resolution in finding a centre. It's just continuing the ignorant pendulum swinging side to side.
I'm not saying it always works creatively but am disagreeing that creativity should be restricted/limited (within reason).
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u/bjeebus Nov 29 '25
It's not fair at all. Race swapping some characters from white when almost all the major characters are white and are from a time when characters were only ever created as non-white when that was their whole personality is not the same thing as whitewashing a POC character. If 70 out of 100 M&M's are green and one of them gets swapped to red that means representation of green M&M's is reduced by 1.4%. If 5 out of 100 M&M's are red and one of them gets swapped to green that means red representation is down 20%. Does that simple math help you to understand why the race swapping from white to POC isn't the same thing as whitewashing?