![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
More on whitewashing
Apr. 26th, 2011 11:56 amSo the main argument that racist-apologists seem to have in defense of this Akira-whitewash thing is the same argument they had with the Last Airbender-whitewash thing, that the culpability of the producers is somehow reduced because their motives for the whitewash are primarily greed, not primarily pure racism. To me, that's like saying that the people setting fire to the nursing home aren't really that bad because they're not burning down the place because they hate old people -- they just want the insurance money. Setting aside the fact that anyone willing to perpetrate a wrong like that for greed's sake probably didn't have a very high opinion of old people to begin with, that the motive isn't pure hate doesn't make anything better, just very slightly differently bad. In fact, in the case of whitewashing it's ever bigger bullshit, since killing a bunch of old folks might actually make you a giant ton of money, whereas The Last Airbender was a massive failure on every level, especially the commercial. Of course, you can't solely blame the whitewashing for that, but I'm going to guess that casting a little white boy instead of a little Asian boy didn't make the movie any better, and quite possibly the opposite.
There seems to be concern in certain corners (to be fair, the only person I've seen with this particular opinion is![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
grumpymonkey, but he's probably not the only one) that talking about the problem without presenting some kind of magic panacea or well thought out plan of action that would solve it is akin to farting in an elevator -- you make a stink for no good reason. But that's not true. First of all, I think that calling attention to shitty people doing shitty things is a good in and of itself. Secondly, I actually do have a very simple solution: QUIT DOING THAT. It's the same solution I have for other shitty things I'm against, like dressing up animals like cowboys or female genital mutilation or the Vatican child-diddling coverup or illegal toxic waste dumping or calling things that aren't a martini a martini. Just make the movie with appropriately-cast actors, or don't make the movie.
There seems to be concern in certain corners (to be fair, the only person I've seen with this particular opinion is
grumpymonkey, but he's probably not the only one) that talking about the problem without presenting some kind of magic panacea or well thought out plan of action that would solve it is akin to farting in an elevator -- you make a stink for no good reason. But that's not true. First of all, I think that calling attention to shitty people doing shitty things is a good in and of itself. Secondly, I actually do have a very simple solution: QUIT DOING THAT. It's the same solution I have for other shitty things I'm against, like dressing up animals like cowboys or female genital mutilation or the Vatican child-diddling coverup or illegal toxic waste dumping or calling things that aren't a martini a martini. Just make the movie with appropriately-cast actors, or don't make the movie.
