Reflection and Analysis

Blackwashing - Not the Solution (5/4/2022)

Is changing a canon characters ethnicty the same thing as exploring their sexuality?

Recently I came across an essay putting forth the argument that changing a canon character's ethnicity is in fact just an evolution of the long history of exploring a canon character's sexuality through slash fic. I use the word changing purposefully as the writer wasn't talking about an actual character for whom the character's ethnicity is as much of an unknown as sexuality within the work being adapted.

In fact, the more screen time a canon character has within a series, the less likely their ethnic traits are going to remain vague. We can thus say for sure that Hermione Granger is light skin and has brown hair definitively and that someone who says she could possibly have dark skin and black hair. Notice that I purposefully don't call Hermione white here, because having light skin isn't exclusive to white people, contrary to what some say which in itself is a problem with blackwashing, taking a light-skinned character and casting them as a dark-skinned character.

It's not a matter of taking away characters from white people and championing Blacks, but as OmniGeekEmpire points out in his article that I've included as a link at the end "If Black People Don't Speak Up Against Blackwashing, "It's Going To Have Dire Consequences On Their Mind, Image & Legacy!" and he's honestly right. Blackwashing - taking a light-skinned character and casting a Black actor is in fact making Blacks look bad.

And I'm saying this as someone who is supportive of it in certain instances.

For example, I know that the casting of the West family as Black in the Flash was one of those rare cases of the Ability over Appearance trope coming into play and it had nothing to do with the actress who played Iris, but the actor who played her father and they matched the family to him. Because there is no getting around the cringe I feel at the thought of some of the other actors who are strong when it comes to police drama playing said character - it wouldn't have worked, and I say this despite loving their acting and the roles they played.

There are also the cases of Annie and The Wiz where the adaption was meant to take the original narrative of Annie and The Wizard of Oz and exploring how the narrative would change in these circumstances yet in this particular case I wouldn't call it Blackwashing as that is the definite purpose.

And OmniGeekEmpire does go into the disappointment of finding out a character he thought was Black really wasn't and how he felt lied to, to which how do you think the kids we're bringing up these days are going to feel when they go and pick up a book and find out they were lied to. How are they not going to feel as if a Black person was cast as the character for the mere purpose of taking their money, rather than because the entertainment industry cares about them. In one particular case, the Winkle in Time adaption that came out you're also going to have girls asking why when the character is white is it that she gets to be the hero rather than the damsel in distress.

To which we really need to also stop pretending that girls with light skin are actually adequately represented. Part of the sting that comes from people insisting that Hermione was Black all along and that it's simple justice for all the wrongs done is because it doesn't feel like justice to a geeky girl with light skin who'd never seen her in a character before, but then we've forgotten that types of characters are also underrepresented, such as the smart girl and that light-skinned girls need as much influence towards the STEM as non-white girls.

There's also this argument that the race/ethnicity of a character isn't an integral part of the character unless they're Black (and they mean dark-skinned Blacks of course) which is a lie, given how people with white skin are being asked to check their whiteness even if that person isn't white.  The very fact a character isn't negatively impacted by their skin color is important to the narrative - yet casting a dark actor or actress as a character with light skin and...