Whitewashing in Hollywood: A Closer Look

Hello Fellow Cinephiles. My name is Ben Bonessi. I’m a film student studying at Pace University. As part of my studies I’ve decided to do a little digging into the concept general audiences have come to know as “whitewashing.” I’ll tackle the history to figure out why it continues to be a problem in today’s industry.

The Birth of a Bad Habit

The photo above is a still taken from the 1915 film Birth of a Nation, directed by D.W. Griffith. The film centers around the southern reconstruction after the Civil War and does more than imply that The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) was responsible for the restoration of balance in the south. The man in the center of the photograph is a white actor outfitted to appear as an African-american man being apprehended by the KKK. The racially divisive overtones of the narrative aside, the actors chosen to represent the black characters had a no holds barred approach to emphasizing offensive black stereotypes in their portrayals. This is one of the earliest instances of whitewashing casts in the film industry. Hard to believe a film of this nature reached mainstream audiences, right?

As The Years Passed

As history continued, we continued to see whitewashing throughout the industry. “Blackface” died out sooner than other methods, but filmmakers continued to find new ways to keep their casts white. For example, the pictures you see on the left are stills from the two films, The Conqueror (1956) and Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961). Both are instances of whitewashing Asian characters. On the left you have John Wayne, the famous western star, playing the historical conqueror, Genghis Khan. On the right, you have Mickey Rooney playing a Japanese character by the name of Mr. Yunioshi. Similar to blackface, “yellowface” is disguising a white actor to appear of Asian descent. This has often been done through prosthetics and make-up. These two examples display both whitewashing of history and emphasis on offensive stereotyping.

As the film industry continued through the years, countless films such as these arose. Some examples include The Jazz Singer, The King & I, A Beautiful Mind, 30 Days of Night, and Dragonball: Evolution. All of these films have used white actors to portray characters of color. With the increasingly progressive nature of late 20th century audiences accompanied with diminishing racist mentalities, one could safely assume this problem would die out, correct?

Why Won’t This Problem Die Out?

Continuing into today’s world, whitewashing still has its hold on the film industry. Many filmmakers say they can’t market actors of color because they say moviegoers are predominantly white. Ridley Scott, director of Exodus: Gods and Kings, had this to say when confronted about his all white portrayal of Egyptians.

“I can’t mount a film of this budget, where I have to rely on tax rebates in Spain, and say that my lead actor is Mohammad so-and-so from such-and-such” — Ridley Scott

Unfortunately, this is the mentality of many big-shots in the film industry today. Filmmakers are afraid actors of color in leading roles just won’t rake in enough revenue. Due to the persistence of this ideology, a film like Gods of Egypt can be produced in the year 2016. Gods of Egypt is a film not unlike other mythological adventure films such as The Odyssey or The Lightning Thief, except this film is about the gods of Egypt and the gods are played by non-egyptian actors. Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Gerard Butler, and Brenton Thwaites (all white) play the main characters in this film. One of the most offensive aspects of this film is that the director, Alex Proyas, chose to write white people to play the gods in an African country. At its core, the casting shows very little consideration for non-white representation or respect for Egyptian people and their culture. This is happening in today’s industry!

So, What Is Being Done About It?

In the video to the left you will see the executive producer and cast of “Master of None” receiving an award for best comedy series. Master of None is a Netflix Original Series starring Aziz Ansari, the well known comedian. Ansari is of Indian descent as his parents are both from Tamil Nadu, India. Master of None is unique for a popular American television program due to its very diverse cast. So diverse, in fact, that only one of the recurring characters in the show is a white male. The rest of the main cast is comprised of Indian, eastern-Asian, and African-American men and women. A show like this is so important because it proves to those filmmakers and television producers that having a cast filled with people of color wouldn’t be any less successful than a cast of white people.

In addition to Aziz, several other actors, including B.D. Wong, Kumail Nanjiani, and Constance Wu have secured integral roles in their respective programs. It’s important to have minority representation in popular film and TV because art and entertainment play a very large role in the social relations of our people. Ignorance flourishes in the absence of exposure. Racism today continues to be a problem and diversity within the arts is absolutely vital in the process of eradicating it. You could look at it as a vicious cycle. Whitewashing exists because of racism which continues to exist due to whitewashing. The fact that these actors and actresses are working today and succeeding in the fight for representation proves that there is hope for an ethical future for our film industry.

Works Cited

Coyle, Jake. “Study Finds a ‘Whitewashed’ Hollywood.” Albuquerque Journal. Albuquerque Journal, 22 Feb. 2016. Web. 
Culwell, Logan. “A History of Casting King and I — Cultural Evolution and Community Action 
 | Playbill.” Playbill. N.p., 26 Apr. 2015. Web.
Ghahremani, Tanya. “25 Minority Characters That Hollywood Whitewashed.” Complex. N.p., 
 1 Apr. 2013. Web.
Hess, Amanda. “Asian-American Actors Are Fighting for Visibility. They Will Not Be Ignored.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 28 May 2016. Web.
Kelley, Blair L. M. “A Brief History Of blackface.” TheGrio. N.p., 30 Oct. 2013. Web.
Lee, Youyoung. “A History Of Blackface In Movies: From ‘Birth of a Nation’ to ‘White Chicks’” The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 1 Nov. 2013. Web. 
Niderost, Eric. “’The Birth of a Nation’: When Hollywood Glorified the KKK | HistoryNet.”
 HistoryNet. American History Magazine, 12 June 2006. Web.
Ross, Eloise. “A Short History of White-washing in Cinema.” Overland Literary Journal. N.p., 5 June 2015. Web.
PBS. “Blackface Minstrelsy.” PBS. PBS, 1999–2000. Web.
Trendacosta, Katharine. “The 10 Worst Examples of Movie Whitewashing From the Last 15 Years.” Io9. Io9, 24 Feb. 2016. Web.
Yang, Jeff. “The Mickey Rooney Role Nobody Wants to Talk Much About.” WSJ. The Wall 
 Street Journal, 8 Apr. 2014. Web.