Why are people mad that characters are turning black? | The race swapping epidemic
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- Опубликовано: 13 сен 2024
- In today's film industry, it seems like every time you turn around, some character from a beloved TV show or movie is changing their race. At first, we all saw it as being "inclusive" and wanting to represent different racial groups, but is that really the case? Why are so many people mad at this new race-swapping trend? Today I try to be perceptive on this topic and try to analyze this new-found craze to make already existing characters into a different race and discuss the frustrations of it.
tags: BLM, black, African American, psychology, internet analysis, video essay, analysis video, philosophy, the little mermaid, movie reviews, movie analysis, race swapping, ethnicity, Queen Charlotte, Velma, TMNT, film industry, racial inclusivity
TWO DISCLAIMERS: First, after doing some research I did find out that Queen Charolette, or Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, may have had African decent and ethnicity according to historians, however this is only a theory and it hasn't been verified, and in today's time it's difficult to do so, but that could explain why they felt they wanted to make the Queen Charolette in the Netflix series black. Disclaimer 2, at around 2:23 in the video I say the word "inclusitivity". I now realize there is no such word. I'm gonna go cry myself to sleep now. Have a good day.
Well, it is a word now. Either that or inclusiveness. Ppl use effective and effectual the same way.
*Inclusion
I don't like the change of race in original stories no matter if it's fiction or true story especially a true story I like the Frederick Douglass example I'll go further how about Martin Luther King or Malcolm X redo of the movie and they white now what an insult to them and what they did for us that's why I said leave the original the way they are come up with new stories with black leads seem like they just to lazy to write a original story anymore
One interesting facet of this race-swapping is how often red heads are changed to black. Why is this interesting? A term for red heads is "ginger" and "ginger" is an anagram for an exceptional racial slur directed at black people.
@@robinthrush9672w-wow-
I mean kinda conspiricy theory but it kinda works.
With race-swapping, there's two problems I have with it
One: It sends the message "We didn't have enough creative energy to make a brand new character so we're going to take the lazy way out and you should appreciate the breadcrumbs we're giving you."
Two: It's very illogical because if the race of an established character is "not a big deal",then by changing the race of said character, it IS a big deal to them. So, they're lying to everyone, including themselves
One reality of film writing I read about in an obscure article sometime during the early 1980's was about the difficulty Black screen writers had in getting their scripts accepted or even read. The article said that their work was prejudged on sight by the very "race" of its author. The response was believed to have been akin to, "Oh, no...here comes another 'Black' story about... (whatever) " in the mind of whichever gatekeeper met them face to face. The belief was that a Black screen writer couldn't produce anything that would appeal to a widespread audience. Even though much time has passed between then and now, some of this is probably still true. I don't bother with wringing my hands over the so-called "race-swapping" because there are more important issues to be concerned with which affect our lives. To me, it's a non-issue and because I've seen much of this in stage plays and opera, it doesn't bother me. In fact, I really like it. As I said in an earlier comment, I'd rather see a Black Queen Charlotte Sophie rather than the "traditional" roles which would usually greet Black women back in the day, or, in some respects, today. What I mean to say is that there's no progress or respect shown to Black women when they're portrayed as loud and foul-mouthed, ultra-ghetto, ignorant human wrecks, but in the minds of some people, those would be "realistic" and "appropriate" roles for them. There's a right-wing hate radio jock billed as, "Michael Savage", who was on radio some years ago. This guy would often "savage" Black Americans, and the probable source of his ire was revealed on one of his broadcasts. At some point in his past he had lost out on receiving a coveted position at a university to a Black male applicant. As a consequence of this "insult", he even skewered a sci-fy movie that was then playing in cinemas (I don't recall the title) because it featured a Black male research scientist as a character. He felt that this role shouldn't have been played by a Black actor because he raged that the idea of a Black scientist was, "unrealistic" and probably non-existant. He really got loud to the point of shouting and screaming into the microphone.
"Race-swapping" has been done for a very long time, starting over a century ago in films by white actors in "blackface", "yellow face", "red face", "brown face", etc., or whatever they called it back in those bad ol' days when making movies about the Antebellum years, some Asian themed movies, or westerns...and disagreements in those days were usually marginalized, existing only among the relatively small population of Black, Asian, Native American and Latino community leaders and activists. Few if any white actors probably objected because they were getting the extra work, and their racial group was running the entire country in the first place.
@@thegoddessdiana9185 If this was your attempt to get me to be on your side, then you did not succeed.
Point is, you're barking up the wrong tree
@@thegoddessdiana9185Wearing makeup to portray a different race is not "race swapping". Casting Joe Biden to play Black Panther would be race swapping.
The reason you suggest race swapping is good and you are happy about seems more like self-loathing. There have been many minority characters who weren't bad, both on the big screen and small. Changing the race and or gender of a character is lazy and insulting. If the race of a character doesn't matter, then why does the race of an actual person matter? At the root of race and gender swaps is racism and misogny.
@@DragonGoddess18 I agree that it’s a lazy way to make a character.
Facts presented right here. This is the best counter I've been looking for so far. Thank you Goddess!!! omg I just noticed the Dragon beat the moon. xD
Yeah I don’t have a problem with black actors, or strong female characters being portrayed more in Hollywood, but what’s annoying is that they just take things that previously existed feels lazy. Like I love seeing original black characters, but when it’s just forced for no reason it feels so stupid. And to be honest I think it would be ok if they make an old movie with a race swap, but again, why?
Yes yes yes. Where are the original black characters who would be 1000x more interesting and would show the director had some thought behind the story and cast selection rather than race swapping which, while I don't really care, like in terms of it doesn't make me angry I do find it extremeley lazy
An original black character also would be really representing someone in contrast to "color blind casting" that changes an already beloved character without adding anything. Also, it disproportional hits redheads pretty much erasing their rep and attacking another minority for the sake of one is so counterproductive....
Bfr 💀😭💀💀 all of y’all wrong … they’re literally doing these on purpose cause they know it’s controversial and political which get the movie talked about a lot I mean y’all are stilll talking about Halle playing Ariel wether you like it or not it’s name is being kept alive they’re not being inclusive or “forcing “ in fact it should be quite disrespectful that they have to give black ppl left overs but y’all aren’t mad about that y’all mad cause in your minds it’s just another white character turned black even tho in certain cases fr example shouldn’t matter … skin color don’t equal race so in what universe is Ariel white ? Well the one we’re living in I guess it doesn’t matter if you’re born from the sea if you have lighter skin then you’re white completely forgetting that basically any race can have fair skin …. It
@@beysmentssecuritycamera6013thank you chile
A great example of a race swap that does service to not only the source material but the adaptation and current story it’s trying to tell is the Interview With The Vampire Series.
Louis de Pointe du lac went from being a yt gay plantation owner in New Orleans to a black gay P!mp. The whole feel and thing about vampires is that they are unusual and supernatural beings that do not belong in society( esp modern day society ). And that change was amazing. If you haven’t watched the original movie adaptation with Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise I highly suggest watching that first before the series.
Honestly, it's not giving a good message to the youth. It feels like they are forcing the idea that "if you don't see your race in a movie, you can't relate to it." To me, this idea sounds very racist. Race swapping seems lazy. Personally, if there is an original movie that looks past focusing on skin color (like the Spiderverse movies), and it happens that their characters just so happen to be a POC, I typically really like the movie.
Growing up, I didn't care if I saw Latinos in a movie. I just loved the Disney princesses for *who they were* and not what they looked like. My favorite princesses today are still Tiana and Rapunzel because they had original personalities and stories.
Not everything has to be about race and racism. Sometimes, you can just write a good character rather than rip off another one.
In the US just about, if not every aspect, has to do with race. The country was founded on capitalism, racism, classism, etc and there's been no rectification.
@@rahbeeuh people keep talking about race and bringing it up as a current issue even though we could be easily well past it. of course, the US isn't perfect, and I'm not claiming that it is, but this is the freest country in the world and every natural human right is protected. yeah, the origins weren't great, but we're working on bettering the future.
@@rockynstuff it IS a current issue. Have you heard what they're teaching children in schools in Florida? That's not better! That's revisionist history. There are things like that going on all throughout the US. There are laws people are fighting for just to wear their hair the way it naturally grows from their head. Every human right is protected? Then why are there anti-trans laws being passed? Why are some disabled people not allowed to be married in certain states without losing their benefits? Why are food deserts more prevalent in "urban areas"? Why is redlining still a thing? If someone has an "ethnic" name they're less likely to get hired in certain places. I know. I have an "ethnic" name. Why, despite ADA rights, do employers find loopholes to fire their disabled employees without actually listing why? I don't expect any answers. Just sum'n to think about. Did y'know there hundreds of schools still named after problematic historical figures? We still have Columbus Day as a holiday even though he didn't discover America. How are we past race when these things still exist? I mentioned ableism, classism and racism examples & they're all interconnected. One system of oppression upholds the other. Who is making things better bc the racial issues that exist in the US are not getting any better. Either you don't experience these injustices, choose to ignore their existence (due to privilege or willful ignorance) and/or don't realize how bad things are.
I guess people can't relate to Star Wars' aliens or Transformers or the machines in WALL-E because people aren't aliens nor are they robots.
@@fernandofreitas2615 lol i know, right?
You nailed it! It’s so shallow and inauthentic.
Same thing goes for these “girl power” roles/movies. It’s like the script was written for a male character, but to look more inclusive the studio decides to cast a female actress to fill the role.
Especially action movies. They case a 5'2 100 lb. women with no powers go against men who's 6ft and 250 lbs. and want to make it believable.
Fun fact. In the movie Alien, the characters were written to be gender neutral because the gender of the character was irrelevant rather than focusing on the story and choosing the best actor for the role.
@IdealUser good for them. Thats how you make it. Same goes for kill bill
@@IdealUserFunner fact. Most stories are like this. Gender and race are irrelevant.
I remember I went on a long rant to my grandma and I said there are shows that have BLACK characters (or any poc for that matter) and then there are shows that have a character that just so happens to be a poc. I hate to be that person but everything is about race and identity. It doesn’t mean it’s bad. I have white friends and roommates and there are things that we do different solely because of our cultural/ethnic background. From the way we view things and act and dress and talk. It’s not bad at all, but we’re not the same. I mean you wouldn’t make two white people in a movie the same. But with poc it’s always either the character was definitely written with a white person in mind and they just decided to cast a black person or they wanted to write diversity but again it was probably written by someone uneducated in other cultures. Like even with shows these days. It’s ALWAYS either an adopted East Asian by white people or a smart East Asian who struggles, a smart south Asian who’s very Indian (because India is the only south Asian country) but wants to be cool to the white kids, a black person that’s always struggling in life or a black kid that’s very “white” or a mixed kid that’s also very “white” but you can’t call them white passing bcuz they have curly hair and they always have a white mom and a nonexistent dad and it’s like 😑 we don’t even have Hispanics and if we do of course it’s always an immigrant story or a gang related thing and it’s like yeah that’s the life for some people but let’s be a little more…creative. Realistic. Like it’s so forced that they take stereotypes and try to egg it on to the point that it’s uncanny. Like to me it’s a lose lose Wattpad situation
For me personally, as a "white" Greek person, I think that the film industry is a little bit hypocritical, because they cast "black" people in roles that were previously "white" in the name of "inclusivity" but then don't give a shit about being inclusive with other cultures, as an example, the casting of Gal Gadot, a middle eastern person, as Wonder Woman, a Greek person. I have 0 problems with the actress, but it just feels like they only cast her because she has a vaguely eastern accent, which I find at least mildly racist. There's definitely capable Greek actresses that could do the role, but they chose to cast somebody who has practically nothing to do with Greece, other than being somewhat eastern. If you're gonna be inclusive, at least be inclusive with everybody. Also the casting of the Cleopatra (again, an almost definitely Greek person) "documentary" is objectively idiotic and racist.
Let me tell you what nobody tells you.
1. Little mermaid was originally a Caribbean folklore before the Danish man took it and illustrated her as white. A secret they're taking all the way to their grave!
2. Charlotte in Brigarton was an actual black queen from my tribe in Africa. We even have an old song about her, her husband and children in my tribe language. Charlotte was whitewashed in the British history.
3. CLEOPATRA.. is a mix black and Greek. Nobody wants to hear that but it's the truth!
4. Some heroes in America were originally black.
Now, my point is, if white people had only told the truth earlier, all these confusion and rage would not be happening. People are so so used to the lies and now they want to change it back to the truth now? Nobody will accept it!
@@reallyreal7630 I agree with you on all the points that you've made, except 3. Cleopatra's race is still being debated. We know her father is white, but we don't know what nationality her mother was. During her father's reign, he had two wives who had multiple children each. We know for sure that she is at the minimum 50% Greek, but do to other unknown facts, we still have a constant debate what the other 50% is.
@@rockynstuff there was a finding that shows that cleopatra's blood sister was black (but it's been locked away hook, line and sinker). And am not surprised that Greece royals married African royals in those times considering the political mixing between Greece and Egypt.
@@reallyreal7630 yeah but it's still unconfirmed whether she and that one sister shared the same mother, thus giving the argument that still persists today. I'm not going to diss your point because it's valid, just unconfirmed. all her siblings for sure shared the same dad.
@@reallyreal7630what about Anne Boleyn, a woman known for her extremely pale scene, who was portrayed by a black actress? In medieval England, black people were little more than slaves, so that's nigh impossible to happen.
P.S. I don't want to disrespect black people. It's simply the sad truth. I admire your efforts through the years and I believe that you deserve to see original African stories adapted for the big screen.
As an Asian I don't mine if the characters are black as long as they are pre designed black. Growing up, I read fairy tales, and majority of the characters Princess and Knights are portrayed as Caucasian, and thats understandable because it was written that way. Instead of turning historical figures black, they should create a new story with new black characters. Most of the problem with stories is that its based on Caucasian historical backgrounds, predated to Medieval time period. So by turning white characters into black, it makes it very hard for people to adjust their mind to believe that theres a black Princess living in a medieval castle.
There are also many many African fairytale that could make amazing movies!!!
Or they should actually go all the way and think about how the story would change it the main character of a well known story where poc, but that would mean actual effort..... Well they managed a movie that actually touched columbians in encanto, so it is possible to do the reaserch and come up with something that feels authentic!!!
There’s literally no predesigned black characters in all day so there’s gonna have to be switching and swapping
@@Tttttttttttttttt484acting like the entire continent of Africa doesn’t have a treasure trove of myths, legends, and folklore that can be explored 🙄
@@Watch.Write.Ramble true .. but if we waiting on Hollywood to do that you’re gonna be waiting forever you got to take what you can get
@@Tttttttttttttttt484 Why settle? Instead of fighting to have people accept the bare minimum of race-swapping, why not fight to have Hollywood tell those stories and do better?
I call this 'ABC Inclusivity'.
You remember the concept as a kid where you would get tricked by your friends into getting 'ABC gum' and the like? It's Already Been Chewed. Give the black people white people's leftover scraps of a high variety of redheaded characters.
With The Little Mermaid specifically like... I wouldn't have a problem with it if it wasn't Ariel. The character from the novels never had a name. She went by other names in other versions of the story, notably when she was a blonde haired girl named Marina in a 70's anime. Ariel is somebody. She is a character, she is known, she is loved by many regardless of race or ethnicity. Characters in media, fictional or not, gain a life of their own. There are studies that show there's actually no distinction in our brain when talking about a real person or a fictional one. If she was a little mermaid named Patricia would anyone get this upset?
the main issue with Velma imo is that they were trying to make it like 'Harley Quin' animated show but picking a very distinct brand (scooby do) to revisit and essentially destroy it at its core
Hollywood is learning to be woke and subtle enough to still make money, such as Barbie and Spider Man multiverse series. Disney ironically still behind.
As an Asian I used to enjoy Fresh Prince and the Urkle show, while never try to emulate black culture myself. You are absolutely correct, Hollywood simply need to embrace and expand all cultures. Swapping races is just lazy and annoying/insulting to the audience.
There were times when race-swapping felt like an authentic artistic choice. One prime example that comes to my mind is the version of Cinderella that starred Whitney Houston and Brandy. Or, like "The Whiz" from the 1970s. Kingpin in the 2003 Daredevil movie was played by Michael Clarke Duncan and not a single person argued.
Now it just comes across as a gimmick. Disney and Netflix are doing it at such a goofy degree that I don't see how more black people aren't outright insulted by it.
The problem with race swapping is that it is just putting blackface on white characters. You can't make a black story and character from one that is based on a white one. However what can be done is retell a story from a black perspective, for example this was done wonderfully in, "the wiz". This works because instead of swapping the actors, they retell and repackage the story while respecting the source material. I don't know if what I'm trying to say makes sense but overall there's a right way to retell a story to include black/African culture and a wrong way.
Exactly, black ariel just appears alien, but if someone had taken the effort upon themselfs to rewrite and imagine the story through a culturaly black lense.... It could have been amazing!!! Interesting and colorful and authentic for funny enough, mermaid myths exist around the world and yes, also in africa!!!
Disney can put in the work for an authentic poc story, encanto got really good reactions from columbians!!!
But that half-assed bs they are doing represents nothing and no one while creating animosity against anti racism efforts by making it appear vain, taking over everything and lowering the quality of stories put out. When there is focus on placing a token poc wherever they do not fit or the colors of bandages, no one is helped and no one takes the overshadowed serious issues serious any longer.
Also I am pissed about the systematic erasure of redheads in media in the supposed name of diversity.... Yeay, eliminating a minority does wonders for diversity
I feel like this is biased, because I feel like you assume that all Black people or a monolith, then we all do and think the same things. There’s a lot of of us suburban Black people that identify with white culture.
@@Tttttttttttttttt484
I absolutely concur with your perspective, and I also share the belief that it's crucial to acknowledge the diversity within the Black community. What I'm trying to convey is that there are both respectful and problematic ways to reinterpret stories from a Black perspective. For instance, "The Wiz" primarily presents the viewpoint of a Black individual living in New York during the 1970s, while the 2009 adaptation of "The Princess and the Frog" offers a fresh perspective on the classic tale through the experiences of a young Black woman in 1920s New Orleans. Simply altering the race of characters can perpetuate the misconception that Black people share a singular identity, rather than authentically representing the richness of Black narratives. I'd like to clarify my use of the terms "white" and "Black." I acknowledge that within both racial groups, there's a wide spectrum of diversity, encompassing various backgrounds, whether they are from suburban, urban, East Coast, West Coast, the South, the North, and so on. Both "white" and "Black" refer to overarching categories that contain numerous distinct subgroups, each with its own unique cultural and historical contexts.
The fact that you have to reach back FOUR decades to find a film that makes your point, is exactly the reason why Hollywood executives are being more inclusive.
@@darkangel15221 they're more inclusive with actors certainly yes, and I know that's good progress, but nothing has fundamentally changed.
As a white European, I was reluctant to comment on the subject as I was afraid to come over as racist. But indeed I have some reservations about race swapping.
1. I like historical accuracy in period dramas, and black people didn't play much of a role in e.g. medieval Europe.
Anne Boleyn, Cleopatra and Queen Charlotte were real women, and I personally think that staying as close to reality in a retelling of their life stories is a matter of respect. Not only as far as their looks are concerned, but also their beliefs, cultural backgrounds etc.
If it's something like Bridgerton on the other hand, which is only very losely based on history anyway, or something like The Great that plays with anachronisms anyway, well, go for it! Even the dumbest viewer should be were that these shows are not actually trying to give us a history lesson.
2. I have the feeling that depicting black people as accepted members of society is a slap in the face of the black people who suffered in the time period in real life, and those who fought for acceptance and independence.
3. You mentioned Hamilton. Having actual slavers portrayed by black actors is a bit weird to me. Except when the races are consequently swapped and the enslaved people are portrayed by white actors. That would make a point indeed.
4. Why hand down roles to black actresses (in most cases it's women, isn't it?) instead of writing something new and original for them, or adapting stories from African or Caribbean folklore for example?
5. Having Indeginous Africans or Americans in a pre-colonial setting portrayed by let's say Dutch, Danish or Irish actors would also be weird.
I also didn't need the white guy in "Dances with Wolves" to feel represented and make me root for the Natives, or in "The last Samurai" to root for the Japanese.
More than the characters being suddenly black being the problem
Is more a problem with companies attitude and constant overly arrogance they tend to show.
For example, they often might be making an objectively bad movie or show that just happens to have any minority in it, and later excuse their mediocrity with the “if you don’t like it, YOU RACIST!!” When it can actually be like “uhhh no? Your shit is bad, period😅🤷🏻♀️”
If they do actual good stuff that just happens to have characters of any kind, minority or no, trust me people’s reaction will surely be prositive
Your video reminds me of the controversy of the Fantastic Four movie when they made Johnny Storm black. I went onto a message board that I frequented and the debate about WHY he should be black or white was Huge.
Anyway, one of the biggest repeats being said on the message board was, "Race doesn't matter when it comes to a fictional character," over and over. Since so many people kept saying that, I posted something that I couldn't resist.
What I said was this : If race doesn't matter when it comes to a fictional character, let's race swap Luke Cage to Asian. I said the new version of Cage will be half Japanese/half Chinese and his name will be Liu Kage'. The message board went nuts! I simply asked why they were getting so angry if the race of a fictional character didn't matter.
To me, it's not about the race (we are all human after all) but about the appearance, lore and logic. If some fictional character doesn't look like they are supposed to look, I may have a problem. And that ruins the experience and immersion. It also feels like gaslighting. For example, Aladdin was a Chinese tale, not an Arabic one.
A few years back I read a comment about the erasure of gingers/redheads. The comment stated that every time a character is ginger the c0ast a black actor. They don't do this to be more inclusive but to erase the redhead. There were also listed a bunch of characters for which this is true. The comment ended with the speculation that when Disney would descide to make an Ariel Live Action movie they will cast a black actress to erase another redhead.
When I saw the promo pictures for Live Action Ariel, my thought was: "Oh, so they were right back then?"
That's what anoyed me the most.
There was a time when red haired women were killed for their red hair, they were accused of witchcraft and burned at the stake
moments where you're not happy being right
I don't really mind race swapping for fictional characters as long as their race isn't important to their character. For example I don't care if Ariel, a freaking mermaid, is black, but Snow White is supposed to be white that's why she has that name.
However I don't approve making historical characters like Queen Charlotte or Cleopatra black.
Actually, in the original fairy tale, Ariel is described as very pale, with long black hair, 'like seaweed'. And when she turn 16, and is allowed to rise to the surface for the first time, her grandmother pins several pearls to her tail to show her rank. The story is very different from the Disney movie (and very beautiful; probably my favourite fairytale!) So to be fair, this one was technically messed up already in the cartoon.
Agreed! Race swapping wasn't my problem but the only problem her acting that good despite being a good singer
how about, you can have 1 fictional characters there are white, and one character that are black, with different name? with good a story ofcouse , im talking to you miles morales
@@allysunflower9657 race swapping is problem stop acting it not, you could have miles morales who are not named peter, with background of different culture and still sell well. if you really want a black character , you could have what marvel do with miles morales on every aspect, he was not secondary character either, he is his own, like how he potrait on both his OWN movie.
@@ceiii7190 Miles should have more differences from Peter Parker. Like, the powers of Miles and Parker are similar, both were given powers after being bitten by a spider, their costumes are similar, and their villains are similar. Their biggest differences between the two are their race and family members and some friends (but Miles is also friends with May Parker, Gwen Stacy, Mary Jane Watson, and other acquaintances of Parker). To me it feels a little cheap and I'm Latino like Miles is.
I would be more excited to see original story's with main characters being black, especially when a bit more black history is introduced.
Sadly that is not what is happening.
I wouldn't care one bit what skin color a character has, but like you said, the historical characters changing now is redicilous.
i think at this point i draw the line at two things: swapping ppl in history, or completely alternating a character's personality to fit a stereotype. velma is guilty of the second one, portraying her as yer stereotypical indian loser, and it pissed some indians off. i saw a tik tok where a woman called mindy out, saying, "just because you think you're pathetic doesn't mean the rest of us do." i didn't see the little mermaid, but it sounds like it wasn't about ariel's big black struggle against underwater gang violence or drug addiction, so i'll give it that. and the history-swapping speaks for itself. it's well-documented that cleopatra was macedonian-greek, and they are not sub-saharan african. also, why cling to cleopatra when queen amanitore of kush was right below her, parting roman hair from two hundred paces away with her archers and driving them out of her kingdom?
Thank you for voicing your opinion and you're absolutely right, as a white person, my opinions have been seen as racist, when I was trying to talk more about the blatant pandering rather then true genuine inclusivity. Sadly, I've started seeing the same trend for LGBTQ+ too.
One film that sticks in my mind is the live action Beauty and the Beast. Beauty and the Beast took place in mid-1700s France, when black people were slaves and slavery was still legal (it wasn't abolished until 1794). So when they cast a black person as the librarian, it stuck out and looked inaccurate and incorrect for the time and place of the story.
It's a children's movie bro you expect them to start discussing slavery? It's literally a fairytale
@@handsfortoothpicks Pinocchio was a children's movie too and is has children trafficking.
@@Dante02d12 And then there's movies like Pocahontas which basically is a kid-friendly portrayal of the Europeans settlers that came into America and killed the Native Americans and took over their land.
Its tokenism not creative. It's a shame, there are many real stories and fictional stories that haven't be told yet but because of this weird swapping, it can never happen. Many have said, its laziness, its stupid sometimes, for example a black actress playing Anne Boleyn seems pointless yet there are real black women's stories that could be shown to us. Not everyone realises that historical dramas are taking artistic license. The little mermaid was based in Denmark and was written by Hans Christian Anderson not Disney. What would have been awesome would have been a completely new story about mermaids based in another sea that have all black actors giving children something new to enjoy.
8:04 okay, hamilton is different because its theater, When you cast a production your looking for who can fit the character, who has the best voice, and who the best at acting. Also LMM wanted to make most of the cast non-white because its supposed to be America then told by America now if that makes sense.
I'm Asian but I can't help being angry for established characters to race swap white characters to black. I just don't see any advantages for such to happen except virtue signaling. The fact they just idly change Ariel to black Ariel without changing anything to give reasons why Ariel is now a black mermaid is just lazy. It means Hollywood just don't give a damn about proper black representation in the media but since that's what "people" want, they just decided to sacrifice the white, red-haired specifically by erasing them from the media and swipe them with black characters. By the end of the day, 2 races have been forsaken without much thoughts.
And that's why I can't support that movement, even if it's for mere fairytales. Because what makes people think they won't do the same thing to black characters if suddenly being Asian or hispanic is what "people" want?
I really like your point of view, I think it´s important that we start talking more about story telling, the writing and the stories behind movies , the way that some stories are being constantly re-told (all the Disney remakes, most likely written by a white dude) and certain other stories are still not told , certain writers visions are never portrayed.
It's like they're giving us crumbs and we're taking it. It's irritating to me. I would rather see something new staring black people. There is literally a black character in the little mermaid. It would have been better to learn about her life rather than watching the little mermaid for the 30th time. That was kind of corny to me and I never had any interest in watching the movie.
Are you even black?
Exactly that's my problem with this. Black children deserve their own stories told. Experiencing their own culture and stories on the big screen. Instead Disney is giving scraps and handing them to black actresses and we are supposed to be overjoyed to see a black Ariel when Halle could have just as easily gotten her own mermaid movie. It's honestly sad.
@@LillianYarney We ALREADY DO THAT, HONEY. They're not mainstream. Clearly since you don't know they exist, you don't care about what minorities deserve when you won't pay attention.
Alright since you clearly have so many assumptions, drop some titles. I care a lot about this topic.
My main question is why not make Ariels family black as well ??
Honestly for little mermaid. I really didn't care because its a make believe series. however Bridgeton was stupid seeing that all the people were based by historical pieces and all of them are white. Instead of making a black show or talking about Africans/Jamaican lore or ideologies. Hollywood's will rather making white historical piece with black people as the main characters. basically saying black stories are bottom tier compare to white stories.
im fine with race swapping if their IP is unknown or a character no one really care about.
but for establish IP or historical piece is were I am really against it especially they change their whole core of the character. if you are going to do that might as well make a new character and make them black.
My main problem with brigerton is, that I find it wildly insulting and disrespectful that they frame it as is one biracial wedding would have eradicated racism.... Like wtf people?!
Either go big or go home when it comes to remaining stories or history!!!
@arianewinter4266 honestly if brigdeton modern series i would have less problem with raceswap
It's not the "swapping" that annoys me. It's the why behind the "swap." There's a school of thought in advertising/marketing that says "anyone can attract a lover, measure your success by the number of haters you can attract." And that's what they're doing now. They are using negative gimmickry to get haters in an uproar and promote for free; then try to spin the negativity they created by saying if you have a problem, then your reaction says something about you and not them as the origin of it.
It would have been cool if they had cast biracial and afro-latina actresses to play Ariel's older sisters (for example:GuGu Mbatha-Raw, Zoey Saldana, Rosario Dawson, etc. That would have implied that their mother was black.
OR they could have cast a black actor to play her father, implying that Ariel's mother was white with red hair.
I mean they are magical creatures. It seems like they change to whatever environments they're in.
A good example of having the main character be black in a franchise when the main character has always been white before is Miles Morales in Spider-Man. Miles Morales has also become my favourite Spider-Man out of all of them.
I do agree with this. I didn't mind Ariel being black because she's a mermaid and the culture wasn't evident in the original movie. I was a little caught off guard about Snow White changing races since that movie was very heavily German with the types of singing, furniture, and outfits in the original cartoon movie.
Okay so...as a Swiss that lives an hour away from germany, the original story has Snow white be pretty and that gets her into situations, and that's the plot.
No this is fine, I can imagine a hundred ways in which you can actually make something inteteresting by zooming in on the stepmother plot and a daughter that is not the whiteste of white... I don't see why we would in this age glorify whitness like that
@@corneliahanimann2173 It is not "glorifying whiteness" to want a cultural story to keep the appearance of the native people who live there. I have Swiss and German heritage and the aspects of yodeling and designs of the furniture and instruments were inspired by that part of the world. It would be like Frozen (which is heavily Norwegian) to change and be Alaskan instead. It impacts the appearance and tone of the story.
@@Tiara_Princess7 Ja dann solltest du vielleicht mal die richtige Geschichte lesen und dich mit den Absichten auseinandersetzem, den kulturellen hintergründen und dich fragen ob diese Geschichte für unsere Gesellschaft wirklich noch so tragend ist, wie sie es damals war. Schneewittchen kann in viele Richtungen interpretiert werden und dieses hochnässige Gelaber, dass die alten Märchen besser sind ist einfach sehe kurzsichtig und inzwischen nurnoch eine peinlich politische Haltung. Scheisst mal den alten Stock aus dem Arsch und fängt nicht gleich an zu heulen weil Schneewittchen mal nicht so aussieht wie ihr das wolltet.
@@Tiara_Princess7 yea I gotta wonder how much german swiss heritage you have and how much you just wanted to be offended for a culture of which you don't even speak the language.
How about this:
Before you get offended on other peoples behalf, speak their language to understand what they think before you start crying over something that was not taken FROM YOU.
@@corneliahanimann2173 You are so odd for this response. I am not offended by anything. I think that if the animated movie has a clear culture (mine or otherwise) it should stay the same. I am 50 percent Swiss German and 50 percent Scottish for your information. My mom was born in Germany and my father Scotland.
Since Hollywood hasn't put out something decent in decades I couldn't care less;
What I do find annoying is the virtue signalling and the cancelling of everybody who has a different opinion.
The blatant toxicity surrounding it all has society going backwards.
As a brown guy I used to have it good; no racism, no discrimination, equal opportunity, the works.
Nowadays I have to walk around with 'No Woke Lunatic' tattooed to my forehead before people dare to talk to me.
Not to mention the wokies who are beyond surprised when I disagree with them.
Which is even more irritating and actually racist.
P.S. 'poor widow'-look 😂 Funny, but it's really not that bad, trust me 😊
Now I normally don't care for race swiping, it's a bit of an irk for me since sometimes it feels like movie producers are shoving representation down my throat, but I was a but upset with the portrayal of Cleopatra because she was a real person who had lighter skin. And since it's a docuserires it's is portraying a part of history as inaccurate as well as taking the role away from someone who could have used it.
If it where rep it would be fine, but it is not, it is empty inauthentic thoughtless and killing redhead rep ....
Change a character, where ist still feels organic, where it makes sense or does not matter, change how people react or otherwise make their story a black story.
Write new poc characters that are allowed to tell their own stories instead of rehashing an unauthentic white one.... There are so many ways to do a better job than lovelessly raceswaping the main character having them feel alien in the story for nothing else adjusts to that.
Arial could have been great, if they went all the way and made her not out of place black, but tell the whole story through a cuturally black lense. There are mermeid myths all over the world, and yes africa to, merging those stories would have been the way to go... But that would have taken effort
I mean... if this is supposedly about anti racism. Why arent characters turning mexican or asian too? Because this IS about race
I don't really care so much if it's a fictional character who's skin color is irrelevant or the story isn't heavy on cultural backgrounds, but I think it becomes a problem when a historical figure or a character whos skin color and culture is important, is played by an actor/actress of a different race or is misrepresented.
The thing about the little mermaid is that if they had just made a different little mermaid, same story, just different characters and such, i would have loved a dark skinned little mermaid.
But they just dyed ariel black.. thats so lazy!
But just imagine all the cool designs you could make, like, i had a thought that you could make a young girl mermaid with an afro that looked kinda like brain coral, or anemone hair, add a fantastical flair, add coral horns.
I like, the idea of deep sea mermaid being scary seathrough motherfuckers with no room for brain space so scary, like deep sea fish.
I dont like raceswapping because i dont like such major changes to already existing and established characters, especially since there *are* black creators out there who’s work could be used but instead we’re spending all that money on a worse than the original remake and doing a fortnite reskin of the main character for pity points.
Do you know what's worse? The fact that they already have a dark skin mermaid (I'm not sure if she is hispanic or black), who is also mute and her name is Gabriella, and they just decided to forget such a good character. She was done so well and not just a rehash of Ariel, but she is very loveable. She is in the Little Mermaid seires, and she wishes she could sing like Ariel, but Ariel thinks her sign language is as beautiful as a song. It would've been cool if we saw her in a movie, "but nahhh why make new things if we can rehash it and make bucks"
It is also the same problem I have with Peter Pan and Wendy, when there's literally a black, Asian and Hispanic fairies there and all the characters are strong female characters while having distinct personalities.
I'm mad because there doing this for the wrong reason. If they were doing it like in that show Hamilton I'd be cool with it but much of the blackwashing is being done for woke points not because they're good at acting as well as rewriting history to fit their narrative. BTW, no one went crazy over that one Cinderella movie where Cindy was black when it came out a long time ago, makes you wonder what's going on.
About april being black it doesn't matter to me bc it wasn't a reboot it was a different version of the story but all the recent race swap movies only change the race but the story is basically the same and that feels like they just wanted to get some 'woke' credit
Yeah, but we’re in the nostalgic phase in Hollywood currently so we’re remaking a lot of films from the golden age of movies and remaking a lot of songs in a lot of those old movies that they’re remaking only cast white characters so if they decide only cast the characters based on the old movie or book it was based on Black people will still continue to be excluded from the media so somethings Gotta give
@@Tttttttttttttttt484 yea but remaking is making basically the same thing so changing the race makes no sense it only makes people feel less nostalgic and it makes people zone out and lose immersion also it's fine to remake old movies but there's nothing except remakes right now and that's the problem...
@@genesisextra7855 he literally does make sense. When you remake something obviously things are going to change that life get over it. the characters racial identity does not take away from the storyline. You’re basically saying that a lot of movies that are being remade; the only reason it was good it’s because they have white characters. That’s kind of biased.
@@Tttttttttttttttt484 i didn't say that only if it changed from white to black. Lets say they changed TMNT's turtles to frogs... it will not change anything but ruin the immersion bc it's already a known brand
I read about Charlotte Sophie of Mecklenburg-Strelitz back in the late 1970's and saw the pictures in the book I read. It was no surprise to me and I was happy to see it come to life recently. I bought the DVD as well. BTW, I realized that the 1970 movie, "Patton" (George C. Scott) "whitewashed" the tank crew assigned to Patton's Third Army during WW2. This was the 761st Tank Battalion (AKA The Black Panthers). The movie portrayed the group as all white, but they were actually Black. Some "woke" moviegoers at the time (who were not asleep) caught the error. Funny that the sort of people who rant and rave and get their panties in a wad over what they call "woke" movies and "race-swapping" Black characters for white were as silent as church mice back in 1970 for, "Patton". It's funny how these kind of people will lose their minds over some nostalgic notion of a childhood cartoon character, comic book character, or a non-existant creature from the world of fantasy being "race-swapped" as Black when actual soldiers who served in WW2 were "race-swapped" from Black to white during their lifetimes. Oh, the hypocrisy!
You started to see a significant drop in white-washing starting around the 70's with little of it happening by the 80's. Maybe people found it disrespectful and that it took away work from minorities, maybe people wanted more accuracy in entertainment, or maybe other reasons or combination of reasons. Although most likely a lot rarer around the early 70's and before, you sometimes had a minority taking a traditionally white role, for example Eartha Kitt's Catwoman.
I wonder what people would say if the new Blade installment would have a white and blue-eyed actor playing him!!!!
Pause. Dora could be Afro Latina. She will still speak Spanish. She can still has any Hispanic Heritage. So that was not a good example.
All wonderfully stated 👏🏼👏🏼 All most of us don't hate the fact that there are black characters. We hate the fact that there is no new storytelling. Diversity should be showcasing the untapped tales of the world... Disney especially annoys me. Why race swap existing princesses, when we are LONG overdue for an African princess ❤
They say don't make it about race...not to see color...then people cast anyone for the role regardless of race, they lose their marbles.
What was your point?
That actually isn't true here. There whole thing was putting a woman of color there instead giving us original black princesses.
i genuinly struggle with character changes if i am attached to said characters. i know it's childish but i cant help it. seeing people discredit my emotions or calling me racist for feeling them sucks. like with ariel i didnt care because i have no conection to her as a character but for example annabeth from percy jackson i did struggle with due to how much i love the character. and its not just skintone. i hated live action annabeth from the movies too because she diddnt have the blond hair. i usually try to not talk about this tho as i know it's just a character and it shouldnt matter. but to me it does. mostly also because as an artist once you have an established character. every single trait you use creats that character. from scars to skintone to hair. every single thing that is used makes that character. changing anything like getting rid of scars for example makes that character a diffrent one. so why not just make a fully new character instead
I totally get what you mean. I am a hughe Percy Jackson Fan. I always picture Annabeth with her blond Hair. When I see the actor I cant see Annabeth in her (yet). But I know that Rick chose her, because he felt, that she fit best to her Charakter and his Books are Charakter driven. I do trust Him to find the best actors. And I will definitely give her the chance that she deseves. But at the Moment I do struggle, to see her as Annabeth.
The Second thing I've been struggling with is that even tho the books are Charakter driven, the appereance always has a meaning. It connects the Demigod with the god. Blond Locks an blue Eyes of Apollo Kids, Athenas stormy grey Eyes and of course Poseidons Sea green Eyes. I always tought, that was really cool. (But to be fair, the gods can change their appereance.)
I do like the actors for Percy and Grover. And I trust Rick that he found a good actor for Annabeth, but I guess I will have to get used to her not being Blond.
@justarandomchick767 okay this is an amazing point and I should have added it in the video because I seen a video speaking on this concept and it makes a lot of sense
It always feels inauthentic to me because I feel like it's pretty easy to just make a new story. I never get angry when it happens, I just go, "dam another one, but why"
But the only time I actually get annoyed by it is when a character's race was very specifically chosen to be a certain way.
Like people who got mad at LOTR are just racist and suck at hiding it, but they deadass race swapped snow white. SNOW WHITE. IT'S IN THE NAME LMFAO. (I think they got so much backlash they gave up on it, whole thing was a mess) Also the Cleopatra "documentary" is so funny to me cus a lot of platforms describe what was meant to be a documentary as fictitious.
I am not mad at black characters in LOTR or the valerions, where I get offended is when the first gets called racist foe not having had black people in it to beginn with and people claiming, the valar ion could have been black the whole time cause both are wrong.
LOTR is prehistoric fantasy brittain, no wonder it's Caucasian, with poc being a rarety and novelty to that part of the world it makes sense, why one would imagine them not to be there yet in the past only to the leave again.
And the books make very clear, that the valerions have typical valerian looks and that's why the tags interbreed with them..... So sure reimagine them if you like, can be interesting, but claiming that that is true to the books is bs.
The thing that actually makes me mad is that it's not random characters that get blackwashed, but disproportionally readheds...... They are killing rep for an even rarer minority in the name of unauthentic thoughtlessly approached diversity.....
@@SingingSealRiana there has been a lot of movies based on historic times. If they decide to actually cast the actual race of the people, we literally would not see minorities in the media. Sometimes somethings Gotta give. Black people are tired as being portrayed as slaves when it comes to historic movies.
I feel like in the case of LOTR it just made no biological sense.
I can’t speak for everyone who got angry because let’s face it- ignorance exists everywhere, but from the people I have spoken to the problem was that it made no biological sense.
Common traits in ethnicities and races often occur due to adaptations to their surroundings and who’s having babies with who. I really don’t like using stereotypes but just to get my point across: mono eye lids are most common in Asian ethnicities because most people who were having children over there HAD those features.
In the case of adaptations, the reason skin got lighter was because the sun didn’t hit humans skin the same in Europe as it did in Africa. If anything, I kind of wish that the people in the south lands had darker skin if the creators wanted to be diverse because it would’ve made biological SENSE. It was a very poorly built world and it made everywhere look like LA.
Once again, I have no doubt that some people were being straight up racist. But there were very much problems with the world building in Rings of Power (I assume that’s what your talking about.) And they definitely could’ve been diverse without messing up aspects like the elves being fair skinned.
@@Tttttttttttttttt484Right Black People are actually slave traders as well a lot of the Black African raided small village and capture the community there and sold them to each other and to the colonisers as well lets not just make a victim out of Black People shall we
@@Tttttttttttttttt484 Well, you know what they can do instead ? Tell stories about their own legacy in Africa. I mean, look at the size of this place, the number of culture that rose from there. Blame lazy writting, research and knowledge.
What frustrates me is that, by and large, more diversity in media is wholly good. However, much of the representation we get ends up being very shallow, and even, at times, racist, in its own peculiar way. Take historicals, for example-folks make the argument that it's fine to depict white figure as other races because it gives more representation. You know what would be even better? Telling stories that aren't originally about white people. By shoe-horning people of color into white history, they're essentially saying "White history is all that really matters, but don't worry, we'll share the limelight a little here-and-there."
Compare recasting Queen Elizabeth I (who was *notoriously* white) as a black woman, to telling the story of Queen Nzinga of Ndongo and Matamba-she was a skilled politician and negotiator renowned for her wisdom and intelligence, who rose to power after her brother's death and waged war against the Portugese as they further encroached on African sovereignty. I ask you, which story does more credit to African representation? The one which implies the only way you can be important is if you were from Europe, or the one which acknowledges that important and fascinating people existed all over the world, and encourages us to look deeper into the history we were never told?
(Note: Apparently Netiflix has made a mini-series about Nzinga, under the name of "African Queens." I can't speak to its quality [it has mixed reviews, some of which are... very incensed], but the fact that people are actually _trying_ to cover more diverse history in a genuine way is cool to see. Hopefully it spurs more directors to explore a more diverse array of history.)
THANK YOU!!!!!!
As a person who has Ghanaian blood this infuriates me. We have our own warriors, royalty, struggles, and triumphs. Why are we pushing to be playing Anne Bolyen or Queen Charlotte? When Mansa Musa, Amina, and Yaa Asantewaa exist? It's like we want to glorify European history. It's really disheartening.
Also another thing that pisses me off is Cleopatra was a colonizer her line of Ptolemy was created from the colonization and conquering of Egypt from Alexander the Great. There is an actual history thousands of years before Cleopatra and rulers of Egypt and yet all anyone seems to care about is making Cleopatra a colonizer black it's insane to me.
Another aspect that not a lot of people mention is that this sort of casting puts the actor or actress at quite a disadvantage since, no matter how well they play their part, some people will be too distracted by their selection to appreciate their performance and other people won't even watch the movie or show at all because of it. The studios are fully aware of this, but choose to put their cast in this difficult position anyway.
8:07 i thought of hamilton too but i appreciate the casting bc they hired people not taking race into account, only considering talent and whos voice fit best which i think is really cool
Isn’t that what they did for aerial?
Race swapping is just lazy.
On top of that, they tend to make the characters unlikable in a way or another.
Africa is the birthplace of humanity.
Over the last eons, there aren't any unique African stories worth telling?
Especially without swapping or changing things?
But to be honest, it's just laziness.
If you want to take african folklore and make them into something, you'd actually have to go there and ask, collect, and do actual work.
Bet most people writing these couldn't be bothered leaving their yoga mattresses and smoothies behind long enough to do their own independent research.
Btw, enjoying the "african" streaming service a ton more than Netflix.
Many of the shows have to make up for the lack of endlessly deep pockets with simply interesting stories.
It is hard to contribute anything other than opinion on these matters unless you are a sociologist. In my opinion, the way i see it working is that filmmaking and movie production are a business first and foremost. Film producers take calculated risks and go where the money is. So if let us say, for arguments sake, that next years predicted trends are romantic comedies, Millie-Bobby Brown, and baby crocodiles. The biggest film productions are going to be putting their money first into movies that 2/3 of the years trends. So what i believe is happening here is that current popular trends are live action Disney films, nostalgic remakes, and race swapping. Bada-bing, bada-boom we got a black Ariel.
@cjames22dox That's actually a very good point and definitely makes more sense now that you brought that up
I think you’re right, but also I would definitely say that that trend has fallen fast. Disney isn’t making nearly as much as they used to, and I know that their shares have fallen dramatically. I would say that at this point they’re out of touch with their audience and don’t realize that people don’t actually want that.
Disney is going down down down.
Are you completely ignorant of the DEI banking/scoring system and the push by certain billionaires to demand this agenda be adhered to?
Evidently, there is no money in woke. The average person will walk with their wallet and not feed this absolute garbage. Bud Light should have proved that.
Not to mention, this whole "You can't speak on this matter with any authority unless you're ___ or ____" gatekeeping is an obvious tactic to devalue the weight of opinion. It's to be thrown in the same trash bag as "Trust the Science" and "Listen and believe". No normal person has any kind of time for that rubbish.
No amount of delusion or forced DEI will make a man a woman, nor will make Princess Charlotte black. That's what it boils down to. People are highly sick of indulging delusion.
If Disney et al were genuine about this DEI stuff and not being pitchforked into it, they would understand that stories can be told that are inclusive without being forced. You just have to use your creativity.
@@Kaysaja Personally, I don't like that USA is trying to get its grubby hands on African stories. We are watching Shaka iLembe in South Africa and they managed to force some "inclusivity" or diversity in the form of early Colonizers but they're Missionaries sent to help the local African population. It disgusts me. So it goes both ways.
I’m white myself, but the way I’ve understood it is movies making characters queer, without understanding what that means, especially when it’s always something like trans or gay, never bisexual or non binary or anything more diverse than that. In my mind, it’s pandering and baiting while claiming it’s diversity.
Rainbow capitalism:
As Southeast Asian, I watched the whole thing as neutral. POC mad when the character turned into Caucasian (Last Airbender, etc). Yeah that's erasure, so that's valid. But why people praise it when it reversed? People outside White and Black race watches and see that as hypocrisy and egoism, you know 😭
Disney made a cartoon with specific features that an entire generation grew up with it and are fans of it. Sometimes changes are unnecessary
let's not forget disney is the same company who intentionally edits black actors out of its movie posters for marketing in china. if they fr gave a shit about representation, they'd be using the infinite $ and resources they have to make original characters with their own compelling stories instead of erasing europeans from their own folklore just to profit off a controversy or two. plus why do they keep tryna pretend like tiana doesnt exist??? ive barely seen her in marketing at ALL compared to p much every other character HMMMMMM
anyway great video! you p much summed up my exact thoughts on this kinda trend. imo raceswapping rly doesnt help anyone (save for a few specific cases where it can actually enrich a story like if its told from a different racial perspective. unfortunately almost all films dont make any changes whatsoever beyond increasing the melanin to a character but i digress), stuff like the little mermaid mostly just divides ppl even more whereas across the spiderverse should be the kinda originality we should support instead.
There is so much history we haven’t made a movie yet especially in other countries like for example Josephine Baker she was the first African actress in the big screen and she fought in WWll why the hell Hollywood wants to make uninspired films yet they have so much material that haven’t been even touched or in the big screen
Leave African stories alone. Africans don't like USA using African stories
There is already a successful, Josephine Baker movie, I’m assume you haven’t seen it
@@Tttttttttttttttt484 She's a real person, of course you can't raceswap her. Why do people bring up real people like Martin Luthor King being played by white people? You missed the point entirely. Ariel is FICTIONAL and MYTHICAL creature therefore can be reinterpreted. Princess and the Frog was a reinterpretation of The Frog Prince which was originally a WHITE fairytale.
@@Tttttttttttttttt484 There is a movie about Josephine Baker, however the OG commenter is correct on one thing there are so many international and American stories of heroic and amazing black people that we haven't gotten a movie about Robert Smalls is one. So race swapping historical figures especially to me makes no sense when those stories haven't been explored.
Did you see who they cast for Annabeth in the Percy Jackson show? At least Alexandria Daddario redeemed herself in Sea of Monsters by dying her hair black.
I want original black characters not token ones to appease us. Do a history series of Queen Aminotore from Nubia and fictional give me a Spawn live-action series. Race swapping gives them a way to not but original black IPs that aren't hip hop, slave time, civil rights, gang/athletic content. Doing this would actually show black children something special.
I just wonder why people put so much emphasis on something they aren't gonna see nor care about within 2 weeks
I don't hate "The Little Mermaid" or "Velma" because the main characters' race, I hate them because they're terrible.
The question why Disney and Hollywood doesn't make interesting, unique and original live action and animated movies with African myths, cultures and heroes is because the artists and writers don't have faith in those stories and believe it's too hard and long to get the audience to accept Shaka Zulu, Mami Wata, Anansi and Mwindo. etc.
I disagree with that belief but there are some people saying it's because Disney and Hollywood are afraid of offending people when portraying those cultures and maybe injecting American western ideals into those stories when they don't make sense.
There is a lot of wasted potential for original POC characters but I rarely hear a demand for Static Shock, Blade, Spawn, Vixen, and so on.
I barely remember original POC characters because the media isn't showing them enough but doing palette swaps of established white characters.
I believe this does more harm than good because it's saying "You need to rely on popular white characters and have them palette swapped to make you feel better rather than researching your cultural and historical background and creating a badass character on your own."
I don't know if this is true but in the last decade, I can't list cool new and original POC characters who are the main leads except the General Leader from "The Woman King", "Black Panther", "Miles Morales" and "Falcon." Who is missing and please tell me who is still on screen and not forgotten.
I also feel like if we’re going to wait for Hollywood create new black material we’re going to be waiting a long time. Sometimes you got to catch a boat before it goes in the ocean.
I can understand everyone's concern about changing the race of historical figures, but there are actually black Hispanic people. Dora being black shouldn't shock anybody. She could be from Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Cuba or Panama.
There's a right and wrong way to do a lot of things, no one cares that Nick Fury was white in the comics because Samuel L. Jackson was just too perfect for the role, skin color be damned. I grew up on a black Green Lantern. I didn't even know he was supposed to be white, I was genuinely confused when the movie cast Ryan Reynolds until I learned that fact (not that it helped the movie.) It can be done, but Hollywood is just not very good at it. As far as history goes, let's just keep it accurate. Whatever culture, race, or ethnicity a historical figure was is what they were. There's literally no reason to make a change regarding that other than an agenda, regarding historicity. We need to keep knowledge of the past as accurate as possible, it's better for us that way.
It's funny (not funny at all) that big studios like Disney pretend to be inclusive and woke by race swapping but than they do nothing to protect the actual actor/actress of color against the backlash and rampant bigotry that's being spat their way.
Even when there isn't a race swap (example John Boyega in Star Wars), these big studios don't care about how their actors get mistreated and even threatened. Only shows how surface level "inclusive" they are without supporting a minority group on a bigger scale than just "the visuals"/finished product.
Up until now I still see a disproportionate amount of angry and laughemojis on every Disney ad for the live action Little Mermaid vs any other Disney movie/series. And that's "just" some emoji reactions, I don't even dare reading the comment sections on those.
I think there are tons of great black characters that have been written and have paid off, and been very good characters with good actors. Looking at the originals eg: Ariel was a German redhead. It's not that I don't think characters can be diverse, I don't really mind when there are race swaps when it's fictional, but it's still lazy writing and new incredible characters could be written. But at times when people make something that is labelled a "Documentary" or historically based things, its more like rewriting over history. And sometimes goes to an extent that it takes away from whatever cultures historical figures were actually from, and it isn't actually, typically just 'white'. Cleopatra, was Greek and not of African descent, Anne Bolyn was English and was not a black woman in history, there was however a respected trumpeter that served king Henry VIII, who must have had his struggles but rose into the services of the highest nobility in the land (a high position) and evidence shows he became respected and was approved wage raises and given gifts due to his services by the monarch. If producers really want to make interesting things historically but want to include black people, that actually exists in places throughout history. And stories could be made on these individuals instead of overwriting pre-existing historical figures for no reason. I would watch that.
Black people should want to play brand new roles that no one has ever played before. Why play a character that was once played by a white person when you could play a brand new character that no one has ever heard of before? Race swapping is doing more damage than good. When a story keeps being retold, people are always going to compare who played a specific character better. Hollywood producers need to start interviewing black people & ask them what they want to see on tv & how they should be represented instead of handing them old tv / movie rolls that were once played by white people. They deserve new material.
Bottom line seems to be that while having more diversity of characters in media is good... we have reached the point of just changing a character's skin color not being good enough. People don't want to just see themselves in these characters on a superficial level, they want to connect with them at a cultural one. And when that element is missing (take Annette from Nocturne, another character that people bitched a lot about the race change even before the series was out. Here she isn't "just black". Here it is central for her character that she is an ex-slave during the haitian revolution*), since it is done so much nowadays... it feels cheap.
On the Dora topic, it's funny cause while there are black hispanic people... yeah, it would be like having a black american character acting like regular american culture is theirs. And no, although there are black hispanic people, they have their own cultures the same way that black american people have theirs.
*Also her original character was almost non existing, so like... there wasn't even a character to recycle? There was so little in her as a character that the only things they kept were her name and that she is Richter's love interest. That's it, I wouldn't even point out being a "little" strong willed (I would rather die than become Dracula's bride) cause... that basic line is not a personality.
thank you for articulating this so well. I've been feeling this way but didnt have the right words to express it. I would love to see more diverse stories, not just race swapping because its easy.
Yeah, as a white guy, I don't care if they change the race of a fictional character--unless it fundamentally alters the character (For example, Superman--growing up in the rural US is a fundamental part of his background; I guarantee that is a different experience if he's black). Black Ariel, fine, no one cares (well, no one should care)--because like you said it all superficial. When they change the race of an actual historical person, I find that to be more of a problem.
Inclusivity is great. Necessary even, and it should have been a goal long before now. But the ultimate problem comes down to Hollywood's paralyzing fear of new properties. Virtually everything anymore is a remake, adaptation or "based" on historical events. And because for so long, white was the default for main characters in western media, that means if they want to be more inclusive, it leads to a lot of race swapping. Whereas if they were more willing to back original projects or at least adapt stories with minority leads, it wouldn't be an issue. No one could complain if you just made a new lead character who was black in your new IP (Beyond outright racist assholes, but screw them). But studios are so reluctant to invest the money in something that isn't a recognizable IP, that it leaves the obvious solution just sitting there virtually unused. I really don't understand it, because it doesn't seem like their all remake all the time thing isn't doing them any favors. Some of them do well, some bomb, and I have a hard time seeing how it could be that much worse if they took more chances on new properties.
Yeah, but we’re in the nostalgic phase in Hollywood currently so we’re remaking a lot of films from the golden age of movies and remaking a lot of songs in a lot of those old movies that they’re remaking only cast white characters so if they decide only cast the characters based on the old movie or book it was based on Black people will still continue to be excluded from the media so somethings Gotta give
Uh yeah it's not just That White Characters are turning Black, it's also Black Characters turning white, and Time Lines such as the 1930s when FDR was President, being Changed to 2014, when Obama was in Office, And since your on That Subject, It's a Cookie Cutter Remake, with a Young Asian Woman Replacing Buddy Hackett An Old White Dude as Scuttle, And Nobody in the Remake Film could sing. Just all of The NO. Just don't Mess with what's Established, It's like Mistoffelees looking like Me, Uh Yeah, Have you seen CATS (2019). And what did they do to Brother Alonzo? Seriously I couldn't Find Demeter, Jellylorum or Syllabub Because their lines were Deleted and given to other CATS. Are you listening?
Also the biggest victims with characters turning blacks are the red head characters. Ariel, Mary Jane from SpiderMan to name a few but there are tons of ginger/red heads that are being swapped as black characters.
Denzel Washington is one of the greatest actors of all time. But it would make no sense for him to play a Scandinavian character. Another thing is that when an actor makes a character his/her own, it destroys that character to see a new actor playing it. Such as John McClane was made by Bruce Willis and Ashley Williams was made by Bruce Campbell and so on. Why not create new and interesting characters? If somebody needs a fictional character to look like them to identify and sympathize with it, that person has the issue.
I'm six times annoyed by the race swapping going on. First, it's disrespectful to the source, whether that be a fictional work, a culture, or both. Second, it's disrespectful of the cultures, races, skin colors that are shoe-horned in, because it doesn't really recognize them. Third, it thwarts people's perception of history and culture; if we don't understand where we're from, we're helpless to understand each other and the future. Fourth, it robs non-European cultures of having their history, mythology, culture shown. Fifth, it robs me of learning about other cultures. Sixth, it's an excuse for the entertainment industry to avoid coming up with anything new.
In many cases, it's mostly silly and only slightly annoying. It's not like I would have seen a live action remake of The Little Mermaid, regardless. The faux outrage that anyone would find the race swap the least bit peculiar was annoying, though. I think part of what made the backlash significant, was precisely that attitude, and the fact that they tried to shame people. Some will shy away, when that's done, but others will get mad. As a Norwegian, I should probably be upset at a black, female Haakon Jarl, but it's really just too stupid; it's not like there's much confusion in people's minds about the provenance of the Vikings. It's sad that it gets in the way of portraying the actual, interesting, and important role that women played in Norse society, though. With Cleopatra, it becomes more serious; Ancient and Classical Egypt are crucial elements in World history, and have played a significant role in shaping our current societies and cultures. Adding unnecessary confusion is unfortunate, and not exploring the actual dynamics in Ptolemaic Egypt is a shame; the Ptolemaic dynasty were visibly different from the majority population, which must have had an effect. Where it gets really serous for me, though, is when they mess with Tolkien to suit shallow ideology; disrespecting the Professor goes beyond simply race and gender swapping.
It would've been a mitigating factor if they did any of this well, but, sadly, they never do.
Africa, as a continent, has a rich history and diverse cultures. There real historical queens who could be the subject to amazing historical dramas. There myths and legends that could make amazing films. Or, writers using African cultures to inform entire fantasy worlds.
I'm totally fine with The Little Mermaid, super heroes, and other fairy tale movies being portrayed as 'Black". However, when you are turning historical people into "Black", even though it's been proven that none of those people were Black and switching the narratives of stories told in history, then it is becoming a problem. It seems like a political agenda and movement created by The Society we don't see with the naked eye.
Old white lady here, 1 of my favorite movies is Blade. Not once did I ever think about color.
The world has gone insane 😂
with the queen Charlotte thing her being black does actually have an impact on the story there's a lot of references about black people being included in the society of bridgerton and they make a lot of references to Charlotte being a gateway for the rest of the British black community.
There is already a black princess why don't they just a make a live action movie about her.
It is more like erasing redheads from the picture thing:
MaryJane
Jimmy Olsen
Peter Pan
Ariel
Cyclone
Starfire
April
Wally West
Batwoman
Batgirl
Artemis of Bana-Mighdall
Bow (She-Ra)
Triss Merigold
Cecile O'Malley
Ambrose Spellman
Alice Monaghan
Anita Darling
Velma
and the list goes on.... All of them redhead swapped.
Bonus - recently swapped blonde mention:
Tinkerbell
PD: Do you know the fairy tale terminology, or the Fairy itself it's an European ( Celtic, Slavic, Germanic, French) culture thing. Just imagine how ridiculous would be if we portrait on a movie, an African folktale as white blonde character....it's laughable, isn't it?
My life long best friend happens to be both black and a real red head. Should he feel erased? Why or why not?
@@actorjulion101 Idk and Idc. Ask him.
@@isaacorlich 😂
I don't live in a western country so I may not be getting the feelings behind this topic, though I of course know about the racism issues. But I genuinely do not understand the race-swaps, and get annoyed with them, especially if major characters are swapped. Create a new movie great, add a black or asian etc. character to an existing story wonderful, but why the swap? It makes no sense, and it is mostly one sided.
If there is a remake stick to what it was. It is not exactly the race behind the color, looks just matter. I want redheads to stay similar, blacks to stay black, asians to stay asians. That is how they looked like. It is weird. At least make the changes cool, and do it when actor/actress really fits the character, some race swaps were handled fine, but in general they just suck, it is just like checking item off a list, soulless and pointless.
I liked your thoughts by the way, great video.
It’s called pitty. Y’all should be embarrassed feeling like pets
And not even using cool black history or stories where people are black. Conspiracy theories exists where it is an attempt to promote racial hatred. Make people feel that black people take white people history and so on. Which if the intention is to do so then it works for a lot of people even though it is not black people who come up with this idea, they just get lucrative offers. When black people have power to make the movies they don't just race swap some white character, they make stories where it makes sense that the person is black.
"...and because theyre white, it looks a little bit wrong when they say it..."
And thats 80% of the problem, as far as i can see. Its an entirely one way street that's layered in moralizing, hateful rhetoric by calling anyone who objects racist, alt right, nazi, etc. There is no line of logic where you could do the same to any other race without criticism, let alone the absolute glorification and celebration of this race swapping. You can make tv series changing a nordic viking king into a black woman but everyone knows exactly what would happen if Shaka Zulu was a few tones lighter.
Race swapping characters in European myths, stories, and history is not only morally acceptable but expected, lest you be accused of racism.
Meanwhile African myths, stories, and history are excusively for blacks. Assuming, of course, that anyone even aknowledges their existence in the first place.
I'm waiting for Brad Pitt to play Malcolm X and The Rock to play Mohammad Ali.
Ngl might be fire
This is why I peersonally didn't feel like 'celebrating' the race swap as a 'win' for representation. I mean, Im fine with raceswapping if done creatively, but Representation and diversity a story takes effort, especially when adapting a story into a culture you werent born into. Encanto and Moana are good examples of syorytelling taking place in other parts of the world. But a skin color swap with little to no change?
Yeah, sorry If Im not tossing around confettie
Honestly I'm pissed about the hair colours getting erased rather than any race thing. Can black girls NOT have red hair??? Like, they didn't even try to make it vibrant red in the Little Mermaid (and in a lot of scenes it doesn't even pass as a shade of red at all), and April in TMNT could have easily been black with red or ginger hair, that would have looked sick! You can't even exactly justify it by saying most black girls can't have red/ginger hair naturally since dye exists, and for Ariel it doesn't even matter SHE IS A MYSTICAL CREATURE SHE SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO HAVE RAINBOW HAIR IF SHE REALLY WANTED.
When I was young I loved reading books about other people's cultures/beliefs. From the Arctic to Africa and all places in between, the countries of the world have wonderful tales and legends that deserve to be shared. So, why race change anyone's cultural heritage??? Celebrate all cultures but do not damage other people's.
The main issues is no respect forvthe OG lore and characters, and the fact that the Race-swapping is not a 2 way street. Also, the _diverse people_ only deserves hand-me-downs it seems.
The issue is that more black original CHARACTERS should exist, instead of confusing the colour schemes of existing ones.
sometimes I wonder... why not be even more inclusive and include people with orange skin and green hair? or dark blue skin with red hair and yellow sclera?
we need to be more inclusive.
where are the stories about strong bunnygirls beating the crap out of the evil demons?
I'm a bit late to this video but I want to talk about one fictional character that was raceswapped to black the right way: Tiana. Before Disney's princess and the frog came out, the first version of the frog prince tale that i watched as a kid was a german cartoon that was going over all the brother grimm stories, the princess from the frog prince tale is white, i had no problem with disney blackwashing her because if you compare disneys version to the original story you can see how much effort Disney put into the storytelling and worldbuilding. I'm white and it didn't feel like Tiana was replacing the original version, it felt like she was a completely different character that could stand out on her own, that's what racebending nowadays is lacking: effort and care.
I'm great to finally to see a Beautiful Black Woman that sees a point of view, it would have been wonderful if this video was made sooner before we got stuck with Halle Bailey as the Mermaid, and also a Race Swap April O Neil I as a White Man Love and Respect Black People and all Races but that doesn't mean that we should accept a Ruined Childhood, Disney however has Failed to Respect our Childhood and rather go from Woke to Broke, I find it upsetting that they are gonna damage Snow White and the Seaven Dwarfs Funny they claim to Fire Rachel Zeigler and they kept Halle Bailey even after she trashed the original Mermaid both Halle and Rachel are alike and I find it hard to believe that Disney Fired Rachel Zeigler they would rather Scrap our Childhood which is what Disney today is trying to do! I'm not just talking about Race Swap I'm also talking about a problem them axing Relationships with the Prince also like all Live Actions Deleting Favorite Character Sidekicks and changing song Lyrics 🎵 all Because people are Offended Its gonna get any better it will just continue to be worse I Believe Disney is signing a Death Warrant to Walt Disney's Legacy which kept Walt alive and same goes with Retheming Rides at Disneyland which is an Embarrassment like Jungle Cruise and Splash Mountain it's a Abomination to Walts Legacy and Iam Disappointed in them, thank you for making this Video I Appreciate you
This is what I'm saying! Why slap a new skin on an existing character and call it inclusive when there are loads of mermaid stories to tap into! Know why? Cause it's a risk, little mermaid was already a success and a live action one won't hurt what the original brings in.
Its just strange that they will sort of "recycle" past characters and race swap them, like why cant they just start making new characters?
For me, I find most race/gender/anything-swapping demeaning to the group being "represented." It operates under the assumption that people don't want to see an original character of that group, so they have to "trick" the audience of a pre-existing IP into watching this character.
For me personally.
I just really don't like the hypocrisy.
For example, if a traditionally black charcater got race swapped to white, they would be up in arms, screaming at people.
If you want diversity in film and media.
How about, just write an original story with as a diverse cast as you want.
Or if you want to remake something, remake a story that already has a very diverse background.
Also, we know that people want a faithful adaptation, including the original diversity of the IP.
With examples such as the new one-piece live action show.
Or the upcoming avatar last airbender show.
So playing the devil's advocate for you... but this is all about representation.
If you swap a white character to black, its not as big of a deal because there are still a ton more white characters that can represent that race. However, because there are way less black protagonists, taking away those few characters has a bigger impact because there is already a small amount of them.
So saying that race swapping should be on equal terms or it's hypocritical in order to combat race swapping isn't exactly a good strategy. Yes, you can call it hypocritical, but the weight of each side is just too different to take that "hypocrisy" into account.
PS: Generally I prefer if the race stays the same as the original source material, however I can accept the change if A) The race doesn't play a factor into the story/character and B) It improves on a bland background, like Namor from the MCU
I feel like this is biased, because I feel like you assume that all Black people or a monolith, then we all do and think the same things. There’s a lot of of us suburban Black people that identify with white culture.
I'm glad you can look at this whole thing objectively. As a white person I am shut down & immediately called racist for wanting true inclusivity. Now there are actual racist that hate this just because their hateful idiots that need to grow up, but many of us aren't. Many of us want true representation.
In the 1980's there was a trope in a lot of teen films where it'll be all white people and 1 black person. That was called the Token black person, someone in there just so the film can seem more diverse, but the character was always just a filler person, not really important. I feel like we got that now with the race swapping in films now. Not to say it doesn't sometimes work. Candyman in the books was white, the film changed him to being Black, but a lot of the time, the race swapping just feels like a checkmark the studio crossed off.
For example, there's a Black Superman film coming out that was originally said to be Clark Kent, now here's the issue with that. You have an actual Black Superman in the comics that's not Clark Kent. So why not make that film? Give us an original character that represents the Black community propely instead of lazily replacing another white character. Now since then the filmmakers have said it won't be Clark, so I'm happy for that.
Another thing is there's so many Black characters both real and fictional that aren't being told because Hollywood is just retelling stories about white people but now with Black skin.
Hell, we have Static Shock, John Stewart's Green Lantern, the New Batman who's not Bruce Wayne (and has a pretty good backstory), so there's a lot of representation not having just to retell stories with white characters.
It's gotten even worse now that they are doing it to historical figures too like Cleopatra.
With Ariel in The Little Mermaid, it's not a big deal because it is a character that's the daughter of a Greek King.
True representation still needs to happen in that respect. But again for someone like me I'm immediately shut down just for my skin.
More than 40 years ago, Diana Ross was Dorothy in The Wiz. In the 90’s Brandy was Cinderella and Whitney Houston was the Fairy Godmother. These movies are añl fiction and these are just other versions of the stories. It’s like going to Disney World or Comicon, you’ll sed black girls dressed as Cinderella or white girls dressed as Mulan, and so on.
One thing that is freaky to me is so many of the race swapped characters being red heads. Does Hollywood have something against gingers? It's like kinda creepy.
Disney is dead. We lost our characters and I can't look at red head little mermaid the same anymore. She was murdered. Thanks Disney...
And was never real 😂