A race lift is what occurs when a character's race or ethnicity is changed in the creation of a derivative work, sometimes to fill token minorities and sometimes to give minority roles to white actors. In this post, I will criticize the latter, which is also known as 'whitewashing'.
The most recent example of white washing is super-white British actor Benedict Cumberbatch taking the role of Khan, an apparently South Asian character who is the product of Star Trek's Eugenics Wars. He is supposed to be genetically superior to every other human in the series. Even though Benedict Cumberbatch is an extremely famous actor and VERY in demand right now (most people would recognize him as Sherlock in BBC's Sherlock), and I am forgiving of race substitution if the actors would bring more attention to the movie for their fame or superior talent, the level of race lifting is far higher than in Memoirs of a Geisha. Zhang Ziyi took the role of a Japanese geisha and portrayed a Japanese geisha in her movie. Benedict Cumberbatch took the role of an apparently South Asian character and portrayed a white man. He has undone the canon of the Start Trek franchise, that has always been "a franchise known for it’s progressiveness" and "has regressed in casting and representation to the standards from the 1960s" as said by this anti-race lifting Tumblr. To have such a "progressive" franchise "regress to the 1960s" is an insult not only to the character, but also to the original actor of Khan. He may have been of Mexican descent, but he was able to preserve the fact that Khan is a minority character. Cumberbatch looks like just another white supremacist. Although he has given Into Darkness a lot more attention than a South Asian actor would have given the movie, the whole point of Khan's character has been compromised.
Once of the most infamous examples of whitewashing occurred with The Last Airbender, M. Night Shyamalan's film adaptation of the popular kid's cartoon Avatar: the Last Airbender. AtLA takes place in world where certain people are able to 'bend' the elements with kung-fu inspired techniques. The show's style was based off of anime, and all the characters look Asian or Inuit. But when M. Night Shyamalan gave AtLA's Asian/Inuit roles to almost all WHITE actors, he was met with heavy criticism.
Honestly, I can understand giving some roles to white actors, but almost the entire cast? The most notable minority roles are given to the entire Fire Nation (the antagonists), who are portrayed by people of Indian and Middle Eastern descent and the main character's teacher, who dies before the story takes place and is race lifted into a black actor. Taking an East Asian/Inuit cast of characters and race lifting the main characters into white actors and giving antagonist and token roles to minorities is very racist. It's disrespectful to the culture the show was based on and to the Asian actors and actresses who could've taken the roles.
The most recent example of white washing is super-white British actor Benedict Cumberbatch taking the role of Khan, an apparently South Asian character who is the product of Star Trek's Eugenics Wars. He is supposed to be genetically superior to every other human in the series. Even though Benedict Cumberbatch is an extremely famous actor and VERY in demand right now (most people would recognize him as Sherlock in BBC's Sherlock), and I am forgiving of race substitution if the actors would bring more attention to the movie for their fame or superior talent, the level of race lifting is far higher than in Memoirs of a Geisha. Zhang Ziyi took the role of a Japanese geisha and portrayed a Japanese geisha in her movie. Benedict Cumberbatch took the role of an apparently South Asian character and portrayed a white man. He has undone the canon of the Start Trek franchise, that has always been "a franchise known for it’s progressiveness" and "has regressed in casting and representation to the standards from the 1960s" as said by this anti-race lifting Tumblr. To have such a "progressive" franchise "regress to the 1960s" is an insult not only to the character, but also to the original actor of Khan. He may have been of Mexican descent, but he was able to preserve the fact that Khan is a minority character. Cumberbatch looks like just another white supremacist. Although he has given Into Darkness a lot more attention than a South Asian actor would have given the movie, the whole point of Khan's character has been compromised.
Once of the most infamous examples of whitewashing occurred with The Last Airbender, M. Night Shyamalan's film adaptation of the popular kid's cartoon Avatar: the Last Airbender. AtLA takes place in world where certain people are able to 'bend' the elements with kung-fu inspired techniques. The show's style was based off of anime, and all the characters look Asian or Inuit. But when M. Night Shyamalan gave AtLA's Asian/Inuit roles to almost all WHITE actors, he was met with heavy criticism.
Honestly, I can understand giving some roles to white actors, but almost the entire cast? The most notable minority roles are given to the entire Fire Nation (the antagonists), who are portrayed by people of Indian and Middle Eastern descent and the main character's teacher, who dies before the story takes place and is race lifted into a black actor. Taking an East Asian/Inuit cast of characters and race lifting the main characters into white actors and giving antagonist and token roles to minorities is very racist. It's disrespectful to the culture the show was based on and to the Asian actors and actresses who could've taken the roles.
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