Racebending
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Racebending or whitewashing are terms used when the race or ethnicity of a character, in a story, is altered to an ostensibly more "palatable" or "profitable" ethnicity. "Whitewashing" is the older term,[citation needed] with "racebending" coming to the fore, as a broader term, since Patrick Stewart performed Othello in a "photo negative" production, as a white man, with an otherwise all-black cast, in 1997.[1]
The term has also been ascribed to non-Caucasians conforming to or having been taught to conform to White or Western culture. This has been perceived to happen to Tiger Woods and Barack Obama, wherein they were made more palatable to the majority of Americans, rather than just their perceived ethnic group.[2]
A study in 2004 by Mica Pollock spoke of the race-bending occurring within American schools. Racial categories remain as key social engineering devices and as such Racebending becomes a way to strategically impose racial labels; a way to refuse to analyse racial inequality. The clumsy analogy from race experts would describe it as "we don't belong to simple race groups, but we do."[citation needed]
In many cases, this can be seen in American filmmaking, when non-White characters or non-White European cultural markers are altered to cater to the perceived viewing habits of the majority Caucasian, European-based society. This often involves changing the race or origin of certain characters. Notable examples include Pan, 21, King of Fighters, Prince of Persia, and Speed Racer. At one time, the practice of "yellowface" and blackface were used, but have since become taboo.
In an interview for the documentary, The Slanted Screen, Producer Terence Chang describes being told to change the race of the white villain in the script for the Chow Yun Fat vehicle, The Replacement Killers, and make him a Chinese drug lord instead. The logic: "If the hero is Asian then the bad guys have to be Asian as well."[citation needed]
There were negotiations for a movie adaptation of Neil Gaiman's, work Anansi Boys, but the "moviemakers wanted to change the lead black characters to white or drop the magical elements altogether". Gaiman claimed not to need the money, "Not needing the money puts me in a magical place because I can say no. I like the idea of having good movies made or having no movies made."[3]
See also
References
- ^ "Othello by William Shakespeare directed by Jude Kelly". The Shakespeare Theatre Company. Retrieved 20 September 2008.
- ^ McGinley, Ann C. (2009). "Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin, and Michelle Obama: Performing Gender, Race, and Class on the Campaign Trail".
- ^ Anthony Breznican. "Storyteller Gaiman wishes upon a star". Archived from the original on 2008-08-18. Retrieved 2008-08-18.
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Further reading
- The Bedford Introduction to Drama and The Compact Bedford Introduction to Drama, Fifth Edition.
- Race and Othello:
- Race-Reversed Patrick Stewarts complicated and race-bending performance as Othello.
- Race Bending: "Mixed" Youth Practicing Strategic Racialization in California Race Talk Dilemma in an American School by Mica Pollock.
- [In RACISTS BEWARE: UNCOVERING RACIAL POLITICS IN THE POSTMODERN SOCIETY, Dei identifies and subjects to close scrutiny the new race-bending logics of what he calls "postmodern" societies
- Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences Transnational Media Literacy Analytic Reflections on a Program With Latina Teens Lucila Vargas University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill