Why are people mad that characters are turning black? | The race swapping epidemic

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

[Kaysaja]

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.

[DragonGoddess]

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

[JDB]

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?

[sambathsan]

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.

[Flugkaninchen]

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.

[SiriusV]

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.

[MugenTJ]

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.

[TheBubbaclaw]

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.

[rockynstuff]

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.

[bloocheez]

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.

[twilightguardian]

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?

[linklink]

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.

[paxtoncargill]

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.

[martistszz]

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

[andrewyb]

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

[Veins]

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.

[AppleCore]

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.

[aimlessautist]

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?

[abrilsaad]

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.

[beck]

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.