memes

I feel like there's a lot of cherry picking here too, because if we take the MCU, it also does some race swapping that nobody has a problem with.

Nick Fury is one, but Samuel L Jackson is so cool in that role, it doesn't matter.

Heimdal is another one. Norse mythology, probably not a lot of black there, but Idris Elba is also so damn cool in the role that it does not really matter, and I've never heard anyone complain about these people.

I think in general it's more about if the people in the roles do a good job or not. Tilda Swinton did a great job. Johnny Depp... Maybe not so much, but I also do remember people were mad about that one.

Don't forget Alec Guinness playing an Arab in Lawrence of Arabia.

A lot of people will tend to mention John Wayne playing Genghis Khan or Mickey Rooney playing a Japanese man in Breakfast at Tiffany's but will skip over other examples.

Fun fact about the Lone Ranger, the most likely real world basis for the protagonist is a man named Bass Reeves. He was black, and an escaped slave. The misrepresentation has been present since the beginning, if I'm not mistaken.

Yup. Characters should remain consistent if it’s important.

Tonto should not have been played by Johnny Depp. Gross.

The original Ancient One was a poor stereotype of a Tibetan person and Tilda Swinton is cool so I’m ok with this one.

Liam Neeson is a great actor with a ton of gravitas and he pulled off the role well, but yeah shoulda found a middle eastern dude. Maybe that hot Djin dude from American Gods can be the next Ras Al Ghul.

Anything to do with Scarlet Witch’s background is a retcon, she was originally introduced as Magneto’s moustache twirling daughter. Despite her tan in the referenced photo she’s more often depicted as white, but I could see her being middle eastern, but it would make sense that she’s half Jewish at least, given her father’s background.

Lastly, she’s a fucking mermaid. Who gives a shit? How many of the dude bros bitching even watched it?

Why do they only replace characters with red hair?

Wait until you tell extremist, right-wing Christians that Jesus wasn't a white guy! Oooohhh boyyy!

Also, I think it's important to not forget that in the internet age, a very small minority of hateful asshats can appear to have a very large voice. They are still a very small, minority group of asshats.

I complain about all of it. Yeah I'm sure it "doesn't affect the story" for most things, but I feel either get someone who is the correct race or make a new character.

I absolutely remember people being mad about the first one.

The others not so much. The fantasy movies don't really matter the same way as a historical movie about slavery does. The fantasy characters are even gender swapped without a problem at conventions.

And yes that means the racists who got mad about Ariel are dumb.

If it's bad to use white actors for black (or other colored) roles then it's bad for black actors to do white roles. If it's okay to do those switches then it's okay for all. Forget colors it shouldn't matter.

Having said that, Disney just did the Ariel thing ffor the "look at us being sooooo progressive, please give us your money for this utterly shit movie" instead of trying to just make a great movie

In fairness to Tilda Swinton, they decided to entirely rewrite the character to be a Celtic woman instead of a Tibetan man. This was probably to avoid being censored in China, but getting away from the racist 1930s, "oriental mysticism," trope was probably a good idea. It's certainly a lot better than letting Jonny Depp pretend to be a Native American because he's one-eighth Cherokee.

That funny because when I put my non-USA definition of is white and not-white or african, this image as absolutely no meaning.