Whitewashing in film

Whitewashing is a casting practice in the film industry of the United States in which white actors are cast in historically non-white character roles. The film industry has a history of frequently casting white actors for roles involving people of color, including African Americans and Native Americans. The practice started at the beginning of the film industry, which was based in New York and New Jersey.

Activist Guy Aoki said African Americans "have long felt the full brunt of the 'whitewashing' of roles" and that Asians have experienced it as well.Native Americans have also been subjected to this, seeing their historic leaders and warriors portrayed by whites.

In the early 20th century, white actors caricatured different races by wearing blackface or yellowface, commonly exaggerating the perceived stereotypes of other races. For example, white actor Warner Oland played the Chinese detective Charlie Chan in Charlie Chan Carries On (1931) and subsequent films. Because of the lack of characters of color in the film industry, these roles were well received at the time by minorities. Films became more racially integrated by the mid 20th-century, and blackface mostly disappeared from the film industry. The film Othello (1965) was an exception, as the white actor Laurence Olivier was cast as "the Moor." He wore blackface as the title character.

The practice of "yellowface" extended into the 1960s. For instance, Mickey Rooney played a Japanese landlord in Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961). Professor David A. Schlossman said of Asian characters in particular, "Many of the Asian roles portrayed by White actors also contributed to the pantheon of racial stereotypes in US national discourse." At the start of the 21st century, minorities were still under-represented in the film industry at different stages. While historically black roles are now generally cast with black actors, the practice of whitewashing applied to other minorities.

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