Lilly Fuller. 8 March, 2017. English 11. Gabbert. My Favorite

Lilly Fuller 8 March, 2017 English 11 Gabbert My Favorite Color is White! From â€Å"The Jazz Singer†, released in 1927, to â€Å"The Social Network, released in 2010, Hollywood loves to keep up it’s themes of whitewashing! For anyone who doesn t know, whitewashing occurs when a character should be one race, but is portrayed by another. Throughout film and television there are numerous examples of this being portrayed. However, not many people understand why whitewashing is bad or even notice that it s happening. Whitewashing takes opportunities away from people of color, alters people s perception of history, and ultimately promotes racism. Whitewashing creates lots of opportunities for white actors and in return takes away opportunities for†¦show more content†¦The movie is directed by Ben Affleck who also stars in it. One clear problem with that is that Affleck is white and Tony Mendez is Hispanic. A Hispanic actor could have easily played this role, but instead it went to a white actor. Directors argue that â€Å"[they] didn’t take race into consideration—[they] just cast the best person for the role† (â€Å"Common Defenses of Whitewashing†, Pahle), I don t agree with this excuse because there s no way white people always just happen to be the best fit for these roles. People of color have always been poorly represented in media and whitewashing contributes to this. Historical films are always popular because they tell real stories about us, but for some reason the media changes the stories, casting white people play historical figures like having Elizabeth Taylor playing Cleopatra, the queen of Egypt. This creates a misconception of our own history. White actors get cast as the lead roles, regardless of the intended race, and actors of the correct race receive ensemble or secondary roles so the producers can say, â€Å"We’re not whitewashing! Look, there s one black guy in the background!†. There is no reason to skew our own history, but Chris Rock put it bluntly in his