Why Consistency in Ideals is Important

Ghost in the Shell manga (comic book).

The labeling of "whitewashing" for the casting of Scarlett Johansson as a futuristic robot character from the comic book, Ghost in the Shell, is very troubling to me. To be clear, "whitewashing" IS an apt term for something like the film Gods of Egypt where a bunch of white actors were cast as Egyptian gods (while all the normal humans were Egyptian actors). This not only passed over Egyptian actors in favor of white actors, but exploited the culture and religion of a specific group of (non-white) people. In the case the of Ghost in the Shell however the character is not a historical or culturally Japanese so when adapting it for live action it doesn't matter what race the actor is.

Major Motoko Kusanagi (anime) VS The Major (Johansson)

Would you be upset if a Japanese adaptation of Batman starred a Japanese actor as Bruce Wayne? Probably not. Who cares, right? How about a Japanese actor as William Wallace in a Braveheart remake? Ehhhh... Why does that feel weird? Because William Wallace was a Scottish historical figure that is a part in the cultural identity of Scottish people. 

Johansson has proven she can be an action movie star in movies like Lucy and The Avengers

I was just as indignant when people got angry about a black actor cast as Nick Fury, or that a Latino kid (Miles Morales) was the new Spider-man, as I am about people being upset at Ms. Johansson's casting. She has done many action films and is perfect for the role - just as Samuel L. Jackson was perfect to play Nick Fury. 

So by now you are probably asking yourself, "Why do you care so much about this? The producers of the Ghost in the Shell movie ARE jerks for other reasons (maybe even racist) so why defend the casting decision?" Good question!

The problem with this misuse of the term "whitewashing" is that this sort of of misplaced labeling of things as racist marginalizes the real issues at stake, specifically the lack of roles for minorities in film. (Much as the hair-trigger mislabeling of ALL criticism of last year's Ghostbusters as "sexist" served more to marginalize the real issues of equality of women in the media. Women can star in garbage films just as much as men!)

Words like "racist" or "sexist" used simply as insults diminishes their impact. If they are used to attack decisions we are disappointed about or to dismiss people who we disagree with the words loose credibility. Is is absolutely okay for someone to be disappointed their favorite manga character is not being played by Japanese person? Of course it is! Is it racist to cast a white lady in the role for a live-action version of the story? No, it simply is not. 

"Whitewashing" is not simply casting a white person in a role a Japanese actor could have played. (That would include almost every role!) "Whitewashing" is exploiting culture, history, or religion of a non-white people and injecting Caucasian actors into a setting where it makes no historical sense for them to be there. This is important stuff! It deserves to be respected and playing too loose with those terms leads to them losing their meaning. 

Just like the story of little boy who cried "wolf," applying these sort of incendiary labels where they aren't warranted can cause unintended disaster. The watering down of the term "sexist" by well-meaning and intelligent feminists (as well as exploitative movie executives trying to shift blame for their poorly thought out and cynical cash-grab of a film) made it easier for Donald Trump to shrug off shockingly chauvinistic behavior and push forward his anti-feminist ideas. Labeling every movie with a white actor that also had any non-Western cultural influence as "racist" made it that much easier for Donald Trump to laugh at the accusation of racism after making many clearly racially disparaging remarks and horrifically xenophobic plans to ban Muslim immigrants and build a wall along the Mexican border.

It all comes down to the fact that false accusations don't hurt the accused, they hurt other accusers. In most cases this is obvious, but in the pre-Trump era many liberals in America lost our understanding about this when it comes to accusations of sexism and racism. (Ultimately this could just as well have been for good reasons: optimistically less and less serious incidents made the more serious issues more theoretical and the smaller issues less precisely defined.)

Unfortunately as Trump has taken office more serious and contemporary threats against women, minorities, education, the lower class, immigrants, and even to the Constitution itself  have arisen than we ever thought possible just months ago. Now more than ever it is important to stand up for diversity and equality because this is what truly makes America so great.