Swagger and Shade

Things I wish people would get:

There’s a difference between a person being of a certain race/ethnicity/culture and not “looking” it and a person who is NOT of that race/ethnicity/culture being chosen to represent them because the character can pass.

When people call out whitewashing and lack of representation in certain aspects we’re not saying that the people have to look a certain way. We’re saying that tho they have people of certain races/ethnicities/cultures that can pass for white, that doesn’t mean that you should/can hire a white person to play this part.

For example, imagine that they were making about movie about

Garcelle Beauvais(Haitian)

Victoria Rowell(African-American/English)

or Karyn Parsons(Afro-Trini/French-Canadian)

With the exception of Garcelle, these women are mixed race. They have all been in interracial relationships with white men and had children with them.

Here are some pictures of them.

Garcelle and her twins Jaid and Jax

Victoria and Maya.

and Karyn and her babies Lana and Nico.

Now if they had to cast the role of these kids should they have white actors, because these kids “look white”? Or should they hire actors of color who look like these kids?

And that’s the crucial difference. We’re not saying that children of color can’t look/pass for white. We’re saying DON’T get white actors/FC/whathaveyou, because of the fact that they do.

So DON’T do this:

http://luckythinks91.tumblr.com/post/22852226139/hogwartsthenextgeneration-roxanne-alicia

http://luckythinks91.tumblr.com/post/22852177304/thethird-generation-roxanne-weasley-fc-shay

http://luckythinks91.tumblr.com/post/20020923794/reparo-nextgen-roxanne-weasley-o-seventh-year-o

http://luckythinks91.tumblr.com/post/20020648568/cl0uded-mind-my-next-generation-dreamcast

http://luckythinks91.tumblr.com/post/19605533782/memories-of-the-epilougue-andale-fredwardo

http://luckythinks91.tumblr.com/post/24575830287/harrypotter-role-play-alicia-alli-spinnet

http://luckythinks91.tumblr.com/post/22850363961/bellamyrosaliedylan-frederick-john-freddy

http://luckythinks91.tumblr.com/post/22849465156/hogwarts-next-gen-rp-fred-weasley-ii

http://luckythinks91.tumblr.com/post/22849512804/fred-weasley-ii-going-to-his-first-day-of-school

http://luckythinks91.tumblr.com/post/22849342697/so-wait-so-wait-so-wait-you-could-get-black

http://luckythinks91.tumblr.com/post/22872042906/hbprp-confessions-click-here-to-join-an-awesome

http://luckythinks91.tumblr.com/post/22871906473/greengrass-joint-blaise-creeping-on-some

http://luckythinks91.tumblr.com/post/24577824939/this-is-whitewasing-alicia-spinnet-was-portrayed

http://luckythinks91.tumblr.com/post/24576651190/this-is-whitewashing-please-find-an-accurate-fc

I have wayyyyy more links, but I’m getting a headache just by going through those so back to the topic at hand.

More people of African ancestry that can pass

Troian Bellsario a.k.a Spencer Hastings(African-American, White*, Serbian, Italian)

Jennifer Beals(African-American/White*)

Wentworth Miller(African-American,Jamaican, English, German, Jewish,Cherokee, Russian, French, Dutch, Syrian, Lebanese~~, the kitchen sink, two #5’s~~)

Bonus, not because she can pass for white per se, but because some don’t know that she is Black.

Naya Rivera

So yeah. Before I end this post let’s review:

1. Black people and/or people of African descent can be light-skinned or “pass”.

2. This does NOT mean that people should hire white actors or use white(or inaccurate) FC for these people/characters.

3. Anti-whitewashers are NOT saying that #1 is impossible, we are saying that #2 should NOT happen.

That is all.

This was your random genetics and anti-whitewashing lesson of the day.

Good day to you all.

*used White in these situations, because I don’t like using Caucasian for reasons that you can learn by googling. So that’s all folks.

Bonus under the cut

Bonus person

My opinion-Vintage Edition

Jayne Mansfield

I’m bout to speculate right quick (and I don’ post spiraled so yeah.) I think Jayne passed. And not in the Fredi Washington-I’m-light-enough-to-play-a-black-woman-passing-in-a-movie-but-couldn’t-actually-pass-in-real-life type way, but actually passed in the these-studios-are-so-fooled-they-got-me-tryna-be-the-next-Marilyn-Monroe type way. And I’m probably doing the same thing the people I’m calling out are doing(going by phenotype vs. genotype) but chick really do look like it tho.