Whitewashing In Othello

Whitewashing is considered a part of cultural appropriation. The term defined by New Webster’s Dictionary is “a term that now has also come to refer to the entertainment industry 's attempt at making ethnic characters more appealing to the white, money-spending masses by making exotic characters less ethnic and more “white.” It’s been happening for over 77 years and at this pace of major white movies stars taking minority roles, it doesn’t seem it’s going to stop any time soon. In February, the Academy Awards took place where the nominees for Best Male Lead and Best Female Lead are all white, even when the Academy Awards committee promised to be more “open to all races” in the past few years. People were outraged, including celebrities

Some of the movies that were whitewashed were praised by critics and audience. Huffingtonpost reported, “ Harlem’s Amsterdam News wrote glowingly about Al Jolson, a white actor who wore blackface for the 1927 film “The Jazz Singer,” with the paper declaring, “Every colored performer is proud of him.”” A respectable British actor, Laurence Olivier” played Othello in the movie, Othello (1965), a black lead character. How did Mr. Olivier played Othello? By using blackface. Blackface is when an actor uses dark makeup to represent an African-American which is disrespectful to the community. It tells the audience that an African-American actor doesn’t have the skills to play the role of their race, so another actor must do it. Some critics even defend blackface by saying, “actors are simply actors, playing imaginary roles”. But as counterpunch.org stated, “ But it is valid because it rests on a post-racial, cosmopolitan view of ethnicity that makes the subject of racial difference entirely redundant.” In one of the iconic films in the industry, Mickey Rooney plays a Japanese character who in the film is very stereotypical, but The New York Times on October 6,1961 praised his performance by saying, “Mickey Rooney’s bucktoothed, myopic Japanese is broadly

In the Variety interview with Ridley Scott, the director of the blockbuster, Exodus, he quotes saying, “I can’t mount a film of this budget, where I have to rely on tax rebates in Spain, and say that my lead actor is Muhammad so-and-so from such-and-such. I’m just not going to get it financed.” Maybe if Mr. Scott chose another location to do his film, say Hollywood, he wouldn’t have to worry about the finances problems with Spain. Not all filmmakers are like Mr. Scott, some even apologized for casting white roles. Forbes reports that the film company, Lionsgate, issued an apology for their film Gods Of Egypt where there is not one Egyptian actor. Their statement quotes, “We recognize that it is our responsibility to help ensure that casting decisions reflect the diversity and culture of the time periods portrayed. In this instance we failed to live up to our own standards of sensitivity and diversity, for which we sincerely apologize. Lionsgate is deeply committed to making films that reflect the diversity of our audiences. We have, can and will continue to do better.” Although casting Egyptian roles would be better than an apology, it’s refreshing to see a huge movie company apologizing for its casting and it’s way better than Mr. Scott’s