Whitewashing has been here since the birth of Hollywood and it doesn’t seem to be leaving any time soon.

You’d think that being in the 21st century we would be closer to equality than ever before, which is true to an extent; more countries are allowing same-sex marriage, more countries are allowing equal rights for women and more countries are educating children about bigotry. Seemingly, our friend Progress has helped us move on from our heinous ways and connected us all together. However, the one thing that has managed to remain stuck in the past is the media. More specifically, Hollywood. It’s a strange parallel that, no matter how we advance in other areas, the film industry remains deadweight on the shoulders of Progress.

Whitewashing is nothing new; even in 1961’s classic “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”, Mickey Rooney played the most abhorrent Asian stereotype when he played Mr Yunioshi. Funnily enough, 55 years on nothing has changed, as in 2016 Scarlett Johansson was cast to play an Asian character in “Ghost in the Shell”. I can’t tell what’s worse; the first scenario where a white character plays a racist stereotype or the second where we forget that the character was supposed to be anything other than white. Both ostracise the people of colour community.

It would be incredibly naive of me to say that there are no characters of colour being played by the same race. For example, we have Anna May Wong in “Daughters Of The Dragon”, Gedde Watanabe in “Sixteen Candles” and Dev Patel in “Avatar: The Last Airbender”. However, these films illustrate how the people of colour community is being alienated even when included. Surely Progress was there in “Daughters of the Dragon”; after all, this was 1931 and we had an Asian female actor playing an Asian female character? Well no, because, even when Hollywood does have actors of colour, they create abominable stereotypes; here, Anna May Wong is hyper-sexualised and to this day few female Asian actors have managed to escape the ever-expanding shadow of expectation left by “Daughters of the Dragon”.

Gedde Watanabe is part of another Asian stereotype; however, this one is typical of males. He is the comic relief because he is presented as the socially inept, try-hard loser and that’s as much as his character is to the plot. Nothing more than a one-dimensional clown. Once again, many Asian actors have been eager to fight this monstrous stereotyping but, just like the sexual object stereotype in “Daughters of the Dragon”, very few have managed.

Last, but not least, lies “Avatar: The Last Airbender”. It was based on an anime featuring mainly Japanese and Asian characters but, strangely enough, many of the main actors in the film are white. Even stranger than that, the Asian actors were cast as the antagonists and the white actors were the protagonist. That’s got to be a mistake, right? Surely it was a coincidence, nothing to do with race, and that there are no other films perpetuating this stereotype? You’d be wrong as this happens in countless films such as “The Hangover”, “Goldfinger”, “Star Trek 2”, “Kill Bill”, “Team America: World Police”; even the classic “Flash Gordon” has disappointed us with its racism.

Often, when it comes to debates about race, whitewashing is seen as an argument of privilege as people believe this issue only affects rich actors. This is wrong, though, as whitewashing affects everyone. It was reported that during the latter part of the 80s, after the release of “Sixteen Candles”, many Asian students in high schools were called “donkers” and taunted with quotes of broken English from the film. This is terrifying proof that films are reinforcing stereotypes and making them acceptable. Racism is still alive in this day and age and these films are providing more reasons for others to poke fun at people of colour.

So, after all these years, why is whitewashing still that malignant tumour burdening our friend Progress? I’ve heard many an argument; by far the most ignorant argument used, by those I can only describe as brainless, vacuous morons, is that “there simply aren’t any actors of colour”. I didn’t think I had to spell this out but that is the result of whitewashing. There are plenty of talented actors of colour but very few get the coverage; either their roles are being snatched by white actors or they refuse to play demeaning stereotypes. Who can blame them? How can actors of colour say that they love their country, appreciate its culture and respect its people when they play a character who exists purely to mock their country, their culture and its people?

These questions are not for us to answer but for us to push towards those in the film industry who still think that whitewashing is acceptable. If I included every single argument I’ve heard in defence of whitewashing, this article would be miles long and, more importantly, my head would be sore from being punched in the face with ignorance. It’s time we saw the truth. It’s time we stopped constructing straw men in order to defend racism. It’s time to stop trying to preserve what we know as the norm. The only way we can begin to change, and become more equal as a society, is if we set alight these straw men and support Progress, our oldest friend. If we really “don’t see race”, if we really want “the best person for the job”, if we really want to be connected, regardless of race, then whitewashing needs to be relinquished. We need to open the floodgates to let actors of colour in. After all, whitewashing is meant for fences and not for human beings.