Black washing does not exist and here’s why
You might be asking yourself, why do we have a problem with This:
And not this:
They are the same thing, right?
Wellll…Not at all.
Let me get into detail of why you cannot Blackwash a character
POC DO NOT GET THE SAME MEDIA REPRESENTATION LIKE WHITES DO
It’s no lie that for centuries whiteness has always been promoted both constantly and positively. The first thing you see when you turn on the TV is white. Us minorities don’t get the same representation as white people. We are not constantly shown on TV. Whiteness is promoted on TV, movies, magazines, Billboards, toys, and Etc. Because we are so deprived of any representation when we finally see ourselves being represented in the media we are happy to see ourselves being normalized. To take a character that is a person of color and white wash them is completely selfish when the majority of TV shows already represent white people. The difference between black washing and white washing is that white people only see black washing as a white character turning black while us black people see whitewashing as representation being taken away from us. Throughout history black people have always been either white washed or represented negatively just look at one example, BLACK FACE! During the error were blackface was acceptable we were represented as lazy, arrogant, greedy, disgusting, and ugly. Black face was used to make a joke out of black people. Just look at the difference between the representation of black people back then:
And white people:
See the difference? White people are represented as normal pure and Superior while black people are represented negatively. This is why representation matters so much to us. When we are deprived of good representation in the media for so many years and we finally that a character representing us it’s no surprise that we would get mad when we see a character whitewashed. Black people have been promoted on TV either negatively or either when we are white washed. This is why you cannot blackwash a white character because it’s simply does not take away any white representation. When you look at a white character being turned black it barely has an effect on you guys because 99% of TV shows consists of mostly White characters. White people don’t know the feeling of growing up thinking that your race is ugly because all you see on TV is white. White people don’t grow up hating their natural straight European hair texture. White people don’t grow up wanting to be black to the point of hating their own race. Blackwashing will exist as soon as I see white people dealing with the same self hatred like black people do. Until then, BLACKWASHING DOES NOT EXIST.
