So, a few people have asked me to expand upon my views on race-swapping Nightwing castings, so I’m going to attempt to do that here. Obviously, no hate is intended, everyone’s entitled to their own thoughts, etc etc, and if you want me to clarify anything, I’m absolutely happy to. I’m adding a cut as it gets quite long (when does it not), and if discussions of racial representation upsets you or just isn’t your thing, feel free to skip❤️
So, I’ve seen a lot of discourse online about who to cast as Nightwing, and what race they should be.
Now, obviously, in an ideal world, we would find an amazingly talented Romani actor who can match that Grayson face card and have the athletic ability and longevity to pull off Nightwing.
Now, I’m gonna be real with ya, gang… I don’t think that’s going to happen. And, tbh, I’m not mad about it. It would be fantastic if we could have a Romani actor, but having worked in the blockbuster film industry, I don’t think we’re there yet, so I don’t think it’s a realistic expectation (even if, in an ideal world, it would be). Also, unlike most ethnicities, Romani (particularly white or white-passing Romani ethnicities) are not particularly married to one skin tone. I’m considered* fully Romani, and pale af. My dad and his side of the family, but also two of my mum’s siblings and half of her family, have a more olive skin tone. Other Romani people will have a lot darker skin, as has been reflected in a lot of Dick Grayson headcanons.
*I say ‘considered fully Romani’ because we will all have some gorja in us over 1000 years of history - ethnicity is not static, and that’s how you get subgroups. However, I am considered fully Romani because none of the gorja ancestors are within three generations; I have 3 generations of full GRT with GRT (specifically Showman, but that term wasn’t really used at the time) parents.
So, as long as the casting doesn’t directly contradict Dick being Romani (aka let me believe he is, and don’t say anything in the script to disregard that), or if they do explicitly want to present him as Romani, then do so respectfully (aka speak to Romani people - and Showmen - to get it right), I really won’t mind if they cast a white or racially ambiguous actor to play Nightwing.
Now, you might have noticed that I specified a white or racially ambiguous actor, specifically. That’s not because I need the actor to look identical to Dick’s comic book appearance, though I do think a lot can be said for not giving in to stereotypes and proving that Romani people can be white or white-passing (rather than the exoticism of characters like Esmerelda; paler Romani rep is weirdly underrepresented here). The reason I don’t necessarily like the fancasts of Dick Grayson, such as Hudson Williams, is because of how it perceives the Romani ethnicity and exoticises it in such a way that is, in my opinion, a little bit gross to all non-white and non-gorja people, in that it simply reduces his being Romani to him being ‘not white US American’... which is dodgy.
To explain that further, I need to explain how Romani colourism works a little bit more. As I said above, Romani people come in a spectrum of shades. Generally speaking, Romanichal people in the UK tend to be a lot paler (though some do have that more olive complexion), and as you get further south, you get the more Mediterranean Cale complexion, or that more South-East Asian look the closer you get to India. However, for the most part, Romani people can be considered Indo-European, and, as a result of that, whilst there is a spectrum of colour, it tends to fall between white and brown. There may be some subgroups which this is less the case for, but generally speaking, in Europe (where a lot of us are from), we can expect a Romani person to fall within this spectrum.
Now, whilst sometimes racial headcanonning can be problematic anyway (e.g. the Asian Tim Drake and Hispanic Jason Todd debate), things like the Little Mermaid race swap don’t bother me, as it’s not relevant to the character. However, to me, Dick’s heritage is important to his character, simply because you cannot be Romani without it affecting how you perceive the world and how it perceives you; therefore, even if his being Romani isn’t plot relevant, I feel that the context will always be important. The reason that I view casting an actor, who does not fit into that spectrum of Romani skin tones, as a little bit exoticising, to me, is because you do not tend to get a Romani person outside of that spectrum unless they’re what we call a diddakoi (half-Romani), aka mixed. I have cousins who are diddakois and half black, or half East Asian, but the point is that they stick out within the community as being visibly mixed, whilst others are able to fly more under the radar - this is because, as I explained earlier, you don’t tend to have large Romani subgroups in these regions.
Again, whilst I normally wouldn’t care about that, for me, the problem arises then when it comes down to taking a Romani character - aka a character who is an ethnic minority - and, instead of finding someone who can fit into the quite achievable spectrum of common Romani skin tones, you instead just say ‘hey, he’s an ethnic minority’ and group all ethnic minorities together. By taking away the specifically Romani traits, it feels like the character is reduced to just being ‘notably other’ (a problematic concept in and of itself) in terms of race, and to me, that feeling - even if unintentional - of grouping all non White US American ethnicities together just feels like a disservice to the Romani communities for whom Dick could (even with a non Romani actor) be seen as good representation for, and also any non-white actor cast in the role.
Now, you could say that Dick is a diddakoi, and could then realistically be half Romani and half whatever other race, to which I would say absolutely! But, to me, that is another step in the casting process: if you make the decision to make Dick mixed, I don’t think it should be as a replacement for his Romani background; it should be an addition to being Romani, and that would then need to be explained.
So, to summarise, because I feel like I just word vomited here, and it’s a bit of a mess (sue me, it’s 1am and I’m sleep deprived):
Romani people come in a range of different skin tones
However, for the most part, as an Indo-European ethnicity, that spectrum is generally from a pale white to brown (maybe not always, but for the most part).
Therefore, in my opinion, since I think that Dick being Romani is very important, both for the subtle implications of the character and because we deserve representation, either a Romani actor should be cast, or a well-informed “Romani-passing” actor, in order to keep that trait.
Since it is not usual for a fully Romani person to have visible Korean ancestry (aka outside of that Indo-European spectrum), I personally do not think that fancasts like Hudson Williams would pass as Romani. Therefore, if a visibly non-Romani actor was cast, I think it would have to play on Dick being a diddakoi, and add that in addition to his being half-Romani. In other words, I am unwilling to depart from his being Romani - even if not explicitly stated, it should be believable that he could be Romani as has been canon for decades.
Furthermore, I think that if you were to depart from Dick’s canon appearance as a white/white-passing Romani person, it starts to feel a bit “icky”. Idk, maybe I’m too woke, but to me, passing up on the ability to cast a Romani actor, or even a Romani-passing actor, if that’s too difficult, to represent Dick’s heritage, just to instead cast an actor who could not easily pass as Romani (without that change being addressed in some way, e.g. making Dick’s non-Romani parent Korean, if Hudson Williams was cast) feels a bit like Romani erasure. By instead replacing that very niche and underrepresented ethnic detail with another ethnicity entirely, it feels to me a little bit like all non-white races have then just been chucked together, without consideration of each ethnicity’s unique cultures and the implications of that, to be picked out of a hat at random. This then feels reductive to everyone. Every culture and ethnicity - be it Romani or otherwise - has its own traits and cultural tidbits that deserve to be celebrated and written into the story (even if only in subtle ways) and I think that, because the world is a shitty racist place, the implications of Dick’s heritage has to be considered.
In a similar way, I also don’t think that Romani ethnicities really should be interchangeable with other ethnic identities - not just because it’s not very nice for all non white US American ethnicities to be chucked together without consideration, but also because our Romani culture and heritage deserves to be celebrated for how it shapes us as people. Just like with black or Arab or Asian or Indigenous ethnicities, our Romani ethnic identity is tied to our very being, and I know that I would not be the same person with that removed. Even if Dick being Romani is a retcon, it has been canon to his character for decades now, and honestly, even if it didn’t shape his character’s development in any way (which I would argue it has), it still deserves respect just because all Romani people deserve respect and representation. Dick Grayson is Romani, and I think we should seize this opportunity to celebrate that.
But anyway, that’s just my two cents, just because people asked me to comment! Feel free to disagree, and if you’d like me to further clarify any point, I absolutely will. This is not intended to offend anyone, but my overall point is that Romani people deserve Romani rep - even if it’s just the bare minimum.
