White guy acting as Martin Luther King Jr in a movie

[AwkwardSquirtle]

You dont have to be black to lead a civil rights movement for blacks.

No, but he was, and that's relevant.

[OrcsRLame]

Would be tasteless, considering Martin Luther King Jr is an esteemed personification of black rights. As an art project, sure, why the fuck not, but as a serious movie, nah. I dislike how people are okay with black actors portraying white characters, while at the same time condemning the opposite (or even a white actor portraying a white character, good god Verge...), but I'm personally generally fine with whatever. Idris Elba was a cool Heimdall and I didn't mind that Tom Cruise was a samurai.

Fyi, the person Tom Cruise portrayed was actually white. It wasn't super historically accurate, but Nathan Algren was loosely based on William Adams, a white guy that actually became a samurai in service to Ieyasu Tokugawa. This was a real thing that happened, so it's not equivalent to Idris Elba as Heimdall, which was blackwashing.

[Karlz0rz]

That would then be fiction. I'd hold my reservations until I knew more about it.

Well, it's not fiction if it's still based on real life things that happened to African-Americans. They just put a spin on it, changing the races around. I think it would be an interesting idea!
Maybe it could even make more white people aware of the struggles.

[slime]

This is only OK if the name of the movie is White Man's Burden 2.

[Moralgy]

It would be funny to see a movie get lower than those terrible christian films that were coming out a few years ago. What was it that Kirk cameron put out that had like a 3%.

[Kathandira]

Well, it's not fiction if it's still based on real life things that happened to African-Americans. They just put a spin on it, changing the races around. I think it would be an interesting idea!
Maybe it could even make more white people aware of the struggles.

Honestly, that could be an interesting premise. That is like a Marvel, "What If" edition.

[slime]

What if for artistic purposes, they turned the movie around, and made it so that African-Americans were the dominant race in the movie, and the white race had to fight for their freedoms. Would it be cool then? Nothing else changes, except the races.
Would it hold the same message?

See above....

[Zuben]

Fyi, the person Tom Cruise portrayed was actually white. It wasn't super historically accurate, but Nathan Algren was loosely based on William Adams, a white guy that actually became a samurai in service to Ieyasu Tokugawa. This was a real thing that happened, so it's not equivalent to Idris Elba as Heimdall, which was blackwashing.

I thought there might've been something like that behind it, but I used it as an example, since I couldn't think of a case where a white actor portrayed a non-white character. Maybe that happened more in older movies, but I wouldn't be aware of it.

EDIT: Well, Doctor Strange was one, with Tilda Swinton acting a fine version of Stephen Strange's mentor, who was originally an Asian man. Though the movie also had Chiwetel Ejiofor as Mordo, also an Asian man originally.

EDIT2: Keeping it in he MCU, Iron Man 3 had Guy Pearce as Mandarin, who, again, was originally an Asian man. It was a surprise reveal, with Ben Kingsley originally being advertised as Mandarin, and I remember media going berserk over it back in the day.

[Ret4resto]

It would be funny to see a movie get lower than those terrible christian films that were coming out a few years ago. What was it that Kirk cameron put out that had like a 3%.

Nice sig, I’m excited about the new games coming out.

[Themius]

No. Straight cissss white men are the untouchables in the 2018 caste system.

Aww you poor victim

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No it wouldn't be okay, just like anything else you listed isn't okay. We know what race all these people were, and there's no need to change history just because you have drunk too much soy milk.

If a black guy can't play Achilles neither can a white guy. During many of those time periods Greeks were quite mixed and not exactly the white people they are today. Persians would have been more white than Greeks.

[YorHa-Unit-2B]

Because Hercules, Zeus, Achilles and Thor are not characters famous for being a Black pillar Black civil rights.

Especially then because they aren't just some "characters famous for being a Black pillar Black civil rights", and because they are part of traditions that still last after thousands of years and will last for double that, i say having a white Martin Luther King is less egregious than having black Zeus and Thor

[Freighter]

No, he's a person that has actually existed and is not fiction.

[Ret4resto]

I thought there might've been something like that behind it, but I used it as an example, since I couldn't think of a case where a white actor portrayed a non-white character. Maybe that happened more in older movies, but I wouldn't be aware of it.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/m.huffp...0dab313ffc/amp

All you have to do is a quick google search to realize white washing occurs more frequently than black washing. I’ve found countless more articles of this but I feel too lazy to post them all. Found a few articles of Asian Americans being outraged by white actors white washing their films as well

[frogger237]

It depends for me. I like it when actors/actresses look like the person they are portraying so I'm fine with good black/white/etc face if the actor resembles the person better than anyone else and they just have the "wrong" skin color.

[Direpenguin]

https://www.google.com/amp/s/m.huffp...0dab313ffc/amp

All you have to do is a quick google search to realize white washing occurs more frequently than black washing. I’ve found countless more articles of this but I feel too lazy to post them all. Found a few articles of Asian Americans being outraged by white actors white washing their films as well

Yeah, it's a fucking shame blacks and asians can't pony up the money to produce their own movies, and hire the actors they want. But I guess it's easier just to bitch and moan about imaginary things like white-washing.

Just get Tyler Perry to produce a movie with a worthwhile screenplay for a change. There, problem solved.

[Deleted]

I think for such an important figure as Martin Luther King Jr. you need a black actor, at the right age, with ideally the same skin tone and voice. Hard yeah, but it's a better option than getting a white person. Unless perhaps the white person can fit all criteria apart from skin colour, but you have the option to alter it.

Though I'd imagine a lot of people getting angry for reasons.

[Independent voter]

Not until a white actor was cast in the title role in 1931 did a Chan film meet with success.[14] In Charlie Chan Carries On Chan was played by Swedish actor Warner Oland, who had also played Fu Manchu in an earlier film.

A black man being played by a white guy is pretty extreme and goes back to the 1900's when white actors would paint their faces black to do minstrel shows, pretty much the definition of cultural appropriation.

But white guys have often played Asians and Hispanics.



Warner Oland as Charlie Chan.

[Deldavala]

In fiction I have no problem with Genderbending/Race Changing the character, unless their Gender/Race is an important factor to their character.

For historical drama I would like it to be as authentic as possible.

[pathora44]

Especially then because they aren't just some "characters famous for being a Black pillar Black civil rights", and because they are part of traditions that still last after thousands of years and will last for double that, i say having a white Martin Luther King is less egregious than having black Zeus and Thor

So a real person being made white who fought and was assassinated for the civil rights of African Americans is more egregious then fictional deities that aren't real being made into another race?

[Lochton]

No, if a white actor played Martin Luther King, I would not watch the show on principle alone.

But, a black person can play a white person?

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To be honest.

I am not liking the idea of changing the basics of what it was but it wouldn't make me complain. It is acting. For decades we've had men play as women, women play as men and humans play as trees, animals and even damn inanimate objects.