Whitewashing refers to all acts of intentional and unintentional altering of the facts, identities, and histories, especially those related to examples of racial inequalities or systemic violence towards BIPOC individuals/communities (Collins, 2023; Gillespie, 2023). The following text illustrates examples of systemic racism and discrimination against BIPOC individuals in different public settings, including the movie portrayals of war. It further discusses how products and racialized beauty standards perpetuate racist narratives.
Framing & Perspectives
In media, films, art, and other creative outlets, whitewashing constitutes replacing, erasing, and minimizing contributions of non-White characters and/or whole cultures by centering White individuals in stories that were originally about or created by BIPOC individuals. Examples of such practices include non-Arab actors portraying Egyptian roles in Ridley Scott’s movie Exodus: Gods and Kings; Johnny Depp being cast as a Native American in The Lone Ranger; or the depiction of Black figures from the Old Testament as white figures in Renaissance paintings (Brook, 2015; Smith Galer, 2019).
In political, historical, and educational contexts, whitewashing refers to all the tendencies to overlook unethical or oppressive acts, such as colonialism, slavery, or systemic discrimination, in order to escape responsibility for previous wrongdoings and maintain a positive narrative of White practices. One such example is the whitewashing of Black and Asian troops who fought in the British Empire’s forces during World War One, as well as the lack of proper commemoration for them compared to their White counterparts (Carrie Wong, 2021; Easton, 2021; Goodfellow, 2019).
It is also possible to find some examples of whitewashing practices in daily interactions with products, adverts, or other activities related to day-to-day life, which can often create or intensify White narratives and silence or minimize the routine experiences of BIPOC people. Ads for cosmetic products, especially in African and Asian countries, are often criticized for the double meaning of their messages, by promoting a lighter skin tone as a beauty standard, even when the actors and the target audience are not White. For example, in 2016, an ad in Thailand for a beauty product used the slogan “Just being white, you will win” (Chan, 2016). Another international personal care brand came under fire from consumers for two ads in 2017. One was directed towards their Middle Eastern audience about a deodorant defending “white purity”, which was used by alt-right activists to promote racist ideology (BBC News, 2017). After one more for a body lotion, in which a black woman appears to turn white after using the promoted lotion, the company recognized the “offense” against Black people and said in a statement that the ad “did not represent the diversity of real beauty, which is something the brand is passionate about and is core to our beliefs, and it should not have happened”.
Relevance
The concept of Whitewashing is inherently connected to the story of film and media. Especially, considering the role of visual media in reflecting representation and social justice in a historically accurate context. For example, when White actors are cast in roles that were originally meant for BIPOC characters, not only is there a risk of inaccuracy, but it can also take away opportunities from BIPOC people to portray their communities and the historical and ongoing marginalizations that afflict them. Characters that aim to represent certain ethnicities or cultural groups can exacerbate stereotypes or do not portray their experiences and daily realities in a meaningful way (Gillespie, 2023).
The way a society perceives different cultural, ethnic, religious, and racial groups is often influenced by how groups are generally represented. This can be applied to individuals from groups subjected to intersecting oppressions, as the perception of their place in society and their ability to react to injustices against them is also impacted by how they see themselves being represented on screen. Mischaracterizing underrepresented groups through actors who do not identify themselves with those they are representing can reinforce harmful stereotypes and promote societal biases in the audience, regardless of who is consuming the content (Collins, 2023). In commercials and daily life, there is a documented history about the advertisement of cosmetics and cleaning products through expressions that compare being White with being clean, and skin whitening methods that try to convince people of the importance of having a “porcelain skin” are very popular and common in Asian countries (Conor, 2017). Those commercials and the way cosmetics are often popularized, especially for BIPOC women, can help perpetuate cultural perceptions in which having a clearer skin tone is associated with having more success or having a higher probability of reaching goals and achieving in a corporate world.
Keywords: Social Injustice, White Supremacy, Racial Inequality, Racist Narratives
Connected terms: Microaggressions, Microinterventions, Acculturation, Ethnocentrism, Linguistic Imperialism, Racialized Beauty Standards, Representation, Stereotype Threat, White Defensiveness, White Fragility, White Guilt, White Silence, Xenophobia
References
BBC News. (2017, April 4). Nivea removes ‘White is purity’ deodorant advert branded ‘racist’. From: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-39489967
Brook, T. (2015, October 6). When White actors play other races. BBC. From: https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20151006-when-white-actors-play-other-races
Carrie Wong, J. (2021, May 25). The fight to whitewash US history: ‘A drop of poison is all you need’. The Guardian. From: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/25/critical-race-theory-us-history-1619-project
Chan, W. (2016, January 8). Thai beauty ad: ‘Just being white, you will win’. CNN. From: https://edition.cnn.com/2016/01/08/asia/thai-racist-white-beauty-ad
Collins, D. E. (2023, August 13). Whitewashing slavery in US schools will teach students anti-Blackness. Al Jazeera. From: https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2023/8/13/whitewashing-slavery-in-us-schools-will-teach-students-anti-blackness
Conor, L. (2017, October 10). Dove, real beauty and the racist history of skin whitening. The Conversation. From: https://theconversation.com/dove-real-beauty-and-the-racist-history-of-skin-whitening-85446
Easton, M. (2021, April 11). Commonwealth war graves: PM ‘deeply troubled’ over racism. BBC. From: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-56840131
Gillespie, C. (2023, May 26). What Is Whitewashing, and Why Is It Harmful? Health. From: https://www.health.com/mind-body/health-diversity-inclusion/whitewashing
Goodfellow, M. (2019, December 5). Put our colonial history on the curriculum – then we’ll understand who we really are. The Guardian. From: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/dec/05/britain-colonial-history-curriculum-racism-migration
McCarthy, C. (1990). Multicultural education, minority identities, textbooks, and the challenge of curriculum reform. Journal of education, 172(2), 118-129.
Smith Galer, S. (2019, January 16). How black women were whitewashed by art. BBC. From: https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20190114-how-black-women-were-whitewashed-by-art
