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Rustic Floral Arrangement

GROUP 4:
Whitewashing in Hollywood

Group Roles: 

  • Noor, speaker/transcriber/overview

  • Jazmyne: speaker/overview

  • Claudine: speaker/audio editor/hostess

  • Hayden: speaker/webpage notes organizer

Overview

Minimalist Flower Arrangement

Throughout the years, Hollywood has been known to take inspiration from other cultures without giving proper credit due to where it came from. This act is harmful because it erases Asian representation from stories that heavily rely on Asian experiences, taking away opportunities from Asian actors and actresses. Additionally, this reinforces the narrative that “white people center the world” in Hollywood. On March 31, 2017, Ghost in the Shell released and gained attraction for its drastic change from the original. The main character’s name changed from Matoko Kusanagi to Mira Killian and Scarlett Johansson was casted for the role. Debate of whether these changes were whitewashing spread throughout the media.

In this podcast, we discuss and examine the way media perceived Ghost in the Shell and its connection to whitewashing. Alongside this, we discuss if Asians are being whitewashed in Hollywood and why.

Discussion Questions

  • Are Asians being whitewashed in Hollywood? Why are Asian characters, roles, and stories whitewashed in Hollywood? 

Modern Staircase Lighting
podcast equipment _edited.jpg

Podcast Audio & Transcript

podcast.mp3

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Transcript link:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/14LLppcrSRfrHr-0S886ybsT-p0yB7pm9YgUfvgYFb1o/edit?usp=sharing

“In the Background” — Research Section

Cultural Artifacts

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8UQrfGa/
A case study about a comment regarding a Scarlett Johansson fan defending her stating how she didn’t see it coming. 
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8UQXJSn/
A comedy skit by an Asian man where he is dressed as Mira (pretending to be scarlett)
https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/5brpa2/i_think_i_can_understand_why_ghost_in_the_shell/
A reddit post regarding a conversation between two stating how White people are over represented in Asian media but never Asians represented in Western Media. Also discussing how Scarlett Johansson ruins the image because it’s no different from a “White person saves the day for the Asians”. 
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8UQShJC/
Shows examples of characters being whitewashed and how people in the comment section were debating over the cast of Halle Bailey as Ariel, The Little Mermaid Live Action 2023.
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTrfpa6xx/ 
Talks about the white actors being used for poc characters like “Ghost in the Shell” and “New Mutants” (202 Comic Book film): Dr. Reyes presented as Afro-Puerto Rican and Roberto presented as Afro-Brazillian, even though they are dark skinned characters they aren’t actually the same color in the film. 
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTrfsGxpp/
A clip of a scene from Dragon Seed of Katharine Hepburn playing a Chinese woman. This plays a minor role given to Asian actors but they didn’t give any major roles to Asian actors for characters that were presented as Asian. 
Comments under the post discuss how everything is set around Japan and their culture but the actor and characters get changed to white people.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BTsILDfh0Bm/?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==
A funny instagram comment/post (Not fully related but something to lighten up the mood)
https://x.com/moobozo/status/1791904349863489898?s=46&t=A_8_UzrOB3P1axMgc7SDuQ
A tweet regarding both Scarlett in Ghost in the Shell and Hallee in The Little Mermaid and how both parties are discussing race swapping in the Little Mermaid. In response the other party talks about Scarlett Johansson and how she got the same backlash from her playing a Japanese character. They also state how Hollywood always changes the original identity of the character no matter who they are casting.

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