Question on whitewashing of TV roles

Was just reading an article on CNN about how asians are upset that there aren't more roles in shows for them. But this breakdown of tv roles seems to breakdown pretty much along population lines. Black compose about 13% of population and have 14% of roles. Asians comprise 6% of population and have 6.9% of roles. Not sure on latino numbers. But is this a problem?

Pretty sure this is more of the issue rather than just simple number of roles

Even when there was an Asian American or Pacific Islander regular on a show, the researchers found they often got less screen time than their white counterparts and their roles often fit into a series of racial stereotypes.

Jennifer Lee, a professor of sociology at Columbia University said Asians are often typecast as either high achieving model minorities or as service workers.

White washing is not a real thing when it comes to the way its used today. Or maybe i should say, how its used by so many.

LostRib's quote is a common thing we hear, the problem is everyone fits into some kind of racial stereotype and given most of TV is lazy, and most of movies are produced lazily now, so you're going to be lucky no matter what race you are, if you don't fit one. That said, the issue is fairly muddied. Some people want what LostRibs highlighted, some people have some weird idea of 50/50/50/50/50. Some people simply want 70% of the population to go away. Ive found it all really depends on who you're speaking to.

The diversity really goes up if you remove 70% of the population. Everyone knows this. White people only bring diversity down. :P

This might be stupid to ask, but do any popular shows in US have Asians in lead roles?

Fresh Off The Boat

The bottom line is viewers know what and whom they want to watch.

Elementary have Lucy Liu, Hawaii 5.0 have Chin Ho and there Kelly Hu from Arrow and of course the walking dead's own Steven Yeun. And Agents of shield

That is just a few.

There is not a problem in Hollywood or on tv with diversity.

Also it´s worth noting that Jackie Chan was for a bit the highest paid actor in hollywood and now only outdone by the one and only Rock Dwayne Johnson.

I think for the most part it has to do with geographical locations rather then some kind of systemic reason.
If you travel to Asia and see shows produced there then the cast will be predominately Asian, South America and the majority of a cast would be Hispanic, Africa and the majority would be African.

I don't think whitewashing is a real problem if you go along simple representation lines, i.e. seeing an asian, black person, and so forth as often on the show as you see an asian, black person, and so forth in real life (or demographically, if you don't see many people of color :P )

To me the real issue is context and portrayal; blacks are still cast as thugs and gangsters, and asians are still cast as martial artists (or, in the event of women, sexy and submissive). I mentioned it in another thread of this kind, but I read in an article that this very accomplished black actress was given the role of "slave" and "maid" like 200 times but only received the role of "doctor", "businesswoman", and so forth like five times. Same with asians, I imagine; how often must an asian be portrayed as a Yakuza or martial artist or a member of the triad.

I never really noticed it until I had a black roommate, and he and I watched a bunch of movies and I suddenly became really aware of the situation, and quite frankly a little embarrassed about it.

*I will say this though, in defense of the US movie business; we incorporate non-white roles into films a helluva lot more than any other nation. Granted, India is mostly Indians, and China is mostly Chinese, and so on...but you still see a good representation of people in the US.

off the top of my head: Fresh off the boat is focused on an Asian family

Hawaii 5-0: two members of the team were asian, but i believe both actors have left due to salary disputes with CBS

Master of None on Netflix is lead by Aziz Ansari

Elementary has Lucy Liu as Watson

Big Bang Theory has Kunal Nayyar as Koothrappali one of Sheldon and Leonard's Friends/coworkers

Out of those, Big bang theory and Hawaii 5-0 are probably the most popular. So there are shows with Asian actors in major roles, but not necessarily lead roles

I don't think anybody noticed until the media used it to instill hatred within us against or brothers and sisters.

Probably because it isn't as bad as MSNBC or FOX, but you're right no one should really watch either of these.

The only problem I have with White Washing is when they turn classicly non-white characters white and it makes no sense with the plot.

Like Khan Noonien Singh in STiD. Apparently there was supposed to be a plastic surgery angle to explain this, but it was scrapped and his name ended up making zero sense for a white dude. To a lesser degree in GitS and that shitty Hawaii movie.

P.S Yes I know Riccardo was not punjabi, in Wrath, but at least hispanics can easily pass for that role without making you scratch your head or laugh out loud.

This is the very sloppy way people have started to use this term. Sadly, like many terms or claims today, people have overused them to the point where they've lost their impact and meaning. Claims of racism or cultural appropriation because a white guy has dreads, claims of sexism for.... anything at this point, etc. White washing is no different. The whole point of white washing as a term, the impact it was supposed to carry, was the washing, the erasing of something from another race. So its not a good term to use with TV, movies, games, etc. But a great term to use when describing say........ Jesus, or how Thanksgiving is taught to younger children. Trying to apply this term to roles in movies really minimizes and demeans the point and impact of the term.

Retelling characters or figures within fictional stories as a different race or ethnicity has been done since the beginning of time. One could even excuse the whole Jesus thing because of this, but for arguments sake we wont.

I'd rather watch a show with the best actor who can perform the role the best than the one that fits the superficial ethnic image of the character.

When it comes to comic book characters (where I've seen this topic come up the most), they've not only changed ethnicity, but gender over the years. We just saw a black Spider-Man and female Thor. It's not about the colour of a character's skin, but the ideals and behaviours they uphold.

It's like the choice they made for Iron Fist. They picked someone who didn't know dick all about martial arts and the show suffered because of it.

I'm fine with that as long as they tweak the plot for it to make sense. The Khan thing made me laugh out loud in the theater and took me out of the experience.

@mrbojangles25: Most stereotypes in modern film are there for the context of the film. I on't get into social statistics that generally mirror a lot of what we see.

Yeah people upset with Iron Fist because they chose a white actor and I'm sitting here like "You guys are pissed about that!? Who cares what color his skin is, just get someone who can act well and/or do martial arts, for Pete's sake."

Let's not forget than Daniel Rand is a white character to begin with...

haha yeah, that too.

I think the people that are most upset are also the people that know the least.

THIS is the problem more than whitewashing. Demographically, I can't really argue about the number of roles minorities get in Hollywood but I do not like the portrayal. [Far too] often black people are portrayed one dimensionally with no romantic interests or goals. They are there to be either a steadfast friend and comrade or a thug thief but have zero depth to them.

When was the last time you saw a movie that had a black person as a romantic lead? Or as a hero?

But yeah in regards to representation the casting is proportional in my opinion.

Saw The Mountain Between Us a week ago. Saw the Tupac movie a few days ago. So the last two movies i saw had a black person as the romantic lead and the hero (or focus). There's plenty of these movies out there being put out all the time, you just to open your eyes.

Whitewashing is changing a character that's a minority into a white one, which isn't what the OP is talking about. An example of this is the latest Ghost in the Shell film.

And hopefully OP was attempting to avoid using this rather false, bigoted definition.