Whitewashing and Animorphs

[joking.livejournal.com]

What is whitewashing?

Whitewashing is when a character of color is depicted as white, or has their physical features changed to more closely resemble Western white beauty standards. This can occur in a variety of media. It can happen in theater, film, or television when a white actor is cast to play a character of color. It can happen in fanart, when a character who is canonically a person of color is represented as white. It can also happen in fanfiction, if a character of color is described as white.


Why is it harmful?

I'll quote the Stop Whitewashing tumblr on this one:

"Not only is the act offensive and racist, but it also does a great disservice to PoC viewers of all ethnicities – ethnicities who never receive much representation, let alone proper representation, in films, books, graphic novels, etc. Everyone likes to see someone that looks like them in the media rather than just seeing ALL WHITE PEOPLE ALL THE TIME. It’s also unfair to actors of color because they never receive a major role and their talent is thus wasted."

I'll add that whitewashing has a long and terrible history. Instead of hiring actors of color to portray their own ethnicities, movies, TV and theater would hire white actors and use makeup, costumes, and fake accents to create ghastly caricatures of different ethnic groups. That still goes on today, as you can see in the movie Cloud Atlas that's coming out soon, with white actors playing Asian characters in yellowface (source).

Who gets whitewashed in Animorphs?

There are four major characters of color in Animorphs: Cassie, Marco, Marco's mother Eva, and Ax (when he's in human morph.) I've seen all four of these characters whitewashed in various ways, Ax's human morph perhaps most of all. His human morph is formed from DNA from Jake, Marco, Rachel, and Cassie, and is often described as "olive-skinned," yet there seems to be some collective delusion that his human morph is white.

Is Scholastic involved in whitewashing Animorphs?

Yes! I think part of the reason Ax's human morph gets whitewashed so much is that it's whitewashed on the cover of Ax's first book!



Now, I don't know for sure what race this model is, but how does a blend of DNA from two white people, a Latino boy, and a black girl produce a boy with this model's skin color? In what reality is this model's skin olive? Scholastic really dropped the ball when they made this cover. And they dropped it again when they designed the cover for the relaunch of #8 (even though it's been canceled):



Let's not forget that Scholastic almost used a white cover model for Marco in the series relaunch. (source) It's partly the activism of this community that got that fixed, so thanks to everyone who was involved with that effort. 

Though Scholastic wasn't directly involved in the Animorphs TV show, I'll add that Ax's human morph was whitewashed in the TV adaptation as well. Paulo Costanzo is white.

How are the Animorphs whitewashed by fans?

The worst offenses by fans are in fanart and fancasts. Browse DeviantArt for Animorphs art and you'll find many examples of whitewashed art of Cassie, Marco, and Ax. Here are a few examples. There are also all too many instances of whitewashing in fancasts, with people choosing white actors to play characters of color (examples: 1 2 3). 

Another insidious form of whitewashing I've noticed with Cassie in particular is when she's drawn/cast as light-skinned. Black people come in a wide range of colors, but Cassie is explicitly described in the books as having dark skin. Depictions of Cassie as a light-skinned black person are a form of colorism, the privileging of light skin over dark skin. 

I haven't yet seen any examples of whitewashing in Animorphs fanfiction. But then again, before I did research for this post I thought there were no examples of Eva being whitewashed, and yet there were. I'd be interested to see if anyone has examples.

What can I do to stop whitewashing in Animorphs fandom?

First off, if you're a fanartist, a fic writer, or just putting together a fancast, don't whitewash! Marco, Cassie, Eva, and Ax (in human morph) are all people of color.

And if you see any instances of whitewashing, call them out. Tell your fellow fan that they're whitewashing and why it's wrong. Together, we can make this fandom a safer community for fans of color, and respect the characters that Applegrant created.

Comments

[yunie1281.livejournal.com]

I don't know. I think that calling someone out for being racist or telling them that they're being wrong because of the way that they color fanart is over-the-top.

And what do you mean by "safer"? I can see how it could offend people but not endanger them in any way.

I do agree that it's ridiculous having a character be one ethnicity and they're being played by someone not even close.

I don't believe that Ax actually counts as a person of color, though. His human morph is just a morph and not who he is. His real color is blue and I think people have got that down.

[mariahlee.livejournal.com]

...Ax's human morph is a person of color. It doesn't matter if he's "not who he is". By making his human morph completely white, you are erasing different races as if they don't exist or have any impact, which is really, really not cool.

And your first part? We're not telling people that we don't like the shades of yellow they used for their art of the sun. We're talking about people's races being messed around with because whitewashing is so incredibly common. It is offensive. It is racist, and it's not over the top to tell people they are being offensive and racist.

[joking.livejournal.com]

Over the top? Then how are we supposed to stop this from happening? Whitewashing won't just go away if we wish really hard. We have to do something about it.

I really do think that whitewashing makes our community less safe for fans of color. Imagine you were a young black girl growing up in the 1990s, and there were almost no black heroines to look up to. But then you found Animorphs, and you found Cassie, a girl who looks like you, who saves the world. That had a huge impact on you. Then imagine you join the fandom some years later, and you find fans drawing Cassie and erasing her blackness. Wouldn't that make you feel insulted? Excluded? Like fans don't understand Cassie or why she matters to you, like they don't care about people like you? Would you want to be a part of this fan community? Our actions have real consequences.

Ax is not a person of color in the sense that he didn't grow up with racial oppression, and he doesn't have to grapple with the history of slavery and colonialism. But when he's in human morph, people perceive him as a person of color, and probably treat him accordingly. I'd be interested to read a fic in which Ax has to deal with those racialized perceptions, actually. But anyway, mariahlee is right to say that even though Ax is an Andalite, it's still wrong to whitewash his human morph.

[with-rainfall.livejournal.com]

I think that calling someone out for being racist or telling them that they're being wrong because of the way that they color fanart is over-the-top.

I understand where you're coming from. But I think it's also about making people in general aware of the stuff they do/say, even if it's totally unintentional. Take those examples in joking's post above, where every single character (including Marco and Cassie!) is white.

Now, that shows a couple of things. I agree with you that getting obvious things like Cassie's ethnicity wrong is just stupid and ignorant. Perhaps that means they haven't bothered to read the books properly - which might well be the case. But it also, and this is more important, shows that they've internalised the attitude that "white skin = the only thing I see".

The trouble is that (to continue with the fanart example) fanartists who draw stuff like this don't even realise what they're doing wrong, sometimes. And that's the thing people are taking issue with here. It's not about hating on white people (at least, definitely not for me). It's about making people see how (as Anki and Joking put it so beautifully) mainstream media influences their own attitude to race, and how that is carried over into their own fanart or fanfic or whatever it is.

To give you a clearer example: when you next turn on the TV, particularly in the evening, have a look at some of the people in the ads you see, and some of the news anchors. Count how many of them are white, or even light-skinned, and then count how many are darker-skinned. Small things like that, that I for one don't even notice until I'm made aware of them, are what shape everybody's attitudes to race.

Here's a video that made it really clear to me, if you're interested: http://psychexplorare.tumblr.com/post/29025827636/chescaleigh-white-privilege-by-nineteenpercent

So, yeah, basically, fanart might seem like a small thing, but it's about raising awareness :)

[000-hester-000.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I find this particularly depressing in this fandom in particular, because . . . Animorphs, like a lot of mid-90s things, features a cast of main characters of several different races. What makes it different to me than a lot of those series is that the PoC characters aren't either completely bland ("This new character is so-and-so's friend who's black. She sits around being a girl. Who's black!") or stereotypes. Basically, I feel like KAA did a really good job of portraying all of the characters as equal and interesting regardless of race.

Otoh, I agree with yunie1281 about saying to a fanartist that they're whitewashing is over the top. I do think the drawings you linked to are problematic. It's just that I really don't think that approaching people in a way that uses jargon actually helps them learn anything. Imo it's always better to discuss things in terms of what you actually feel or experience, instead of using a template. Something like, "Your art is pretty, but why did you make Cassie so pale?" Saying, "I'm going to introduce you to this concept you've probably never even heard of before and now rub your face in the fact that you're being bad" is, I think, not really the best way to get results.

[joking.livejournal.com]

I really miss that about the 90s! I feel like we've gone backward in some ways since then.

I'm not saying you should necessarily throw sociology textbooks at people who whitewash. It's a good idea to tailor your approach depending on what you think will get through to them. At the same time, I'm hesitant to tell fans of color not to be "rude" about calling out whitewashing, because I can understand why they might be very angry about it, and people of color are constantly being told that they should respect the ~feelings~ of people who hurt them with racist behavior and just calm down and talk reasonably. Except whitewashing hurts people of color much more than being called out on whitewashing hurts the white people who do it, so at least in the case of fans of color, I'm not going to tell them how they should or should not call out whitewashing.

[with-rainfall.livejournal.com]

("This new character is so-and-so's friend who's black. She sits around being a girl. Who's black!") or stereotypes.

Hahaha that fits Jessi from Babysitters' Club. So much. "We don't mind that she's black- oh, but she's black, aaaaand we'll keep mentioning it every few pages so you don't forget. OHAI TOKENISM." *facedesk* Way to fail, AMM.

[brennanspeaks.livejournal.com]

Thanks for raising awareness about this. Obviously, this is a problem in a lot of fandoms, but it's especially important to draw attention to it in youth fandoms where fans may not yet be aware of all the implications. I think you hit the nail on the head with this post.

[joking.livejournal.com]

I definitely wasn't aware of the implications when I first read Animorphs. I pictured Ax as multiracial, for example, and I thought it was weird that he looked white on the cover of #8 and in the TV show, but I didn't realize that it was racist, instead of just inaccurate.

[joking.livejournal.com]

As far as I'm concerned, if calling out whitewashing makes even one fan of color feel more welcome in our fandom, then our efforts are well worth it!

[blue_rampion]

I'm must admit I'm surprised to see fanart with things like Cassie with light skin, because that's something I don't recall seeing much myself. My experience - in this fandom at least - has largely been of Cassie being represented with dark skin. Ax I don't think I recall seeing any fanart of him in morph, he's usually his Andalite self. Marco I kinda see all over the place.

Also, I think fancasts are a tricky thing in terms of really being able to represent non-white characters characters. Personally I am much more familiar with the practice of using celebrities or "PBs" to represent characters in roleplaying, but I imagine that the same sort of issues apply to both - and when it comes to non-white characters, finding PBs for them can be really hard. Because the media does give more opportunities to white actors, that means there are less non-white celebrities for people to choose from, and it can be much harder to find someone who both represents the character's personality and their actual race. Marco I can say from experience was complete hell to find. (Although I should note that these days there have been new people pop up that are good matches for Marco. When I was first looking they either weren't around or I wasn't aware of them, and I had to make do with someone who wasn't Hispanic and was way too pale, and I was never truly happy with it.) So yeah, when it comes to things like fancasts I'm not sure if we should judge as harshly as with things like fanart, because what fans are working with is a media that is already lacking in diversity.

[joking.livejournal.com]

I think it's less common with Cassie than with Marco or Ax, if only because her race is brought up more often in the series. But yeah, it still happens. :(

Everything I said about fancasts also applies to faceclaims or PBs, definitely. But these days, with the breadth and depth of the Internet, I don't think there's much of an excuse for using a white PB. There are some great resources, like Hollow Art (http://www.hollow-art.com/) that has tags by race, or the tumblr Faceclaims of Color (http://faceclaimsofcolor.tumblr.com/).

[mariahlee.livejournal.com]

Bless you for this post ♥ the fact that this has to even be said makes me really sad.

[usdutchkitty.livejournal.com]

This is "The Last Airbender" all over again.

I do agree that there IS some whitewashing in fan-artdom. As a fanartist myself I research for different tutorials on skin type so I can try to be as accurate as possible. Yet it is not JUST skin that makes a person. You also have to factor in physical appearances for a certain ethic group as well.

SO... As an experienced and OLDER artist... I would say that a lot of the art you pointed out probably coming from younger people or people overseas who don't know the heavy color-race like we Americans do. Sometimes you got to give a younger/beginning artist a break but be gentle. Don't come down with an iron fist or you'll scare them off from the fandom or art all together.

[joking.livejournal.com]

That's fair enough. It would also be wrong to try to make Cassie's facial features look more European.

As I said earlier in this thread, it's not a bad idea to tailor your approach to suit the person you're trying to educate. A younger person will respond to a different approach than an older person. At the same time, though, I'm not going tell off a fan of color for coming down too hard on an artist for whitewashing, because they get to decide how offended they are by it, and besides white people are always telling people of color that they're being too strident and angry when they call people out for racist offenses.

[with-rainfall.livejournal.com]

Um, just a question while I'm here. Would this (http://www.google.com.au/imgres?num=10&hl=en&biw=979&bih=421&tbm=isch&tbnid=BjliXvtUUgfMNM:&imgrefurl=http://www.forumbiodiversity.com/showthread.php/32422-What-tone-is-olive-skin-colour/page4&docid=cxRIbX4tRdUBgM&imgurl=http://i.imgur.com/l9lUe.jpg&w=666&h=1000&ei=QrCEUPC5DI-diAfS74GACg&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=363&vpy=5&dur=13449&hovh=275&hovw=183&tx=84&ty=162&sig=113671924625162115713&page=6&tbnh=151&tbnw=101&start=79&ndsp=16&ved=1t:429,r:61,s:20,i:356) be considered olive skin? That's sort of the skin tone I have. I know this is an obvious question, but I still don't know the answer, and Animorphs is the first place I ever encountered that term - very confusing to eleven-year-old me, who promptly pictured Ax's skin as green-tinged. :P

Yeah, he's wayyy too pale even in the old cover. I generally imagine him and Marco as the same shade in the picture I linked.

[blue_rampion]

Hah, I just mentioned in a comment above how I was always confused about what exactly "olive skin" was as a kid. (IT'S JUST SUCH A WEIRD DESCRIPTION, OLIVES ARE NOT THE SAME COLOUR AS PEOPLE AT ALL!)

However I am probably still not at all the best person to judge what is and is not olive skin. Mostly I tend to think of it as the kind of skin tone you get from people from the Mediterranean? Which can still vary so...yeah...

Edit: Also what I am learning from that forum you linked is no-one knows what olive skin is

[streussal.livejournal.com]

This is an excellent post. Marco is often cast as Italian (which is bad enough), but sometimes they don't even bother finding someone with an olive skin tone (I love Anton Yelchin and he could certainly play someone like Marco, but not ACTUALLY Marco because Marco is not white).

I should note on the fancasting of Eva as Charisma Carpenter that I'm pretty sure Charisma is actually half Latina. But I agree that she's lighter skinned than I imagine Eva. (There's also this weird tendency to use 30 year olds for end of series Eva as PBs. I just want to shove Lauren Velez at them.)

[felinephoenix.livejournal.com]

This reminds me of my biggest pet-peeve when it comes to whitewashing Marco: fans who say it's okay because his Dad is white. When, um, no. It's canon that they have a different skin color! Ax is even the one to bring it up, ironically enough, considering the topic of this post...

"I turned around. It was an older human. He was paler than Marco, but other features were similar." - Animorphs #8: The Alien. SEE IT'S RIGHT THERE.

As for Charisma... yeah. As much as I love her (lots and lots and lots) she's not really the right age to play Eva. I can't bash other people's fancasts for being off, though, mine tend to be too old! Tyler Posey is just such a perfect Marco!

[joysweeper.livejournal.com]

I've never actually commented in this comm before, as far as I can recall, but... yes.

I'm mixed-race myself, and I have never seen anyone with Filipino ancestry in media - not that I really spend much time looking, admittedly - but I'm automatically more interested in, well, anything if the characters are not all white or aliens-thought-of-as-white. Like, Firefly doesn't interest me, at all, but when I saw a fan recasting somewhere of all PoC actors, I thought "I would watch this."

And it's so, so disheartening when that gets erased and people yammer justifications.

I tend to picture a lot of literary characters as mixed or otherwise nonwhite - even green-eyed redheads sometimes, my icon is of Carmen Solomon, who has that coloration - even though I tend to get bewildered reactions for it, when I tell anyone.

[famine.livejournal.com]

I have nothing that constructive to add here except as a Brit it's really interesting to see Americans holding up Hispanic people as not white. I would certainly consider them to be white. Not to detract from the importance of representing their appearances properly, but it does just show race is a social construct.

[000-hester-000.livejournal.com]

Hispanic is a little bit difficult to define, because . . . tbh no one seems entirely sure whether Hispanic people can also be white or not. A lot of forms I've filled out that ask for race have a box marked, "White and non-Hispanic" or something similar. Other forms I've seen don't say anything about Hispanic people in the question about race and instead will have a separate question saying, "Are you Hispanic?"

It's a little bit difficult because there are Hispanic people who pretty much are completely white -- ie all of their ancestors were Spanish and not the native peoples of Mexico/central America/south America. On the other hand, I think I would still consider those people PoC even though they're also technically white because they tend to be treated as PoC. (I think especially with tensions over immigration in this country right now, Hispanic people do tend to get a lot of attention focused on them and do tend to be treated differently.)

[felinephoenix.livejournal.com]

I have nothing constructive to add except THIS POST IS AWESOME AND YOU SHOULD FEEL GOOD FOR MAKING IT.

Also, wow, ignore everything I said about the show. You mentioned that. Apparently, reading is not my forte this morning.

[iron-valkyrie.livejournal.com]

This is a good post and I love it a lot.

[ryntha-doghare.livejournal.com]

I like this post. Also, as a eurasian guy, I feel sad about the lack of asian (let alone eurasian) characters around. I don't think there's one in Animorphs at all? Correct me if I'm wrong!

[joking.livejournal.com]

Nope, no Asian characters at all. Which is especially odd given that Animorphs is set in California.

[kon-no-yume.livejournal.com]

Slightly off topic, but one of the things that Animorphs did that I really liked was have an inter-racial couple. It feels like mainstream media pairs romantic couples based on race all the time. How often have you seen a commercial with a couple that was interracial? It's gotten to the point where when I see a TV show with both a male and female POC on it, I immediately assume they're going to be dating at some point. And the sad part is, I'm usually right.

So it made me really happy that KAA had Cassie and Jake date. I feel like if Animorphs was a modern TV show (without the book source material) they'd pair Cassie and Marco just because they're both POCs.

[joking.livejournal.com]

I like that a lot too. I only wish that Marco had had more chances to date!

[sherrilina.livejournal.com]

Interesting topic to be sure, and i agree for the most part, though I am torn about Cassie in terms of casting actresses who are black but not necessarily dark (such as on the TV show for instance)--I mean they got a lot wrong on that show looks-wise (like Jake and Tobias' appearances as described in the books), though I suppose hair color is a bit different.

Well if someone can make me an icon just like this one but with a darker model, I'll use that instead, lol...

[joking.livejournal.com]

I think another part of the problem with Cassie's representation on her show was her relaxed hair. Hair is very political in the black community, because a lot of black women relax their hair to conform to the Western beauty ideal of straight hair. (Not that I'm judging them for it; every woman has her own reasons for styling her hair the way she chooses.) In the books, Cassie has very short natural hair, not long, straight, and relaxed. Her representation on the show with relaxed hair can be viewed as a concession to white beauty standards.

[embergryphon.livejournal.com]

Um. Most things have already been said. ^^()
But to any fellow fanartists out there concerned about expressing diversity in your art, a fabulous lady on DA has created a set of tutorials showing average features for pretty much all human races and it's amazing. It's, um, obviously not a "how to draw black people" kind of tutorial as it's more of a list of features favored by the genetics and traditional culture of distinct areas and populations around the world. Mileage on any specific person/character will obviously vary as these are genetic and cultural generalizations, and also for distinct racial populations rather than American kids who tend to be a little bit of a bunch of different things.... Still, it's a great resource into how genetics effects your appearance besides skin-color, and to beauty standards that for once AREN'T entirely centered around white people.

Part 1 (Asia, Indigenous America, Polynesian) (http://cedarseed.deviantart.com/art/Guide-to-Human-Types-part-1-32046017)
Part 2 (Caucasian, middle-eastern, north African) (http://majnouna.deviantart.com/art/Guide-to-Human-Types-part-2-33220929)
Part 3 (African, Indigenous Australian) (http://majnouna.deviantart.com/art/Guide-to-Human-Types-part-3-34877428)
Catalogue of Human Features (explanation of human skin, eye and hair colors, hair types, and other facial features.) (http://majnouna.deviantart.com/art/Catalogue-of-Human-Features-33097648)

Just 'cause... I figure a lot of people tend to whitewash with fanart because they learn how to draw people by drawing, like, cartoons or anime and find it difficult to adjust to drawing more subtle features that differentiate races.
Anywho.
*late to the discussion, shuffles awkwardly*

[joking.livejournal.com]

Interesting links. Thank you.

[starz4598.livejournal.com]

So I happened to come across this today:


"Oh, very interesting. Ax? What country are you from?"
"I am from the Republic of Ivory Coast."
"Oh, man," I moaned. "Why did I ever give him that World Almanac?"
"You know, if you don't mind my saying so, you don't look like you'd be from the Ivory Coast," my father said. He was getting that edge he gets in his voice when someone is slowly but surely beginning to grind his last nerve.
"How about Equatorial Guinea? The Republic of Kyrgyzstan? Canada?"
"Tell you what," my father said, "let's just go with Canada."
"I am from Canada. I am Canadese."

----Book Twenty-Four, The Suspicion

Ifi: Oh my God Cassie's dad you can't just ask someone why they're white
Adam: I actually had to look up where the Republic of the Ivory Coast is.
Adam: (It's in western Africa, for the uninitiated.)


Made me think of this post. Thoughts?

[joking.livejournal.com]

As much as I like Ifi, I obviously disagree with her about Ax being white, as anyone with reading comprehension skills should.

"His skin was the color of light brown sugar, a blending of my brown and Marco's olive, and Jake and Rachel's pale white."

I can't draw worth a damn, but for the sake of argument I looked up "light brown sugar" on Google Images and used the eyedropper tool to fill in the skin color of this picture.



That is simply not a white person. But, to explain what Peter said, he doesn't look much like a native of the Ivory Coast either. This is a picture of an Ivorian: