Update: Latest rumor shows casting for a white Ciri | Original: Netflix looking for non-white actress to play Ciri in the Witcher tv series

[Runa216]

DonFerrari said:

sundin13 said:

This post seems to say pretty clearly "If you aren't white, you aren't American", which I have more than a few issues with. American actors playing foreign characters is not the issue we are speaking about when people speak of whitewashing. The issue is white actors playing foreign characters. The fact that you act like the two statement are one in the same says quite a bit, in my opinion. This is largely the false dichotomy that I have been speaking about. America is not white and whiteness is not American. There are likely dozens of thousands of minority actors in America, and many or most are not representing different foreign cultures. They are representing America.

This line of thinking is what creates so many issues in Hollywood. Roles which are written for "Man from New York" usually go to white actors, because of this fundamentally flawed thought process which ties "American" to whiteness. If the studio wants to give some roles to Indian actors, they will look for someone to play "Indian Man" (or "Indian Taxi Driver" or "Indian Convenience Store Clerk"), not "Man". What this does is strip away the identity of minorities as "American", which most of them are, being that they are seeking roles in America. Giving a role to an average black actor is not inserting African culture into a film any more than it would if you cast me (I'm white by the way). Saying "How about we give some roles to minorities" isn't saying "represent foreign culture", it is saying "represent the parts of America that you have been pretending don't exist".

As for your other points, does Bollywood have a large population of underserved minority (in India) actors? I specified Japan because I know much more about it that India, but I would assume the same things would hold true. And yes, a Netflix created adaptation of The Witcher is considered an American cultural product.

Sorry man, but romania, pakistan, nigeria, japan, argentina, etc aren't american culture. And Yes there are always people demanding changes in American Culture to be more inclusive. And no didn't say America is white and white is America, even more when I said to you that "white" is not even a thing, as much as black or asian. It is a racist way of denying all differences in culture and ethinicity and reduce it to skin color.

But I see that you accepted that whitewashing is something people complain and are met with appraisal, but for some reason when it is the opposite it is also good because it's progressive, it is a double standard BS to defend anything you want and deem it good.

Funny you mention of the NY Man, because when we see USA and all the ghettos and resistance to adapt to local culture, keeping the culture from the country they are from is exactly what keeps the notion that they aren't America.

India being an ex part of the British Empire I would bet with you they have a lot of white folks that talk the local language. And again as I said, even if they don't speak they can be dubbed.

No Witcher is from where it is, being shooted by Netflix doesn't make it an American Cultura product, much as BJJ being used by and American fighter doesn't make it not Brazilian.

sundin13 said:

I should have specified, when I mentioned minorities, I mean "people who are typically considered to be racial minorities in America", not that the concept of a "minority" doesn't exist.

Besides that, why can't you change the skin color? You seem to be attaching our concepts of ethnicity to these characters where they don't necessarily exist. I am not asking why can't a "Cintra" person be a "Other Location" person, I am asking why can't a "Cintra" person be kind of tan?

Because unless they can explain that they have a different way of heritage than DNA, and how you transfer a lot of information through heritage, but skin color is something totally irrelevant that no one even notice and there are a lot of black people (or any other non pale white) son or daughter of pale white people you will just making the "well she could be black because of reasons, DNA doesn't exist". Suspension of disbelief, fictional freedom and all else needs to at least pass the coherence and verosimilitude aspect to be acceptable to the viewer.

danasider said:

Did you quote the correct post? Your response makes no sense.

Runa216 never said anyone is racist in the post you quoted nor was it even implied. She was only saying that skin color likely wouldn't mess up this or other works of fiction in terms of casting, because the skin color of these characters isn't fundamental to the themes of the story. No judgment was cast on those that don't agree.

Also, Runa216 said she would watch the show even if it was an all white cast (see the bolded text). While something like Black Panther, imho, would have its themes greatly affected by white washing the lead character, the examples she gave (Dragonball or The Ancient One in Doctor Strange) were viewable, because their race changes didn't really change the story in a significant way. Many believe the same can be said for Ciri.

You probably should read what you are responding to. I personally agreed very much with Runa216's response, but even if I didn't, I could see you are putting words in her post that simply aren't there.

Guess you should read more of his posts.

The heritage of the char is of paramount importance to the book, and the relatives are royalty of white skinned people so she being non-white would be a break on what is in the core of the story.

The problem with this is that yes, Ciri's heritage is important. But it's not earth that this takes place on, so why can't that heritage be hispanic or middle-eastern or asian? Why can't her people be a different color while still maintaining the 'we're not the same as you' themes and elements of the story.  There's no reason she has to be white, that's not an important theme of the book because in the book/games that isn't what's important about her. 

I'm honestly kinda shocked I still need to go through this with people. 

The very fact that this is a FANTASY means that the color of the skin is almost universally less important than the allegories that come from it. The fact that this FANTASY world that was MADE UP BY THE AUTHOR is inspired by real world ancient europe is irrelevant, because as an adaptation some of those details can be tweaked without sacrificing the tone/themes/plot/character. You can do the exact same thing by portraying her as asian as you could by portraying her as white, it's just a matter of how you do it. 

And I repeat: Until we know and understand why these choices were made, it just sounds like a whole lot of insecure people bleating on about the indignity of a once-white character being portrayed as non-white. 

Suck it up. It's not the end of the world. Quit whining about NOTHING. First world problems, people.