The Laziness Of Race Swapping

There’s a trend in Hollywood that bothers me. It's called race swapping, the act of taking an established white character and casting them as an actor of another race. It's literally everywhere, from television, movies and cartoons. If you think about it, it's pretty smart. You get all the history of a popular character and none of the risk of creating a new one.

It’s understandable, studios want money, so naturally relying on an established franchise/character would automatically make it a box office draw. Even though that doesn’t always work. Which, if that’s what it's about, then fine. No complaints over here, don’t market it as anything else.

My issue is presenting race swapping as genuine diversity. When all it’s done is reintroduce a character people already know. The effort put into changing a character’s skin tone can be used to create a new character alongside an established one. Then letting the audience grow to love him or her. Or even better, taking a risk to create something entirely new.

I think you can tell that I’m not a fan of race swapping at all. In fact, more than that, I find it pretty boring. You may think “it’s just fictional characters, what's the Issue?” So I’m going to tackle this question with a brief list. Lists are fun.

1. It’s Lazy (obviously)

You probably would have guessed that, but there’s a reason I emphasise this. Think of all the established iconic characters you love, from James Bond to Batman. All these characters started off as new and eventually grew to the iconic characters they became. It required work, constantly putting out fresh stories and seeing what people responded to. The writers of these characters had to earn their audience.

Eventually, through enough stories, these characters grew into the icons that they are. They didn’t immediately start off that way, fans read their books, watched their movies and fell in love with each of these character’s worlds. So naturally changing a character’s race would make people feel a way. Some reactions may be racist, which isn’t right, but some criticisms are audiences expecting more than just a palette swap.

Fans of these properties recognise the lack of effort in this. It’s only right that they would call this out. We all know that feeling of watching an incredible original story. Why not make a new fantasy movie like LOTR set in Africa with a black lead? I’d rather see that than a black James Bond.

2. It’s Disingenuous

It’s diversity without diversity, the ability to appeal toward different races without actually having to put in much work. There’s no actual risk of introducing something new, just bringing in an already established audience. 

You don’t have to build an entirely new world that was already established decades ago in comics, books, previous movies, etc. Just slap on a different skin tone like a video game character and away you go. You also get to present yourself as champions of diversity and prop yourselves up as virtuous all in one go.

When in reality it sells the message that original characters won’t sell to audiences if not white. They have to be an offshoot of an existing and popular white character for people to accept it. 

3. It Accomplishes Nothing Significant

People will say that young black kids need to see characters that look like them. Even though kids can relate to characters of different races. Anyway, let's say representation is impactful for Black, Latino and Asian audiences, is it not possible to do so with original characters?

All race swapping accomplishes is the comparison to its predecessor and causes unnecessary discussions on race. It reintroduces a story/character we’ve already seen before. How boring is that? 

Pixar creates fresh stories constantly, Japan pops out new franchises like it's nothing. While it may be impactful for young children to see characters with features like them. It shouldn’t take a lazy swap to accomplish this. Audiences of diverse backgrounds deserve fresh stories that are remembered for decades to come.

Original Stories Can Win 

When I think of impactful original stories, I think of Squid Game in particular, a Korean show that became one of the most popular titles on Netflix. People watching a tv series in a language they don’t speak shows how powerful a well-written and original story can be. 

I also think of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, a sitcom with a majority black cast. If you play the opening theme right now, people of all races and backgrounds will quote the lyrics word for word. It didn’t shy away from race in specific episodes, but people didn’t dwell on it. It’s not because they didn’t see colour, it’s because they saw the character’s humanity regardless of colour.

In Conclusion

This isn’t all just a rant on just race swapping, it’s a plea for us to support originality. There are some amazing original TV series and movies being made with diverse casts. Everything Everywhere All At Once is one movie that stood out to me this year. Easily one of the most emotionally impactful and visually creative films I’ve seen in a long time. Some of you may still like race swapping, which is your choice. For those of you like me that don’t, we have to support original stories and highlight them as much as we can. 

Seriously watch this movie

If you’re a creative like myself, I think it comes down to creators being willing to take risks and write the best stories they can. We have access to so many tools where we can share stories and build our own platforms and audiences.

I think of the success Issa Rae has had through Insecure, starting off with a web series called Awkward Black Girl on YouTube. Eventually it developed into a five season series on HBO. Issa’s story inspires me constantly, she’s had many successes since then, but it shows what’s possible through perseverance and hard work.

Also, if you’re a writer yourself, don’t be afraid to put yourself out there. Build relationships with other creative people online and in person. I’m on my screenwriting journey myself and I’m hoping one of the short films, TV series and movies I write will inspire others to create stories of their own. Let's create the stories we want to see.