I posted the above video to YouTube a while ago, after reading some of the criticism for Keith Stanfield playing L in the Netflix live-action Death Note film. I found it interesting that people used the same hackneyed arguments of “best actor for the part” to defend Light’s whitewashing, while opposing “blackwashing.” For me, the reaction was the perfect microcosm of a wider issue: People defend whitewashing, but then complain about “blackwashing” or any race change where a white person becomes another race.
Of course, my video got some support, but comments were generally negative. Plenty of people demonstrated their short attention spans by using arguments I shut down in my video e.g.
“Light looks white thought.”
Doesn’t matter. Asian anime styles don’t draw their Asian characters the stereotypical way Western audiences might be used to e.g slanted eyes, yellow skin.
Light Yagami, a man with a Japanese last name is a man who lives in Japan. His parents are his biological ones. The show never hinted his parents were white expats or anything like that. If you ignore location, names etc. and say he must be white because you don’t see slanted eyes, you are an idiot. That is all.
The people who criticized my video pointing out examples of blackwashing also missed the point. The same people saying they wouldn’t want to see a white Luke Cage are some of the same people who defended whitewashing in The Last Airbender and Ghost in the Shell.
Which brings me to my point. A user, Crypt Tonio, commented complaining about black Achilles in the BBC Troy series. By falling back on this kind of argument, Tonio just makes it clear he missed my point because he got defensive and rushed to the comment section. If he complains about black Achilles and defends whitewashing, such as Exodus: Gods and Kings then his argument collapses. Both tales have historical elements, intertwined with mythology. Both have a distinct setting that implies a certain race for viewers. I have no doubt Tonio defended Exodus, while complaining about Troy.
What I found more amusing was that he replied to someone else’s comment, finding a way to bring refugees into a conversation about Death Note. Crypt Tonio goes on a rant about black people in the US feeling like they’re owed something and then jumps to refugees. That just shows me that is all he thinks about when he thinks about black people. So of course he is triggered when he sees my video and rushes in to derail the conversation. I hid him from my channel but if you wish, you can look up his username and access his comments yourself.