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A Black actress portraying an orange alien generates (white) angst.
July of last year I posted an essay entitled “Too Black to Be Orange”, concerning the “controversy” of casting a Black actress to play an orange alien. This past weekend, a man commented on the essay, saying the casting “is forced diversity” and exhorted me to get the “fuck out of here” with my “outrage articles”. I treated his outrage with casual sarcasm, apologizing for not only “blackwashing” an orange alien, but for “humanwashing” this fictional character as well.
This is the reply, quoted in full:
because you and many people wouldn’t call it white washing if it happened to a white character in fiction. Look, I have absolutely no problem with the black race but there is really no reason for the black actress to be played for starfire. Black washing is the very same as white washing. Its just reversed.
All this person is a name and an opinion; I assume the masculine identity due to the name and non-blackness from the palpable irritation of a black actress portraying an orange alien. I cannot look this person in the face or gauge the seriousness in their voice. I don’t think I would want to, honestly, because I think my first reply would be enough to dissuade such a tone-deaf, prejudiced, and downright idiotic response. I considered not writing this, but then I considered that too often we leave these people to retreat to the dung-heap of their minds after belching their noxious fumes and waiting for it to clear.
I want to be absolutely crystal about what this person is arguing. He even states his position: “Starfire is ORANGE. It makes no sense that she is black.” This irrationality underscores the premise of my essay, which is, coincidentally, the title: “Too Black to be Orange, or an Alien: Starfire meets the 21st Century (and 20th, 19th, 18th…)”.
According to his rationale, casting a white actress to play Starfire would be whitewashing, because Starfire is orange. Casting a Hispanic actress? No, Starfire is orange. What about a Chinese actress? Nope, Starfire is orange. Unless there is an underrepresented community of Orange aliens on planet Earth, there is no living human being on this rock capable of playing this character, because Starfire is orange.
