Apparently, people of color (POC) can’t even be guaranteed typecasted roles anymore.

The recent casting of white actress Tilda Swinton as the Ancient One in the film “Doctor Strange” has sparked a heated campaign and discussion about whitewashing in the entertainment industry led by the Asian community on social media.

In the “Doctor Strange” comics, the Ancient One is a old man of Tibet, a region in Asia. He teaches the good doctor how to do “mystical Asian stuff” when he travels to Asia for guidance, as blogger Phil Yu said. This in and of itself is a stereotype: “Asian teaches oriental magic powers and martial arts.” But Marvel casting a white lady to play a POC and labeling the character as Celtic exacerbates racism.

Whitewashing is when a role originally meant for a POC is filled by a white actor. The #WhiteWashOUT campaign is centered around the entertainment/film industry whitewashing, refusing to do the opposite and limiting the amount of roles Asians can actually play.

In a study of the top 100 films in 2014, almost three fourths of characters were white, leaving the remaining fourth to all of the other races to fight it out. Asians, Hispanics and other ethnicities, excluding Black, remain in the single digit percentages.  

So, why is whitewashing even a thing? It happens all over Hollywood—Scarlett Johansson as the main role in the Japanese anime live action movie “Ghost in Shell,” basically the whole “The Last Airbender” movie, John Wayne as Genghis Khan in “The Conqueror” and a shameful list that can go on and on.  

It’s not like there is a shortage of qualified POC actors, so Hollywood I beg of you: don’t deprive people like myself from seeing themselves in a character.