A new movie staring Bradley Cooper and a version of Hawaii seemingly populated only by white people has brought “whitewashing” back to the forefront.
If you’re unfamiliar, whitewashing occurs when a play or movie is set in a place with a rich culture, but most (if not all) of the main characters in it are white.
This is an issue because it robs people of their culture and gives it to people who are not from that place. Essentially, it’s appropriation and it’s wrong.
Not only does it make for a bad movie, but it doesn’t seem to make business sense either.
Unfortunately, this kind of thing happens in Hollywood all the time. Recent examples include “The Last Airbender,” “Oldboy,” “The Lone Ranger,” “Dragonball Evolution,” and “Cloud Atlas” to name a few. And most of ’em tend to fail miserably at the box office.
