Diversity is thrown around in the entertainment industry as a buzzword. Whether it’s preceded by “forced” or “more” is up to the person writing it and what company is publishing it. The term “racebending” is also thrown into the mix when discussing roles people of color play in movies and shows Hollywood produces. The term gets lambasted by some who claim it’s unnecessary, but in reality, it should be seen as the bare minimum.
In an essay for Harvard Educational Review, Drs. Ebony Elizabeth Thomas, a professor at the University of Michigan School of Education, and Amy Stornaiuolo, the chair of the Reading, Writing and Literacy program at the University of Pennsylvania, define racebending as a “process by which people reshape narratives to represent a diversity of perspectives and experiences that are often missing or silenced in mainstream texts, media, and popular discourse.” Racebending is interpreted by them as a tool to combat a lack of diversity by shifting previously created characters to better represent minority groups and I have to agree. Characters whose identities as white people do not significantly impact the stories, can be easily racebent and provide characters that can be seen and related to by marginalized groups. It is an effective tool in helping close the gap between desired representation and reality.
According to National Research Group, a company that provides data and counsel relating to the entertainment industry among other things, 3 out of 4 Americans say content is representative of different cultures or people is a factor when choosing what to watch. Additionally, 91% of Americans believe content/media has the power to influence society, according to National Research Group. These two stats in conjunction tell us the American people want representative stories because they believe they have the power to improve society’s cultural exchange and acceptance of cultures different from our own. So, when a white character is racebent to be more representative, they are not being changed in a way that will negatively impact the story, they are being changed in a way that will positively impact the way minority communities feel and the way American viewers perceive the show.
Images courtesy of Fandom Selina Kyle’s backstory has been tweaked a few times to make her either Hispanic or Black, but most associate her with being white. When she was depicted as Black woman in 2022’s “The Batman,” many fans stated their displeasure despite aligning with the source material.
Racebending should not be confused with racial capitalism, however. While I am a supporter of racebending, I am wary of racial capitalism. In an article for Harvard Law Review, Nancy Leong, the professor of law at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, defines racial capitalism as “the process of deriving social and economic value from the racial identity of another person.” While racebending is well intentioned in nature, racial capitalism is just a means of extracting profit out of people of color by using their faces and labor to benefit white institutions. A common example of racial capitalism is university brochures or flyers for a work environment at a job inserting images of people of color when levels of diversity are low or nonexistent to make it seem as though they do exist or the institution cares about representation to unsuspecting applicants. Meanwhile, an example of racebending can be seen with Selina Kyle/Catwoman in 2022’s “The Batman.” Historically, Selina Kyle has most often been depicted as a white woman, both in comics and in media, but “The Batman” had Zoe Kravitz, a Black woman, play the character. The character fits the criteria for a good racebent character, a historically white character whose identity as a white character has no significant impact on her as a character other than the fact that she is white. The movie then had a scene where Selina Kyle, dressed as Catwoman, calls out Batman for not acknowledging the significant privilege he has as a rich white man and judging her for her actions as a thief without understanding her socioeconomic conditions. Racebending Selina Kyle made the movie representative with fleshed out character motivations, and it helped in creating the narrative of the film.
Professor Howard never shies away from reiterating that representation matters for all marginalized groups. Howard tries to improve his ideas of representation by analyzing biases he may have, often questioning if his beliefs are tone deaf while consuming media.
There are also scientific arguments to be made about the positives of racebending. “It is important to see characters that look like you, I really think there is a true benefit to that, especially when it’s a totally fictional character it’s even more important to see someone that looks like you, because in fantasy stories, it’s so rare to have diversity,” said Cory Howard, a TJC psychology professor. Howard said in most fantasy worlds like “Lord of the Rings,” “Star Wars” and Harry Potter, there is a lack of diverse characters, and for viewers of color, it can be disheartening to see the biggest and most sprawling franchises have little to no characters of color, it can give them a sense of invisibility. “Backlash to changing established characters might make viewers think that they’re less than the original, that’s something, unfortunately, a lot of minorities have felt their whole life and have been told their whole life. That really, kind of submits it home of like, even in this fictional universe, you’re still not worthy of that,” Howard said. Howard brought up Captain America and the negative reactions some people have to the mantle being passed on to a Black man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. When viewers see a negative reaction to such a change, it can create a sentiment of inferiority within them, that whiteness in characters is and always will be the standard. Racebending comes under hot water for even more reasons.
Images courtesy of Fandom Miles Morales and Peter Parker are often the subject of debates centered around race and white characters. Some argue Miles can never be Spider-Man because Peter Parker is the sole owner of the title and Miles is just forced by diversity quotas.
There are two common arguments against racebending. The first argument is that new characters of color can be created instead of having to racebend white ones. The simple answer is that those two are not mutually exclusive. Why would only one need to be used when both can be effectively rolled out at the same time? The implication of this argument is that there is a maximum amount of diversity. The second argument commonly used is that if characters of color were replaced by white characters, there would be much more backlash, so racebending is wrong. The matter of fact is racebending and whitewashing are different things. Whitewashing decreases diversity and is actively against characters of color whose identities are more often than not pivotal to their character, while racebending increases diversity and changes characters whose whiteness doesn’t impact the character massively.
Images courtesy of Fandom Joel was originally portrayed as a white man in the game “The Last of Us.” The HBO Max show of the same name cast Pedro Pascal, a Chilean-American actor, to play Joel. There were some who were upset at the casting due to the deviance from the source.
Racebending should be considered a fundamentally good practice for the reasons I have laid out. It increases visibility for minorities, creates more fleshed out characters, invites viewers to relate to the characters they see, separates itself from the profit driven racial capitalism, and Americans generally want to see more diverse stories told on screen.