The world no longer runs on binaries or majoritarian lines alone. Everyone of us - especially those that wish for truly progressive equality is working towards understanding the nuances of caste,class, culture, race etc. It bears to logic that our media does the same too.
In a time where the theme of oppression of Black people is being discussed in Marvel’s shows , why in the world are you still continuing with Whitewashing?
Whitewashing means a fair or lighter skinned person portraying the role of a darker skinned person (I was going to use Blackfacing but it is inappropriate here). I am specifically referring to the actors who have portrayed Raghav Rao’s mother. There are two problems with this portrayal -
1 - It plays into the stereotype that being South Indian comes with a certain shade in skin color. We come in all different shades. Skin color is simply a matter of genetic lottery. Raghav’s mother can be fair and he can be dark. It would be absolutely normal.
2 - There’s no dearth of dark skinned actors/ people in our country. The production house just has to look beyond a certain region if they wanted to cast her as dark. There are plenty of south Indian actresses who speak Hindi.
I found Raghav’s and his mother’s accent to be forced at first. It again plays into the stereotype of South Indians speaking a certain way when many of us speak as fluently as those from North but then it could be chalked up to being showed as RR and his mother are entirely South Indian. It’s normal for them to have an accent.
I cannot however agree with the face darkening as it takes away opportunities from people. Representations is a form soft power in today’s age. Dark skin people have been historically discriminated in our country. The narratives are slowly changing with people learning to embrace themselves as they are. By denying those with dark skin a chance, you continue to perpetuate the narrative of discrimination.