Petition Urges Boycott of Another Whitewashed Netflix Show
New Petition Urges Boycott of Yet Another
Whitewashed Netflix Show “Journey to the West”
***https://www.thepetitionsite.com/262/198/317/***
The
petition is one of many Care2 efforts to push back on
whitewashing in entertainment
A Care2 petition
is urging signers to boycott an upcoming Netflix miniseries,
“Journey to the West,” which is based off of a renowned
Chinese fable, yet features an all-white cast. The petition
accusing the show of whitewashing has gathered over 6,400
signatures.
VIEW THE CARE2 PETITION HERE: https://www.thepetitionsite.com/262/198/317/
The
show, produced by studios in New Zealand and Australia, is a
retelling of “Journey to the West,” a renowned Chinese
fable about a 7th-century monk and three fallen gods with
mystical powers. The story is considered one of the Four
Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature.
Care2
petition author Lucy Linaj, a 23-year-old Asian-American, is
calling for a boycott of the show.
"You can't embrace an
identity that you always see represented as the perpetual
Other,” Linaj told Care2. “Media producers who replace
Asian characters with White actors reinforce the idea that
Whiteness is the standard and European features are the
epitome of beauty, thereby convincing non-White children to
loathe their own appearances and develop self-hate.
“Distributors like Netflix need to hold producers
accountable so we can end the practice of
whitewashing."
The new show, titled “The Legend of
Monkey,” will be a 10-part half-hour series that follows
the life of a teenage girl, played by Luciane Buchanan, who
is accompanied by three powerful fallen gods: Monkey, played
by Chai Hansen, Pigsy, played by Josh Thomson, and Sandy,
played by Emilie Cocquerel.
A slew of other Care2
petitions have pushed back on Hollywood whitewashing in
recent years, some amassing over 100,000
signatures:
• A Care2 petition signed by more than 105,000
people demanded DreamWorks Studios reconsider the casting of
Scarlett Johansson, a non-Asian actress, as the lead Major
Motoko Kusanagi, a Japanese character, in Ghost in the
Shell, which was released in March.
• In January, a
Care2 petition called for a boycott of
Elizabeth, Michael and Marlon, a made-for-TV film
that would have starred English actor Joseph Fiennes as
Michael Jackson. After the petition gathered over 21,000
signatures, the network dropped the show.
• Last
summer, over 18,000 people signed a Care2 petition asking Oscar-winning
screenwriter and producer David Franzoni and producer
Stephen Joel Brown not to whitewash their planned biopic of
the 13th-century Persian poet Rumi by casting Leonardo
DiCaprio as the famed philosopher and to cast a Middle
Eastern actor instead.
• A Care2 petition blasted 2015’s Stonewall
for whitewashing.
• More than 96,000 people signed
a Care2 petition lambasting on Warner Bros. for
casting white actress Rooney Mara as Tiger Lilly, a Native
American character, in 2015’s
Pan.
• Twenty-five thousand people signed a
Care2 petition blasting director Ridley Scott
for failing to cast Egyptian actors in his 2014 Biblical
film Exodus: Gods and
Kings.