Daniel Dae Kim Un-Whitewashes Hellboy

Whitewashing was a term developed by slacktivists on social media to describe British dudes playing every role in every movie and TV show regardless of ethnic origin of the character. It’s a phenomenon that nobody cared about when English guys played Nazis, Russians, Romans, Middle Easterners, and slender handsome TV cops on American television year after year. But if they portray what’s thought to be an ethnic minority character, out comes the whitewashing. Studios respond to such knee-jerk protests in the manner of a little girl child.

The Hellboy reboot that nobody asked for had cast British actor Ed Skrein in the role of Major Ben Daimio. “Ben” is supposed to be Japanese-American despite not ironically have a quintessentially British name. Amid the asymmetrical uproar of whitewashing from up to eleven people, Skrein resigned from the role. On Twitter. The home of public square apologies. And Ted Cruz porn liked porn sites. Two items with equivalent moral value.

Movie producers leapt into social justice action by hiring Daniel Dae Kim, the Hawaii 5-0 actor who quit amid accusations he and fellow Asian actors were being paid less because of their minority status. Or because they weren’t the bankable leads of the show. One of the two. This isn’t a time for objective judgements. And it’s never the time to watch Hawaii 5-0.

Kim isn’t Japanese, he’s Korean. So the sworn enemies of the Japanese since the two nations were at war last century and the Japanese enslaved all the Korean ladies as military service whores. It’s hard to forget the people who turned your grandma out into an STD ridden barracks geisha. 

Kim profusely thanked Skein for stepping aside and doing the right thing. 

“I applaud the producers and, in particular, Ed Skrein for championing the notion that Asian characters should be played by Asian or Asian-American actors. He could not have addressed the issue more elegantly and I remain indebted to him for his strength of character.”

To battle racism, occasionally you have to presume super racist shit like, “Any Asian will do, they all look the same”. It’s really no different than saying American actors should play Mexican characters since they’re of the same continent. The road to hell is paved with such cynical intentions. Kim kept applauding as the big fat serial film franchise paycheck was rewritten in his name. Try not to giggle. You’re giving it all away.

Anybody whose solution to the scourge of racism is more but different racism is either a simpleton or seeking to easily manipulate other idiots. It’d be nice if that wasn’t a personal quality so roundly lauded and entirely unquestioned in the media.

Photo Credit: Mr. Skin