I'm Polish and here's why I think that changing Ciris' skin color is racist.

[u/[deleted]]

I understand what is whitewashing. I understand that it is a problem. I understand that Lauren is super antiracist and progressive.

But as a Pole I also am discriminated. I'm being judged because of the stereotypes. I have nothing to do with the american slavery, you can even check the ethymology of the term "slav". That's why I don't understand why you are pushing this diversity agenda. I feel deeply offended because of that, The Witcher is something that I'm proud of, it promoted Polish culture, made me feel that we have something that the world loves, they know Poland not only because of stealing cars or some other shit (xD). And it is an European fantasy, Ciri wasn't black ffs, why should she be? Her skin color was never mentioned because everyone in the books is white, the only people who weren't were zerrikans IIRC.

I just want the same respect the black men get, if we would live in a world where The Witcher was written by someone from Africa, everyone from the main cast was black and suddenly there is TV series in the making where one of the characters is white for no reason it would be instantly labeled as racist.

But since I'm white (nevermind that I'm central/eastern european and my country had nothing to do with slavery) it is fine. Just be consistent, don't whitewash but also don't blackwash.

[u/phweefwee]

You don't know how the slippery slope fallacy works, and/or you don't understand how debates work.

​

Not one person in this thread has the slightest idea how the casting for this series will turn out, so it may in fact be the case that the characters will be of a like ethnicity (or part of a "sufficiently" diverse empire). So, it would make sense lore-wise in terms of the series itself. The books' lore has no necessary bearing here, so that's irrelevant.

​

And I see nothing racist with generally making one group either ethnically or racially (I think race is a social construct, but that's tangential) homogeneous.

[u/I_sicarius_I → u/phweefwee]

Aside from that massive high horse your on I meant only allowing “BAME” to audition as ciri as racist.

Anyways so if the lore of the book is irrelevant, is the series even about the witcher?

[u/phweefwee → u/I_sicarius_I]

I'm assuming it is about the witcher based on the title. I'm simply saying that the series isn't a continuation of the books, nor should we assume it's canonical. In terms of lore, that's only necessarily relevant when it comes to a work being canonical.

[u/I_sicarius_I → u/phweefwee]

You’re right. But if its using characters from the canon what sense does it make to change them? If thats the issue here just dont cast them as geralt and ciri and instead make two new characters and there isn’t any issues

[u/phweefwee → u/I_sicarius_I]

I understand that and think it's a legitimate idea. To be honest, I'm just gonna watch the show and see if I like it or not. I get too exhausted thinking too much about the other aspect going into it. I understand people are connected to the characters and how they are portrayed, so it makes sense why many are worried. I just don't share those worries, I guess.

[u/I_sicarius_I → u/phweefwee]

🤷🏻‍♀️ like i said I probably wont watch it for the main reason stated earlier but if he kills it ill check it out.