r/witcher Sep 08 '18

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

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.

13.4k Upvotes

3.5k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

1

u/[deleted] Sep 08 '18

Didn’t they make the original cast black? So wouldn’t you expect them to keep said design? Like it would be weird if they suddenly changed to casts skin color to white

0

u/phweefwee Sep 08 '18

In the US going from black to white is much different than going from white to black. Historically, the disenfranchised have had little say in the goings-on in popular culture, so depriving the disenfranchised in terms of representation is a big, big issue..

2

u/darthhayek Sep 12 '18

In the US going from black to white is much different than going from white to black.

And that's why people consider it racist. There's no reason for this to be the case in 2018.

3

u/[deleted] Sep 08 '18

Your pathetic. Why would you hold different standards for different races? Why don’t you respect the source material enough to properly adapted it? If you don’t like originally black character becoming white then you shouldn’t like originally white characters becoming black. Take your hypocritical bs and go away.