The first rule of casting club is this: make sure the actors look at least remotely like the characters.
Frozone: Wait a second, what's this? Is that me? …I'm white! They made me a white guy?
Mr. Incredible: You're… you're… black… ish…
Frozone: They made me a white guy!
Mr. Incredible: Well… maybe the print's faded. You're tan… ish?
A Race Lift is what occurs when a character's race or ethnicity is changed in the creation of a derivative work, also known as Racebending, and in the case of non-white characters becoming white, whitewashing. Sometimes this is a method to try and keep things politically correct. People can't argue racism if you have a Token Minority in the cast, but you usually run into problems when you change a character who is originally a proud minority into a member of the majority group.
For the sake of some organization the examples have been divided up according to the nature of the change:
Mr. Incredible: You're… you're… black… ish…
Frozone: They made me a white guy!
Mr. Incredible: Well… maybe the print's faded. You're tan… ish?
— The Incredibles, talking about a cartoon show starring Frozone and Mr. Incredible.
- Diversifying a Cast: Changing the ethnicity of minor characters to prevent the entire production from being homogeneous.
- Changing the Minority: A character who was a minority being made into a majority.
- Changing the Majority: A character who was a majority being made into a minority.
- Minority to other Minority: Switching around ethnicity to other minorities.
- Uncertain Depictions: The exact race of the individual was in question to begin with, especially in the case of historical figures.
- Mixed Race/Miscellaneous: Characters and actors who are ambiguous to begin with and thus are interpreted differently.
- Diversifying a Cast
- Changing the Minority
- Changing the Majority
- Minority to other Minority
- Uncertain Depictions
- Mixed Race/Miscellaneous
