Fake Mixed Race: Difference between revisions

When a character who is supposed to be of mixed ancestry is played by an actor who obviously is not. This is not to say that people of mixed parentage do not physically resemble one race over another -- theyanother—they often do. This trope describes the flagrant instances of laziness and inattention in casting, which result in a attempt to force the viewer to accept that a character is the biological child of a character of another ethnicity, even though his/her physical features, particularly skin color, clearly preclude that possibility.

Due in large part to the lack of mixed-race actors in the American television/film industries -- althoughindustries—although one should point out that this is largely due to the biases of the industry itself, which has a tendency to shy away from performers who aren't readily identifiable as members of a particular race/ethnicity.

Often occurs where the parentage of the character is a defining issue of the plot. This is not uncommon in American dramatic shows, where it most often involves the children of black/white mixed marriages. [[Maligned Mixed Marriage|Chalk this one up to the rigid and brutal history]] of the American color line--scriptwritersline—scriptwriters still use the twist of an ostensibly "white" character being fathered by a black man (or vice versa) to jolt the audience by invoking longstanding taboos against cross-racial romance. Therefore, one could say that the imperatives of plot justify this trope to a limited extent. However, in the majority of cases it comes across as utterly implausible. More often than not, the writer simply leans upon viewer ignorance -- asignorance—as if the relatively small number of biracial Americans makes it possible to accept that a character is biracial simply because the plot decrees it. Adding to the insult against viewer intelligence is clumsy writing, which often causes the parentage revelation to be completely disconnected from the preceding plot. It is often a ham-handed attempt to up the dramatic ante,without rhyme, reason, or foreshadowing. In other words, it is a [[Shocking Swerve]], a cheap source of foundation-shaking conflict that can be invoked without regard for the narrative's internal logic.

{{examples|Examples:}}

* In the second ''[[CharliesCharlie's Angels]]'' movie, [[Lucy Liu]]'s father is revealed to be... [[John Cleese (Creator)|John Cleese]]?

* The title character of ''[[Dr. No (Film)|Dr. No]]'', a ''[[James Bond (Filmfilm)|James Bond]]'' movie, is half-German, half-Chinese but played by a white Jewish actor.

* Armando Munoz, aka Darwin, is half-Mexican and half-African American. In ''[[X -Men: First Class (Film)|X Men First Class]]'', he is played by Edi Gathegi, who has no Latino ancestry of any sort.

* Inverted in ''[[Street Fighter: theThe Legend of Chun -Li]]'', where the fully Chinese protagonist is played by Kristen Kruek, who's part Chinese, part Dutch, and looks vaguely Asian, but still drew complaints from fans.

* An episode of the drama ''[[Without a Trace (TV)|Without a Trace]]'' featured the disappearance of a college student. It was revealed in the show's climax that the white young man was... secretly the product of his white mother's romantic affair with a black man. An appallingly stupid handwave occurs when the mother confesses this to her son. Outraged, he voices the viewer's natural sentiment that this is not possible. The mother responds "It happens. You take after me."

* An episode of ''[[Cold Case (TV)|Cold Case]]'' revolved around a victim who turned out to be of mixed race; this was likely a deliberate use, as he was doing his best to hide his heritage {{spoiler|and was murdered by someone who believed he'd 'turned his back on his people'.}}

{{quote| '''Barney:''' I always thought I was a pale white guy, but it turns out I'm actually a ''really really'' pale black guy!}}

* In season 7 of ''[[That '70s Show]]'' it was revealed that Hyde's real father is a black man. Hyde was played by the completely white Danny Masterson (although the character ''did'' have extremely curly hair). This was [[Played for Laughs]].