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{{trope}}{{outdated}}<!-- MOD: Many works that have come out since *before* the fork are still described below as "upcoming" or "in production". -->
[[File:RaceLift 7762 5892.png|link=The Last Airbender|frame|Sadly, this would turn out to be only the first of that film's many problems.]]
{{quote|'''Frozone:''' Wait a second, what's this? Is that me?... I'm white! They made me a white guy?
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'''Frozone:''' They made me a white guy!
'''Mr. Incredible:''' Well... Maybe the print's faded. You're tan. ...-ish?
'''Frozone:''' Wait, wait, wait. Is that supposed to be me? I sound like a, a... A what? A beatnik! Yeah, that's it, I sound like a beatnik!
|''[[The Incredibles]]'', talking about [[Show Within a Show|a cartoon show]] starring Frozone and Mr. Incredible.}}
A '''Race Lift''' is what occurs when a character's race or ethnicity is changed in the creation of a derivative work. 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. Generally, it works in one of these ways:
;Diversifying a Cast
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===
* A common feature on [[Deviant ART]] involves nonhuman characters as human or vice versa. For instance, casting ''[[My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic (Animation)| My Little Pony]]'' characters as human girls [https://yob-emag.deviantart.com/art/RariPunk-with-SPEEDPAINT-705360053|(or at least human-like)]{{Dead link}} is common.
* In ''[[Aeon Natum Engel]]'' several characters were lifted into Nazzadi and Xenomixes (Nazzadi/Human Halfbreeds). In various [[Show Within a Show|Shows Within a Show]] previously human characters were lifted to Nazzadi in type 3 style, for example in the [[All There in the Manual|thread]] where the story is posted, The Nerv [[Bridge Bunnies]] are watching the Sci-Fi marathon [[Mystery Science Theater 3000]] style, and argue about this trope ([[Blade Runner]] with Nazzadi, anyone?).
* The [http://odditycollector.livejournal.com/tag/everyone%20makes%20it%20to%20the%2031st%20century Everyone Makes It to the 31st Century project] race lifted many characters from the [[Legion of Super-Heroes|Legion Of Super-Heroes threeboot]], backlashing against how [[Humans Are White|very white the future was]].
=== Film ===
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* The movie adaptation of ''[[Harriet the Spy]]'' made Janie black, and also made Rachel Hennessey and a family that plays a minor role Asian (the latter was originally VERY stereotypically Italian).
* Ripcord is played by a black actor in ''[[G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra]]''. (The original character ''and'' action figure is a red-headed white male.) Exactly why the producers felt it necessary to do this is a bit of mystery. The ''[[G.I. Joe]]'' franchise is not short of black characters if they felt the cast needed to be more racially diverse (Stalker would have been a logical choice).
* In the book ''[[High Fidelity]]'', we are led to picture Marie De Salle as white after Dick describes her as "kind of Sheryl Crow-ish crossed with a post-''[[The Partridge Family|Partridge Family]]'' pre-''[[
* An in-universe example: In ''[[The Specials]]'', the Minute Man action figure is made black, in the interest of taking a "multi-cultural approach".0
* In the film version of ''[[Mystic River]]'', Sean Devine ([[Kevin Bacon]])'s partner is played by [[Laurence Fishburne]]. In the novel, he is Caucasian and supposedly looks a little like Brian Dennehy. However, after casting Fishburne they did not change the character's name: Whitey Powers. [[Dennis Lehane]], author of the original book, admits that the character's name was an [[Incredibly Lame Pun]] in the book, but that it actually became ''funnier'' when Fishburne was cast.
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** This also resulted in many racist remarks, as much of the film takes place in the Southern states shortly after the [[American Civil War]].
{{quote|'''Artemus Gordon''': (''picking out disguises'') How about this? You could come as my manservant.
'''Jim West''': (''excited stereotype Negro accent'') Why, yessuh, Masah Gordon, Why I swears, I'd be delighted, I'll sing, I'll dance for ya sir and I swear, none of the other white folks'll know that (''in normal voice'') I'd rather shoot myself than play your damn manservant. }}
* Joseph's brothers in the film version of ''[[Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat]]'' include two black brothers. Um...sorry 'bout that, Jacob. The two brothers involved were Judah (son of Leah) and Benjamin (son of Rachel). Both women had also, in this version, produced quite Caucasian sons, and the twelve brothers in that cast covered a wide range of apparent ethnicities.
* [[Superman]]'s boss Perry White is set to be played by African American actor [[Laurence Fishburne]] in [[Zack Snyder]]'s upcoming{{when}} ''[[Man of Steel]]'' movie.
* The upcoming{{when}} big budget adaptation of ''[[The Great Gatsby]]'' has Indian actor Amitabh Bachchan playing Meyer Wolfsheim, who was a white Jew in the original novel.
* In the movie ''[[Aloha]]'', the character of Captain Allison Ng, who is described as a quarter Chinese and a quarter Hawaiian, is played by white actress Emma Stone.
* In the 2013 movie ''[[Star Trek Into Darkness]]'', white actor Benedict Cumberbatch played Khan Noonien Singh—a character described in the script for "Space Seed", the TOS episode in which Khan first appeared, as resembling "Northern India Sikh people" with a trace of other Eastern heritage as well. His heritage is not altered for the film.
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*** In canon J'onn himself is ''green'', so it's not terribly surprising that he might choose an alias with a darker skin tone.
** Plastique is a white Canadian in the comic books. In the show she was played by the half-black, half-white [[The Secret Circle|Jessica Parker Kennedy]].
*
** Not to mention that the same series recast Commander Adama, originally played by white Canadian Lorne Greene, as half-Hispanic with Edward James Olmos in the role. Or Colonel Tigh, who in the original series was black, played by Canadian actor Michael Hogan, who is Caucasian -- {{spoiler|and, like Boomer, Tigh is a Cylon.}}
* The 2007 BBC adaptation of ''[[Oliver Twist]]'' features [[Sophie Okonedo]] as Nancy.
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* The Royal Flush Gang that appeared in the 80's ''[[Superfriends]]'' cartoon had Ten changed from a grown white woman to a black teenager.
* Like in the aforementioned ''[[Smallville]]'' and ''[[Young Justice (animation)|Young Justice]]'', ''[[Justice League Doom]]'' made the Martian Manhunter's "John Jones" identity African-American. Like [[Nick Fury]], this version seems to be catching on to the point that the original comics character is becoming the black sheep. Only time will tell if being a shapeshifter, the Manhunter in the comics will have something happen that requires him to need to change his disguise, and choose one that looks a lot like [[Phil Morris]].
* In ''[[Velma]]'', all four of the recurring human characters of franchise except Fred got this treatment, Velma to Hispanic, Shaggy to African-American, and Daphne to an unspecified Asian (probably Taiwanese, to match her VA for the series). Of course, the intent of this diversity seemed to have been used in order to insult ''every'' demographic possible, including the "entitled rich white" in Fred's case.
== Minority to Majority ==
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===
* In the comic book that inspired the movie ''[[Spawn]]'', the titular protagonist, his best friend, his former wife and her daughter, and the assassin who killed him were all black. The studio, afraid of having too many black leads, made the best friend white. The assassin was also changed from a black man to a white woman, but this change seems to have been driven by a falling out between Spawn's creator and the [[Rob Liefeld|creator of the original assassin]], rather than [[Executive Meddling]].
** The comic version had a Race Lift as a minor plot element. Spawn could change his appearance into a normal man—a ''white'' man with blonde hair and blue eyes. But not into a black man. Since he couldn't be a black man, he voluntarily decided to remain at his default appearance—a decayed corpse.
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* In ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'', April O'Neil's race seems to vacillate in early Eastman & Laird issues, even from page to page, but she was pretty definitively non-white and Baxter Stockman was unquestionably African-American. This was ... not retained in most adaptations.
** This could be forgiven with April O'Neil (as the above says, her race wasn't consistent, and the 80s cartoon adaptation makes her Irish in appearance, to go with her surname), but Baxter Stockman comes off like [[Political Correctness Gone Mad]]. While Stockman is very much a bad guy who was black, Eastman & Laird had him be a thin, evil geek and April's boss in a time when black characters, even positive ones, were typically either athletes or overweight.
* According to [[The Other Wiki]], famous ''[[Dick Tracy]]'' villain Flattop is often considered to have been a light-skinned black man, making pretty much every appearance of him in any given adaptation this.▼
** Well, Flattop's last name is "Jones", which is more disproportionate among African-Americans than European-Americans. And since most "mob" characters (in ''[[Dick Tracy]]'' and elsewhere) tend to be either Italian or Irish, the name "Jones" would otherwise stand out pretty glaringly. And then, of course, we have Flattop's unusually thick lips. So we just might be on to something here....▼
* When the comic book ''Model By Day'', featuring a black protagonist, was made into a television movie, Dutch actress [[Famke Janssen]] was cast in the lead.
* Happened without adaptation in ''[[Judge Dredd]]'': Carlos Ezquerra originally drew Dredd as part-Hispanic, but subsequent artists drew him as a very white man.
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=== Film ===
*
* Ming the Merciless, a [[Fu Manchu]]-style [[Yellow Peril]] villain in the original ''[[Flash Gordon (comic strip)|Flash Gordon]]'' comics and serials, was played by Max von Sydow in [[Flash Gordon (film)|the 1980 movie]], although he was still obviously meant to be Asian (or rather a [[Human Alien]] with a European-looking daughter). They attempted to distance Ming from his roots by casting the white, non-mustachioed, full-haired John Ralston in [[Flash Gordon (TV series)|the 2007 TV series]]. It ''really'' [[Dork Age|doesn't work]].
* [[Robert A. Heinlein]] had Juan "Johnnie" Rico in ''[[Starship Troopers]]'' being a Filipino. Paul Verhoeven turned him into pretty white boy Caspar Van Dien, with the same ironic sensibility that made him cast actors pushing 30 as the supposedly high school age leads. There was all of one line mentioning his race, so book covers and adaptations- including anime adaptation by Sunrise- nearly always get it wrong. Heinlein liked making minority characters with all of one line mentioning their race in general, including ''[[The Cat Who Walks Through Walls]]'', ''[[The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress]]'', ''[[Friday (novel)|Friday]]'', and ''[[Tunnel in the Sky]]''.
* [[Steven Spielberg]]'s
* The African-American hero of David Gerrold's ''Dingilliad'' trilogy is depicted on all three covers as a blond Caucasian. This also happened with the principal guest character in at least one edition of Gerrold's [[Star Trek]] novel ''The Galactic Whirlpool''.▼
* The book ''Bringing Down the House'' is about how the mostly Asian-American MIT Blackjack Team counted cards to rack in big cash at casinos. Of course, its film adaptation ''[[21
▲* [[Steven Spielberg]]'s [[Animated Adaptation]], ''[[Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas]]'', turns one of the most recognized characters of Arabian folklore, whose Ray Harryhausen-directed adventures were one of the few positive portrayals of Islamic culture ever to have an impact on pop culture, and makes him a Greek sailor interacting with characters from Greek mythology.
▲* The book ''Bringing Down the House'' is about how the mostly Asian-American MIT Blackjack Team counted cards to rack in big cash at casinos. Of course, its film adaptation ''[[21|Twenty One]]'' couldn't have minority leads, so producers made four of the team members white and cast only two Asians in the least important team roles, which was heavily criticized for racism. The real MIT blackjack team actually brought in a white girl as an attempt to make the team more "diverse".
* [http://veejane.livejournal.com/385338.html Brit Johnson], a famous black scout in the old west was in many Westerns in the 40s and 50s... played exclusively by white men. Many of "hanging judge" Parker's "catchers" were black (often with some Cherokee blood too), including the most famous. One movie version gave him a black bailiff, that was as close as Hollywood got.
* The [[Development Hell|long-stalled]] film adaptation of ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' would reportedly have had the mostly-Japanese cast of the original series changed to white people. For instance, official concept art had Asuka Soryu and Misato Katsuragi changed to "Kate Rose" and "Susan Whitnall" respectively.
* In ''A Mighty Heart'', Angelina Jolie plays the role of real-life Afro-Chinese-Cuban/Dutch-Jew reporter Mariane Pearl. The casting was criticized in some circles, though the character's race wasn't changed for the film and Jolie's skin tone actually does resemble the real person.
* Angelina Jolie plays Fox in ''[[Wanted]]'', a character visually modeled after Halle Berry.
* The ''[[
* ''13'', the English-language remake of French thriller ''13 Tzameti'' changes the location from France to England and changes the main character from an ethnic minority for his homeland (Georgian) to a standard Englishman. This is a rare case of a Caucasian character (from Caucasia) being changed to a Caucasian (white) character.
* When the movie ''[[Pay It Forward]]'' was adapted from the book of the same name, the hideously scarred black teacher Reuben St. Clair becomes hideously scarred white teacher Eugene Simonet (played by Kevin Spacey). They couldn't get Denzel Washington for the part, so they had to change the character.
* In the
* The Western ''Ulzana's Raid'' originally intended a Native American scout, Ke-Ni-Tay, to be the main character, albeit played by a "blacked-up" Jorge Luke. In a case of [[Executive Meddling]], a white scout played by Burt Lanchaster became the lead and Ke-Ni-Tay was grudgingly reduced to a support character.
* A [[Live Action Adaptation]] of the indie comic book ''[[The Weapon]]'' has recently been announced, and the hero of the book named Tommy Zhou has been cast. The actor they chose? David Henrie. Yes, ''[[Wizards of Waverly Place]]'' David Henrie.
* In [[Arthur C. Clarke]]'s novel ''[[2010: The Year We Make Contact]]'', the scientist responsible for the HAL 9000, Dr. Sivasubramanian
* The movie version of ''[[A Beautiful Mind]]'' turns John Nash's wife, a Hispanic woman (albeit quite pale) named Alicia, into an Anglo woman named Alice played by Jennifer Connolly.
* The movie ''Stuck'' was based on the [http://www.cnn.com/2003/LAW/06/27/windshield.death/index.html?iref=allsearch horrific incident of Chante Mallard hitting a homeless man with her car, and leaving him to die trapped in her windshield.] The movie casts white Mena Suvari as Chante, despite Chante being African-American. What's worse is that they give her cornrows in order portray her better. You could say that this is a case of [[Political Correctness Gone Mad]] as to not portray a black woman in a negative light, but ''cornrows?!''
* In the film version of [[George R. R. Martin]]'s short story "Nightflyers", Melantha Jhirl (renamed Miranda in the film), who is described as having coal-black skin, is played by [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0829252/ Catherine Mary Stewart].
* All of [[Disney]]'s ''[[Escape to Witch Mountain|Witch Mountain]]'' movies demonstrate a rather subtle form of this trope. In the original novel ''[[Escape to Witch Mountain]]'' by Alexander Key, Tony and Tia are described as appearing Latin or Mediterranean, with olive skin, dark eyes and dark hair. However, in all of the films Disney has made using this property, the aliens (children and adults alike) have been turned into blonde, blue-eyed Aryan stereotypes.
** This could have possibly been a riff on ''[[The Midwich Cuckoos]]''. But it probably wasn't; Disney didn't do that kind of pop culture reference in the 1970s.
* Averted with ''[[Harold
* While the American version of ''[[The Grudge]]'' is still set in Tokyo, it changes most of the main characters into white people.
* The live-action [[The King of Fighters (film)|''King of Fighters'' movie]] isn't very good for a whole host of reasons, but one of the most jarring issues is that Kyo Kusanagi - the most popular character in the series in Japan - is played by a guy who is as white as the driven snow. His father - explicitly his ''biological father'' - is played by a Japanese guy. It's made even worse by the fact that all the flashbacks have the character being played by a young Asian boy. A half-hearted attempt is made to explain this with Iori insulting Kyo as a "half-breed", which [[The Spoony Experiment]] mocked with "yeah, half white and the other half white!".
* The film adaptation of ''[[The Hunger Games]]'' has some possible examples.
** In the books, Katniss's race is never made explicit. She has "olive" skin, and her mother and sister are fair-skinned, blonde-haired and blue-eyed. In the film, she's played by Jennifer Lawrence, who does not have what would be considered "olive" skin. Several international covers, [https://web.archive.org/web/20130619001439/http://www.wondrousreads.com/2009/02/us-vs-uk-hunger-games-cover.html including the original UK version], show an apparently Caucasian girl.
*** Gale also gets this treatment.
** Cinna's race is also never made explicit, though he has green eyes, a trait most often found in Europe but also found in North Africa. He's played by the mixed-race Lenny Kravitz, who has brown eyes.
* The live-action ''[[Tekken]]'' film had Brazilian Christie played by white Kelly Overton. When she was cast, cue dozens of internet arguments claiming that Christie was really black, Hispanic or even Asian ethnicity. In what may count as an inversion, the Irish Anna Williams was played by a Spanish actress but Anna's background is never stated.
* The film ''[[Extraordinary Measures]]'' stars [[Harrison Ford]] as Dr. Robert Stonehill, who cured Pompe disease. The scientist who actually cured the disease was Dr. Yuan-Tsong Chen. The real Dr. Chen did not wish to be fictionalized, but that still doesn't explain why they needed to change the character's race.
* Ben Affleck
* In ''[[Mortal Kombat (film)|Mortal Kombat]]'' Rayden is curiously white for an Asian deity. Likewise, Kano went from half-Japanese to Australian background. Trevor Goddard's performance eventually caused Midway to [[Retcon]] him into being Australian.
** It's helpful to remember that Rayden is a god, not a human, and thus is not bound by cosmetic appearances. And since in the film he is the mentor to a team that is two-thirds white, [[A Form You Are Comfortable With|it is understandable that in-universe Rayden would look like Christopher Lambert]].
** Interestingly, Trevor Goddard is actually English, and spent most of his career claiming to have Australian ancestry and putting on a (poor) imitation accent in the belief that this would land him more roles. To this troper Kano's admitedly hard-to-place voice sounds more east-end gangster than Australian. This means that video game Kano's subsequent race lift was pretty baseless.
* The 2006 film adaptation of ''[[Dead or Alive]]'', ''[[DOA: Dead or Alive]]'', had the Japanese Kasumi and Ayane played by the half-Japanese Devon Aoki and the white Natassia Malthe respectively. Strangely, this applied only to them: Ryu Hayabusa and Hayate were played by the half-Japanese half-Chinese Kane Kosugi and the Taiwanese Collin Chou.
** Malthe is in fact half-Malaysian. It's just very hard to tell, especially with her very European-sounding name.
* ''[[Hachi: A Dog's Story]]'' is an American remake of ''Hachikō Monogatari'', in turn based on the story of [[Hachiko|the real Akita dog named Hachiko]]. The movie is moved from
* In the film adaption of ''[[Spawn]]'' in 1997, the man Al Simmons'(Spawn) wife remarried was changed from a black man to a white man. Apparently it was felt that there were far too many African Americans in the original comic, and on screen it would turn the film into a "black movie".
* In ''[[Rising Sun]]'', Wesley Snipes's character is white in the books. The murderer is {{spoiler|changed from Japanese to white.}}
* In ''[[The Dark Knight Saga|The Dark Knight Rises]]'', [[Big Bad]] Bane, half-British and half-Hispanic <ref>British father and Santa Priscan mother, born and raised in a ''high-security prison'' in Santa Prisca, a Spanish-colonized Caribbean island. The trait is important to the character but not established in his first appearance.</ref> in the comics, is played by Brit Tom Hardy. Hardy's features and accent are ambiguous and distorted, and some his actions take place in South America, so his race could go any which way, if it becomes an issue at all.
* In the process of adapting ''[[30 Days of Night]]'', not only were the paunchy, late-thirties, happily married main couple made buff, mid-twenties, and sexily divorced; the Native American Eben Olemaun became the white Eben Oleson.
* Applied to the ''marketing'' of the [[Marvel Cinematic Universe]] film ''[[Black Panther (film)|Black Panther]]'' in mainland China: Everything possible was done to obscure the simple fact that most of the cast was black in the posters and other promotional materials, because rampant prejudice among Chinese movie-goers would have sunk the film otherwise.
=== Literature ===
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* Several editions of [[C. J. Cherryh]]'s ''[[The Paladin (novel)|The Paladin]]'', including the current [[Baen Books]] paperback, depict the heroine and her mentor in the cover art as very white despite the [[Fantasy Counterpart Culture]] being very obviously Asian (mostly Chinese, with some Japanese elements).
* The cover of [[Patricia A. McKillip]]'s ''Alphabet of Thorn'' greatly lightened a dark-skinned character.
* The protagonist of Jay Lake's ''Green'' is supposed to be South Asian; not so on [
* In the [[Artemis Fowl]] books, Holly Short and Elves in general are described as brown-skinned and, except for the pointy ears, able to pass as short humans, but the graphic novels give her skin as fair as Artemis's, and some of the other elves seem to be pale ''green''. (Sprites and Goblins have green skin, but not Elves—see above about passing as short humans.) She's also fallen victim to [[Covers Always Lie]] Race Lift in the newest American cover designs and in every translation that didn't use relettered versions of the classic English Language covers (on which characters, if shown at all, were silhouettes).
* The cover of ''[[Xanth|Harpy Thyme]]'' by Piers Anthony shows a sweet, beautiful winged girl who is obviously supposed to be the protagonist, Gloha Goblin-Harpy. The girl on the cover has a peaches-and-cream complexion and blond hair. Gloha is dark-skinned with blue-black hair. Since the details of her appearance aren't described until a fair way through the book, readers who took the cover at face value may find themselves flipping to the cover, reading the description again, and thinking "Wait, who the hell is this chick on the cover?"
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* Yelena from the [[Ixia and Sitia|Poison/Magic/Fire Study books]] is explicitly described as having light brown skin and black hair, becuase this is exceptional in northern Ixia, whereas when she goes south to Sitia there are many people with the same and darker skin tones. However, on every cover of the book, Yelena is portrayed as a pale-skinned , usually with light brown hair. On occasion, her skin might shown as a light tanned colour.
* The novelization of ''[[The Incredible Hulk (film)|The Incredible Hulk]]'' identified the young computer geek Banner bribes with a pizza as Amadeus Cho. Unfortunately, Cho is Korean American in the comics, while the computer geek in the film is extremely white. Possibly a case of [[Did Not Do Research]].
▲* The African-American hero of David Gerrold's ''Dingilliad'' trilogy is depicted on all three covers as a blond Caucasian. This also happened with the principal guest character in at least one edition of Gerrold's ''[[Star Trek]]'' novel ''The Galactic Whirlpool''.
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** This whole phenomenon was discussed in [[Hairspray]], when Velma angrily confronts Maybelle for having her girls sing the same song on the show as her white cast.
{{quote|'''Maybelle:''' But they ''wrote'' it.}}
=== Newspaper Comics ===
▲* According to [[The Other Wiki]], famous ''[[Dick Tracy]]'' villain Flattop is often considered to have been a light-skinned black man, making pretty much every appearance of him in any given adaptation this.
▲** Well, Flattop's last name is "Jones", which is more disproportionate among African-Americans than European-Americans. And since most "mob" characters (in ''[[Dick Tracy]]'' and elsewhere) tend to be either Italian or Irish, the name "Jones" would otherwise stand out pretty glaringly. And then, of course, we have Flattop's unusually thick lips. So we just might be on to something here....
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** The [http://www.animator.ru/db/?p=show_film&fid=2626 Soviet Cartoon] is a notable exception, perhaps even a bit overdone.
* This is [[Older Than Feudalism]]; [[Jesus]] of Nazareth was once commonly depicted in western art as having fair skin and blond hair. The hair colour has changed to dark, but he's still depicted as fair. The historical figure would have most likely had dark hair and eyes and an olive complexion, looking like the Jewish rabbi from AD 29 that he was.
** This Race Lift extended to other members of the Holy Family and to some degree became [[Word of Dante]]; there was an account of a [[wikipedia:Marian apparitions|Marian apparition]]
** Most of the older Christian denominations tends to depict the Holy Family as whatever race lives in the neighborhood: Ethiopian Christians tend to depict the entire Biblical cast as black, and Nestorian churches in China and Central Asia show them as Asian.
*** Which got lampshaded in the song "Everyone's A Little Bit Racist" in ''[[Avenue Q]]''. (Though Princeton used the argument "Jesus was ''Jewish''.")
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** In this same box we could put the panoply of Biblical scenes in art where all the characters (1st-century A.D. or several-century B.C. Middle Eastern Hebrews) are depicted as well-to-do Dutch or Italian merchants.
*** Averted by Rembrandt, who frequented the Jewish quarter of Amsterdam for models for his Old Testament scenes.
=== Tabletop Games ===
* Written descriptions of dwarves in ''[[Dungeons
** The dwarves were forged from the stone and earth by Moradin the Soul Forger, the ruddy hue is a left over trait from that process, though some varieties have lost their original complexion over time by separating themselves from the deep earth. It's most visible amongst the Gold dwarves who rarely leave the underground compared to the more common dwarves who come and go and interact more often with surfacers. Though as with any magical race, trying to bring science into it generally won't work.
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=== Western Animation ===
* Perhaps for fear of the series' only black character being villainous not going over too well, the old ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'' series made Baxter Stockman white. (At first. Then it made him a [[Was Once a Man|giant fly monster]].) He's restored to being black in the 2000s series, though he eventually becomes more [[Cybernetics Will Eat Your Soul|silver]] than black due to [[You Have Failed Me...|losing body parts]].
** Apparently still wanting to keep a single black character who is also unflinchingly villainous, [[Big Bad|Shredder]] is black. However, due to being light skinned and wearing a helmet and facemask almost constantly, this is only apparent in a handful of episodes.
*** Although voiced by a black actor, Shredder is Japanese though it may not be apparent.
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=== Anime and Manga ===
* ''[[Marvel Anime]]: [[X-Men (anime)|X-Men]]'' reimagines Dr. Moira Mactaggert as Dr. Yui Sasaki, with her country of origin changed from Scotland to Japan. Her physical appearance, backstory, characterization and relationship with Professor Xavier all remain intact however. Her formerly-white son Kevin is also changed to a Japanese boy named Takeo. Of course, part of it is that fans would ''not'' want Moira to turn out {{spoiler|to have done what we find out Sasaki did.}}
* ''Ganota no Onna'' is a bizarre comedy that takes the cast of ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam]]'' and reimagines them as part of a Japanese corporate struggle in the present day. The heroine, Utsuki Ganota, is a race-swapped and [[Gender
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* A [[Retcon]] change more than anything, but Lian Harper originally had curly, red hair and looked more like her dad. She was later changed to having straight black hair and looking more Asian, which seems more accurate considering her mom is the half-Asian villainess Cheshire.
=== Fan
* This is the entire point of the [http://dark-agenda.dreamwidth.org/7371.html Racebending Revenge Ficathon].
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* In ''[[William Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet]]'', everyone except Romeo and Juliet is portrayed as either being black or Latino.
* In ''[[The Searchers]]'' novel Martin was originally fully white but was made into 1/8 Cherokee in the film to give Ethan a bit of [[Character Development]]
* In [https://web.archive.org/web/20131120190416/http://www.bigwowo.com/2011/11/reverse-racebending/ this short film], a real-life Asian murderer is turned into a white guy. His victims remain Asian.
* The white character Domino was turned black for the [[Deadpool (film)|second]] ''[[Deadpool (film)|Deadpool]]'' ''[[Deadpool (film)|movie]]''. This resulted in death when the lack of black female motorcycle stunt drivers forced the production to hire a motorcycle ''racer'' with no stunt driving experience. After several concerns by stunt directors over the danger posed by her clear lack of needed skills, she died in a crash during a stunt that would have been easy for an actual stunt driver.
* The 1958 film version of ''[[Desire Under the Elms]]'' changed Abby's name to Anna and made her an immigrant from Italy. Obviously done because [[Sophia Loren]] was one herself and at the time, her accent was unmistakable.
=== Literature ===
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== Minority to Different Minority ==
=== Anime
* In ''[[Dragon Ball]]: The Path to Power'', some of the characters have went through race lift. [[The Ahnold|Major Metallitron]] is now black and Staff Officer Black who was black now appears to be Native American.
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== Race Unknown ==
===
* [[Judge Dredd]] was initially drawn with large lips to keep his race ambiguous. This resulted in different artists drawing him as either white or black in early issues. Since these issues were black and white, nobody noticed. After the series began appearing in color, Dredd was consistently drawn as a white man.
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=== Film ===
* Oliver Stone's ''World Trade Center'' includes, among other real life people, a minor character based mostly off a real man who happened to be black. Unfortunately, when they were doing research, no one in the production thought to check this man's race, and they cast a white actor. After the movie came out they were informed about it, and Stone apologized.
* While [[Dragon Ball|Goku]] is almost certainly supposed to be Asian in appearance, he - like most anime characters - looks far more Caucasian to American audiences who are unfamiliar with anime/manga artistic conventions, and his race isn't made clear in the cartoons most American children would have seen (in fact, he isn't even actually human). Therefore, casting a Causcasian actor for the American live-action ''[[Dragon Ball|Dragon Ball Z]]'' movie may have been less about making the character [[Viewers are Morons|"more acceptable"]] to American children and more about just not confusing them.
=== Religion and Mythology ===
* [[Jesus Christ]] is mostly portrayed as a white European though many believe he would be darker-skinned as he was from the Middle East. Jesus has been given different races depending on the congregation, including African and Asian.
== Miscellaneous or Mixed Race Examples ==
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* In the [[The Last Airbender|film adaptation]] of ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'', all the Fire Nation people (who were East Asian in the show) are Indian. And while most of the Inuit-inspired Water Tribesmen were properly cast, Katara and Sokka, two major characters, were white. [[Internet Backdraft|This did not escape the internet's notice]].
* The British film ''[[Death at a Funeral]]'' was remade as an American movie with mostly black actors.
* ''Suomen Marsalkka'' was a film so low budget it was filmed in hot Kenya with local and very black actors. The problem? The title is Finnish for ''The Marshal of Finland'', [[They Just Didn't Care|a very cold, very white, country, and the film is allegedly about Finnish national hero Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim]]. To add insult to injury everyone is dressed in modern ''German'' uniforms (Likely a cost cutting measure. German uniform surplus is the cheapest surplus in good condition). The movie is widely reviled in Finland.
=== Literature ===
* The Japanese covers to ''[[Star Wars Expanded Universe]]'' novels tend to draw the EU original casts with Asian features. While this isn't much of a problem for characters like Joru(u)s C'baoth or Talon Karrde, who merely clash with other artists that vary wildly anyways. What makes this weird is this includes Jacen and (especially) Jaina Solo even though their parents are drawn like fairly accurate depictions of Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher on the same covers.
=== Live-Action TV ===
* ''[[Star Trek: The
** Fan favorite Star Trek villain Khan Noonien Singh is an Indian Sikh. He is played by the overtly Mexican Ricardo Montalban.
* An interesting example from ''[[Star Trek: The
* One of the Type 4 examples is offered by ''[[Grey's Anatomy]]''. Creator Shonda Rhimes deliberately did not assign races to any of her characters, allowing for "color-blind casting" in which the best actors to get the roles no matter what their ethnicity.
* A rare ''double'' Race Lift (crossed with [[Suddenly Ethnicity]]) is executed in ''[[Saved by the Bell]]'' and its spinoff, ''Saved by the Bell: The College Years''. Originally, the character of Slater was intended to be Anglo, but then Latino actor Mario Lopez was cast in the role. His ethnicity was never referred to in the first series, but in ''The College Years'' Slater's father appeared and confessed that he changed his name (from Sanchez) to pass as Anglo and get into West Point.
** Also, the character of Lisa Turtle (played by African American actress Lark Voorhies) was originally written as a white Jewish girl.
* ''[[The 100]]'' is interesting in that this happens [[In-Universe]] in Season 6. The Primes keep themselves living forever by putting their minds into different host bodies, but there aren’t a lot of bodies to choose from. For this reason, a number of the Primes change race over their lifetime, such as Simone being black when we see her but white originally.
=== Theater ===
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** "Make Them American, Even if They're Not" is #3 of [http://www.cracked.com/article_19183_6-tricks-movies-use-to-make-sure-you-root-right-guy.html 6 Tricks Movies Use to Make Sure You Root for the Right Guy].
** In [http://www.cracked.com/quick-fixes/the-5-most-insulting-defenses-nerd-racism/ The 5 Most Insulting Defenses of Nerd Racism], J.F. Sargent defends the practice of sacrificing fidelity to the source comics in superhero films.
* Mashable used an image of YouTube shooting suspect Nasim Aghdam "whitened up" to the level where in other circumstances this paint job could get her a role as Snow White… and with ''bright'' green eyes (seriously). Since other media used unedited version of the same photo, this was immediately obvious, and after an ensuing tweetstorm Mashable itself quickly [http://www.informationliberation.com/?id=58209 made news].
* ''[[Madden NFL|Madden]] 20'' got the player profile for Christian McCaffrey "a little" off (copy-pasted some black athlete). Much amusement ensued.
{{quote|'''SLAM Gaming''' (@SLAMftw): Can someone tell me what’s wrong here? 😂(via u/fasteddeh) <screenshot>
[about 400 replies, mostly pictures of surprised black men or humorous "[[Comically Missing the Point|guesses]]", such as noting that in statistics on the screenshot "his weight is off by 5 lbs"]
'''Christian McCaffrey''' (@run__cmc): I don’t wear a hand warmer over my belt cmon Madden 🤦🏼♂️ <retweet>
'''George Kittle''' (@gkittle46): Biceps aren’t big enough honestly
'''Madden NFL 20''' (@EAMaddenNFL): Biceps looking on point over here...💪 #Madden20 <screenshot with patched model>
'''brian combs''' (@brianc253): Why does he still have his hand warmer 🤦🏻♂️
'''Matthew MaCoy''' (@YaBoiMaC0y): Because it’s [[EA]]. [[Failure Is the Only Option|They can’t get EVERYTHING right]]
[about 1900 other replies of this sort]
'''Lisa McCaffrey''' (@LisaMcCaffrey6)<ref>his mother</ref>: Sorry you had to find out this way. @87ed may not be your real dad. 😂 <retweet> }}
=== Western Animation ===
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=== Real Life ===
* There are some who object to the casting of [[Johnny Depp]] as Tonto in the upcoming{{when}} Lone Ranger movie. While Depp is of Native descent, the majority of his roles have been of white (or racially ambiguous) characters. (For the record, Depp is ''less than 1/8th'' Indian, which for many Native Americans just makes you white with an interesting backstory.)
* Chinese/European Actress Kristin Kreuk has, oddly, been an example of both the first and second versions of the trope. She's too Asian for the part of the white-bread, small town, traditionally redhead Kansas girl Lana Lang in ''[[Smallville]]'', and not Chinese enough for the part of Chun-Li in ''[[Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li|Street Fighter the Legend of Chun Li]]''. Not that there's anything wrong with Kristin Kreuk - there just aren't a lot of parts made specifically for Dutch/Chinese raised in Canada.
** A young Chun Li was played by a fully Asian girl before growing up to be Kristin Kreuk. That's right, Chun Li was Race Lifted ''within the movie''.
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* John Howard Griffin took pills to make himself look black for a few months, during which time he got kicked around in the [[Deep South]]. And then he wrote ''Black Like Me'' about it. James Whitmore played Griffin in a film adaptation.
* Many medieval illustrators depicted famous historical figures as white instead of "less popular" ethnicities such as African and Arab. In [[The Renaissance]], fashions changed and painters were more eager to depict "exotic" people realistically. Compare [http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/df/Aesopnurembergchronicle.jpg this 1493 picture of] [[Aesop's Fables|Aesop]] (who was said to be of African origin in late Antiquity) to [http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0e/Diego_Velasquez%2C_Aesop.jpg this one] from 17th century painter Velázquez.
* The New York Fire Dept. caught flack for trying to Race Lift [https://web.archive.org/web/20100823171256/http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/news/2002/01/18/2002-01-18_fdny_cancels_9_11_statue_com.html a statue] of three firefighters raising a flag among the wreckage of the World Trade Center after 9/11. The real guys were white, the statue depicted a white guy, a black guy, and a Latino.
** A similar memorial honoring Vietnam War veterans had been cast some years before, with the exact same stock characters.
* [[Michael Jackson]] was often accused of having used plastic surgery to trying to make himself look Caucasian.
** He just bleached his skin to even out blotches caused by [[wikipedia:Vitiligo|vitiligo]]. Or so he claimed. There's plenty of proof online that he had vitiligo. Of course, vitiligo doesn't narrow your nose, give you a cleft chin, or raise your eyebrows.
* The treatment of Tiger Woods. His famous self-designation of "Cablinasian" refers to his Dutch, Black, American indian, Chinese and Thai heritage, but apparently ''some'' people still follow the [[Old Shame|"one drop rule"]] in regards to "blackness", to the point of chastising him as much for [https://web.archive.org/web/20120111204417/http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/34288353/ns/sports-golf
* Despite common popular belief, "Latino" and "Hispanic" isn't a race as much as it is an identity, and most of the time it's a combination of races. [http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/79/Admixturehispanicswest.jpg The average Latino is around half white/half native]{{Dead link}} but it isn't uncommon to find [[wikipedia:Christina Aguilera|White]], [[wikipedia:Alberto Fujimori|Black]] and [[wikipedia:Alberto Fujimori|Asian]] Latin Americans. [https://web.archive.org/web/20131209041812/http://www.latina.com/entertainment/tv/jessica-alba-discovers-her-true-ethnicity-lopez-tonight The aforementioned Jessica Alba was astonished to find she is 13% Native American, 87% European.]
* Ladies, gentlemen and other curious creatures, observe a photo of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory crew: [https://web.archive.org/web/20160215020246/http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu/news/2016/2/11/celebrating-women-in-science one], [https://web.archive.org/web/20180923210629/https://mars.nasa.gov/resources/7705/women-in-science/ two]. Or, on FotoForensics: [https://fotoforensics.com/analysis.php?id=37ad0a842c6663e6e9307b1ec8862f225b8e0fe8.965044 one], [https://fotoforensics.com/analysis.php?id=e86fb408c2c7b6326ba2d186ff5ab93711ba16c9.2356099 two]. Aside of the one glaringly obvious difference, compare apparent skin tones in the crowd. That's the change (as you can see in metadata) between 11 February 2016 (original date) and 15 March 2016. Not insisting on any specific conclusions, but the next time someone tries to use NASA in [[Appeal to Authority]] rhetoric, you have a memorable example to recall.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Translation Tropes]]
[[Category:Media Adaptation Tropes]]
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[[Category:The Wild West]]
[[Category:Race Tropes]]
▲[[Category:Race Lift]]
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