JustJapers’s racebent cast of LOTR is fantastic. I find myself reblogging almost every picture. Then I get sad, because I’ll never get to see this movie. I’ll probably never get to see a well known adaptation of a fantasy series with a complete cast of POC. It’s disheartening. It makes me sad, angry, and bitter all at the same time. The lack of quality roles for POC is a undeniable problem in media today. Actors of color are forced to take stereotypical roles/ non-developed secondary roles because that’s the only thing being offered to them. Whitewashing is happening all the time, and sometimes it’s not even obvious. We can recognize it when it comes to Akira, Hunger Games, The Dark Knight Rises ect. We sometimes forget the hidden parts of whitewashing. Characters are often cast as white when nothing else about their storyline demands it: 

‘Imagine a film such as Inception with an entire cast of black people – do you think it would be successful?’  ‘Would people watch it? But no one questions the fact that everyone’s white. That’s what we have to change.’ - Idris Elba

I appreciate spaces like Tumblr/Live Journal/ect that allow fans to create their own interpretations of movies. We can pick our own cast, make alternative story lines, and develop head canons. I also like that there is actual discussion about how race and media are intertwined. I like that people aren’t afraid to call out bullshit for what it is. Despite that, I wish I could just sit down in a movie theater and watch a quality movie starring people who look like me.