Should Mixed Actors Play Black Roles?
And an update on my writing goals!
The image above represents a popular sentiment about the racial politics of Hollywood casting. It is a legitimate point, and now is the time for us to consider the power and responsibility of representation on screens of all sizes.
I’m a huge fan of representation for ALL groups of people. But even when popular culture and entertainment seem to be making strides in featuring stories and characters of color that go beyond racist stereotypes, they can still perpetuate isms.
Especially colorism. And the way Hollywood often uses Mixed actors to represent Black characters.
Case in point: The decades-long practice of casting Mixed-race actors (especially Black / white) as Black characters. And by Black characters, I mean Black folks who don’t have parents of two different races or ethnic groups. This is not to nitpick identity, but rather to examine a popular dynamic. These casting choices are most noticeable when the Mixed actors are cast alongside Black actors as siblings in family sitcoms or dramas.
We’ve seen this in iconic series including The Cosby Show, Fresh Prince of Bel Air, the Cosby Show spinoff A Different World, Greenleaf, and others. It happens in movies, too. And of course there are cases where Mixed adults are cast in Black roles.
So what’s the problem? We all know that Black individuals and families come in varied hues and textures, right? Why is that a big deal?
Back in the 1980s and 1990s days of Cosby, Fresh Prince, and A Different World, we were often so excited and grateful for representation in Black sitcoms created and helmed (for the most part) by Black talent that we didn’t fuss about how characters like Cosby’s Sandra and Denise Huxtable, Fresh Prince’s Hilary and Ashley Banks, and A Different World’s Denise Huxtable and Whitley Gilbert—all phenotypically Mixed-race actresses playing Black-Black characters. To their credit, A Different World did cast Mixed-race Cree Summer to play a Mixed character, Freddie Brooks.
To be fair and in the interest of accuracy, we also accepted that dynamic because the FACT is that many African American families contain a range of skin colors, hair textures, and features.
It’s also important to note that we genuinely liked the actors and enjoyed their work, Even now when we critique the casting, we’re NOT IN ANY WAY suggesting a lack of talent or begrudging the Mixed actors’ success, popularity, or access to quality roles.
The POINT is that both Mixed-race and monoracial characters deserve accurate, appropriate representation.
And that accurate representation helps to unify, rather than divide, us. This is an essential issue that isn’t addressed often enough. And while these casting issues aren’t unique to Mixed-Black / Black actors, that is the focus of this post—along with the fact that there are always too few roles for actors outside of ahem, “mainstream” entertainment.
Do This, Not That
A more recent example is the two popular shows that ran on Oprah Winfrey’s OWN network a few years back. In Greenleaf, actress Merle Dandridge, who is clearly Blasian, played a lead role as Grace, the daughter of Keith David and Lynn Whitfield—with Black siblings portrayed by Laman Rucker and CeCe Winans. Queen Sugar handled it more responsibly, with Blasian actor Dawn Lyen-Gardner portraying lead character Charlie who was Mixed Black-white, with Black half-siblings portrayed by Kofi Siriboe and Rutina Wesley.
While I loved both shows and enjoyed Merle Dandridge’s awesome talent and screen presence in Greenleaf, I found the casting very distracting. There was one storyline suggesting that she was the offspring of an affair her mother had with a light-skinned Black man, but that didn’t pan out. And I was left to wonder why a clearly Blasian actor was portraying this character with no logical reason given for the visual dissonance. Because to be the only “light and long” family member in a family where no other member has either of those characteristics just naturally raises questions and concerns.
The Curious Case of Amandla Stenberg
On the big screen, the latest controversy is the casting of Amandla Stenberg, a lighter-skinned Mixed-race woman, as Princess Amari, who is Nigerian, a lead role in the screen adaptation of Children of Blood and Bone. This is the first in the hugely popular young adult romantasy trilogy set in a fictional African land penned by Nigerian-American author Tomi Adeyemi.
Amandla has spoken publicly against colorist Hollywood casting and withdrew from the casting process for the role of Shuri in Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther franchise. She told Amanda Parris of CBC Arts that she did so to make spaces for darker-skinned actors in the African-based films.
In that interview, Amandla said, “One of the most challenging things for me to do was to walk away from Black Panther. I got really, really close and they were like, ‘Do you want to continue fighting for this?’ And I was like, this isn’t right.”
Amandla (who is Mixed-Black / white) also came under fire in 2018 when she was cast as Starr Carter, the lead in the film version of the popular debut young adult novel The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. Many were upset a darker-skinned actress wasn’t cast as Starr, based on the book cover image of a brown-skinned teen.
Debra Cartwright, who created the Hate U Give cover image, told Vulture that “I was hoping it would be a very brown-skinned actress, because there’s so little opportunities in these big movies for darker-skinned actresses.”
Obviously a VERY valid point and a concern that many of us share!
However, in an interesting plot twist that reminds us of the nuances we don’t often see in these online convos, The Hate U Give author Angie Thomas made it clear in this interview with the BBC that 1. She wrote the character of Starr with Amandla in mind. 2. Amandla was cast before the book cover was created. And 3. Angie had no control over the book cover (a fact that I and many other BIPOC authors can attest to as a traditional publishing norm).
"We have a long way to go in publishing as far as representation matching what the author says sometimes,” Angie stated. "But with me, Amandla is Starr. She embodied that character in so many ways, and I can't see anyone else playing this role.”
In an Instagram post, Amandla addressed the concerns:
"I want those who are worried to know they are seen and heard," she wrote.
"The lack of diversity within the black girl representation we're finally getting is apparent and it's NOT ENOUGH."
"And I understand my role in the quest for onscreen diversity and the sensitivity I must have towards the colourism that I do not experience."
I commend Amandla Stenberg for acknowledging, speaking up about, and making career choices based on clear awareness of these dynamics. I wonder if the push me-pull you vibes of her career opportunities is simply an accurate reflection of the way that racism and colorism impact who gets which roles.
Rain Pryor’s Insider Perspective
I checked in with my wise #BLEWISH sisterfriend, Rain Pryor, the multitalented writer / actor / director who starred in the 1980s series Head of the Class, and most recently had a lead role in Brewster’s Millions Christmas on BETPlus.
Rain generously shared her lifelong insider perspective on this casting conundrum:
“Interesting take and true on many levels. Where I find myself, is there are light skinned Blacks in all Black families, and Hollywood used light skin for the characters with affluence still perpetuating that narrative.
“If one is a light skin actress (like myself), I find I must look like Halle Berry, Lisa Bonet or Zandaya. It’s not acceptable to be unique looking unless you have dark skin.
“Personally, I have been told I am not enough Black or White. I was once told by an agent to straighten my hair to pass and be more ambiguous. I flipped out.
“And truth be told, if my father wasn’t Richard Pryor, Hollywood would never know what to do with me, because I don’t fit the racial narrative.
“As we begin to enter this erasure of Black history, we must fight in all our hues to be seen and parts must be created for all of our beautiful shades that doesn’t place me always as affluent and uppity or, the product of an affair.”
Small Signs of Progress
There is progress taking place on screens of all sizes, as more Mixed roles are created for Mixed actors. This doesn’t completely erase the ubiquitous scourge of colorism, but it does address the played-out practice of having Mixed actors playing characters who aren’t Mixed.
This kind of accuracy in casting is vital because of the historical weaponization of Mixed-race people to visually replace and erase Black people in art and entertainment. Actors of ALL backgrounds deserve roles that reflect enough of their identities to help us move beyond the constraints of these toxic isms.
In a recent discussion on this topic, a young Mixed friend agreed about accuracy in casting, but asked, “What are Mixed actors supposed to do? Not work?”
A valid query, to be sure.
And my response was that while we’re speaking up about and against these isms, part of the solution is for us to write more solid roles for the Mixed actors—the kind we’re seeing in series like Ginny and Georgia, Star, White Lotus, The Bold Type, All American, and with actors like Gugu Mbatha Raw and Brittany O’Grady who consistently play Mixed characters.
So YES, we need more quality Mixed roles AND more quality Black roles. Not either / or! And THAT is why I’m pivoting my writing to focus on creating those roles. We still have plenty of learning, healing, and growing to do to fight the nonstop isms, but we can still use our talents, skills, and energies to contribute to progress along the way. Because without our ongoing efforts to create better options, the issues simply cannot be resolved.
EVERY group deserves the best, most accurate representation possible in all aspects of art, entertainment, media, culture, and society overall.
Let’s praise and celebrate the folks who get it right, acknowledge those who don’t, and keep creating our own solutions along the way!
Really fascinating post!! Thank you for this insightful discussion!
Interesting perspective and I do see your point. I think people who have two parents of different ethnic backgrounds can play Black characters if one of their parents is Black.
What I would add is that if the character is described as being brown or darker skinned, then an actor of that complexion is a better fit for the role.
The fact is, because of miscegenation Black folks in all the different countries have European ancestry. There can be a role where a character is a very light-skinned Black person with two light Black parents, and a multi ethnic actor fits the role perfectly. Should they not get that role because they may have one Black parent and one of a different ethnicity?
Casting is very nuanced and I agree, there are perfectly talented darker skinned actors who deserve more roles, but a talented person is a talented person.
I also want to ask, what do you think about Black actors who are playing in white roles? Such as Audra McDonald in Gypsy, and all the other brilliant actors who are cast in roles written for white actors. That’s a win to me.