changing identity

So changing the identity has been on my mind ever since Annie came out. People were getting upset that Annie wasn't played by a red head, but instead by a black girl, and now people are upset that the classic Ghostbusters are a group of women now instead of a group of men.

For me, the reason why I'm fine with changing the identities of the characters in these stories, is because (to my own knowledge anyway) their race and gender aren't really part of the story.

I think that if you create a character, and you make them a disabled Chinese male for a reason, as in that's a core part of the story, then it shouldn't be changed. If you're making a remake of a story with this Chinese man in it, then you should cast a Chinese man to play that role. Or, if you are writing a story or telling a story that is about a dark skinned African women, whose story is about how she succeeded and navigated through life with her dark skin, the women who is cast should also have dark skin and hair like hers.

However, if her "blackness" isn't an essential part of the story, then I don't see any reason as to why it can't be changed.

Example. If all the characters in John Tucker Must Die, or Mean Girls, were suddenly a mixture of Malaysians and Chicanos, for me, that wouldn't be an issue. The stories in those films don't rely on the "whiteness" of the characters. The characters "whiteness" aren't part of the story, don't add to the story or do anything for the story, so changing up the race, gender, sexuality or whatever, of those characters doesn't make much of a difference. All you'd have to do is change up the title or the storyline a little.

I also understand that a lot of the time though, characters who are POC, disabled, queer, of a lower class, etc, that oppressed part of them is usually a major factor to the story because that's how the world sees them and navigating with that is what makes their story distinct.

I've been seeing that a lot of people are upset that you can't change a black character to a white character and stuff like that. Well, I think in some cases you can, but it's not great for diversity and representation. Take Storm in X-Men, is her being black necessary? Maybe? It helps the little anecdote she tells about saving her village by bringing rain, but she could've been a little white English girl who helped with the growing season in the Hamlet she lived in. Taking away her blackness would mean lack of representation which is awful, but then you could also make her Indian ... but I do think it's important to ask the question as to why you want to change the characters from black to white, or Indian to white, or gay to straight. Is it because the person who auditioned who was the best happened to be a conventionally beautiful white girl, or is it because you're racist. I think for Ghostbusters, they probably thought how cool it would be to make a remake, but with girls. And that's it.

I feel that another reason why people get upset when a POC/Non Binary/Queer, etc gets changed into a hetero, cis gendered, white person, is because a lot of the time, these characters are changed because making them more white, straight etc, is seen as "better," then them just being a black, non femme, trans woman.

So basically, I just think that when the marginalised part of a characters identity isn't important to the story then I feel that there's nothing wrong with changing it (even though representation is important, and a lot of the times it is a major part of the story, but sometimes it isn't! Not every oppressed person is living a politically fired life!). If it is important, then don't change it and find someone to cast, who looks, or is like them.