Proposal – Samara Fletcher

My issue is the way the entertainment media currently represents POC characters in their tv shows, movies, or cartoons. That or they won’t have any POC characters at all. I’ll be focusing on my main examples like Netflix’s Winx the Fate Saga, Death Note, and Disney’s Mulan. The question I have in regards to this issue is why do they have to whitewash characters that were originally POC? How is it that a show from the 2000s, manages to show more representation than its own adaptation in 2021? Does this have to do with toy marketing (because it used to be a children’s show)? Do you really have to whitewash a cast to make it appealing towards a western audience?

I think I can be one of those people who’ve written about those issues because this issue affects me, I am a person of color. Representation in media is so important as it can affect the people around them, especially children. Recently, Blues Clues had a reboot with a new host named Josh, and he’s Filipino which was greatly celebrated. There have been many cameos in the show about the certain foods he eats from his culture and my younger brother, who is 5 years old sees himself in Josh. In this context, representation like this is inspiring to children, it shows them that there are people that look just like you who can do amazing things. When I was younger my favorites from the Winx was Musa and Aisha, I saw myself in Aisha had the same hair texture as I did, seeing a girl who looked like me fighting evil with amazing powers was inspiring. My audience is for people who don’t understand why representation is important, they must know why these things heavily impact people.

I’m not sure where I would publish this, I don’t know many sites that handle articles like mine. What comes to mind immediately is social media, its probably not the best idea though. In terms of sources, I would need articles about certain tropes given to POC characters/actors, what kinds of actors get hired for their given characters. I would gather experiences/opinions of POC who are attached to certain series that have representation but were misinterpreted. And finding opinions on the whitewashing of POC characters..