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Jonathan Park, known as rapper Dumbfoundead, released a music video for his song “Safe” in which he discusses the whitewashing problem in Hollywood and how easy it would be to cast Asian American actors in lead roles.
“After the last Academy Awards and the regular whitewashing of Hollywood roles, I wrote this song and made this video to add my piece to the conversation,” the Korean-American artist wrote in the description of the music video.
Directed by Jay Ahn, the video shows the rapper’s face edited on famous characters including Jack Dawson from “Titantic,” Captain Jack Sparrow, Iron Man, as Jay Gatsby in “The Great Gatsby” and many more iconic roles played by white men.
The video adds to the ongoing Hollywood whitewashing discussion that showcases how few leading roles and opportunities there are for Asian actors and people of color in Hollywood.
According to a new article in The New York Times titled, “Asian-American Actors Are Fighting for Visibility. They Will Not Be Ignored,” only 1.4 percent of lead characters in a sample of studio films released in 2014 were Asian.
READ MORE: Hollywood’s Asian Whitewashing: Why It Happens So Often, And Why It Must Be Stopped
The conversation was reignited after white actors like Scarlett Johansson and Tilda Swinton were cast in roles originally written as Asian. Social campaigns like #WhitewashedOUT, #StarringJohnCho and #StarringConstanceWu have also added to the discussion, with hopes that the industry will take notice and make changes.
“The sky is the limit, any minute now they gonna let an Asian brotha’ get a lead role,” raps Dumbfoundead.
Watch the video for “Safe” above.
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