Elon Musk Concurs With Matt Walsh That Changing The Race Of White Characters Is “Anti-White Racism”
John F. Trent
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Owner of Twitter, the founder, chairman, CEO and Chief Technology Officer of SpaceX, and the CEO of Tesla, Inc Elon Musk concurred with The Daily Wire host Matt Walsh that the changing of the races of white fictional characters is “anti-white racism.”
Elon Musk via Tesla YouTube
Walsh shared his thoughts on the subject earlier this month writing on Twitter, “It’s not just ‘political correctness’ that prompts Hollywood to make white characters non-white. Snow White is now brown because the filmmakers view the character’s whiteness as a flaw to be fixed.”
He then declared, “It’s anti-white racism and should be called such.”
Matt Walsh Twitter
Musk concurred with Walsh replying simply, “True.”
Elon Musk Twitter
Musk and Walsh’s assertion flies in the face of Hollywood executives, producers, and casting directors that are behind many of the race swaps. In fact, current DC Studios CEO James Gunn is an ardent proponent of race swaps and recently defended them back in March.
After sharing a photo of Chukwudi Iwuji playing a race-swapped High Evolutionary to Instagram, a user responded, “Damnit… another white guy they made into a black guy. Why couldn’t they just leave him white or i dont know…pick a different minority? How about Asian or gasp! A Latino?(how many Latinos and Asians in MCU? Like total of 5??) Or make him an Indian or something… because they don’t and won’t, that makes them ‘woke’.”
The user continued, “Next time, a major character (hero/villain) will be a trans or homosexual or non-binary (when in comics they are not). Sad and pathetic. They’re picking based on race and whats PC and not on acting and whats established.”
James Gunn Instagram
Gunn, who by Walsh and Musk’s definition engaged in anti-white racism, decided to falsely accuse the user of racism.
He responded, “I chose the best actor, period, and the best person for the role. I don’t give a s**t what ethnicity Chukwudi Iwuji is, so stop with your racist preseumptions on WHY he was chosen. (And, by the way he’s playing a guy who’s almost always purple in the color.)”
James Gunn Instagram
Ironically, Gunn previously admitted to race-swapping other characters for very different reasons. In the lead up to the release of The Suicide Squad, Gunn responded to another user who commented on an Instagram post.
Conradcutty wrote, “then make new black comic book characters, or bring back old ones. Making white characters black isn’t solving the problem. I’m on your side man, I think there should be more black super heroes. But when you start taking white super heroes and changing their race/gender for sole purpose of being ‘diverse’ its just kinda sad.”
James Gunn Instagram
Gunn responded, “That’s pretty simple. Because 95% of all superheroes have historically been white it makes sense as we start adapting them to film in the modern era that some characters who were originally white become another ethnicity to more accurately reflect our world. In most cases, it would not make sense to take a character originally another ethnicity and make them white because there are already so many white superheroes.”
James Gunn Instagram
It’s not just Gunn who’s defended the race swap. Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige has also defended them and even noted that Eternals was moved up the company’s priority list due to the fact they were race swapping the characters.
Variety’s Kate Arthur asked Feige, “Eternals expands the MCU in terms of representation, with its large international cast, its first LGBTQ superhero — I know some of those things are baked into the Eternals, but how many of those expansive ideas came from Chloé?”
(L-R): Kingo (Kumail Nanjiani), Karun (Harish Patel), Ikaris (Richard Madden), Sprite (Lia McHugh), and Sersi (Gemma Chan) in Marvel Studios’ ETERNALS. Photo by Sophie Mutevelian. © 2021 Marvel Studios. All Rights Reserved.
He responded, “Well, the notion of switching up the genders, sexualities and ethnicities of the characters from the comics, was baked in initially — that was part of what Nate Moore was really advocating for in moving Eternals to the top of the list for us to start working on.”
“What exactly the makeup was between when Nate put together his internal discussion document, which is how we always start on all of our projects, and what she came in and did, I don’t recall exactly,” Feige added.
Producers Nate Moore, Louis D’Esposito, Kevin Feige and Victoria Alonso flank Director/Screenwriter Chloé Zhao on stage at the Premiere of Marvel Studios’ Eternals in Hollywood, CA on Monday, October 18, 2021
(Photo: Alex J. Berliner/ABImages)
He also revealed, “When it came to casting, that also did affect it. There were some characters that we change from male to female, there were some characters that we knew how we were altering them from the books. But then also it came down to casting.”
Feige then used Gemma Chan’s casting as Sersi as an example and claimed she was the best for the role, “So for Sersi, for instance — and if there was a lead in this ensemble, it is Sersi, it is Gemma Chan — we looked at and read all sorts of women for that part. And ended up really believing that Gemma was best for it. And thankfully, she’s proven that to be the case in the final movie.”
(L-R): Ikaris (Richard Madden) and Sersi (Gemma Chan) in Marvel Studios’ ETERNALS. Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios. © 2021 Marvel Studios. All Rights Reserved.
Creator of Rippaverse Comics, Eric July previously called out the claim that Hollywood is casting the best actors when they race swap characters while discussing the casting of Aldis Hodge as Hawkman in Black Adam. July explained, “Those familiar with the industry you know how precise they are with their casting. This stuff doesn’t happen on accident. Doesn’t happen as often as it does, recently, by accident. This is something that they wanted to do and they always do.”
“And it’s because of the fact that they feel as if they have to do it,” he continued. “James Gunn admitted it. He admitted it…He specifically stated that something like 95% of the heroes, superheroes are white so they have to do this. So it can be a reflection of our world today. That’s why they do it. So he’s telling you that this is an effort that they try. They try to do this when they cast. It’s not an accident.”
“It’s not, ‘Well, he was just the perfect Hawkman or this person was just the perfect person to play the character. They embodied what we envisioned the character to be.’ No, that was not the case. That had never been the case. It never was the case. They have these guys playing these roles, they have them playing the roles by way of purpose. They went out of their way to do it,” he reiterated.
Aldis Hodge as Hawkman in Black Adam (2022), DC Films
July’s comments would be vindicated when The Witcher casting director Sophie Holland admitted she uses the casting process to push her ideology.
In an interview as part of Jenelle Riley’s Acting Up newsletter that was recently published in Variety, Holland said, “You can affect change in whatever tiny way because you are in people’s homes and they’re watching this world. And that sort of solidified when I had a child, she’s five now, and I thought how hard it is to be a girl.”
“I remember thinking I have to help her because she’s going to come under attack, just like I did, just because she’s a girl,” Holland elaborated. “Maybe she’ll be lucky and get to nine before somebody calls her a b***h. And it made me so sad that she was going to experience that and I couldn’t protect her from that.”
“But what I could do is change the way people see women through casting. I can make them powerful and empowering and then the floodgates will open to them,” she asserted.
Anya Chalotra as Yennefer in The Witcher (2019), Netflix
Holland went on to reveal she applies this theory to every job she takes on, “I do apply this theory to everything and it makes me push boundaries a little harder because I think representation is important. Not just for women, but all minority groups.”
“Like, people have different physical abilities and I think it’s important they’re seen in strong and fierce roles. Realizing this was a real moment of falling in love with my craft in a way that feels very specific to me,” she said.
Laurence O’Fuarain as Fjall, Sophia Brown as Éile, in The Witcher: Blood Origin (2022), Netflix
Holland then went on to specifically explain why she chose to race-replace Yennefer in The Witcher, “I am always the first to champion diversity in all its glory. One that springs to mind was the character of Yennefer on The Witcher. Lauren Schmidt Hissrich is the showrunner and we work so well together and she’s so open to conversations.”
“In the book, she’s described as the most beautiful woman in the world. This was a few years ago and I’d like to think things have changed. But when you think about people’s unconscious bias – especially in the fantasy world, it felt like these worlds were predominantly white. And I remember saying, ‘I feel like we need to challenge what people think of as the standard of beauty. And having a woman of color in this role does incredibly powerful things to the people watching,” she admitted.
Anya Chalotra as Yennefer in The Witcher (2019), Netflix
All of these major Hollywood production companies also have race quotas as well. The Walt Disney Company has since updated theirs, but their Reimagine Tomorrow website previously noted that “By 2022, 50% of regular and recurring characters across Disney General Entertainment scripted content will come from underrepresented groups.”
The Walt Disney Company’s Reimagine Tomorrow Website
Amazon Studios published their Inclusion Policy and Playbook back in 2021 that declares “each film or series with a creative team of three or more people in above-the-line roles (Directors, Writers, Producers) should ideally include a minimum 30% women and 30% members of an underrepresented racial/ethnic group. This aspirational goal will increase to 50% by 2024.”
Ironically, it also states, “Casting actors whose identity (gender, gender identity, nationality, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability) aligns with the character they will be playing.” They have not followed this one bit as it pertains to Wheel of Time or Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.
Nevertheless, they also aim “to include one character from each of the following categories in speaking roles, with minimum 50% of these to be women: LGBTQIA+, person with a disability, and three regionally underrepresented race/ethnic/cultural groups. A single character can fulfill one or more of these identities.”
Markella Kavenagh as Elanor ‘Nori’ Brandyfoot, Lenny Henry as Sadoc Burrows in The Lord of the Ring: The Rings of Power
Warner Bros. Discovery, the company that owns DC, saw the company’s Chief Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer say in a press release in September 2022, “A strong focus on diversity, equity and inclusion is a top priority for our company, and we are committed to doing everything we can to get this right — not only because it makes good business sense, but because it allows us to build stronger connections with employees, partners and consumers.”
He added, “I am thrilled to announce that we have put in place an incredibly talented and experienced global team, and are in the process of building and implementing a strategy that will enable us to have a positive, lasting impact locally, regionally and beyond.”
It’s not about the best people for the roles, it’s clearly based on identity politics, and as Walsh and Musk assert it’s anti-white. There’s a plethora of evidence.
Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen in My Adventures with Superman (2023), Warner Bros. Animation
What do you make of Walsh and Musk’s assertion?
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