After having attacked actress Sydney Adugong for being too ‘light-skinned’ to accurately portray the character of Nani in Disney’s upcoming live-action remake of Lilo & Stitch, discontent activists have now doubled down on their own hypocrisy by leveling the same accusations against the film’s newly cast David actor, Kahiau Machado.
Machado’s casting as Lilo & Stitch’s resident surf guru was first announced on April 17th, courtesy of an exclusive published by The Hollywood Reporter.
A former member of the University of Hawaii’s men’s volleyball team and a native Hawaiian himself, Machado’s appearance in Lilo & Stitch will be the fledgling actor’s first major acting credit.
Yet, despite Machado’s possession of indigenous Haiwaiian ancestry and Tan skin (which, given his heritage, would likely darken even further after some time spent in the sun), the identity politics-obsessed audience Disney has spent the last few years cultivating was wholly unhappy with his casting.
Like with Adugong, these activists – many of whom supported Disney’s live-action race-swapping of such characters as Tinkerbell in Peter Pan & Wendy and Ariel in The Little Mermaid – felt that Machado was both too light-skinned and held too many ‘European features’ to properly portray David.
“This casting is missing a lot,” said actor Gilluis Pérez. “I don’t get the eurocentricism they’re going with.”
“Casting director quit your job challenge,” tweeted @daniellecanyell. “the colorism/eurocentrism is so blatant”.
“I don’t support blood quantum in any way,” wrote @BraydenSylva. “Yes, they did get actors who have Native Hawaiian ancestry. They did get Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) and this is still colorist as hell. There are several Kanaka who look more like Nani and David than who they got. This sucks.”
“I’m convinced the casting director just hates black people,” @somari8591 accused, despite the fact that David is not black in any way, shape, or form.
“They might as well rename this film ‘LIGHTSKIN & STITCH’,” bleated @iamshakeena. “At this point Stitch is gonna be beige as well”.
……anyways I’m so glad the original animated Lilo & Stitch is already a perfect film and is currently streaming on Disney+ with characters of an appropriate shade for my viewing pleasure,” passive aggressively remarked @Jordanbloked.
“When u photograph brown people with eurocentric features this is what you empower,” chastised @Hubineer. “Photographers, artists, filmmakers, advertisers, casting agents…. like LITERALLY stop upholding the same things you ~say~ you want to abolish”.
“That man is whiter than bleach what are they thinking,” bafflingly declared @ActivismMeo.
“No joke im not watching this,” said @georknee_. “The story was above native Hawaiians. I have yet to see a native Hawaiian person casted. And before anyone starts, there’s a difference between being a native Hawaiian and just being born in Hawaii”.
As of writing, Disney’s live-action Lilo & Stitch remake has yet to receive an official release date.